Studio: international art (89.1925)

PARIS—AMSTERDAM

"LA DAME A L'ANEMONE "
BY GERDA WEGENER

(Musee du Luxembourg, Paris)

PARIS.—Mme, Gerda Wegener is not
a stranger to the readers of The
Studio, a full page black and white
drawing of hers having been reproduced
in these pages some years ago. She
was then domiciled in Copenhagen, but
the lure of Paris, that promised land for
so many artists, called her, and its spell
is still upon her. As a matter of fact,
in her art Mme. Wegener has always
been more a child of France than of
Denmark. 00000
Although there were some faint reminis-
cences of Aubrey Beardsley in her earlier
efforts, there has always been a certain
French piquancy over much of her work.
She is endowed with a pregnant invention,
unafraid of what a prudish bourgeoisie
may think of her motifs, which are always
handled with great, at times, delightfully
dainty skill and elegance in line and
rhythm. She has in her new country
met with a spontaneous and most en-
couraging appreciation, and her most
witty drawings have frequently appeared
in exclusive French journals. Her colour
prints have also attracted much attention.
She has also made a mark as an illustrator.

That her self-portrait, in many ways
so characteristic of her person and her
art, is to be found in the Luxembourg
affords striking proof of the distinguished
position to which she has attained in the
capital of her adopted country. G. B.
350

AMSTERDAM—Pieter Paul Koster
was trained at the Academy of Arts
at The Hague. In 1916, at the age of
23, he held an exhibition of some of his
portraits at The Hague and received several
favourable criticisms. Later, he left the
Hague for Amsterdam, and then moved
again to Nijmegen, in the province of
Guelders. From there he went to Els-
peet, a tiny village in the same province,
and became so enthusiastic for peasant life
that he contemplated becoming a peasant
himself. But he completely changed his
mind, and went instead—to London!
Here, in his father's native city, he studied
animal life at the Zoo and made drawings
of people and city views. His lithograph
of the Hampstead Electrical Works is some-
what reminiscent of the manner of Joseph
Pennell, for whose work Mr. Koster has
a great admiration. Next he visited
Germany, and made portraits of several
well-known actors and actresses ; and in
Breslau, during the festival in honour of
Gerhardt Hauptmann, he executed a
portrait of this famous dramatist. We re-
produce a portrait of a Javanese nobleman
who lived for some time at The Hague.

" RADEN HAS SOERJO
POETRO." ETCHING
BY P. P. KOSTER