Studio: international art (29.1903)

Studio- Talk

drawing somewhat, but he is always successful in and some very good and some very poor work has
his colour schemes, and for lightness of touch and been the result; and so it is good to come upon a
delicacy of execution Signor Catani is unquestion- worker, foreign or otherwise, whose touch is
ably a genius. He loves the wonderful turquoise always sure, always gifted and distinctive. Signor
blues of his country's skies for his backgrounds, Catani has been greatly influenced by Cosway,
and he knows the way to snatch them from whose work he has studied with loving admiration
the clouds for his ivory without losing their Next to Cosway, Isabey has claimed his attention ;
delicate glory. Sometimes he chooses a ruddy and it is largely through his appreciation of the
brown as a setting for a head, and against its rich- work of these two artists that he has become so
ness the flesh tints glow wonderfully soft and trans- earnest a follower of this most charming form of
parent—for Catani can paint flesh as few modern portraiture; for his earlier years were given
miniature painters can—warm, velvety, pulsating over to portraits and figure studies in oil, and
with life, and delicate as the ivory it is painted on. it is only during the last five years that he has

- devoted his time and ambition to the painting of

With the revival of interest in this form of por- miniatures,
traiture, there has sprung up in England a wide

and diversified following of the miniature cult, Catani has very original ideas for his picture

accessories. He loves
flowers—roses, field daisies,
cornflowers, and forget-
me-nots—garlanded in the
hair, and he is unerring
in his choice of the
colours that show off to
best advantage his
sitter's hair and eyes.
One of his most charming
studies in his latest ex-
hibition was of a ruddy-
haired girl with a Romney
fichu in dark blue,
caught by a glorious
deep-red rose, setting off
the milky texture of the
flesh as no other colour
would have done; while
in the hair a spray of corn-
flowers of the same deep-
toned blue threw into light
the wonderful red and gold,
and intensified its colour
in the dark eyes. He was
showing some delightful
examples of half-figure
studies in soft, floating
draperies, which he hopes
to make popular as a new
note in arrangement; as
also the painting of head
and shoulder miniatures on
a larger scale than the con-
ventional one—about half
again larger than the

PORTRAITS OF PROFESSOR MARKS AND HIS SON BY EMIL FUCHS CoSWayS believing that

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