Studio: international art (46.1909)

Studio-Talk

frolicking, bathing and making music. The men ride
like the warriors on the Parthenon reliefs, and the
maidens dance like the Bacchantes on the Theseus
temple. The omnipresence of the Greek spirit
isolates Hofmann’s art in our time of tyrannical
realism. We breathe the hilarity of his classicism
with gratitude, although we cannot help recognising
that his melodies flow from very few chords and
are too often repeated. The register of his models
it so limited that the type dominates, but this
granted, we can only admire the skill of his varia-
tion. The decorative side of Hofmann’s talent
and the sensuousness of his colour make him
the best fresco painter for festive halls in our time.
He worthily ranks in German art with Feuerbach,
Bocklin and Marees.

At the Kiinstlerhaus, Diirer and Griinwald times
were recalled in the paintings and drawings of
Professor Richard Muller. We found the same
penetrative power of the character reader, the
same veracity and patience in the rendering of
detail and the same imaginative and religious
cravings. But we found also the same merci-
lessness of the naturalist. Muller’s wings are
impeded by the pedantry of the statistician)
and often when he fascinates he also repels.
He is a classical master when he is the draughts-
man, but his pictorial physiognomy is somewhat
sober. His brush does not tremble under the
intoxication of colour. We wish to see such
works on the walls of our museums, or in their
print-rooms, but they are not desirable home
companions.

Heinrich Missfeldt is one of the younger
Berlin sculptors who are steadily coming to the
front. On several occasions his exhibits at the
Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung and at Schulte’s
Salon have attracted general notice. His art,
with its tendency towards classical rhythm and
the graces of the Praxitelean period, has par-
ticularly interested the Kaiser, who has acquired
the sculptor’s beautiful statue Farewell for his
private collection. Missfeldt began his artistic
career as a wood carver, but admission was
refused to him in the Royal Arts and Crafts
School. He was more fortunate in the Royal
Academy of Arts, where he studied drawing
with Brausewetter. The powerful hand of
Peter Breuer, as well as the distinguished
leadership of Janensch, ripened his faculties as
a sculptor.

72

The plastic caricatures reproduced in the illus-
trations on page 74 were among those exhibited
at Messrs. Friedmann and Weber’s Salon before
Christmas and referred to in my notes of last
month. J. J.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Special
interest attaches to the exhibition
of contemporary American paint-
ings, held at the Corcoran Gallery
of Art, Washington, in December and January,
not merely because it was the largest exhibition
of the year and offered the highest awards, but
because it was most truly national in its scope.
About four hundred pictures were enumerated in
its catalogue, and these were contributed by artists
residing in all parts of the United States, France,
England and Italy, but only such as could claim
American citizenship. There were more figure
paintings than either portraits or landscapes in
the exhibition, which is not usual in America, and
for the most part they were recent productions,

“THE DEATH OF BALDUR” BY HEINRICH MISSFELDT