Studio: international art (38.1906)

Studio-Talk

upon a theatrical composition instead of artistic
feeling and perception. The vigorous Courbet, the
sensitive Corot, the genial Millet, have, to a great
extent, helped German artists to make their country-
men understand that true art is the expression of
inward feeling and perception, and not a vehicle
for teaching historical events or folklore. The
same is true as regards England, where since the
days of the great Dutch painters a good and,
moreover, a thoroughly national artistic tradition
has been kept alive uninterruptedly.

“ Thoma therefore thinks that international ex-
hibitions may be of great use as a means ot
suggestion, and that this is more important than
the material losses which some people are inclined
to fear would result from them to German artists.
Foreign art at such exhibitions should not, however,
be represented by a multitude of indifferent pro-
ductions, but only by a small number of carefully
selected works characteristic alike of the indivi-
dual artists’ work and of the art of the countries to
which they belong. The objection often raised in
Germany, that German art would not receive the
same impartial welcome abroad as at home, he
does not consider to be a sound one ; at all events,
he knows a German artist who had a collective
exhibition of his works at Liverpool at a time when

in Germany all the exhibitions refused everything
of his.

“ Thus it is essential, in Thoma’s opinion, that a
keen but friendly artistic rivalry should be developed
among the nations of central and western Europe,
so that each may benefit by mutual suggestion
and the disappearance of that one-sidedness and
narrow-mindedness which necessarily lead to im-
poverishment of artistic life and feeling.”

STUDIO-TALK

(From our Own Correspondents)

LONDON.—Hyde Park has never failed to
be a source of attraction to the artist
whose temperament leads him to the
beauty of London life in its more
hellenic moments. A phase of civilisation is ex-
pressed at such times which has a peculiar fascina-
tion for the artistic temperament. We find it
admirably reflected in the painting by Mr. D. S.
Neave, reproduced as a supplement, with its clever
analysis of light and arrangement of colour. The
problem of the light autumn sky through the trees
and the relative values of the subject is one
presenting many difficulties; the unusual restraint
in treatment which exists by the side of the evident
vitality of the painting is characteristic of the

TEMPERA PAINTING IN CHRIST CHURCH, LICHFIELD

64

BY J. D. BATTEN