DOI Heft:
No. 88 (July, 1900)
DOI Artikel:Mourey, Gabriel: An American painter in Paris: John W. Alexander
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19785#0094
John W. Alexander
thing of German, suggests Munich; so off they director of an art school there. Whistler was then
go to the Bavarian capital, where for three living in the city of the Doges, and he gave advice
months Alexander attends the classes at the — valuable advice doubtless — to his young
National Academy of Fine Arts. But soon the compatriot, who, when he had come into full
two friends find living in towns too expensive, possession of his gifts, cannot have failed to recog-
so they look out for some quiet rustic spot, where nise its value.
they can work without constant anxiety as to their During his stay in Europe—in Paris, whither he
very means of existence. They end by discovering returned, in London and in Holland—Alexander
in Northern Bavaria the little village of Polling, worked away assiduously. He tried everything—
where even then there was quite a small colony of drawings, studies, portraits, illustrations, landscapes,
American artists. still-life—feeling his way, surmounting technical
After spending a year at Polling, Alexander went difficulties, studying the great masters, ever striv-
to Venice with Duveneck, the painter, who was ing for something better, ever critical and exacting
towards himself. Some of his crayon
portraits, done about this period—
those of Browning, Stevenson, Swin-
burne, and Alphonse Daudet, for
example — reveal an artist expert
at seizing character, and already
possessed of a method leaving very
little room for improvement.
So far as Paris is concerned, how-
ever, he made his real debut in the
Salon of the Societe Nationale. At
once he took us captive. The Por-
trait Noir and the Portrait Gris
exhibited by him there bore the
unmistakable imprint of genuine indi-
viduality, revealed a strong and con-
centrated artistic vision, a novel sense
of female grace, and a technique
almost masterly, and in any case
fresh, and above all expressive. First
we were astonished, then captivated.
Certain curious things disturbed one
at the outset—the coarse surface of
his canvas, and the dense deadness
of his colours thereon, producing in
places the effect of distemper. But
this in no way lessened the delicacy
or the force of the work, and those
of us who are blessed with a good
memory still retain a recollection of
the wonderful dress worn by the lady
in the Portrait Gris. Such greys !
Some silvery like the moon, others
of twilight tone, gleaming as though
reflecting polished steel, and all so
fine, so rich as positively to be-
wilder the beholder. And the touch
too ! How broad and sure and
free, each stroke seeming to have
been done definitely at the very first
'the reader" by j. w. alexander attempt.
74
thing of German, suggests Munich; so off they director of an art school there. Whistler was then
go to the Bavarian capital, where for three living in the city of the Doges, and he gave advice
months Alexander attends the classes at the — valuable advice doubtless — to his young
National Academy of Fine Arts. But soon the compatriot, who, when he had come into full
two friends find living in towns too expensive, possession of his gifts, cannot have failed to recog-
so they look out for some quiet rustic spot, where nise its value.
they can work without constant anxiety as to their During his stay in Europe—in Paris, whither he
very means of existence. They end by discovering returned, in London and in Holland—Alexander
in Northern Bavaria the little village of Polling, worked away assiduously. He tried everything—
where even then there was quite a small colony of drawings, studies, portraits, illustrations, landscapes,
American artists. still-life—feeling his way, surmounting technical
After spending a year at Polling, Alexander went difficulties, studying the great masters, ever striv-
to Venice with Duveneck, the painter, who was ing for something better, ever critical and exacting
towards himself. Some of his crayon
portraits, done about this period—
those of Browning, Stevenson, Swin-
burne, and Alphonse Daudet, for
example — reveal an artist expert
at seizing character, and already
possessed of a method leaving very
little room for improvement.
So far as Paris is concerned, how-
ever, he made his real debut in the
Salon of the Societe Nationale. At
once he took us captive. The Por-
trait Noir and the Portrait Gris
exhibited by him there bore the
unmistakable imprint of genuine indi-
viduality, revealed a strong and con-
centrated artistic vision, a novel sense
of female grace, and a technique
almost masterly, and in any case
fresh, and above all expressive. First
we were astonished, then captivated.
Certain curious things disturbed one
at the outset—the coarse surface of
his canvas, and the dense deadness
of his colours thereon, producing in
places the effect of distemper. But
this in no way lessened the delicacy
or the force of the work, and those
of us who are blessed with a good
memory still retain a recollection of
the wonderful dress worn by the lady
in the Portrait Gris. Such greys !
Some silvery like the moon, others
of twilight tone, gleaming as though
reflecting polished steel, and all so
fine, so rich as positively to be-
wilder the beholder. And the touch
too ! How broad and sure and
free, each stroke seeming to have
been done definitely at the very first
'the reader" by j. w. alexander attempt.
74