Studio: international art (6.1896)

The Artistic Movement in Finland

The Good Shoe worthy of any artist who might . _ x , , r

j • i A •, r ■ MIE ARTISTIC MOVEMENT

have spent his whole life m studying horses ? And, TXT ^T,TT . XTT^

..... I IN FINLAND

moreover, as lithographs, this series is quite dif-
ferent from all that precede it. How slight a If a number of people interested in
drawing is The Strong Arm, and yet how sugges- A Art had been studying an outspread
tive of the brilliant warm light of the furnace, and map of Europe in search of a probable locality
the Father and Son, of sunlight; whilst in the night where a natural revival of the fine arts might be
scene, The Fair, full of busy little groups, the tall expected, it is extremely improbable that Finland
building in the distance is dimly seen lit with the would have suggested itself to any one of them,
flickering lights from the booths; then, latest of Twenty other places equally remote from the
all, The Fifth of November, with its bonfire, and beaten track might have been selected in preference,
the Sunday, Lyme Regis. This last is an exquisite For Helsingfors, the Finnish capital, although on
drawing, which seems to have called forth a the waterway to St. Petersburg, attracts as little
universal .chorus of praise, such as the great bril- the attention of the world, especially of the art-
liancy of the drawing well deserves, even amongst world, as if it were by Spitzbergen. Indeed it is
the others. The two colour prints hung at the doubtful if one of the next score of persons you
end of the exhibition should in date be placed meet could place it correctly, unless he were very
much earlier. They are full of promise, and it is young. Its locality may be a fact that every
to be hoped that Mr. Whistler will in the future do schoolboy knows, as it is certainly one that most
many more. The Yellow House, with its green grown-up people have forgotten,
woodwork, is most exquisite in colour, and like one Yet from Helsingfors come proofs of a peculiarly
of his own Venice pastels. Few people will be interesting movement in all branches of the arts,
able to understand the diffi-
culties to be contended with
in such a work. There are,
however, in this drawing,
practically speaking, five
original drawings to be
made, one for each of the
five colours used, which must
all fit in their proper places
to produce the one complete

proof. It may seem that this I
article has entered too fully t ^ JK

into the details of the col- ' fr'^f" JbS!% *

lection, but the writer has .•• : j "^j**""-*^ */*'> •.

thought that it would be of >VC«^.v;^#y ' ": ''^""'v:*' '

interest to students to trace • ?\y,~- 0. • ' jggr*

through, somewhat in their J* .. > ^ > -

proper periods, the different 0Bj■- " '-. ~*- p'i':.- ^

groups of drawings. - ■ '^P^ '^y^S'l' " 4, >

One last word in conclu- \. Jf i*.

sion. In making his litho- * *CT $; "* - - * * g» ,,

graphs Mr. Whistler has al-
ways had in view the printed
proof, and the drawing itself,
whether on transfer paper or
stone,has to him no real value
except in its ultimate form of
the print, which in many cases
he alone could foresee—and

which is certainly the true rxCS

..... ' i~'2/Z''

spirit in which artists ought

to approach lithography. "dome of the pantheon " by j. mcneil whistler

227