Studio: international art (49.1910)

Studio-Talk

this case all savouring of harbour-
life. The Austrian-Lloyd has
acquired these, and is having them
printed for use on board the Com-
pany’s ships. Kalvach has also
designed some placards with mari-
time motifs, and these also have
passed into the hands of the same
company.

EUGEN VON MILLER ZU ALCHHOLZ

painting, but abandoned this for wood-engraving,
which he thought would better express the impres-
sions made on him. This young artist sees every-
thing with a broad and keen vision, and though
eager and impulsive in his work, he carries it out
with a fine artistic feeling. It is, besides, essen-
tially strong and virile; and his colouring is broad
and convincing. In all his works, both in colour
and monochrome, he shows that although but at
the beginning of his career, he possesses the
instincts of the true artist. He is ready to acknow-
ledge that he has still much to learn, and, moreover,
has the courage to overcome the difficulties which
lie in his way. Rudolf Kalvach has also executed
some charming decorative paintings on wood
which, like his woodcuts, show that a feeling for
decorative qualities is one of his gifts. Among
other work done by him I should mention an
ingenious set of designs for playing cards used in
the Hungarian game of “ Tarock,” the designs in
322

Josef Koppay, a few of whose
portraits are reproduced here, is a
Hungarian by birth but has re-
sided for many years in Vienna,.
where he has gained repute as an
artist of distinctive merit and great
charm. He is a member of the
Ktinstler-genossenschaft, but there
has been little opportunity of seeing
his works at their exhibitions, for
of late years he has practically
avoided all publicity. This by no
means implies that the artist has
not been fully occupied. At the
present time his field is America.
He has been there three years, and
has been kept constantly busy
painting distinguished personali-
ties. Already at the beginning of
his career Koppay promised much..
At that time he did little else than.
paint the portraits of children,
which were of high artistic value,.
full of charm, and showed a keen.
insight into the character of his juvenile sitters.
Later on he took to painting grown-up people.
The Emperor sat to him, many others followed
suit. In turn he painted every member of the
Imperial House, and naturally many of the
nobility. Queen Victoria heard of him, and com-
missioned him to paint the well-known portrait:
of her granddaughter, the Czarina of Russia, then
just betrothed to the Czar Nicholas. This portrait
revealed the artist as a man of refined taste and
judgment, and as having a particular gift for the
interpretation of feminine personality. No wonder
that sitters flocked to him. There is a certain
elegance and chic in his portraits which is distinctly
the artist’s own. Even in his portraits of men
Koppay shows his right feeling for the decorative
in dress. The uniform of the magnate with its
fur, ornaments, ribbons and stars of various orders,
the gala dress and state uniform appeal to him,
and these he paints with the same intimite and

BY JOSEF KOPPAY