Studio: international art (54.1912)

Reviews and Notices

Roumania reclining upon a sofa reading and
embroidering by the light of the lamp in her private
cabinet de travail. To conclude, we must notice
the work of M. F. Storck, the author of several
admirable statues and of so many characteristic
little bronzes, and of a portrait bust and a head of
a young girl very classical in feeling.

These few lines and the reproductions which
accompany them will have sufficed to show, I
hope, to the readers of The Studio that wo have
in Roumania a young school of art which is
struggling valiantly for existence and which surely
deserves to prosper. L. Bachelin.

REVIEWS AND NOTICES.

L'Art. By Augusts Rodin. (Paris : Bernard
Grasset.) 6 fr. net.—M. Rodin's conversations
with, or rather the monologues addressed by
him to his intimate friend, M. Paul Gsell, as
recorded in this book—a work which with
its fine illustrations is certainly the most remark-
able publication which has appeared in Paris
this year—are full of pregnant suggestions and
pithy definitions recalling in their virile force
their author's wonderful realisations of his ideal
conceptions. The deeply interesting interviews
between the great sculptor and his Boswell took
place now at M. Rodin's beautiful home at
Meudon, now in one or another of his many studios
in Paris or in the sculpture gallery of the Louvre,
the most delightful chats being those enjoyed when,
the day's work done, the two kindred spirits were
alone together and entirely at their ease. Very
notable is the scene described under the heading of
" Le Modele," when, darkness having fallen, Rodin
took up a lamp and told his companion to examine
by its light an antique reproduction of the Venus
of Medici of which he declared he was very fond.
" You will think it a queer fancy to look at sculp-
ture by anything but broad daylight," he remarked ;
" but just wait a bit," and turning the stand uphold-
ing the statue slowly round and round he made M.
Gsell study the surface minutely, with the result
that the latter noticed for the first time various
protuberances and depressions in it, leading his
host to point out to him that it is these very in-
equalities which produce the impression of real life.
After observing, as he laid his hand caressingly on
the hip of the Venus, " One would almost expect
on touching this torso to find it warm," he launched
forth into a most eloquent dissertation on what it
is that sets Greek sculpture apart from any other.

" The Greeks," he said, "full of respect and love ot
Nature, represented her always exactly as they saw
her. And they never failed to bear convincing
witness to their worship of the flesh. It is absurd
to think that they disdained it. Amongst no other
people did the human body arouse a more sensual
tenderness. This is the true explanation of the
incredible difference that separates the false
academic ideal from Greek art. . . . Whereas life
animates and warms the palpitating muscles of
Geeek statues, the unnatural dolls of academic
art appear to be frozen by death." No less
remarkable are Rodin's dicta on the fundamental
characteristics of the ugly and the beautiful in art.
He sums up the whole gist of the question in the
sentence : " In art all that is false is ugly, all that
is artificial, all that tries to be pretty or beautiful
instead of expressive, all that is trickery or affected
... all that is without soul and truth ... all that
deceives." By professional artists the conversations
on "Movement in Art "and " Drawing and Colour "
will be found most useful, but to the outsider who
knows how to enjoy and to admire, but is unable to
create the beautiful, there is something peculiarly
fascinating in the comparatively abstract reflections
of the gifted master on thought and mystery in art
and above all on religion.

Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales. Translated by
H. Oskar Sommer. With twenty-four pictures in
colour by Cecile Walton. (London: T. C. and E. C.
Jack.) 7.r. 6d. net.—Many editions have appeared
in this country of these charming stories since
they were written between the years 1835 and
1845 by the son of a poor Danish shoemaker at
Odense, and the appearance of this edition would
seem to be evidence that their popularity is not
waning. The chief interest of this volume is,
however, the series of drawings, and the fact that
we are here introduced to a new illustrator. Miss
Walton is the daughter of the well-known Royal
Scottish Academician, Mr. E. A. Walton. She is,
we believe, only just out of her teens, and so if we
say that in some respects her work is a little im-
mature, we imply no disparagement of the drawings
here reproduced. As might be expected, Miss
Walton is most successful in the more imaginative
illustrations, which in conjunction with a lively
fancy reveal considerable delicacy of colouring
and good sense of decorative effect in com-
position. In one or two pictures there are
little weaknesses of drawing—a fault which, no
doubt, further study will enable her to overcome,
but in others, such as the illustrations to " The
Swineherd," " The Garden of Paradise," or " Thum-

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