DOI Heft:
No. 60 (March, 1898)
DOI Artikel:Hagen, Luise: Lady artists in Germany
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18391#0109
Lady Artists in Germany
the subject of woman's only true calling in house- crude facts of everyday life. Consequently, in
hold matters, on her utter lack ot synthetic power truly womanly manner they developed in their
in science, her entire deficiency in creative strength portraits a great minuteness and accuracy of
in art. Scarcely a gentleman critic in Germany but detail. But they have entirely broken loose from
will procure a pen pointed threefold when he is that sentimental smoothness of touch and that
about to analyse the merits, or rather the demerits, anecdotal fussiness, that circumstantial garrulity
of some lady artist whose work has come under his which are still to be met with in a great deal
notice. of so-called " beautifying " painting in Germany.
Now, every true lover of art who has happened They have acquired to a surprising degree the
to see some of the exhibitions of our " Kiinstler- power of discerning what is essential to the
innenvereine" will candidly admit that they making up of the picture and what is not.
generally are a rather sorry sight to behold. But This is all the more praiseworthy because the
people are apt to forget that there are members composition as a whole remains decidedly an-
of the other sex to be found whose productions alytical. The analysis in this case is not a pull-
are anything but what will gladden the heart of ing to pieces; it is a setting out on a broad basis
man. Women as a rule are very conservative. It and gaining a culminating-point by weighing off
is therefore not to be wondered at that there has and harmonising detail against detail, never losing
been a great deal of mannerism and stale conven- sight of the one great point of interest to be
tionality to be met with in
their work.
Gradually, however, a
change has come about.
I have before me two
portraits painted by
lady artists, in which,
more than in other works
of theirs, I recognise
specific feminine qualities.
One is the portrait of the
Countess Pocci, by Jeanna
Bauck, the other the por-
trait of Jeanna Bauck, by
Bertha Wegmann. Both
these artists are trying to
work their way along by
the same road. Both
have received the impetus
of their present mode of
working in Paris at the
time when the great truths
revealed by the school of
Barbizon were becoming
more generally understood.
Absolute veracity was
that which they strove to
achieve, yet they never
forgot that this very vera-
city is only an outcome of
the capacity for looking
into the soul of mankind,
of the power of penetrat-
ing into that which lies
below the surface of hard
realities, and beyond the portrait of jeanna bauck by bertha wegmann
92
the subject of woman's only true calling in house- crude facts of everyday life. Consequently, in
hold matters, on her utter lack ot synthetic power truly womanly manner they developed in their
in science, her entire deficiency in creative strength portraits a great minuteness and accuracy of
in art. Scarcely a gentleman critic in Germany but detail. But they have entirely broken loose from
will procure a pen pointed threefold when he is that sentimental smoothness of touch and that
about to analyse the merits, or rather the demerits, anecdotal fussiness, that circumstantial garrulity
of some lady artist whose work has come under his which are still to be met with in a great deal
notice. of so-called " beautifying " painting in Germany.
Now, every true lover of art who has happened They have acquired to a surprising degree the
to see some of the exhibitions of our " Kiinstler- power of discerning what is essential to the
innenvereine" will candidly admit that they making up of the picture and what is not.
generally are a rather sorry sight to behold. But This is all the more praiseworthy because the
people are apt to forget that there are members composition as a whole remains decidedly an-
of the other sex to be found whose productions alytical. The analysis in this case is not a pull-
are anything but what will gladden the heart of ing to pieces; it is a setting out on a broad basis
man. Women as a rule are very conservative. It and gaining a culminating-point by weighing off
is therefore not to be wondered at that there has and harmonising detail against detail, never losing
been a great deal of mannerism and stale conven- sight of the one great point of interest to be
tionality to be met with in
their work.
Gradually, however, a
change has come about.
I have before me two
portraits painted by
lady artists, in which,
more than in other works
of theirs, I recognise
specific feminine qualities.
One is the portrait of the
Countess Pocci, by Jeanna
Bauck, the other the por-
trait of Jeanna Bauck, by
Bertha Wegmann. Both
these artists are trying to
work their way along by
the same road. Both
have received the impetus
of their present mode of
working in Paris at the
time when the great truths
revealed by the school of
Barbizon were becoming
more generally understood.
Absolute veracity was
that which they strove to
achieve, yet they never
forgot that this very vera-
city is only an outcome of
the capacity for looking
into the soul of mankind,
of the power of penetrat-
ing into that which lies
below the surface of hard
realities, and beyond the portrait of jeanna bauck by bertha wegmann
92