DOI Heft:
No. 89 (Aug. 1900)
DOI Artikel:Muther, Richard: Emil Orlik
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19785#0193
Emil Orlik
■with the dense, smoky masses of fog. Thence he
proceeded to Scotland, and painted the chimneys
of Glasgow, the soot from which covers the firma-
ment as with a drapery of crape. In all these works
the figures are full of bubbling, vibrating life.
Like Menzel, who draws even during his railway
journeys, Orlik rarely puts aside his sketch-book ;
and this practice has made him one of the readiest
sketchers of the day. Everywhere he is master of
the art of rapidly and correctly seizing definite
outlines; he produces suggestive effects with a
single stroke; everything is reduced to the simplest
form of expression ; everything preserves the vigour
of life itself.
It is this ability to give swift and true expression
to characteristic features which makes Orlik so
powerful a portraitist. Max Lehrs, the director
of the Dresden Museum, Otto Erich Hartleben,
the jovial poet, and Bernhard Pankok, the
gifted caricaturist and applied art draughtsman,
have sat to him for their portraits — all these
works being able analyses of complex per-
sonalities. He reveals the sitter's character
in bold, confident lines, and knows how
to grasp at once the significance of personal
peculiarities.
Latterly Orlik has confined himself almost ex-
clusively to pastels and engravings, for oil is not
the medium in which he can best express himself.
He has already done several hundred plates, and,
though there may be many better painters, he stands
in the front rank as an engraver. Thanks to his
long and arduous apprenticeship, he has mastered
all the technical part of the business, and can use
with equal skill the wood engraver's tools, the
etching needle, and the lithographer's pencil.
Orlik's studio is like a printing office ; he knows
that only an artist's hand can give the exact tone
to the impression, and he acts accordingly. His
wood engravings for several years past have been
most successful. All sorts of colours—even the
most incongruous — are placed side by side,
apparently at haphazard—brown looking-glass
frames, red lamp shades, yellow dresses, blue walls,
green carpets—and yet there is no suggestion of
vulgarity or over-colouring. Everything is sympa-
thetic and harmonious.
Plates of this kind could never have been
■with the dense, smoky masses of fog. Thence he
proceeded to Scotland, and painted the chimneys
of Glasgow, the soot from which covers the firma-
ment as with a drapery of crape. In all these works
the figures are full of bubbling, vibrating life.
Like Menzel, who draws even during his railway
journeys, Orlik rarely puts aside his sketch-book ;
and this practice has made him one of the readiest
sketchers of the day. Everywhere he is master of
the art of rapidly and correctly seizing definite
outlines; he produces suggestive effects with a
single stroke; everything is reduced to the simplest
form of expression ; everything preserves the vigour
of life itself.
It is this ability to give swift and true expression
to characteristic features which makes Orlik so
powerful a portraitist. Max Lehrs, the director
of the Dresden Museum, Otto Erich Hartleben,
the jovial poet, and Bernhard Pankok, the
gifted caricaturist and applied art draughtsman,
have sat to him for their portraits — all these
works being able analyses of complex per-
sonalities. He reveals the sitter's character
in bold, confident lines, and knows how
to grasp at once the significance of personal
peculiarities.
Latterly Orlik has confined himself almost ex-
clusively to pastels and engravings, for oil is not
the medium in which he can best express himself.
He has already done several hundred plates, and,
though there may be many better painters, he stands
in the front rank as an engraver. Thanks to his
long and arduous apprenticeship, he has mastered
all the technical part of the business, and can use
with equal skill the wood engraver's tools, the
etching needle, and the lithographer's pencil.
Orlik's studio is like a printing office ; he knows
that only an artist's hand can give the exact tone
to the impression, and he acts accordingly. His
wood engravings for several years past have been
most successful. All sorts of colours—even the
most incongruous — are placed side by side,
apparently at haphazard—brown looking-glass
frames, red lamp shades, yellow dresses, blue walls,
green carpets—and yet there is no suggestion of
vulgarity or over-colouring. Everything is sympa-
thetic and harmonious.
Plates of this kind could never have been