DOI Heft:
No. 52 (July, 1897)
DOI Artikel:Studio-talk
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18389#0148
Studio- Talk
BERLIN.—The Exhibition of the XL is
always a source of gratification to the
true art lover, who knows this display
to be worth seeing. The great mass
of the public—especially the upper
classes—wax wroth at these pictures, and do their
best to decry this "shocking modern school," which
has "no sense of the ideal." Of course the truth
is that while much of the work exhibited here is of
superlative charm, some of it is such as to call for
nothing but contempt. But that the great majority
of these productions are strikingly good, must be
quite clear to all.
We may pass over most of the pictures—in-
cluding several works by Max Liebermann, of
exceptionally rich colouring—and turn our atten-
tion to the landscapes by Walter Leistikow. Two
distinguishing features are always prominent in this
artist's work—his love for the solitude of the forest,
and the unbounded expanse of sea—and they are
not absent from the present exhibition. Here we
have a calm stretch of water, with swans drifting
along with outstretched pinions; and here again a
harbour scene. A narrow land line stands darkly
out against the background; in the foreground are
a couple of boats, with masts showing almost black
against the sky, and like the clouds, reflected in
the water, which almost duplicates the scene as in
a mirror. The hopelessness of attempting to con-
vey any idea in words of the beauties of a work of
art is obvious in the presence of so poetic a com-
position as this.
Leistikow is even better still when he shows us
the scenery of the Mark, with its chief beauties,
which consist in the pine forests encircling the
placid lakes. He nearly always seizes a moment
when some strange effect of light imparts a special
aspect to the scene—the setting sun, for instance,
flooding the tall, bare trunks with a golden —purple
glow. The green of the trees is absorbed in the
violet shadows, so that the whole picture becomes
a harmony in these two tones. By way of contrast
the water in the foreground is dark and sombre,
reflecting but faintly the colours around. He sees
r
FROM AN ETCHING
HY WALTER LEISTIKOW
127
BERLIN.—The Exhibition of the XL is
always a source of gratification to the
true art lover, who knows this display
to be worth seeing. The great mass
of the public—especially the upper
classes—wax wroth at these pictures, and do their
best to decry this "shocking modern school," which
has "no sense of the ideal." Of course the truth
is that while much of the work exhibited here is of
superlative charm, some of it is such as to call for
nothing but contempt. But that the great majority
of these productions are strikingly good, must be
quite clear to all.
We may pass over most of the pictures—in-
cluding several works by Max Liebermann, of
exceptionally rich colouring—and turn our atten-
tion to the landscapes by Walter Leistikow. Two
distinguishing features are always prominent in this
artist's work—his love for the solitude of the forest,
and the unbounded expanse of sea—and they are
not absent from the present exhibition. Here we
have a calm stretch of water, with swans drifting
along with outstretched pinions; and here again a
harbour scene. A narrow land line stands darkly
out against the background; in the foreground are
a couple of boats, with masts showing almost black
against the sky, and like the clouds, reflected in
the water, which almost duplicates the scene as in
a mirror. The hopelessness of attempting to con-
vey any idea in words of the beauties of a work of
art is obvious in the presence of so poetic a com-
position as this.
Leistikow is even better still when he shows us
the scenery of the Mark, with its chief beauties,
which consist in the pine forests encircling the
placid lakes. He nearly always seizes a moment
when some strange effect of light imparts a special
aspect to the scene—the setting sun, for instance,
flooding the tall, bare trunks with a golden —purple
glow. The green of the trees is absorbed in the
violet shadows, so that the whole picture becomes
a harmony in these two tones. By way of contrast
the water in the foreground is dark and sombre,
reflecting but faintly the colours around. He sees
r
FROM AN ETCHING
HY WALTER LEISTIKOW
127