DOI Heft:
No. 89 (Aug. 1900)
DOI Artikel:Muther, Richard: Emil Orlik
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19785#0188
Emil Orlik
Every fibre of their being was rooted in the spot place with its heaps of vegetables; loved to wander
where fate had placed them. into the peaceful solitude of the Jewish cemetery,
Orlik's youthful memories were centred in Prague, and, above all, to visit that deserted spot where the
and Prague is the most interesting of all Austrian laundresses spread their linen along the river bank,
cities, crowned as it is by a halo of legend and and Polish Jews barter with the Slovak peasantry,
folklore, every stone in the city seeming to A sense of depression, of melancholy, pervades
whisper of the Past. When the young artist, after all these works; and the landscape, with its hazy
a long apprenticeship, returned home, he knew sky, its dilapidated houses, its gnarled trees and its
enough to become the artistic discoverer of Old dirty puddles, forms a fitting accompaniment to the
Prague, the explorer of Bohemian landscape. He central theme. But in other paintings Orlik sounds
loved to stroll about, especially in the dark lanes a lighter note. Here we see workrooms, with tailors
of the ancient city, with its teeming life confined and shoemakers, or women sewing at their windows,
within so small a space ; loved to depict the booths, or young girls sitting dreamily before their lamps ;
exposing dirty household goods for sale, the butchers' or, again, we have winter afternoon scenes, with
shops with their meat, and the venerable market- skaters, whose vanishing silhouettes glide like un-
defined shadows over the glassy
surface of the river. It is im-
possible to convey an adequate
idea of the vast range of Orlik's
material. Many of his works
are delightfully peaceful, with
a lyrical softness and a dreamy
charm — sleeping shepherd
lads, poor children at play, or
old men dozing in the sun-
shine. But he is attracted no
less keenly by the noisy crowd,
the multitude at the concert
or on the promenade, as it
sways and pushes in a multi-
coloured mass at the entrances
to the theatres, or drives along
under the windows of the
cafes. If his power of repro-
duction has a limit at all it is
this: he bestows more pains
on the treatment of effects of
light than on the drawing of
the outline.
His yearning for rare atmo-
spheric tones induced him to
visit other countries. He went
to Holland, the land of half-
lighted rooms and cosy in-
teriors, of melancholy dunes
and soft rolling mists. He
visited London, the city of
November fogs, which lie like
a pall on the streets; and
there he painted the mingled
crowd of waggons and omni-
e>~ buses on the bridges, and the
curious effects of light produced
from a chalk drawing by emil orlik by the struggle of the gas-light
160
Every fibre of their being was rooted in the spot place with its heaps of vegetables; loved to wander
where fate had placed them. into the peaceful solitude of the Jewish cemetery,
Orlik's youthful memories were centred in Prague, and, above all, to visit that deserted spot where the
and Prague is the most interesting of all Austrian laundresses spread their linen along the river bank,
cities, crowned as it is by a halo of legend and and Polish Jews barter with the Slovak peasantry,
folklore, every stone in the city seeming to A sense of depression, of melancholy, pervades
whisper of the Past. When the young artist, after all these works; and the landscape, with its hazy
a long apprenticeship, returned home, he knew sky, its dilapidated houses, its gnarled trees and its
enough to become the artistic discoverer of Old dirty puddles, forms a fitting accompaniment to the
Prague, the explorer of Bohemian landscape. He central theme. But in other paintings Orlik sounds
loved to stroll about, especially in the dark lanes a lighter note. Here we see workrooms, with tailors
of the ancient city, with its teeming life confined and shoemakers, or women sewing at their windows,
within so small a space ; loved to depict the booths, or young girls sitting dreamily before their lamps ;
exposing dirty household goods for sale, the butchers' or, again, we have winter afternoon scenes, with
shops with their meat, and the venerable market- skaters, whose vanishing silhouettes glide like un-
defined shadows over the glassy
surface of the river. It is im-
possible to convey an adequate
idea of the vast range of Orlik's
material. Many of his works
are delightfully peaceful, with
a lyrical softness and a dreamy
charm — sleeping shepherd
lads, poor children at play, or
old men dozing in the sun-
shine. But he is attracted no
less keenly by the noisy crowd,
the multitude at the concert
or on the promenade, as it
sways and pushes in a multi-
coloured mass at the entrances
to the theatres, or drives along
under the windows of the
cafes. If his power of repro-
duction has a limit at all it is
this: he bestows more pains
on the treatment of effects of
light than on the drawing of
the outline.
His yearning for rare atmo-
spheric tones induced him to
visit other countries. He went
to Holland, the land of half-
lighted rooms and cosy in-
teriors, of melancholy dunes
and soft rolling mists. He
visited London, the city of
November fogs, which lie like
a pall on the streets; and
there he painted the mingled
crowd of waggons and omni-
e>~ buses on the bridges, and the
curious effects of light produced
from a chalk drawing by emil orlik by the struggle of the gas-light
160