Studio: international art (38.1906)

Studio-Talk

properties of his medium. He has had one master,
Rembrandt, to whom he frankly acknowledges his
indebtedness by a little etching after one by the
master, which is a keynote to the character of the
work in the rest of the exhibition. His subjects
are nearly always unattractive, but his line is
instinct with a beauty with which he is reckless.
Mr. John is of the romantic school, for where there
is character there is romance, and his inspiration
takes him to it in life that is common and wayward,
negative to the spirit of cultivation and careless of
all the graces.

We reproduce some interesting examples of the

HEAD IN IVORY BY R. GARBE

work of Mr. Richard Garbe in a material which is
not so much used as it might be. From the
earliest times ivory has been used in various ways
for a variety of purposes. It has decorated the
palaces and furniture of the great, and re-told in
carving and colour upon crozier, casket and crucifix
the principal events of the Old and New Testament.
In Greece it was used in many and varied ways;
as also in Egypt and Assyria, and the Old Testa-
ment contains several references to its use in
decoration. In those days ivory was held in high
esteem, but at the present time most of us asso-
ciate ivory and ivories with billiard balls, false
teeth and cutlery; for with three or four notable
exceptions, it is practically no longer in use for
carving, sculpture and decoration. Mr. Garbe, an
able and versatile member of the Junior Art
Workers’ Guild, is one of these exceptions.

Mr. Garbe has carved statuettes and heads in
ivory, and has also used it in conjunction with other
materials, such as caskets, clocks, scent-bottles,
book-covers. He brings to his work something
of the enthusiasm, zeal, and understanding of his
materials which inspired the craftsman of the early
Renaissance. There is, too, the same perception
ivory statuette by r. garbe of its intrinsic beauty and the same compulsion

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