Studio: international art (25.1902)

Studio- Talk

subjects which are usually held to be beyond the
range of the lead pencil: he sometimes selects an
uncommon format. Thus he showed at the
Munich International Art Exhibition last summer,
besides a large number of small drawings, a forest
study, i metre by if metre in size. This huge
drawing was, like the very much smaller replica by
its side, worked out in its most minute details ; the
smooth trunks of the beeches, the knotty roots, the
moss-covered stone, the dead leaves—all were
imitated most characteristically; and at the same
time the general effect—the ensemble—was not
forgotten ; the atmospheric tone—that of a warm,
damp spring day—being most clearly expressed.
In another drawing, perhaps even larger, Sacchetti
has portrayed a long row of old Munich houses,
seen from the picturesque courtyard, in the variable
light of an April morning.

In the same rooms, Walter Geffcken, one of the
most gifted of our younger artists, exhibited a num-
ber of his works—portraits, landscapes, and genre.
Geffcken, who possesses a fine taste for colour and
a graceful execution, has also invented a technique
of his own, which he calls the " oil rubbing tech-
nique,"—"oel-wisch-technik "—by which he obtains
very fine and peculiar effects. These " oil rubbing "
pictures are in monochrome, mostly of a fine
greenish or brownish tone. They appear par-
ticularly suitable for the representation of animals.
White swans on reflecting water, geese and ducks,
long-haired Angora cats, rabbits with their soft
snowy skin, are very successfully treated by this
method, which, if cleverly used, may also be very
well applied in other directions. Thus in the
picture of children at play, the landscape features,
the glaring sun on the square and the shade of the
trees, are as well expressed as the figures of the
two boys.

One of the most enjoyable sections of the great
Munich Exhibition of last summer was the sculp-
ture room of the Secession. Here, for instance,
one saw two masterly portrait busts, and a delicious
small figure for a fountain, by Adolf Hildebrand ;
the sepulchral monument to his parents, by Joseph
Flossmann; and the statuette of a dancer, full of
chaste charm, by Hermann Hahn. Like this last
figure, the Diana of Georg Wrba is characteristic
of that striving to produce a more forcible and
severer style, which is animating our younger
sculptors. On a hind, suggestive in its distin-
guished style both of Japanese and classic bronzes,
the nude goddess, a slender but muscular figure,
66

is seated backwards, and with drawn bow is aiming
at her prey, which she has espied in the distance.
The group is conceived and designed in the true,
severe plastic spirit ; the clear outline is nowhere
broken by any disturbing artifice, and the powerful
and simple modelling has the effect of strongly
emphasising the specific beauty of the bronze. It
is strange to note how the example of the sculptor
Adolf Hildebrand, and the suggestions thrown out
by the architect Theodor Fischer, have promoted
artistic understanding and discipline among the
younger generation of Munich sculptors.

Official monumental sculpture is still greatly
restricting all these fresh forces, or compelling them
to unfold their best productive powers in insigni-
ficant works. A great future would be assured to
the sculptors of Munich if the government and the
municipality, instead of ordering again and again
statues of well-mounted princes and faultlessly-
uniformed generals, would only give leave to our
sculptors to produce their works untrammelled by
official control. q j£

COPENHAGEN. —On the occasion of
their recent visit to Denmark, the
King and Queen of England received
an address from the Danish nation,
and we have much pleasure in giving on page 65
an illustration of the address itself and the
beautiful casket which contained it, both being
designed by Professor Hans Tegner. The
address is comparatively plain, printed as it is
on parchment, rolled on two ivory rods, the
ends of which are beautifully carved and studded
with precious stones. The casket, on the other
hand, is somewhat elaborate (although in excellent
taste), and is possessed of much originality.
Covered with handsome red morocco, it is
ornamented with mountings of embossed silver,
with gold and enamel, and with precious stones.
The whole effect is full of harmony and
style, the various materials being chosen with
much judgment, and remarkably well balanced.
A silver band in the centre of the casket
and the ornamentation at the ends are em-
bellished with the royal monograms, those on the
top being set in pearls and the crown in precious
stones, as is also the crown above the monogram
at the ends. In addition to the fittings of gold
and silver the morocco covering is ornamented
with gold imprints of the Rose, the Thistle and
the Shamrock, and of the royal arms of England