DOI Heft:
No. 61 (April, 1898)
DOI Artikel:Khnopff, Fernand: Some artists at Liège
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18391#0207
Some Artists at Liege
devote himself to drawing, working pluckily at living. He passed with dignity and courage
night-time and alone, with no guide save the model through this trying period, and eventually, while
he was striving to copy. He also tried his hand at on a visit to Paris, went to call on Rops. The
etching, and produced his first impressions with great Walloon artist received Rassenfosse as he
the aid of a rolling-pin ! Several years in advance always receives his young fellow-workers, and soon
of the lately deceased French engraver, H. Guerard, declared there was nothing further he could teach
he attempted pyrogravure and used the process him !
in furniture decoration. By dint of unceasing To-day, were he not of so modest a disposition,
effort towards the improvement and refinement of M. Rassenfosse might justly deem himself arrive;
his workmanship he succeeded in a few years in for his engravings—etchings, vernis-mou, and dry
obtaining most satisfactory results. Thereupon points—are among the chiefest treasures in the
he decided definitely to give up business, and to albums of the Brussels Society of Aquafortists;
devote himself entirely to the work he loved, his illustrations, showing a remarkable literary
This meant, however, that he was henceforth left grasp, are highly esteemed by the great publishers;
to his own resources, and must contrive to earn a and his drawings, curiously tinted in pastel style,
depart one by one, to adorn
the collections of the rich
amateur.
But M. Rassenfosse him-
self is a delicate connois-
seur, and occasionally he
cannot resist the tempta-
tion to indulge in the pur-
chase of some rare edition
or some costly piece of
work, such, for instance, as
his truly marvellous " fou
kousa," by Nishimoro, or
his seal by M. O. Berch-
mans, the history of which
is worth recording, by way
of conclusion. M. Rassen-
fosse was anxious to have
a " handy " seal. Holding
a piece of modelling wax in
his hand, he made the ges-
ture of using the stamp, and
handed the lump of wax
thus "shaped" to M. O.
Berchmans. The sculp-
tor's eye discovered the
semblance of a head in it
with the mouth closed by
a bandage, and eventually
turned it into an excellent
bit of applied art.
Other Liege artists there
may be who have produced
work of more material value
—to themselves—than the
artists I have enumerated,
but few there are, I firmly
believe, whose principles
, are more sound, whose
PORTION OF M. BENARD S DINING-ROOM
184
devote himself to drawing, working pluckily at living. He passed with dignity and courage
night-time and alone, with no guide save the model through this trying period, and eventually, while
he was striving to copy. He also tried his hand at on a visit to Paris, went to call on Rops. The
etching, and produced his first impressions with great Walloon artist received Rassenfosse as he
the aid of a rolling-pin ! Several years in advance always receives his young fellow-workers, and soon
of the lately deceased French engraver, H. Guerard, declared there was nothing further he could teach
he attempted pyrogravure and used the process him !
in furniture decoration. By dint of unceasing To-day, were he not of so modest a disposition,
effort towards the improvement and refinement of M. Rassenfosse might justly deem himself arrive;
his workmanship he succeeded in a few years in for his engravings—etchings, vernis-mou, and dry
obtaining most satisfactory results. Thereupon points—are among the chiefest treasures in the
he decided definitely to give up business, and to albums of the Brussels Society of Aquafortists;
devote himself entirely to the work he loved, his illustrations, showing a remarkable literary
This meant, however, that he was henceforth left grasp, are highly esteemed by the great publishers;
to his own resources, and must contrive to earn a and his drawings, curiously tinted in pastel style,
depart one by one, to adorn
the collections of the rich
amateur.
But M. Rassenfosse him-
self is a delicate connois-
seur, and occasionally he
cannot resist the tempta-
tion to indulge in the pur-
chase of some rare edition
or some costly piece of
work, such, for instance, as
his truly marvellous " fou
kousa," by Nishimoro, or
his seal by M. O. Berch-
mans, the history of which
is worth recording, by way
of conclusion. M. Rassen-
fosse was anxious to have
a " handy " seal. Holding
a piece of modelling wax in
his hand, he made the ges-
ture of using the stamp, and
handed the lump of wax
thus "shaped" to M. O.
Berchmans. The sculp-
tor's eye discovered the
semblance of a head in it
with the mouth closed by
a bandage, and eventually
turned it into an excellent
bit of applied art.
Other Liege artists there
may be who have produced
work of more material value
—to themselves—than the
artists I have enumerated,
but few there are, I firmly
believe, whose principles
, are more sound, whose
PORTION OF M. BENARD S DINING-ROOM
184