DOI Heft:
No. 316 (July 1919)
DOI Artikel:Bayes, Walter: M. Fernand Scouflaire - desinateur
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21358#0069
M. FERNAND SCOUFLAIRE—DESSINATEUR
"PIERREUSE.” BY
F. SCOUFLAIRE
M. FERNAND SCOUFLAIRE—DES-
SINATEUR. BY WALTER BAYES
TO forecast the development of the
artist whom these lines are designed
to introduce, we should realize that he has,
in fact, two talents. Leane the comedian
wears the same boots as Scouflaire the
draughtsman. The ability of the former
is beginning to be recognized on this side
of the Channel, at least by his confreres.
If the draughtsman is more obscure, we
have the excuse that he is of more recent
birth. 000000
Indeed, when, some three years back, I
asked the Father of Fitzroy Street for
permission to send to one of his “ after-
noons ” the young Belgian, rather friend-
less and depayse, whose acquaintance I
had made, it seemed hardly feasible to
claim high interest in him as a brother
brush. “ He must be very like yourself
as a young man," I more artfully put it.
“ Has been an actor, and knocked about in
amusing places, has wit, and an absurd
enthusiasm for drawing. Only there is
this difference, that he shows no particu-
lar talent." “ Ah, ga, ga viendra,” said
Sickert sagely ; nor did I then realize how
soon the prediction was to be justified. 0
Whenever (towards the beginning of the
war, when such topics excited drawing-
rooms) Scouflaire was pressed to give his
experiences of the conflict, he was wont to
begin : “ When I landed in England-"
“ How i When you landed in England i
Weren’t you fighting and wounded i ”
“ Oh yes,” would be the answer, “ but
that is like any one else; the really inter-
esting things happened when I came over
here.” Among the odd results of the war,
to Scouflaire perhaps not the least interest-
ing, and the only one which concerns
readers of The Studio, is the fact that in
this most insular island he laid the founda-
tions for a talent as essentially Gallic as
could well be found. For of the two
racial elements, Flemish and Walloon,
which make up the Belgian nation, it is
clearly the Walloon, or French, one which
predominates in his clear incisive draughts-
manship. His work is cubist in the saner
sense, within which I could wish to see
our use of this admirable word confined—
it being, indeed, too good a word to be
given over to the sort of people who can
see no difference between a cube and a
square, until you offer them a square yard
of whisky and water. In the esoteric
sense I take it for a drawing to be cubist
53
"PIERREUSE.” BY
F. SCOUFLAIRE
M. FERNAND SCOUFLAIRE—DES-
SINATEUR. BY WALTER BAYES
TO forecast the development of the
artist whom these lines are designed
to introduce, we should realize that he has,
in fact, two talents. Leane the comedian
wears the same boots as Scouflaire the
draughtsman. The ability of the former
is beginning to be recognized on this side
of the Channel, at least by his confreres.
If the draughtsman is more obscure, we
have the excuse that he is of more recent
birth. 000000
Indeed, when, some three years back, I
asked the Father of Fitzroy Street for
permission to send to one of his “ after-
noons ” the young Belgian, rather friend-
less and depayse, whose acquaintance I
had made, it seemed hardly feasible to
claim high interest in him as a brother
brush. “ He must be very like yourself
as a young man," I more artfully put it.
“ Has been an actor, and knocked about in
amusing places, has wit, and an absurd
enthusiasm for drawing. Only there is
this difference, that he shows no particu-
lar talent." “ Ah, ga, ga viendra,” said
Sickert sagely ; nor did I then realize how
soon the prediction was to be justified. 0
Whenever (towards the beginning of the
war, when such topics excited drawing-
rooms) Scouflaire was pressed to give his
experiences of the conflict, he was wont to
begin : “ When I landed in England-"
“ How i When you landed in England i
Weren’t you fighting and wounded i ”
“ Oh yes,” would be the answer, “ but
that is like any one else; the really inter-
esting things happened when I came over
here.” Among the odd results of the war,
to Scouflaire perhaps not the least interest-
ing, and the only one which concerns
readers of The Studio, is the fact that in
this most insular island he laid the founda-
tions for a talent as essentially Gallic as
could well be found. For of the two
racial elements, Flemish and Walloon,
which make up the Belgian nation, it is
clearly the Walloon, or French, one which
predominates in his clear incisive draughts-
manship. His work is cubist in the saner
sense, within which I could wish to see
our use of this admirable word confined—
it being, indeed, too good a word to be
given over to the sort of people who can
see no difference between a cube and a
square, until you offer them a square yard
of whisky and water. In the esoteric
sense I take it for a drawing to be cubist
53