Studio: international art (36.1906)

Heinrich

I.ACQUER DRAWING BY ZESIIIN

the marvellous conceptions realised by the artists.
Such masters as Korin, the Komas, or the Kaji-
kawas must always rank as among the first of the
world’s artist-craftsmen. Their productions are
veritable gems of art work which rise in the esti-
mation of all art lovers in proportion to the
attention bestowed upon them.

The last artist in lacquer of the highest
order was Zeshin, whose best work was pro-
duced in the middle of the last century. The
beautiful little inros and scent-boxes which
came from his hand are among the most
precious treasures of the collector. Like all
great artists he was a man who displayed
much individuality in his work, and the
objects produced by him may be distinguished
at a glance by the connoisseur from those by
any other maker. Among the remarkable
works which he produced was a small number
of pictures painted in coloured lacquers upon
a fine ivory-toned paper. These are of very
great rarity, and when it is remembered that
the handling of liquid lacquer is one of the
most difficult operations that a painter can
undertake, the wonderful freshness and spon-
taneity which they exhibit are witness alike to
the clear crispness of his perctption and to
his sympathetic handling. The three ex-
amples here reproduced, one in its original
colouring, will give the reader some idea ot

IVirsing

the rare delicacy of the master’s touch,
althotigh, without a full knowledge of the
great difficulties to be overcome in the hand-
ling of the material, the magic of them will not
be fully realised. Some interest is attached
to the convention displayed in the colours of
the rainbow in the full-page illustration.
These colours do not at all follow those
usually selected, but the impression of the
subject is nevertheless well suggested.

A YOUNG MUNICH SCULP-
TOR: HEINRICH WIRSING.
BY OTTO GRAUTOFF.

Since the beginning of the last decade ot
the nineteenth century there has grown up
in Germiny a new school of sculpture, which
from the very outset showed itself in strong
revolt against genre in plastic art—a style
which during the preceding thirty years had
gone beyond all bounds in that country.
The headquarters of this new school is
Munich, and the head thereof Adolf Hilde-
brand. Like a last descendant of the Renaissance,
Hildebrand has once again consolidated the whole
of the artistic culture of by-gone epochs, from the
days of the ancients to those of the Renais-
sance itself. None comes more completely

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