Studio: international art (10.1897)

Mr. Menpes Japanese Drawings

tions considered with intelligent interest. He dreams of what life in an artistic community might
ranks, to his surprise and satisfaction, as a priest of become.

a great cult; and ceases to be merely despised as But in another way the first taste of Japan acts,
a rather useless member of society,'pandering more as the strongest inducement for a repetition of a
or less unworthily to tastes which are looked upon never-to-be-forgotten experience. The general love
as opposed to the dictates of common-sense and of art there makes the country itself so paint-
hardly consistent with a proper understanding of able that an artist is never at a loss for material
his responsibilities. The bare tolerance' which has for pictures. In every direction subjects that are
been extended to him by his own people no longer complete in themselves are naturally presented to
irritates him ; and he is able to expand under the him, and in this unconscious and universal pic-
genial rays of warm interest and recognition. Small turesqueness he can find never-ceasing occupation,
wonder then that his first visit to Japan is rarely Whatever he may choose to study will please him
his last, and the memories of his experiences there by its artistic perfection ; he is never constrained
remain to him during his life to fascinate him with to evade by ingenious and wearying devices the

disfigurements of mere
utilitarianism. He can
work frankly and straight-
forwardly, embarrassed, if
he is at all, only by the
wealth of material which
is available. He may
have to limit himself to a
particular class of subject,
but in such a case it will
simply be because amid so
much that is ready for
immediate treatment he is
compelled by exigencies of
convenience to avoid the
temptation to attempt
more than he can possibly
complete. He probably
consoles himself for this
enforced abstinence by the
reflection that when he
comes again—and he pro-
mises himself many more
visits—he will cover wider
ground. But when he
returns he is confronted
by the same difficulty ;
each fresh experience only
shows him more and more
how impossible it is to
deal, in the time that he
has at his disposal, with
the extraordinary variety
of picturesqueness that
the country affords.

To us here, who see the
pictures that he brings
back, this feature of Japan
is distinctly advantageous.

" porcelain " from a painting by mortimer menpes No matter how many the

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