DOI Heft:
Nr. 145 (April 1905)
DOI Artikel:Wood, T. Martin: A room decorated by Charles Conder
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20711#0221
A Room Decorated by Charles Conder
The selection of no other artist to fill these to a point; a story is told, a drama is enacted in
panels could have been so successful as that of them which is never finished. There is a purpose
Mr. Conder. His temperament has enabled him to about the actions of the figures which evades us,
enter into the spirit of the scheme, for above every- an anecdote in each of the panels that escapes us,
thing else he is a decorator, in the sense that Wat- and this elusiveness gives us rest—the restfulness
teau and his school were decorators. One imagines which is to be demanded of perfect decoration,
from what one has learnt of Mr. Conder's work, that Every time these panels engage the eye, the brain
if he looked at a panel it would provide the creatures returns to them and to the indolent task of un-
of his fancy with a meeting place. This is the ravelling their story, seeking from them stimulus
instinct of the born decorator. Watteau almost to its own fancy. Looking at them we are not
created the fashion of his time, so anxious was he called upon to look into our memory for history,
to embody his fancies on the surface of whatever we are not put out of court in the matter of subject
came to hand. Decoration is that which lends by ignorance of their legend, we are not teased
grace to something else, and not that which with symbolism. The only history connected with
exists for itself. Mr. Conder's work decorates in them is the beautiful one of their creation, and
the highest sense of the term. By his panels the their only legend is beauty. Decoration at its
eye is engaged, the intelligence is aroused, but only highest may sometimes challenge our memory and
our knowledge ; but decoration
at its highest in a bedroom or
a boudoir should only challenge
us with a sentiment that escapes
and returns to us when we
return to it, letting our eyes rest
idly while the brain dreams.
To have this sway over us,
decoration must not be created
within hard lines, and nothing
must be insisted upon. The
outline and the arbitrary treat-
ment of colour, as if it were
stained glass, how delightful it
is to escape them! Though
they have so often rescued the
decorator whose imagination has
gone to pieces, they are but
unintelligent substitutes for real
feeling; cheap and plausible in
their message of decoration.
As Mr. Conder's decorations
evade us in their subjects, so
in his methods they are ideally
the same. They are charm-
ingly indefinite in their refine-
ments of escaping tone, in their
escaping refinements of delicate
colour. Beauty with him in
these panels is light and de-
cadent ; they are full of fancy,
crowded with images, pictures,
and memories of faded things,
they resemble somewhat the
writings of a scholar in which
there comes to the surface a
panel in water-colours on silk by charles conder knowledge of many times. In
205
The selection of no other artist to fill these to a point; a story is told, a drama is enacted in
panels could have been so successful as that of them which is never finished. There is a purpose
Mr. Conder. His temperament has enabled him to about the actions of the figures which evades us,
enter into the spirit of the scheme, for above every- an anecdote in each of the panels that escapes us,
thing else he is a decorator, in the sense that Wat- and this elusiveness gives us rest—the restfulness
teau and his school were decorators. One imagines which is to be demanded of perfect decoration,
from what one has learnt of Mr. Conder's work, that Every time these panels engage the eye, the brain
if he looked at a panel it would provide the creatures returns to them and to the indolent task of un-
of his fancy with a meeting place. This is the ravelling their story, seeking from them stimulus
instinct of the born decorator. Watteau almost to its own fancy. Looking at them we are not
created the fashion of his time, so anxious was he called upon to look into our memory for history,
to embody his fancies on the surface of whatever we are not put out of court in the matter of subject
came to hand. Decoration is that which lends by ignorance of their legend, we are not teased
grace to something else, and not that which with symbolism. The only history connected with
exists for itself. Mr. Conder's work decorates in them is the beautiful one of their creation, and
the highest sense of the term. By his panels the their only legend is beauty. Decoration at its
eye is engaged, the intelligence is aroused, but only highest may sometimes challenge our memory and
our knowledge ; but decoration
at its highest in a bedroom or
a boudoir should only challenge
us with a sentiment that escapes
and returns to us when we
return to it, letting our eyes rest
idly while the brain dreams.
To have this sway over us,
decoration must not be created
within hard lines, and nothing
must be insisted upon. The
outline and the arbitrary treat-
ment of colour, as if it were
stained glass, how delightful it
is to escape them! Though
they have so often rescued the
decorator whose imagination has
gone to pieces, they are but
unintelligent substitutes for real
feeling; cheap and plausible in
their message of decoration.
As Mr. Conder's decorations
evade us in their subjects, so
in his methods they are ideally
the same. They are charm-
ingly indefinite in their refine-
ments of escaping tone, in their
escaping refinements of delicate
colour. Beauty with him in
these panels is light and de-
cadent ; they are full of fancy,
crowded with images, pictures,
and memories of faded things,
they resemble somewhat the
writings of a scholar in which
there comes to the surface a
panel in water-colours on silk by charles conder knowledge of many times. In
205