Studio: international art (9.1897)

Hermann Obrisfs Embroidered Decorations

object it has to decorate. And this he always
succeeds in doing, although never in obvious
manner, like a door-mat with " Welcome" or
" Cave Canem " upon it. He has, let us say, a
portfolio or book-cover to decorate, what is the
function of such an object ? The purpose of it
being to hold, he decorates the surface not with a
spray of apple-blossoms or a bunch of violets, such
as we see to weariness in fashionable shop windows ;
not with an imitation iron clasp, which would be
obvious and absurd, but with some clinging, lichen-
like form that grips it with the firmness of a grow-
ing thing, or with some delicate but tenacious stem
or tendril that clasps it as securely as twisted
threads of steel. Or, if the problem is a rug for
the fire, he makes us feel, in the movement of his
pattern, the swirl of air drawn up into the chimney,
and the snap and lick of the flames that rush after
it. Even the crackling of the wood, its dark
colour against the fire, and the earthy odour of the
smoke, are all suggested by tangled roots, like fibres
torn up from a peat bog. For the covering of a
bed he makes a decoration like a fleece, which does
not, however, lie there dead and inert, but seems to
hover and nicker ovet the couch with something of
the caress of little tongues of flame, that cannot
help suggesting their warmth. Then how the
general pattern, with all its sparkle of detail, flows
down and sinks away to rest in reposeful lines I
For a border to a breakfast table-cover, he has
imagined an exquisitely balanced and delicate
pattern of swaying stems bearing a wreath of fresh
pink flowers, with here and there a hardy green
shoot that seems to be pushing up from the soil to
drink the dew of the early morning and catch the
first rays of the sun. A picture of the sunrise would
have been obvious, but this suggestion, so full of
gaiety, of green young plants and upspringing
flowers, would put one into the best of all moods
for beginning the day.

But even when the first necessity of decorative
art—appropriateness—has been met, there still
remain these formal elements common to all the
plastic and graphic arts, the elements of colour,
line, and composition. In all these respects Mr.
Obrist's embroideries fully satisfy everything we
might await from an artist with such talent for
appreciating the just relation between an object
and its decoration. Of his colour we have already
briefly spoken. As to line, never once do we find
his line mechanical or flagging. From beginning
to end it is alive and vibrating with energy; not for
dragon fly" hanging, designed by Hermann obrist a second does it let the attention falter or grow

executed by bertha ruchet slack. Never do we find in his embroideries the

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