Studio: international art (21.1901)

Round the Exhibition

when I see the multiplicity of the elements of For German artists of all degrees are obviously
which this work is constituted. However it be, slaves, more or less, of ancient academic traditions,
this is certain: anyone, however ignorant of the historical influences, and archaeological recollections,
applied art movement in Germany, may gain from an The Teuton has a thorough knowledge of his craft,
inspection of the exhibits displayed at the Invalides, his technical skill is unlimited, but he lacks fresh-
in the Champ de Mars, and in the Imperial ness of inspiration ; as a rule his work is based on
Pavilion, a very just idea of what that movement is. anything save nature and life, which he seems to
Throughout the Exhibition, wherever the German observe solely through the medium of the pictures
shield is displayed, one finds emphatic evidence of and plates to be seen in the library or the art
a spirit of power and authority; one realises that gallery. Every production of art throughout the
no pains have been spared to make everything as world, from the earliest times, is known to the
grand and imposing as possible, in order to impress Germans, and remembered too, for they assimilate
the world with the majesty of the nation. Every- easily, and have great receptive qualities. But how
thing too—which is equally remarkable and com- rare it is to find in their work a really novel aspect
menclable—is designedly modern in tendency, that of things, anything showing that it has sprung
is to say, as modern as it is possible to be, in spontaneously from the heart and the hand, from
regard to art, in Germany. the very innermost being of the artist or the crafts-

man ! When we come
across originality in a

jiw "wqr^^^^MnKKIKim^nnN&UfflM- «uiUM .» t.tt,—:—"'n German it usually takes a

i ■ ! • / pompous, almost pedantic,

| ■ 'I 1] form; even in his highest

i [! .'<'-*^H and boldest flights one is

j I conscious of a certain pre-

| ' Tc\' 1 . """" tentiousness which, so far

[; v?" Kj.,a as I personally am con-

i 5 , "Kj ^ cemed, prevents me from

5*;y JT !"*CT ' i$ ! , JA \fg; admiring unreservedly

1 " !rk .mfm I either the boldness or the

'.jJEJI^mI novelty of the experi-

TL ment.

wa^ However, these restric-

tions in no way diminish
the great merit of the Ger-
man exhibition of deco-
rative art at the Invalides—
a display in which the best
fSf artists have taken part, and

one presenting a truly re-
markable ensemble.

On the ground floor,
the halls decorated by
MM. Bruno Paul, Bern-
i hard Pankok, Richard

1 Riemerschmied, and Ber-

'■■ lepsch-Valendas, and the

mural ornamentation, to-
I gether with the fountain,

I by Professor Max Lauger,

9 demand attention.

The hunting-room, or
"chambre de chasse," by
Mr. Bruno Paul, of Mu-

: chambre de chasse " ry bruno faul nich, with its elm fittings,

46