DOI issue:
No. 114 (September, 1902)
DOI article:The international exhibition of modern decorative art at Turin: the English section
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19876#0265
Turin Exhibition
Ricketts and Shannon, not to mention others, are that, in Eastern bazaars, gathers round him a crowd
names that stand for an art whose possibilities of wrapt and transfixed listeners. Though not in
are limited only by the artist's power to use Nature, words, yet Crane is a teller of tales, in which
And Nicholson and Pryde have taken work a stage humour and pathos, joy and sorrow, all find
farther and shown the potentialities of printed utterance, and round him are gathered the children
colour. With Crane, however, we are back to a of the Anglo-Saxon world. The seven seas have
point analogous to that period when Egypt, speaking carried his books to lands beyond their confines, and
through art, limned for us the history of the country the language of art has spoken in that speech which
on the walls of the tombs of her kings. He is the echoes round the world, because love weights the
heritor of the primitive artist, making for a fraternity words and beauty wings the message. But this
of race and creed, and with whom language is a line, message carries with it a certain qualification. The
speech a drawing, and eloquence the expression horn-book of the mediaeval schoolboy was alike his
of an idea in terms of colour and composition mentor and sole art treasure, little as perhaps he
blended to make a literary tale. realised this latter ; and it may be that the wealth
The music which the Pied Piper evoked from his of picture-books poured into our nurseries may
reed was as uncomprehended sounds to the good teach literature, even as did the horn-book; but
people of Hamelin town, but to their little children fail by their very quantity, to command an appeal
the gods called and they perforce must obey and to the art instincts of their young readers. Means
follow. The catastrophe of Hamelin, however, has may defeat ends, and education may better be
no parallel in Crane's work; his heaven is for all to helped by a quality of work instead of a quantity
enjoy, whether old or young, crippled or hale, and in output. For art is not a matter of quantity, and
he is better likened to one ot those tellers of tales, there are economical laws which tell against over-
production, even in art. Moreover, it
is so difficult to do even one thing well,
that the all-round man carries with him
his own limitations. To design books for
babies, and illustrate operas for those of
equally tender years; to illuminate the
poet, and decorate the page of the
mediaeval romanticist or modern versi-
fier; to interpret Spenser, and put into
line the lore of the fairy tale; to design
the wall-paper, and make a pattern for
the carpet; to model in gesso ; to paint
in water-colours and handle oil-colours,
is to sum up a very big task. And
Crane has essayed all these. Is there
a masque ? Crane designs the dresses,
arranges the tableaux, and times the
dances. Does a lowly deed of heroism
require a chronicler, in order that art
through time may tell the story ? Crane
limns the incident, and form and colour
combine to transmit the story. Religion
building the house of God claims the
same artistic hand to enrich the light
streaming through its painted windows.
The student is bidden to turn to those
books where Crane resolves line into
language, and endeavours to trace design
back to a conscious basis.
The history of book decoration finds
in him an historian ; and to all this may
be added other labours, which speak
253
Ricketts and Shannon, not to mention others, are that, in Eastern bazaars, gathers round him a crowd
names that stand for an art whose possibilities of wrapt and transfixed listeners. Though not in
are limited only by the artist's power to use Nature, words, yet Crane is a teller of tales, in which
And Nicholson and Pryde have taken work a stage humour and pathos, joy and sorrow, all find
farther and shown the potentialities of printed utterance, and round him are gathered the children
colour. With Crane, however, we are back to a of the Anglo-Saxon world. The seven seas have
point analogous to that period when Egypt, speaking carried his books to lands beyond their confines, and
through art, limned for us the history of the country the language of art has spoken in that speech which
on the walls of the tombs of her kings. He is the echoes round the world, because love weights the
heritor of the primitive artist, making for a fraternity words and beauty wings the message. But this
of race and creed, and with whom language is a line, message carries with it a certain qualification. The
speech a drawing, and eloquence the expression horn-book of the mediaeval schoolboy was alike his
of an idea in terms of colour and composition mentor and sole art treasure, little as perhaps he
blended to make a literary tale. realised this latter ; and it may be that the wealth
The music which the Pied Piper evoked from his of picture-books poured into our nurseries may
reed was as uncomprehended sounds to the good teach literature, even as did the horn-book; but
people of Hamelin town, but to their little children fail by their very quantity, to command an appeal
the gods called and they perforce must obey and to the art instincts of their young readers. Means
follow. The catastrophe of Hamelin, however, has may defeat ends, and education may better be
no parallel in Crane's work; his heaven is for all to helped by a quality of work instead of a quantity
enjoy, whether old or young, crippled or hale, and in output. For art is not a matter of quantity, and
he is better likened to one ot those tellers of tales, there are economical laws which tell against over-
production, even in art. Moreover, it
is so difficult to do even one thing well,
that the all-round man carries with him
his own limitations. To design books for
babies, and illustrate operas for those of
equally tender years; to illuminate the
poet, and decorate the page of the
mediaeval romanticist or modern versi-
fier; to interpret Spenser, and put into
line the lore of the fairy tale; to design
the wall-paper, and make a pattern for
the carpet; to model in gesso ; to paint
in water-colours and handle oil-colours,
is to sum up a very big task. And
Crane has essayed all these. Is there
a masque ? Crane designs the dresses,
arranges the tableaux, and times the
dances. Does a lowly deed of heroism
require a chronicler, in order that art
through time may tell the story ? Crane
limns the incident, and form and colour
combine to transmit the story. Religion
building the house of God claims the
same artistic hand to enrich the light
streaming through its painted windows.
The student is bidden to turn to those
books where Crane resolves line into
language, and endeavours to trace design
back to a conscious basis.
The history of book decoration finds
in him an historian ; and to all this may
be added other labours, which speak
253