Studio: international art (6.1896)

PARIS.—The Exhibition of 1900: for it, There has been great rejoicing in the world of

or against it ? This has for the past art and letters at the news that the Ministry of

six months been, and will for the next Fine Arts, with the highly intellectual M. R.

five years be, the question of the day. Poincare at its head, has purchased, with the

Public opinion is being shaken by the intention of placing it in the Cemetery of Pere

powerful arguments first of M. Jules Lemaitre and Lachaise, the Monument aux Morts by the sculptor,

then of M. Maurice Barres which they have flaunted Bartholome, which produced so excellent and so

as a flag of revolt. Unhappily too little has been deep an impression at the last Salon of the Champ

heard of the artistic side of the coming Kermesse de Mars. Never since the Middle Ages has the

wherewith France intends to hail the long-expected death-cult been more grandly hymned, never more

dawn of the twentieth century. The question is, will touchingly. G. M.
Art be a gainer or a loser by the event ? But the
truth is no one seems to care much either way. Of
course the Exhibition of 1900 will give us a chance

of admiring certain beautiful works of a past age, _ _>TTr,_,T,TO , r . , _ .

, ° ., , . , . 1—RUSSLLS—The downfall of the Book

has been predicted in many a news-
paper and magazine article, and there
have been those who have prophesied
the same fate for the Picture and the

produced for the occasion from private galleries;
but is that the point, and have we any reasonable
hope of seeing a great display of the art of to-
morrow ; will there be any sign of a new step in

the path of progress towards originality, towards „ XT T""' 7"" "

. , , . . t Statue. Nevertheless the fact remains that there

freshness, anything to surprise us, any mamiesta-

exists a tendency to limit no longer the possibilities
of art to a certain fixed groove, but to extend its
gracious influence far and wide. The interiors of
our houses have unquestionably improved, and we
feel a desire that their outsides shall be beautiful
also. It is not enough nowadays to occupy sump-
tuous apartments, furnished both in form and in
colour with all possible taste ; as we step out of our
The Symbolists, the Neo-symbolists, the Symbo- house we expect to find that taste continued in
list-impressionists (note the deep meaning of these the streets.

tion of that esthetic synthesis so long desired ?
Alas, no ! All we shall see will be the triumph of
artificiality and tinsel, the apotheosis of shams, and
French art will emerge from the process still further
discredited. But what matter, so long as the public
enjoy themselves I

words !) are always sure of finding a place of
refuge with Le Bare de Bouteville in the Rue le

Peletier. Their autumn exhibition has just been At one time-for lhere is nothing new under

opened, and it may at once be said, without any the sun-tbis coquetterie des rues was shown m

disparagement of their good intentions, that these ™merous works of art, such as fountains, street

artists have nothing new to show us. Their s,§ns {enseignes), clocks, door-knockers and a

characteristics are for the most part extravagance hundred other things, insignificant at first sight, but

and unintelligibility. But one should not condemn yet indispensable as aids to artistic expression and

these little schools and coteries, for artists of the development of a cultivated taste. Then it

charming or common style have made themselves occurred to some one to restart the movement, and

known and appreciated therein-Maurice Denis, when several artists had made UP their minds t0

Bonnard, Valloton, Vuillard, and Madame Jeanne §ive Practical realisation to that which had been

Jacquemin, for instance, and this is enough to va§uely lon§ed for b>' all> they were met with the

demand indulgence if not to compel admiration. warmest encouragement. A society was started,

" L'CEuvre de l'art applique a la Rue," and one of
its first movements was the organisation of a com-

Renoir's exhibition in the galleries of M. petition for enseignes for one of the chief streets of

Durand-Ruel—a fixed adherent of progress, if we Brussels. It must be admitted, however, that the

may so express it—will be held before the close result was not equal to expectations. There are

of the year, and the transformed mansion of many varieties of these signs—frescoes, ceramics,

M. S. Bing, where there is to be a permanent plaster, glass, enamelled iron, and especially beaten

exhibition of pure and applied art, will shortly be iron-work—but very few of them harmonise with

opened. These are the only artistic events in the facades they are designed to adorn, or with

immediate prospect. the particular trade they are intended to symbolise.

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