DOI Heft:
No. 163 (October, 1906)
DOI Artikel:Studio-talk
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20716#0106
Studio-Talk
he too now sees the artistic possibilities of the gas- ings are occasionally somewhat raw, but they hold
lighted music-hall. And Shinn has learnt another out every expectation for great work in the future,
thing from Degas; he has learnt how to draw. Look when he becomes more familiar with his medium,
over his many portfolios of studies and sketches Some French stage scenes done in this medium
made from the nude — ideas and suggestions are extremely clever, and the decorative painting
executed with that congenial medium, red chalk— (page 84), which owes so much to Fragonard, is
and you will see drawings powerful in their draughts- a notable bit of composition and colour. These
manship, studies entirely free from all taint of the paintings are as vigorously executed as the pastels :
academic, drawings that proclaim him to be an artist they have the same daring colour schemes, painted
possessing really great gifts. with a full and rapidly manipulated brush. But
- what they lack is the spark of real genius which
Shinn is a master of the pastel; he knows tho- has gone into the making of the pastels : their
roughly both the possibilities and the limitations models are too apparent,
of his medium. The material is never
strained in endeavouring to get too much
out of it; and if technically his pastels are
great achievements, pictorially are they also.
Look at the picture which the artist has
called Matinee Crowd, Broadway, a charac-
teristic example of the artist's work. What
movement there is in this drawing. How
the people are scurrying along in the face
of the snow and wintry blast. How the
snow sweeps and swirls up the icy avenue.
Also, what movement there is in the
pastel of the girl on the trapeze. She is
fairly swinging through the air.
In the two pastels entitled A French
Music Hall and Outdoor Stage, France,
we also have two admirable examples of
the artist's work in this direction. He
has grasped and preserved the very spirit
and life of these scenes for our edification.
Very real they are : we might almost im-
agine ourselves looking in upon the actual
scene. Much is lost in the reproduction,
as the artist's daring use of colour is not
disclosed, but even in the small photo-
graphs they appear very vivid. A little
picture, done in pastel, of Gramercy Park,
New York's only private square, a seductive
gradation of wonderful tones, gives us a
beautiful nocturnal effect, but is unfortu-
nately too sombre to submit to reproduc-
tion ; a misty evening effect on the broad
East River, with gem-like lights in the
distance, is too ethereal for that purpose.
Some time ago Shinn put eighteen of
his paintings in oil on exhibition at a New
York gallery, and very interesting they
proved to be. The artist is still rather
v . . . everett l. shinn sketched from life by
new to oils, and in consequence his paint- charles dana gibson
86
he too now sees the artistic possibilities of the gas- ings are occasionally somewhat raw, but they hold
lighted music-hall. And Shinn has learnt another out every expectation for great work in the future,
thing from Degas; he has learnt how to draw. Look when he becomes more familiar with his medium,
over his many portfolios of studies and sketches Some French stage scenes done in this medium
made from the nude — ideas and suggestions are extremely clever, and the decorative painting
executed with that congenial medium, red chalk— (page 84), which owes so much to Fragonard, is
and you will see drawings powerful in their draughts- a notable bit of composition and colour. These
manship, studies entirely free from all taint of the paintings are as vigorously executed as the pastels :
academic, drawings that proclaim him to be an artist they have the same daring colour schemes, painted
possessing really great gifts. with a full and rapidly manipulated brush. But
- what they lack is the spark of real genius which
Shinn is a master of the pastel; he knows tho- has gone into the making of the pastels : their
roughly both the possibilities and the limitations models are too apparent,
of his medium. The material is never
strained in endeavouring to get too much
out of it; and if technically his pastels are
great achievements, pictorially are they also.
Look at the picture which the artist has
called Matinee Crowd, Broadway, a charac-
teristic example of the artist's work. What
movement there is in this drawing. How
the people are scurrying along in the face
of the snow and wintry blast. How the
snow sweeps and swirls up the icy avenue.
Also, what movement there is in the
pastel of the girl on the trapeze. She is
fairly swinging through the air.
In the two pastels entitled A French
Music Hall and Outdoor Stage, France,
we also have two admirable examples of
the artist's work in this direction. He
has grasped and preserved the very spirit
and life of these scenes for our edification.
Very real they are : we might almost im-
agine ourselves looking in upon the actual
scene. Much is lost in the reproduction,
as the artist's daring use of colour is not
disclosed, but even in the small photo-
graphs they appear very vivid. A little
picture, done in pastel, of Gramercy Park,
New York's only private square, a seductive
gradation of wonderful tones, gives us a
beautiful nocturnal effect, but is unfortu-
nately too sombre to submit to reproduc-
tion ; a misty evening effect on the broad
East River, with gem-like lights in the
distance, is too ethereal for that purpose.
Some time ago Shinn put eighteen of
his paintings in oil on exhibition at a New
York gallery, and very interesting they
proved to be. The artist is still rather
v . . . everett l. shinn sketched from life by
new to oils, and in consequence his paint- charles dana gibson
86