Studio: international art (16.1899)

Some Drawings by Steinlen

no vulgar sacrifice such as would degrade his
work artistically.

Steinlen's individuality is of a very special
order. I will certainly not venture to con-
tradict Mr. Frederick Wedmore, who in these
pages once declared he considered him in no
way inferior in point of originality to such an
artist as Forain. It must, however, be ad-
mitted that Forain and Willette strike one at
the first blush as being far more original than
Steinlen—the one by virtue of his keenness,
his concentration, his wonderful precision;
the other by his exquisite imagination, his
delightful caprices, his grace, and his fanci-
fulness. Steinlen is their equal, but his indi-
viduality is not so direct, so apparent. It
belongs rather to the expression than to the
technique, consisting more of a combination of
subtle qualities than of those characteristic

" un type de montmartre :
bibi-la-puree." by steinlen

marks which at once reveal the artist's
personality and fix him definitely in
one's memory. To draw comparisons
between artists of such widely differ-
ing styles would be foolish; but it
may be useful to consider briefly the
work of Forain and of Willette, the
better to illustrate that of the artist
with whom we are chiefly concerned.

Forain's fame—I had almostwritten
glory—is twofold. The great majority
of the public admire his letterpress,
his legendes, quite as much as the
accompanying drawings themselves—
perhaps more. Some of them, in-
deed, are so good, so satisfying, that
the illustrations might almost be dis-
pensed with. As fur his drawing,
"un type de montmartre ; bibi-la-puree " by steinlen how few are those qualified to under-

20