Studio: international art (8.1896)

Studio- Talk

enough to say that his perfect art, seen for the
first time in so complete a form in Germany, met
with the most genuine and unequivocal appre-
ciation here. His book illustrations have aroused
as much admiration as his decorative designs, and
in the interests of German art and handicraft it
were well if our comprehension of his work equalled
the astonishment it causes, and if, instead of
slavishly imitating him, our artists could discover
the secret of the beautiful, bold, independent
method, based on a true study of Nature, and
actuated by a perfect sense of style, in which his
art is produced.

The German division was conspicuous, not so
much from the presence of any specially fine piece
of individual work, as from the high level of excel-
lence attained all round. Beside the old and
honoured names, which were worthily represented,
one saw evidence of fresh young forces at work,
with earnest effort and solid knowledge behind
them. First among the leaders of the Secession
must be named Ludwig Dill, the president for the
time being, who displayed a whole collection of
water-colours—simple landscape themes, deep
and somewhat heavy in colouring, but full of har-
monious and picturesque effects. Hugo von
Habermann exhibited a fine female study. Hein-
rich Ziigel, to-day the foremost of our animal
painters, gave further evidence of his great powers
in several studies of sheep and horses, while the
work of some of his pupils displayed his capacity
as a teacher. There was once more great charm
and attractiveness in the pictures of W. Keller-
Reutlingen, perhaps the most popular landscapist
of the Secession school, and worthily so, as his
scenes from the Bavarian Highlands abundantly
testify ; one in particular, A Birch Grove in Dachau
—the Barbizon of the Munich artists—being quite
delightful in its soft poetic melancholy. From out
of the mass of other landscapes—which were in a
large majority—it will be sufficient to mention
those of Otto Striitzel, Adolf Helzel, and R. Kaiser.
However varied may be the methods and aims of
the numerous Munich landscapists, there is one
thing they have in common—namely, a devotion
to the genuine scenery of their native land, which
they represent in the modern spirit, simply and
naturally, without a trace of sentimentalism or
affectation.

Among the " new men " of the year there were
two who stood out from among the rest, both by

the quality and the quantity of their work—Oskar
Zwintscher and Max Slevogt. The former, who
exhibited several fanciful landscapes and two
portrait studies, impressed one at once by his
accuracy and technical resource, marred only by a
certain lack of confidence in one or two of the
landscapes. There is, however, plenty of con-
fidence in Slevogt's work, and no small degree of
individuality also. It must, however, be said
that a certain displeasing coarseness spoils some of
his work, as, for instance, The Scourging of Christ,
which is treated in quite a brutal manner. Some
of this artist's work, on the other hand, notably
The Appearance of the Angel before Joseph, leads
one to hope that he may realise the fact that beauty
and grace are not incompatible with strength and
energy.

As is always the case in the Spring exhibitions,
the Munich artists formed the chief contingent in
the German galleries ; and when we consider that
the great majority of our artists here were, in the
natural course of things, reserving their best work
for the big Summer exhibitions, it will be admitted
that the German division, which had to hold its
own against so much excellent work from abroad,
was largely indebted to the activity and versatile
efforts of the Munich artists.

The numerous oil-paintings and drawings by
Giovanni Segantini, a native of the Italian Tyrol,
constituted an exhibition in themselves. Like
Millet—whose faithful pupil he would seem to be,
in his treatment of the human form—he loves to
portray the laborious life of the peasantry. But
those he shows us are mountain folk. The snow-
capped peaks of the Engadine tower large and
majestic above the fields, where his sons of the soil
are ploughing and reaping, and the pasture lands
with their feeding flocks of sheep and cattle. The
simplicity of the peasant life, with the sublimity of
its mountainous surroundings, forms the ground-
work of his art, which has a dignity and a truth
which impress one as only work of the highest
class can do.

There was considerable charm in the collection of
Dutch water-colours in which such men as Jos.
Israels, Mesdag, du Chatell, and van de Sande-
Bakhuyzen were worthily represented. These artists
one and all show a delicate love of Nature and a
strong " home feeling," which would be even more
acceptable if they would try to give us something