Studio: international art (89.1925)

PARIS—ST. MORITZ

of the subject—with a lyrical feeling, if
the term may be permitted—which dis-
tinguishes him from his great Scandinavian
exemplar. The sensation made in the
1887 salon by his Femme nue se chaaffant
is now forgotten ; but this canvas can be
seen in the Luxembourg and is undoubt-
edly one of the masterpieces of contem-
porary painting. Abandoning academic
traditions but not using impressionist
methods, M. Besnard had ventured on a
study of opposing reflections of light on a
woman's body, showing the bluish day-
light opposed to the orange light of the
fire before which the woman kneels.
Pushing this study of light as far as
possible, he still sacrificed nothing of the
sense of form in the figure itself, 0 0
In 1901 appeared one of his most famous
pictures, Feerie Intime, of which the poetry
and magic lighting have been often re-
marked. Among the many nudes, some
of small dimensions, painted as a relaxation
from bigger tasks and others of more
importance, we have only room to cite
Cascade (1897), Les Cygnes (1903), Leda
(1903), he Matin (Lisbon Museum), La
Femme aux Rhododendrons (1910) (Venice
Museum), and he Midi. Advancing years
have in no wise diminished M. Besnard's
talent (he was born in 1849), as witness
our reproductions of recent works, speci-
ally chosen for The Studio by himself as
among the best of his later productions.

M. Valotaire.

ST. MORITZ. (From a Correspondent).—
If it is true that one of the attributes
of beauty is a perfect fulfilment of function,
then there is beauty in the mechanical,
chemically obtained and permanently re-
corded pictures taken by photography, pro-
vided the result is beautiful. And it is
because I, at least, see real beauty in the
photographs I send you, of Swiss snow
scenery, that I deem them worthy of a
place in a magazine devoted to art. These
photographs are beautiful because they
depict some of the most beautiful scenery
in the world, picked out, intensified—puri-
fied, if one may say so, by one of the purest
substances in nature—snow. To call nature
" artistic," were to insult her : to call these
photographic pictures artistic, is but to
appreciate the beauty of their subject, and

the taste and skill of the photographer who
took them. 00000
The pictures sent you were taken by a
Swiss photographer, who loves his country
and his art. Mr. Othmar Rutz sees his
native mountains and valleys in their
summer glory and their winter apparel,
and he loves them best when decked with
their mantle of snow and bridal veil of
hoar frost. His " subjects " pose them-
selves and, on a windless day, are in perfect
repose. He has only to select his point of
view, and press a bulb, you may say.
Agreed ; but is there no feeling for art in
such selection or " composition," and is
there not skill in choosing the moment
when the light is best for the scenery and
for the camera { Were it a matter of
" faking," no one would be harder than I
on the impertinence of a mechanician
posing as an artist; but Othmar Rutz's
untouched pictures are purely photo-
graphic representations of what was in
front of the camera : that was beautiful,
and so the sun-pictures of it are beautiful.

E. W. R.

" MOUNTAINS MIRRORED IN ICE "
(LAKE OF ST. MORITZ). PHOTO-
GRAPH BY OTHMAR RUTZ

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