Studio: international art (8.1896)

Studio- Talk

table-ware which at present is so hopelessly
trivial may attract the young designer's attention.
Whether because of the taste of the retail trades-
man, or the lack of good designs, a layman may
not declare; but the fact remains that to search
for a dinner or tea set which is not a mere copy
of an old style, and yet artistic and beautiful, is a

forlorn quest to-day. To make beautiful the
common objects of daily life is worth even the
sacrifice of a great artist; so if any one regrets that
one so promising as Mr. Solon has cast in his lot
with applied design, it is good to remember that a
fine tile is better than a mediocre fresco, especially
when the opportunity for tiles occurs daily, and
the fresco at present but once in a lifetime.

Societies established on a philanthropic basis,
114

to give employment to poor gentlewomen, are not
usually interesting for their art. Indeed, the designs
for needlework sold in the fancy-shops represent
their average level fairly enough. But the Decora-
tive Needlework Society, Limited, is a paying
concern ; yet it does not sacrifice artistry to charity.
Making allowance for the tastes for which it caters,

there is still a residue of
really admirable work de-
signed in the right spirit,
embroidered with great skill
and taste, and not slavishly
bent on copying old designs.
Its church work, some of
which we hope to illustrate
later, is full of spirit, espe-
cially in the figure subjects,
which recall the best periods
of the art of the needle. In
recommending the Sloane
Street Institution one may
promote the cause of philan-
throphy without debasing
art. Its managing director,
Miss E. Gemmell, is doing
a service to the applied arts
that deserves formal recog-
nition from the press, and
hearty support from the
public.

BERLIN. — Not-
withstanding his
comm and i n g
position in the
German art-
world, it is notorious that
Adolf Menzel has had no
pupils, in the strict sense of
the word; and yet a number
of Berlin artists, chiefly of
the modern school, look
upon him as their exemplar
and chief. Although Franz
Skarbina is now widely removed in manner from
Menzel, his work nevertheless springs from the
same root, and in its development ever suggests
the great painter. But it was inevitable that their
paths should sooner or later diverge, for Skarbina's
nature was cast in a more delicate and sensitive
mould than Menzel's, and his artistic instinct is
more easily stirred. Then, again, his work is not
so powerful as that of the " grand old man." In
their several ways, however, they have both re-

" LA RAQUETTE " FROM A LITHOGRAPH BY A. LUNOIS

(See Paris Studio-Talk)