Studio: international art (87.1924)

BRUGES—VIENNA

“ LE QUAI DES AUGUSTINS
A BRUGES EN DECEMBRE ”
BY A. VAN SASSENBROUCK

BRUGES.—How many English tour-
ists, travelling on the Continent, have
failed to make the traditional pilgrimage to
Bruges, to admire her ancient architecture,
to see the reflection of her shapely towers
mirrored in the waters, and to recapture,
with the Flemish master painters, the
delightful atmosphere of a city whose soul
remains what it was centuries ago i In this
Bruges of olden times, where all the chil-
dren possess, so to say, an innate feeling for
the beautiful, some of them have laid hold
on a capacity for artistic expression which
combines the most delicate naivetes of
mediaeval art with the boldest innovations.
The landscapes here reproduced give
evidence of vigorous talent, well-founded
knowledge and impeccable technique,
nursed on traditions but quite free from
any cramping thesis. To be thus is to be
simple and great. These works were shown
over the Christmas season (on the premises
of the art circle which is to become the
Galerie San Salvador, near the Cathedral)
along with other paintings by the same
artist, A. Van Sassenbrouck, who has
already taken a high and enviable position
in Belgian art, by common consent of the
critics. There are others following on, such
as Jacob Smith, Laermans, mystic and
poignant, Minne, Servaes, James Ensor,
54

with his powerful symbolical conceptions ;
and successive exhibitions of the work of
these men, alternating with concerts and
lectures, will give evidence to our visitors of
a strong artistic activity continuing all the
year round. 00000

VIENNA.—Julia Sitte, whose Fruit
Basket, Majolica, is here reproduced,
is one of those gifted young Austrian
women-artists who have taken up pottery-
making as their special line of art. Trained
at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts
under Professor Powolny, her knowledge
is both sound and thorough. These
qualities, together with her innate feeling
for design and colour and a subtle sense
of beauty of arrangement, lend intrinsic
value to her performances. That she has
full command of her art is shown by the
fact that from initiation to finish all is her
own work, even to the process of baking,
for she has her own kiln. Most of this is
in single pieces ; she rarely repeats an
effort once realised ; it always is personal,
artistic and pleasing. 000
Oskar Icha, at a recent exhibition at the
Kiinstlerhaus, showed some very fine
pieces of wood-sculpture, chiefly figural,
remarkable for their refinement and origin-
ality of treatment. His work as a whole is
highly commendable and gives much
promise of a ripe future. Already it is
individual and arresting by its simplicity.
He is, moreover, an able craftsman, dexter-

“LA PLAINE DE FLANDRE
SOUS LA NEIGE”
BY A. VAN SASSENBROUCK