Studio: international art (35.1905)

Count Sparre's Etchings

Count Louis Sparre, already known to readers of
The Studio as a contributor on matters appertain-
ing to Finnish art, was born in Paris ; his father
was a Swede, his mother an Italian. Educated in
Paris as an artist, he followed an artist friend to
Finland, without however dreaming that he was
soon to settle down there. An enterprise was at
the time being discussed, which, it was hoped, by
applying simple but artistically beautiful methods
to all branches of interior decoration, would put
an end to the trashy, feebly-designed furniture, etc.,
hitherto in use. This plan having been set on
foot, Count Sparre was appointed art-manager of
the workshops which were started at Borga. He
thus, like so many other artists, left painting for

“the pile driver'1 from an etching by

COUNT LOUIS SPARRE

industrial art ; but he still continued to employ
his pencil and brush during the years that followed.

Count Sparre undoubtedly did much useful work
while filling the position just described. The new
movement busied itself chiefly with furniture and
ceramic work—the latter department under the
direction of Mr. Finch ; and in the few years during
which the undertaking lasted there was a marked
increase in the appreciation and interest manifested
by the public in artistic handicrafts. None the
less the workshops of the “ Iris ” (under which
name the enterprise became known) were unable
to keep up with the competition of cheap whole-
sale production, especially when the shops in
Helsingfors began to import the products of
modern English “art-industries” with successful
financial results. The undertaking was aban-
doned ; the workshops were sold by auction; and
Count Sparre, once more at liberty, devoted
himself, doubtless with renewed zest, to the
independent exercise of his artistic instincts.

In his industrial art Count Sparre shows
himself to have been strongly influenced by the
English movement. There is nothing specially
original about his furniture, but a certain
elegance and a finely-cultivated feeling for line
are to be found in all his best work.

Having been all this time settled in Borga,
Count Sparre was from the first fascinated by
the picturesque charm of the little country town.
He hotly opposed an attempt, made in the
interests of safety from fire, to subject the older
portion of the town to unintelligent modernising;
and a monograph, illustrated with exquisite
pen-and-ink drawings, urging upon the inhabi-
tants of Borga the duty of preserving the beauties
of their native town for future generations, was
published in pamphlet form. In these drawings
—views of streets, courtyards, and other archi-
tectural antiquities—are to be found the proto-
types of Sparre’s later etchings. He has applied
himself with great zeal to etching, as many of
our younger artists have done of late; and it
seems to me that his individual temperament
is reflected with far greater distinctness in
these little productions than in his oil painting,
of which he has not latterly done very much. •
A soft air of aristocratic grace pervades his
pictures; the touch is light and elegant, and
has that unconstrained ease which is particularly
attractive in an etching, while a quite enchanting
effect is often attained by his refinements of
tone, which, for instance, can give an admirable
suggestion of a heavy wintry atmosphere.

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