Studio: international art (46.1909)

Japanese Colour Prints—Studio-Talk

JAPANESE COLOUR PRINTS.—
VI. “WASHING LINEN” BY
TOYOKUNI.

Whether in grace and beauty of drawing or in
delicacy of colouring, the earlier works of Toyo-
kuni stand in the first rank of Japanese chromo-
xylographs. There is at times a Greek-like purity
of line in the contour of the female figures of this
artist which is singularly pleasing, and which, as in
the one to the left of the illustration here reproduced,
places his art upon a higher pinnacle than that
attained by the work of any of his followers, and
especially by those who in later years took his name.
No more convincing example of dainty colour
harmony is to be found in Japanese work than in
the simple but carefully considered scheme of
greys and pinks revealed in the robe of the figure
referred to. The late Albert Moore might have
taken a hint from such another print.

STUDIO-TALK.

(From Our Own Correspondents.)

LONDON.—The news of Mr. Charles
Conder’s death reached us last month
just as we were going to press, and we
were able to make only the briefest
possible reference to it. Mr. Conder was only

forty years of age, having been born in London
in May, 1868, but though he had not attained the
prime of life his eminent qualities as a painter
had for years been recognised by those whose
judgment counts for anything. It was, of course,,
his wonderful sense of colour that gave his art its-
unique character, and this far outweighed any short-
comings he had as a draughtsman. An article on
Mr. Conder’s Paintings on Silk was contributed
to this magazine in May, 1898, by Mr. D. S.
MacColl, among the illustrations being a portrait
of the artist from a photograph taken about that
time; and again, four years ago an article was
devoted to a room decorated by him.

We have also to record the death in Paris, on
the 26th February, of M. Emmanuel Poire, the
famous caricaturist known to the world under his
Russian pseudonym of Caran d’Ache (karandash
= pencil). His family had been settled in Russia
from the time of the Napoleonic wars, and he was
born in Moscow in 1858, but migrated to Paris
early in life. Curiously enough an article on his
work as a caricaturist appears in the same volume
of this magazine as that which contains the article
on Mr. Conder’s silk paintings referred to above.

The death of Mr. Frederick Goulding, which
took place early last month, deprives the etchers of

“THE FISH MARKET, COPENHAGEN” (ETCHING) BY H. MULREADY STONE

(Reproduced with +our others by permission qf Mr. R. Gutekunst)

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