DOI issue:
No. 392 (November 1925)
DOI article:[Studio-talk]
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21403#0325
PARIS
"antoinette." by
charles despiau
" pleasing " in the narrow sense ; indeed
there seems to be a deliberate harshness
in his work, as of a man who wishes to
avoid surrounding himself with false
friends. He takes no pains to secure
perfection of surface. " That has nothing
to do with the expression of life/' he says,
" which, in sculpture, depends only on
the relationship of volumes, and on pro-
portion, understood and rendered with
intelligent feeling." And fully to compre-
hend this formula, to realise all it means
to the artist, in will-power, effort, pas-
sionate labour—in a word, in the entire
giving up of his personality to the work, one
must see him in his studio, trying to
explain the scope of his studies to a visitor
while examining the various busts by
different lights. It is then, in the play of
light on the forms, in the qualities of the
shade and the infinitely sensitive variations
of the half-tones, that one apprehends the
depth of the knowledge which underlies
the apparent simplicity of the work. This
is also the reason why a work of Despiau
PARIS.—It has often been remarked
that sculpture (now deprived of the
assistance of colour, which was used by
the ancients, and, later, by the Romanic
and Gothic modellers) is an art whose
level is very high, and which cannot be
understood easily by the uninitiated, or by
superficial critics, or indeed by anyone
who will not take the trouble to lift the
slight but opaque veil which envelops this
expression of beauty in form and modelling
alone. This is very true, and it explains
at once the small number of sculptors
who are powerful artists and the relative
indifference of the public towards their
most moving works. And to these intel-
lectual considerations we must add the
practical one that sculpture of the highest
class seldom holds out to the artist the
attraction of plentiful commissions and
the prospect of making a fortune. Yet in
France, where the glorious line of sculptors
is unbroken from the middle ages to our
own day, there constantly arises new
genius which is not inferior to that of the
paSt. 0 0 0 0 0 0
Such, for example, is that of M. Charles „ MADAME 0TH0N FRI£SZ
Despiau. He has never striven to be by charles despiau
319
"antoinette." by
charles despiau
" pleasing " in the narrow sense ; indeed
there seems to be a deliberate harshness
in his work, as of a man who wishes to
avoid surrounding himself with false
friends. He takes no pains to secure
perfection of surface. " That has nothing
to do with the expression of life/' he says,
" which, in sculpture, depends only on
the relationship of volumes, and on pro-
portion, understood and rendered with
intelligent feeling." And fully to compre-
hend this formula, to realise all it means
to the artist, in will-power, effort, pas-
sionate labour—in a word, in the entire
giving up of his personality to the work, one
must see him in his studio, trying to
explain the scope of his studies to a visitor
while examining the various busts by
different lights. It is then, in the play of
light on the forms, in the qualities of the
shade and the infinitely sensitive variations
of the half-tones, that one apprehends the
depth of the knowledge which underlies
the apparent simplicity of the work. This
is also the reason why a work of Despiau
PARIS.—It has often been remarked
that sculpture (now deprived of the
assistance of colour, which was used by
the ancients, and, later, by the Romanic
and Gothic modellers) is an art whose
level is very high, and which cannot be
understood easily by the uninitiated, or by
superficial critics, or indeed by anyone
who will not take the trouble to lift the
slight but opaque veil which envelops this
expression of beauty in form and modelling
alone. This is very true, and it explains
at once the small number of sculptors
who are powerful artists and the relative
indifference of the public towards their
most moving works. And to these intel-
lectual considerations we must add the
practical one that sculpture of the highest
class seldom holds out to the artist the
attraction of plentiful commissions and
the prospect of making a fortune. Yet in
France, where the glorious line of sculptors
is unbroken from the middle ages to our
own day, there constantly arises new
genius which is not inferior to that of the
paSt. 0 0 0 0 0 0
Such, for example, is that of M. Charles „ MADAME 0TH0N FRI£SZ
Despiau. He has never striven to be by charles despiau
319