Studio: international art (39.1907)

Henri Teixeira de Mattos

in the seventies, Rome was still the goal of the in Amsterdam, determined to be done with
sculptor, though her repute as a finishing-school schooling, and to shed all foreign influence. But
for the painter had not only suffered shock, but he found it no such easy matter to rid himself
was in ruins. of the Italian methods, in which his hand and eye

In Rome the young fellow took a studio and, had become so facile. His Cinderella had been
having but a slender purse, persuaded people to bought by a resident in Rotterdam; indeed,
sit to him for their portraits, hiring when he could this sort of statuary was in the prevailing taste
a model on his own account. But here he was to in Holland as much as in Italy. The temptation
suffer the second great disillusion of his career. to win easy success was too great for a young
He slowly came to realise that the art of sculpture artist who had his name to make, and the young
in Rome was in utter decay—the life gone wholly fellow gave in for awhile to the fashion that he
out of it. In her academy every pupil had to had made, and his Eh Men !—a coquette with a
begin at the elements, and the prospect fretted fan—was followed by the Deluge of his thirtieth
him. He therefore set himself to self-education in year ; in fact, it took eight years of his life to rid
his craftsmanship, and pitted his strength against his craftsmanship of what he had learnt in three
his fellows. He naturally strove to excel in what years in Italy.

others were doing. The sculptor was far from satisfied, yet his

He wrought little figures of Cinderella and such- success only increased the temptation to keep to
like statuettes. These soon found ready purchasers, the path that seemed easy to his feet. He had
The demand grew. He
soon had plenty of such
work to do. For days he
would work upon carving
the details of lace collars
and shawls, or the minute
flowers in a girl's hair. He
mastered the whole bag
of tricks—veils, brocaded
gowns, and the rest. In
the modelling and carving
of these things the weeks
stole away from under his
feet. The standard every-
where was the marketable
value of the thing done.
For three years young
Teixeira de Mattos went
with the tide, to arouse
from his industry at last
but to find that he had
been swept into the stream
of the commonplace, and
was sinking with the rest.
He awoke, weary of the
whole business, and dis-
satisfied with himself.

His twenty-second year
saw him packing back to
his native land. Yet he
did not leave Rome wholly
barren — he had had the
great advantage of learning
to work in the marble.

He now took a studio bust of frank brangwyn, a.r.a. by henri teixeira de mattos

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