DOI Heft:
No. 81 (December, 1899)
DOI Artikel:British decorative art in 1899, and the Arts And Crafts Exhibition, [3]
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19783#0207
Arts and Crafts
bold enough to make a thoughtful experiment.
This has been said hundreds of times to earnest
labourers in every field of art, yet old conventions
have given place to new, and we see no reason
why the art of the stained-glass worker should not
be modernised. Mr. Reynolds-Stephens's cartoon
is a frankly serious effort in this direction, and as
such it merits careful consideration. It is not
perfect, but it has qualities of style which we do
not find in many stained-glass windows designed
by men who are supposed to be wisely conven-
tional. For instance, the figures are not too
pretty-pretty, and the lead-lines are never aggres-
sive.
Attention may now be called once again to the
fine chimney-piece for a house in Queen's Gate, and
to the stand supporting the bas-relief entitled Youth.
Illustrations of these two works will be found in The
Studio of last July. Another handsome design is
a modelled and coloured family-tree on a green
ground, forming a panel for a hall chimneypiece.
From his design the artist's wife has worked a tea-
cosy in silks, part applique and part embroidery, on
a bright green ground. Founded upon the dande-
lion, no better instance could be desired of the adapta-
tion of natural forms to ornamental purposes. Two
additional embroideries by Mrs. Reynolds-Stephens,
from Mr. Voysey's designs, are a circular cushion,
with swallows perched on berry-bearing branches,
and another, mounted so as to form a banner-
screen. It is a striking and characteristic pattern—■
viz., a secretary-bird, serrated leaf turned over
repeatedly, and delicate conventional blossoms and
tendrils. The whole is of silk, and is carried out
mainly in applique, upon an indigo blue ground.
For a number of years Mr. Edmond Reuter was
engaged in designing for a firm of Staffordshire
potters, a work which under the circumstances did
not afford him much scope for artistic enterprise.
But in his leisure moments he has practised many
home arts, among others that of illumination, in
which he has attained to a very remarkable degree
bold enough to make a thoughtful experiment.
This has been said hundreds of times to earnest
labourers in every field of art, yet old conventions
have given place to new, and we see no reason
why the art of the stained-glass worker should not
be modernised. Mr. Reynolds-Stephens's cartoon
is a frankly serious effort in this direction, and as
such it merits careful consideration. It is not
perfect, but it has qualities of style which we do
not find in many stained-glass windows designed
by men who are supposed to be wisely conven-
tional. For instance, the figures are not too
pretty-pretty, and the lead-lines are never aggres-
sive.
Attention may now be called once again to the
fine chimney-piece for a house in Queen's Gate, and
to the stand supporting the bas-relief entitled Youth.
Illustrations of these two works will be found in The
Studio of last July. Another handsome design is
a modelled and coloured family-tree on a green
ground, forming a panel for a hall chimneypiece.
From his design the artist's wife has worked a tea-
cosy in silks, part applique and part embroidery, on
a bright green ground. Founded upon the dande-
lion, no better instance could be desired of the adapta-
tion of natural forms to ornamental purposes. Two
additional embroideries by Mrs. Reynolds-Stephens,
from Mr. Voysey's designs, are a circular cushion,
with swallows perched on berry-bearing branches,
and another, mounted so as to form a banner-
screen. It is a striking and characteristic pattern—■
viz., a secretary-bird, serrated leaf turned over
repeatedly, and delicate conventional blossoms and
tendrils. The whole is of silk, and is carried out
mainly in applique, upon an indigo blue ground.
For a number of years Mr. Edmond Reuter was
engaged in designing for a firm of Staffordshire
potters, a work which under the circumstances did
not afford him much scope for artistic enterprise.
But in his leisure moments he has practised many
home arts, among others that of illumination, in
which he has attained to a very remarkable degree