DOI issue:
No. 83 (February, 1900)
DOI article:Tomson, Arthur: A Dutch etcher: M. Bauer
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19784#0053
A Dutch Etcher
flowered draperies, jewelled trappings and richly
decorated flags, you may see marching the squalid
forms of mendicants and cripples. Some of his
pictures contain but few figures while in the more
important there are many; and each one has
individuality and something about it that stirs
one's imagination. For the most part he gives in
his pictures the impression of a thickly-populated
place; of a place where people live lives full of
incident; of a place where to men all things are
possible, where beggary or sudden prosperity, a first
meeting with the loveliest of women, or violent
death, may fall to a man's lot at any corner.
So far I have tried to give an impression of
Bauer's grip of his subject; I will now touch upon
the manner in which he expresses himself, for
to that is due not a little of the subtle charm
of all he does. Bauer sets down everything, no
matter on how small a scale, so that his designs
present a large appearance. There is, indeed,
a book, entitled " La Jeunesse inalterable"
published by Scheltema and Holtema, of
Amsterdam, illustrated by Bauer with little etch-
ings and tiny prints that are just as impressive as
40
pictures containing life-sized figures. In order to
make little figures appeal as forcibly as larger ones,
there must be right selection of forms; and a
great deal depends upon the manner in which
these forms are indicated. No detail in a figure
must be insisted on that would not strike the
spectator, not only while observing the whole of
the figure, of which the detail is a part, but while
looking at the entire scene in which that figure is
placed. The handling, too, of the picture must
be elusive everywhere : there must be an avoid-
ance of any stroke or strokes that hint too severely
at any particular matter. Such art belongs only to
certain temperaments. Rembrandt's people always
appear to be of natural dimensions, Raphael's
never. For Raphael's ends, perhaps, such an effect
was not necessary; for Bauer's it is. His back-
grounds, his subjects require a style that must
impress itself with a suggestion of immensity upon
the mind. But although Bauer avoids anything
like a photographic insistance of details, there is no
lack of richness in his designs. It is marvellous
how much he can indicate with his fluent and
strangely broad technique. Although he makes
flowered draperies, jewelled trappings and richly
decorated flags, you may see marching the squalid
forms of mendicants and cripples. Some of his
pictures contain but few figures while in the more
important there are many; and each one has
individuality and something about it that stirs
one's imagination. For the most part he gives in
his pictures the impression of a thickly-populated
place; of a place where people live lives full of
incident; of a place where to men all things are
possible, where beggary or sudden prosperity, a first
meeting with the loveliest of women, or violent
death, may fall to a man's lot at any corner.
So far I have tried to give an impression of
Bauer's grip of his subject; I will now touch upon
the manner in which he expresses himself, for
to that is due not a little of the subtle charm
of all he does. Bauer sets down everything, no
matter on how small a scale, so that his designs
present a large appearance. There is, indeed,
a book, entitled " La Jeunesse inalterable"
published by Scheltema and Holtema, of
Amsterdam, illustrated by Bauer with little etch-
ings and tiny prints that are just as impressive as
40
pictures containing life-sized figures. In order to
make little figures appeal as forcibly as larger ones,
there must be right selection of forms; and a
great deal depends upon the manner in which
these forms are indicated. No detail in a figure
must be insisted on that would not strike the
spectator, not only while observing the whole of
the figure, of which the detail is a part, but while
looking at the entire scene in which that figure is
placed. The handling, too, of the picture must
be elusive everywhere : there must be an avoid-
ance of any stroke or strokes that hint too severely
at any particular matter. Such art belongs only to
certain temperaments. Rembrandt's people always
appear to be of natural dimensions, Raphael's
never. For Raphael's ends, perhaps, such an effect
was not necessary; for Bauer's it is. His back-
grounds, his subjects require a style that must
impress itself with a suggestion of immensity upon
the mind. But although Bauer avoids anything
like a photographic insistance of details, there is no
lack of richness in his designs. It is marvellous
how much he can indicate with his fluent and
strangely broad technique. Although he makes