DOI issue:
No. 374 (May 1924)
DOI article:[Notes: two hundred and twenty-one illustrations]
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21399#0308
PARIS
“ THE EMPEROR MU WANG AND THE ROYAL
MOTHER OF THE WEST.” BY LOUISE JANIN
PARIS.—Miss Louise Janin, though of
French extraction, was born in the
United States and has lived for the most
part in California. Her travels in Europe,
America and the East, however, give justi-
fication of her claim to the title of cosmo-
politan. She has studied under several well-
known men, but, in working out of her
own personal aesthetic, she feels less in-
debted to living teachers than to the artists
of antiquity. Among these, she has been
particularly influenced by the great Chinese
masters (above all, Li Lung Mien and Wu
Tao Tzu), the old Hindu sculptors, the
Greeks before the decadence and the great
Italians before Raphael, Angelico, Ghir-
landaio, Botticelli and Mantegna, 0 0
On the occasion of Miss Janin's first
exhibition, held in New York in 1921, her
work received favourable mention from the
most important papers. She has since par-
ticipated in several notable exhibitions, and
last month had a one-man show at the
Bernheim Jeune Gallery in Paris. 0 0
She explains her Oriental leanings largely
by the circumstance of having lived in
California, a state which, by juxtaposition,
is open to Chinese influences, and through
these to the philosophy of India. For she
has not copied Oriental styles, but has
rather gone to their fountain-head—the
philosophy and history of these countries.
In this way she conceived her large decor-
ative composition, Mandara, which depicts
a manifestation of the Buddha, preaching
to a multitude of spirits in a Buddhist
paradise. 00000
Miss Janin’s ideal is best expressed in
her own words : “ I hold to the favourite
aphorism of the Chinese painter-philo-
sophers : ' The echo of the spirit, through
the rhythms of line, mass and colour.’
Each work must have a personality, body
and soul in perfect harmony, for every
scheme of lines or colour has its own
spirit, happy or mournful, austere or
exuberant, naive or complex, masculine or
feminine, harsh or tender, stormy or
calm.” She believes that a style of flat
masses, clearly defined, from which chiar-
oscuro and all the “ accidents of nature ”
are banished, is most closely in accord
with idealistic and imaginative conceptions
as well as with the principles of decoration.
289
“ THE EMPEROR MU WANG AND THE ROYAL
MOTHER OF THE WEST.” BY LOUISE JANIN
PARIS.—Miss Louise Janin, though of
French extraction, was born in the
United States and has lived for the most
part in California. Her travels in Europe,
America and the East, however, give justi-
fication of her claim to the title of cosmo-
politan. She has studied under several well-
known men, but, in working out of her
own personal aesthetic, she feels less in-
debted to living teachers than to the artists
of antiquity. Among these, she has been
particularly influenced by the great Chinese
masters (above all, Li Lung Mien and Wu
Tao Tzu), the old Hindu sculptors, the
Greeks before the decadence and the great
Italians before Raphael, Angelico, Ghir-
landaio, Botticelli and Mantegna, 0 0
On the occasion of Miss Janin's first
exhibition, held in New York in 1921, her
work received favourable mention from the
most important papers. She has since par-
ticipated in several notable exhibitions, and
last month had a one-man show at the
Bernheim Jeune Gallery in Paris. 0 0
She explains her Oriental leanings largely
by the circumstance of having lived in
California, a state which, by juxtaposition,
is open to Chinese influences, and through
these to the philosophy of India. For she
has not copied Oriental styles, but has
rather gone to their fountain-head—the
philosophy and history of these countries.
In this way she conceived her large decor-
ative composition, Mandara, which depicts
a manifestation of the Buddha, preaching
to a multitude of spirits in a Buddhist
paradise. 00000
Miss Janin’s ideal is best expressed in
her own words : “ I hold to the favourite
aphorism of the Chinese painter-philo-
sophers : ' The echo of the spirit, through
the rhythms of line, mass and colour.’
Each work must have a personality, body
and soul in perfect harmony, for every
scheme of lines or colour has its own
spirit, happy or mournful, austere or
exuberant, naive or complex, masculine or
feminine, harsh or tender, stormy or
calm.” She believes that a style of flat
masses, clearly defined, from which chiar-
oscuro and all the “ accidents of nature ”
are banished, is most closely in accord
with idealistic and imaginative conceptions
as well as with the principles of decoration.
289