DOI Heft:
Nr. 150 (September 1905)
DOI Artikel:Osborn, Max: Ludwig Dettmann
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20712#0297
Ludwig Dettmann
L
UDWIG DETTMANN.
MAX OSBORN.
BY DR.
The great problem to be solved by
German artists of our day is the amalgamation of
modern teaching imported from abroad, above all
from France, with the peculiarities of distinctively
German sentiment. However genuine and signi-
ficant the artistic relations between nations, their
mutual attraction and cross-fertilisation, may have
become, there are at the basis of all national feeling
towards art fundamental differences that are unlikely
ever to be obliterated—differences not merely of
an external nature, called forth by the changes of
environment in individual countries, but differences
of vision, deep-rooted variations in the manner of
observing nature, and of building up for oneself a
world of imagination from given and selected im-
pressions of nature and reality. Yet the dictum
of certain over-zealous chauvinists who are to be
met with here and there in German artistic circles
must not be endorsed. We cannot do without the
impressionism originated by France, cannot dis-
pense with its schooling, and are advised of its
educative value, which amounts to the highest
refinement of artistic technique hitherto known.
Our road must of necessity pass through it, al-
though our goal lies beyond. We too want to make
our pictures absorb the rich resplendence of life and
nature, though our desire is not satisfied with that.
We too must and will sharpen our eyesight and
exercise our hands : not, however, to set them as
masters over us, but to make them the readily-
available servants of our minds. Even in Berlin,
where the tendency of the Secessionists to adopt
French impressionism wholesale has been most
pronounced, this endeavour has for long been
clearly noticeable. What Max Liebermann and
Franz Skarbina introduced in the way of new
international ideas, during the eightiek of last
century, was enthusiastically taken up by the
younger generation of artists in North Germany.
Under the influence of these leaders they revised
their whole artistic outlook; their composition
became more full of life, their colouring bolder,
their light clearer and more radiant, their subjects
fresher. But they also made various energetic
attempts, while at the same time working out the
foreign stimulus independently, to reconcile the
new methods learnt from abroad with the never-
BY LUDWIG DETTMANN
279
“ THE EVE OF THE HOLIDAY”
XXXV. No. 150.--September, 1905.
L
UDWIG DETTMANN.
MAX OSBORN.
BY DR.
The great problem to be solved by
German artists of our day is the amalgamation of
modern teaching imported from abroad, above all
from France, with the peculiarities of distinctively
German sentiment. However genuine and signi-
ficant the artistic relations between nations, their
mutual attraction and cross-fertilisation, may have
become, there are at the basis of all national feeling
towards art fundamental differences that are unlikely
ever to be obliterated—differences not merely of
an external nature, called forth by the changes of
environment in individual countries, but differences
of vision, deep-rooted variations in the manner of
observing nature, and of building up for oneself a
world of imagination from given and selected im-
pressions of nature and reality. Yet the dictum
of certain over-zealous chauvinists who are to be
met with here and there in German artistic circles
must not be endorsed. We cannot do without the
impressionism originated by France, cannot dis-
pense with its schooling, and are advised of its
educative value, which amounts to the highest
refinement of artistic technique hitherto known.
Our road must of necessity pass through it, al-
though our goal lies beyond. We too want to make
our pictures absorb the rich resplendence of life and
nature, though our desire is not satisfied with that.
We too must and will sharpen our eyesight and
exercise our hands : not, however, to set them as
masters over us, but to make them the readily-
available servants of our minds. Even in Berlin,
where the tendency of the Secessionists to adopt
French impressionism wholesale has been most
pronounced, this endeavour has for long been
clearly noticeable. What Max Liebermann and
Franz Skarbina introduced in the way of new
international ideas, during the eightiek of last
century, was enthusiastically taken up by the
younger generation of artists in North Germany.
Under the influence of these leaders they revised
their whole artistic outlook; their composition
became more full of life, their colouring bolder,
their light clearer and more radiant, their subjects
fresher. But they also made various energetic
attempts, while at the same time working out the
foreign stimulus independently, to reconcile the
new methods learnt from abroad with the never-
BY LUDWIG DETTMANN
279
“ THE EVE OF THE HOLIDAY”
XXXV. No. 150.--September, 1905.