Studio: international art (37.1906)

Technical Hints

the artist for his own pleasure, and com-
plete in itself. The mount in which it is
now shown seems to have cut off some of
the work on the left of the drawing. In
the handling of the materials the artist has
shown a very delicate and at the same time
free treatment. It is very suggestive' of
the charming freedom of the brushwork
of his portraits of ladies, some few of
which are not unworthy of hanging
beside the works of his immediate fore-
runners, Reynolds and Gainsborough, by
whom, indeed, he was doubtless inspired.
Hoppner left many studies in chalk,
which are less known than they should
be. His treatment of this subject was
not at all unusual during the period.
The use of a red chalk to suggest the
warm tints of the flesh and to complete
a drawing begun with black, whilst quite
conventional and in no way suggestive
of true colour, is quite legitimate and
interesting. And from the success with
which he has caught and recorded the
grace of the pose of his sitter and her
passing expression, he doubtless learned
much to assist him in painting her por-
trait, if that was his object in making it.

On the other hand, if the study was
intended to be complete in itself, as it
well may have been, we can perhaps
"AicHA'1 by l. i.iivY-nnuRMER better understand the great elaboration

used in the use of the red chalk upon
taste of a rare order, a flexible and delicate fancy, the face; and we may note the extreme delicacy with
a genuine love of all that is exquisite and subtle, which but a faint stumping upon the neck and breast
without any trace of affectation, a fine sense of order serves tq separate this latter from the white drapery
and harmony of line and colour—these are the surrounding it, and the happy effect of the dark
qualities by which the work of this versatile genius touches of pencil on the trimmings of the fichu.

is distinguished. Frances Keyzer. -

The National Committee formed at Amsterdam

TECHNICAL HINTS FROM THE in connection with the commemoration of the ter-
DRAWINGS OF PAST MASTERS centenary of Rembrandt's birth is organising a grand
OF PAINTING V TOHN national ftte t0 take' Place on the 16th of July next.
HOPPNER R A Through the instrumentality of the committee the

' ' ' house in Jodenbreestraat where the great master spent

The charming study by John Hoppner, R.A., the best (and also the most mournful) part of his life
which we have selected from the Print Room of has become the property of the City Council, on the
the British Museum to illustrate our series this condition thatnoalterationshallbemadeinthefacade
month is rather lighter and less severe in its con- without the sanction of the Rembrandt Society of
vention than the previous subjects. It is drawn Amsterdam. The committee has also arranged for
with a blacklead pencil and red crayon. It may the publication, under the editorship of Dr. Hofstede
possibly have been a preliminary study for a portrait; de Groot, of a special work containing reproduc-
but, from the elaboration of the face, we are justified tions of some two hundred paintings, engravings,
in concluding that it was perhaps a study made by and drawings of biblical subjects by Rembrandt.