Studio: international art (32.1904)

Clement Heaton

life as it is, without any attempt at idealising—light Holland, representing two peasant women stopping
and atmosphere, whether in the open air or in to chat, the one leading a cow, the other wheeling a
interiors, always playing an important part; in fact, truck—a charming country idyll; a family of pigs
one might almost say the most important part. being fed by the farm maid, and children watching
There is no attempt to produce an attractive with curiosity ; these are all the result of impressions
picturesqueness, but a determination to put on the obtained in Holland.

canvas hard facts, with their own particular light As a portrait painter Liebermann has also made
and atmosphere, whether they be sombre and a name, amongst his best works being Herr Bode,
dreary or bright and full of sunshine. Truth in director of the Berlin Museum, the sculptor
nature completely unadorned thus becomes with Meunier, Rudolf Virchow, and the Hamburg
Liebermann, in its simplicity, an overpowering Burgomaster in his official robes. His portraits
revelation of hidden beauty, whether depicted in are distinguished, like all his other works, by their
a landscape or in scenes taken from the lives of simplicity and naturalness. His own portrait, by
poor folk. himself, is also an excellent painting and most life-

Liebermann's old people are masterpieces ; he like in feature and expression,
knows so well how to represent the worn and

furrowed faces of those who from childhood have m /| R. CLEMENT HEATON AND
never known anything of life but from its hardest HIS WORK. BY ROBERT

side. The most notable of such works are The J w MMOBBS
Stocking-Darner, an old woman sitting at a cottage I'M.

window bending over her work, with every evidence Readers of The Studio are already familiar
of poverty around, and The Cobblers, two men, with various productions from Mr. Clement
busy with their work, sitting close to the small Heaton's atelier at Neuchatel, especially the
latticed window and trying to profit
by the last rays of Ihe sinking sun,
which is casting shadows over the whole
—a fine example of the artist's light
effects. The latter work was painted
about the year 1881, and the Garden
of an Orphan Asylum in Amsterdam,
produced about the same period, is one
of the artist's few works in which bright
colours are introduced, the bright red
dresses, white aprons and caps of the
girls, the green trees, and thefiood of sun-
shine over all, making a picture very dif-
ferent from Liebermann's usual gloomy
effects. Other works are Bleaching,
freshly washed linen is laid out on grass
and hung on lines to bleach in the
sun; Children Playing in the Thier-
garten ; a Munich Beer Garden, a work
exhibiting marvellous power in depict-
ing a crowd of people, seated at tables,
with children playing around. Neither
in this work nor in the Emperor
Frederick Memorial Service, where a still
larger crowd is represented, has Lieber-
mann attempted to put each figure
separately on the canvas, but has suc-
ceeded admirably in producing the
general effect of a crowd. Grace before
Meat, a Dutch family assembled for

their midday meal; a Village Street in me. clement heaton's glass studio