Studio: international art (52.1911)

American Artists in Paris

PORTION OF DECORATION FOR HOTEL SHELBOURNE, ATLANTIC CITY BY FREDERICK CARL FRIESEKE

conspicuous; and that faulty construction has re- The only painters whose work I know and who

suited in the destruction of many an otherwise able realise the value of framing in excellent taste come

painter's work is evident from even a casual survey from across the Channel. Our illustrations do not

of the various annual Salons. . The recognition of the pretend to interpret fully Frieseke's designing ability,

function of design is felt chiefly by its absence, The sections for his decoration for the Hotel Shel-

which brings me back to the lacking of some certain bourne want to be seen in their setting and arrange-

assistance required. Hordes of students are let ment. Here, as also in his mural painting in the

loose from the ateliers after years of academic Rodman Wanamaker Hotel, and the Amphitheatre

cramming and sealed perfection, ignorant of the of Music, New York, his use of colour does not

most elementary laws that govern all balance, save shout like the majority of modern decorations,

the using of a plumb-line and a measuring-rod to which often cause one to lose sight of the building

ascertain certain proportions to be observed in by their insistence. The American artist will find

drawing the human figure, as, for example, if the much to study in that special branch of art in Paris

model be a woman, that the head should go seven and its surroundings, and the scheme of what to do

and a half times into the height, and if a man eight and avoid. The Pantheon serves, besides its other

times, while the marvellous gift of sight, the won- uses, as an excellent example, but here again the de-

derful mechanism of the eyes, and their use in sire to assimilate overpowers the student, and only

observation are left unexplained. The want of leaves one wondering what mural decoration would

visual discipline was only too evident in the recent be like had Puvis de Chavannes not raised it from

exhibition of the Salon d'Automne ; to the im- flaring vulgarity into appreciation of its fitness and

pressionist, above all others, the training of the surroundings in colour and line,
eye ought to be of the utmost importance and Frieseke's decorations are subdued and har-

should certainly play a greater part than it does in monious, and' coming away after seeing his Chinese

his education. Framing too is, though of little Parasol in the last exhibition of the Paris Society

importance, an elementary assistance in conveying of American Painters, one would naturally expect

the emotion, story or aestheticism of the artist, his decorative work to have the brilliancy of glass.
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