DOI issue:
No. 323 (February 1920)
DOI article:Fletcher, John Gould: The drawings of Jean de Bosschère
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21359#0201
THE DRAWINGS OF JEAN DE. BOSSCHERE
'THE TWO SHIPS." BY JEAN DE BOSSCHERE
(From tlie Russian edition of his collected works
published by T. A. Stolyar, Moscow, 19x0)
draw and paint as they were taught, but
wholly without imagination. 0 0
Jean de Bosschere is not one of those
who draw and paint without imagination.
His drawing, like his writing, is merely
another means of expressing what he has
to say about the world. He uses the
art of draughtsmanship along with the
art of literature, to provide an imaginative
commentary on men and affairs. Some-
times the story that he illustrates is not
of his own invention, but is drawn from
that inexhaustible mine of homely wisdom
known as folklore, or is provided for him
by some masterpiece of the world's litera-
ture. But always it is a story with which
he is in sympathy, and always his illus-
tration of it is in the nature of a running
commentary upon it from his own peculiar
angle of vision. And Jean de Bosschere's
peculiar angle of vision is, if you will,
grotesque, even satiric. 000
This last statement must not be taken
to indicate that Bosschere displayed, from
the beginning, the same mature tendency
to satire which fills the pages of u Christ-
mas Tales of Flanders," “ Beasts and
Men," and “ The Closed Door."* From
* " The Closed Door.” Poems and illustrations
by Tean de Bosschere. (John Lane.)
195
'THE TWO SHIPS." BY JEAN DE BOSSCHERE
(From tlie Russian edition of his collected works
published by T. A. Stolyar, Moscow, 19x0)
draw and paint as they were taught, but
wholly without imagination. 0 0
Jean de Bosschere is not one of those
who draw and paint without imagination.
His drawing, like his writing, is merely
another means of expressing what he has
to say about the world. He uses the
art of draughtsmanship along with the
art of literature, to provide an imaginative
commentary on men and affairs. Some-
times the story that he illustrates is not
of his own invention, but is drawn from
that inexhaustible mine of homely wisdom
known as folklore, or is provided for him
by some masterpiece of the world's litera-
ture. But always it is a story with which
he is in sympathy, and always his illus-
tration of it is in the nature of a running
commentary upon it from his own peculiar
angle of vision. And Jean de Bosschere's
peculiar angle of vision is, if you will,
grotesque, even satiric. 000
This last statement must not be taken
to indicate that Bosschere displayed, from
the beginning, the same mature tendency
to satire which fills the pages of u Christ-
mas Tales of Flanders," “ Beasts and
Men," and “ The Closed Door."* From
* " The Closed Door.” Poems and illustrations
by Tean de Bosschere. (John Lane.)
195