DOI issue:
No. 347 (February 1922)
DOI article:Studio-talk
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21395#0124
STUDIO-TALK
' UZERCHE.” OIL PAINTING
BY HARRY B. LACHMAN
(Musee du Luxembourg. Paris)
twentieth century came the beginnings of
a movement towards emancipation, cul-
minating not long before the war broke out
and monopolised all the national resources,
in the foundation of the Societe des
Artistes Decorateurs, composed of mem-
bers conscious of the need for instilling new
life into the industrial arts of France, and
bringing them into harmony with the con-
ditions of the present day, so different from
those which prevailed when the old styles
were evolved, Mons. Mourey puts the
question whether modern French decora-
tive art, as we see it manifested day by day,
“ corresponds to our manners—is it the
expression, in so far as it is capable of so
being, of our moral and social ideas, of our
way of living, of feeling, of thinking ” ; and
to this question he returns an emphatic
answer in the affirmative. He points out
that his countrymen are even more indi-
vidualistic than the English, but in a
different wray—their life is infinitely more
varied, more personal ; .they pride them-
selves on bringing into it a spirit of greater
independence, on being far less under the
domination of qu’en-dira-t-on—of Mrs.
Grundy—than their neighbours across the
Channel. a a a a 0
In so far as one special branch of French
applied art is concerned—the making of
furniture—an instructive account is given
by Mons. Emile Sedeyn in a little volume
belonging to a series of monographs on the
development of French art during the past
twenty years. (F. Rieder et Cie.) In this
book the author points out that “ le releve-
ment du mobilier fran^ais pendant les
vingt premieres annees du xxe siecle est
essentiellement une ceuvre artistique.” Ask-
ing by whom the furniture of 1920 is
produced, he answers, by artists who have
107
' UZERCHE.” OIL PAINTING
BY HARRY B. LACHMAN
(Musee du Luxembourg. Paris)
twentieth century came the beginnings of
a movement towards emancipation, cul-
minating not long before the war broke out
and monopolised all the national resources,
in the foundation of the Societe des
Artistes Decorateurs, composed of mem-
bers conscious of the need for instilling new
life into the industrial arts of France, and
bringing them into harmony with the con-
ditions of the present day, so different from
those which prevailed when the old styles
were evolved, Mons. Mourey puts the
question whether modern French decora-
tive art, as we see it manifested day by day,
“ corresponds to our manners—is it the
expression, in so far as it is capable of so
being, of our moral and social ideas, of our
way of living, of feeling, of thinking ” ; and
to this question he returns an emphatic
answer in the affirmative. He points out
that his countrymen are even more indi-
vidualistic than the English, but in a
different wray—their life is infinitely more
varied, more personal ; .they pride them-
selves on bringing into it a spirit of greater
independence, on being far less under the
domination of qu’en-dira-t-on—of Mrs.
Grundy—than their neighbours across the
Channel. a a a a 0
In so far as one special branch of French
applied art is concerned—the making of
furniture—an instructive account is given
by Mons. Emile Sedeyn in a little volume
belonging to a series of monographs on the
development of French art during the past
twenty years. (F. Rieder et Cie.) In this
book the author points out that “ le releve-
ment du mobilier fran^ais pendant les
vingt premieres annees du xxe siecle est
essentiellement une ceuvre artistique.” Ask-
ing by whom the furniture of 1920 is
produced, he answers, by artists who have
107