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Holme, Charles [Editor]
The studio: internat. journal of modern art. Special number (1905, Summer): Art in photography — London, 1905

DOI article:
Thovez, Enrico: Artistic photography in Italy
DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27086#0154
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ITALY

relied for his groundwork chiefly on that impeccable master, Sir L.
Alma-Tadema ; and when it came into his head to vivify the rich
costumes of Japan and its knick-knacks in some scene from the
“ Land of the Rising Sun ” he did not forget Outamaro ! But if his
fancy turned to the seventeenth century and the Netherlands his
masters were Van der Meer and Pieter de Hooch, Terburg and
Metsu, while Watteau, Chardin and Fragonard took their place
when the field of operations came to be transferred to that graceful
period, the Eighteenth Century in France. I have seen, too, by M.
Rey, pagan idylls which made me think of Bocklin, and the
name of Dagnan-Bouveret comes to one’s mind on looking at his
Breton pictures.

But M. Rey has no idea of making cheap imitations of famous
pictures by means of photography ; far from that. Although at
times he may depend upon the great masters for his starting-point,
he nevertheless constructs his scenes with entire freedom of mind
and with personal feeling ; and certain of his compositions—as,
for instance, Id Enfant qui lit pres de la fenetre, for whose motif he
is responsible to no one—suffice to show that he can very well
walk without assistance when he desires, and that it is nothing
but a feeling of devotion and admiration which induces him at
times to turn to the models of High Art.

M. Guido Rey started, as I have already remarked, by reconstructing
Greek and Roman scenes, and some years ago The Studio devoted
several articles to this classical series. It suffices, therefore, to recall
this portion of M. Rey’s ideal domain by means of just two motifs.
The first of these is a little scene representing two Greek women
leaning over a terrace, with the sea below, a Hermes on the one
side and an oleander on the other. Near by is a basket of fruit.
The women are looking down and laughing at something that
amuses them.

The Invocation shows a poet, crowned with oak-leaves, standing near
an altar, whence rises the smoke of the offering. Majestic black
cypresses tower overhead, and the poet stretches out his arms
towards the god of his adoration. Words cannot express the
cleverness of the composition, the spirit of the poet's face, the
skilful handling of the light.

From antiquity we pass now to the seventeenth century. No longer
does Alma-Tadema preside over the scene de genre; the great Dutch
painters of interiors, the great masters of technique, now prevail—
Terburg, Metsu, and Vermeer.

See this Fumeur de pipe leaning on the table, his face shaded by a

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