Studio: international art (45.1909)

Prize Designs for Reformation Monument, Geneva

timied to hold the office until his death, in 1905, at
the hoary age of 93.

Two other of the portrait etchings which are
here reproduced are interesting as showing the
artist’s admirable handling of light and shade and
power of expressing subtle characteristics. I mean
those of Paul Heyse, the dramatist and art critic,
and Josef Kainz, the famous actor of the Imperial
Theatre, Vienna. Kainz’s impersonation of Hamlet
has won the applause of all, one of those who have
expressed their admiration of it to me being
the eminent English actor, Mr. Forbes Robert-
son. The nervous energy of. the actor seems to
have incorporated itself in the artist. The plate
of Dr. Karl Lueger, the genial Burgomaster of
Vienna, is one of the largest Schmutzer has done.
It is a masterly delineation of a man whose in-
domitable will has triumphed over sufferings which
have left their mark on him.

Although it is in portraiture that Schmutzer has
found his ideal m'etier, he has in the course of the
dozen years of his career as an etcher produced

not a few plates of other subjects. Two of these
are among our reproductions—one a glimpse of
agricultural life in Bohemia, and the other a Dutch
interior. It need hardly be said, of course, that he
has had failures, like all etchers : he is still young
however, and his future may be looked forward to
with the utmost confidence. He is a sincere
worker, impregnated with the instincts and feelings
of the true artist. He disclaims any preference for
particular methods. His work is done direct from
nature ; he disdains aquatinting, and is a deadly
enemy of emery paper and files. He has experi-
mented in vernis mou and monotyping, but is
dissatisfied with both processes. His work is etching
pure and simple. He always does his own printing.
His press, set up in an alcove in his studio, and
hidden from sight by a curtain when not in use, is
driven by an electromotor. This, he says, brings
him peculiar pleasure ; the vibration of the machine
arouses energy for new work. The motor, more-
over, leaves him two hands free to aid his mind,
and thus all work proceeds in concord.

A. S. Levetus.

PRIZE DESIGNS FOR
THE MONUMENT
OF THE REFORMA-
TION, GENEVA. BY
PROF. ROBERT MOBBS.

The recent exhibition in Geneva
of the designs sent in from all parts
of Europe for the Art Competition
opened by the Association for the
Monument of the Reformation was
of a highly interesting and repre-
sentative character. I propose to
deal at length with its special sig-
nificance in relation to the proposed
monument, and then to touch upon
its general bearing on the tendencies
of modern plastic art.

In order to understand its special
significance and the judiciousness
of the choice of the jury, it is
necessary to revert to the conditions
laid down in the Programme of
the Competition. They were as
follows :—

“ The Association, organised at

Geneva in 1906 for the purpose of

preparing for the forthcoming cele-

,, bration of the 400th anniversary

“the news of the day” . _ , . , ... , ,

FROM AN ETCHING BY FERDINAND SCHMUTZER Ol Calvin S Dirtn, naS decided tO

I9S