DOI Heft:
No. 197 (August, 1909)
DOI Artikel:Singer, Hans Wolfgang: Some etchings and lithographs by J. L. Forain
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20967#0220
Lithographs and Etchings by J. L. Forain
work, upon interrogation, some years ago to an
interviewer—one of the few who were fortunate
enough to overcome all obstacles and penetrate
the privacy of this master (for, like many other
great delineators of public life, he presents the
anomaly of himself shunning publicity). Having
once formed some general notion, Forain, it would
appear, is the true artist in so far as an experience
of the eye and not of the governing mind is the
primary thing with him. Some situation that he
has seen furnishes the impetus to his work. In
the course of elaborating the design, and while
he is handling his figures and groups—sometimes,
indeed, only after he has quite finished with them—
does the pass of wit or the caustic remark which
they are destined to illustrate occur to him. As
he quaintly puts it: “I question them, and they
tell me.”
His literary note is one of a modern Demo-
critus, a scoffer of the
foibles of modern civilisa-
tion. The moral key-note
is one of irreverence, as
has been justly pointed
out. He likes above all to
expose the undercurrent
of ridiculous fallacy and
insincerity in all the con-
ventionalities of our daily
life, which personal in-
terest, empty authority
and disingenuous coward-
ice take so much trouble
to keep up. His satire
is all the more pungent
because of its restriction
to innuendo. He never
lashes openly, never
speaks out the word itself,
but always disposes text
and drawing like two con-
verging lines which stop
shortly before their point
of meeting, but which
indicate it with such clear-
ness that no one can fail
to hit upon the word or
thought that Forain him-
self refrains from uttering.
The same sort of re-
ticence is a distinguishing
characteristic of Forain’s
artistic mood. It is a
modern conviction that
the very soul of black-and-white art is elimination.
How wonderfully various are the possibilities of
putting this theory into practice ! Forain’s choice
of method is one of the most fascinating. He
neve-r elaborates either form or tonality; he rests
satisfied with suggesting. Since the times have
become awake to the truth of the theory, many
a man has supposed that putting it into practice
were an easy thing, and he “ leaves out ” gaily and
inconsiderately. But this fragmentary presenta-
tion of nature is not convincing, and much of
the work that parades a certain bold, unmeaning
sketchiness falls below the standard of the sten-
ciller. It requires the keenest artistic feeling to
know exactly when you have to stop in the
process of reducing the multiplicity of nature
to simple forms, in the process of discarding
superficial traits and retaining only the essential
ones of the figure you depict. For elimination is
“ TJEMOINS AU PRETOIRE” (ETCHING) BY J. L. FORAIN
work, upon interrogation, some years ago to an
interviewer—one of the few who were fortunate
enough to overcome all obstacles and penetrate
the privacy of this master (for, like many other
great delineators of public life, he presents the
anomaly of himself shunning publicity). Having
once formed some general notion, Forain, it would
appear, is the true artist in so far as an experience
of the eye and not of the governing mind is the
primary thing with him. Some situation that he
has seen furnishes the impetus to his work. In
the course of elaborating the design, and while
he is handling his figures and groups—sometimes,
indeed, only after he has quite finished with them—
does the pass of wit or the caustic remark which
they are destined to illustrate occur to him. As
he quaintly puts it: “I question them, and they
tell me.”
His literary note is one of a modern Demo-
critus, a scoffer of the
foibles of modern civilisa-
tion. The moral key-note
is one of irreverence, as
has been justly pointed
out. He likes above all to
expose the undercurrent
of ridiculous fallacy and
insincerity in all the con-
ventionalities of our daily
life, which personal in-
terest, empty authority
and disingenuous coward-
ice take so much trouble
to keep up. His satire
is all the more pungent
because of its restriction
to innuendo. He never
lashes openly, never
speaks out the word itself,
but always disposes text
and drawing like two con-
verging lines which stop
shortly before their point
of meeting, but which
indicate it with such clear-
ness that no one can fail
to hit upon the word or
thought that Forain him-
self refrains from uttering.
The same sort of re-
ticence is a distinguishing
characteristic of Forain’s
artistic mood. It is a
modern conviction that
the very soul of black-and-white art is elimination.
How wonderfully various are the possibilities of
putting this theory into practice ! Forain’s choice
of method is one of the most fascinating. He
neve-r elaborates either form or tonality; he rests
satisfied with suggesting. Since the times have
become awake to the truth of the theory, many
a man has supposed that putting it into practice
were an easy thing, and he “ leaves out ” gaily and
inconsiderately. But this fragmentary presenta-
tion of nature is not convincing, and much of
the work that parades a certain bold, unmeaning
sketchiness falls below the standard of the sten-
ciller. It requires the keenest artistic feeling to
know exactly when you have to stop in the
process of reducing the multiplicity of nature
to simple forms, in the process of discarding
superficial traits and retaining only the essential
ones of the figure you depict. For elimination is
“ TJEMOINS AU PRETOIRE” (ETCHING) BY J. L. FORAIN