Studio: international art (55.1912)

Edmond G. Reuter

untutored efforts in art during his years of school
life. Later he took drawing lessons with a dis-
tinguished painter, which- were, however, of too
academic a character to exert any determining
influence on his natural inclinations. This, he
tells us, was probably the reason why he never
paid attention to si/jeis de genre and portrait-
painting.

But there was a still deeper cause : it lay in his
strong predilection for landscape—specially sugges-
tive of historical and legendary associations and of
the mediaeval past and his taste for ornamental
design. He spent some time in Paris and Miilhausen
as an amateur apprentice in the craft of designing for
printed fabrics, in which naturalistic flower-design
played the principal part. Later on he had the
privilege of accompanying M. Edouard Naville, the
distinguished Swiss Egyptologist, on his first journey
to Egypt, and thus came under the spell of Oriental
art. A year after his return he went to London,
and pursued his studies at the South Kensington
Art School. He ultimately became one of the
small staff of artists attached to Minton’s studio in
London, and after its destruction by fire he re-

moved with the firm to Stoke-upon-Trent, where
he lived and worked for upwards of twenty years,
with what success in this special craft may be
gathered from G. W. and F. A. Rhead’s book on
“ Art and Pottery,” in which the originality and
inventiveness of M. Reuter’s gift receive a just
meed of praise. During this time he became in-
terested in the evolution of ornamental art) in
England, and his exhibits at the New Gallery having
attracted the attention and evoked the admiration
of William Morris, he was entrusted with the
illuminating of several of his books, notably “ The
Roots of the Mountains ” and two copies of “Syre
Percyvelle of Gales.” He has since done the same
for Morris’s lectures on Gothic architecture. Such
work, as we shall see, was peculiarly congenial to
him, bringing into full play his mediaeval sentiment
and imagination. M. Reuter’s work is well known
to readers of The Studio, and his exhibits at the
“ Arts and Crafts ” have always called forth appre-
ciative notice. Since his return to his native land,
with the exception of an occasional visit to Italy,
he has lived a secluded life, devoted entirely to
his art. It is long since the public have had the

TAINTED TAPESTRY: “OLD GENEVA

292

BY EDMOND G. REUTER