Page 48 - Studio International - April 1968

death was greeted with long and flattering Some of the Catalan artists influenced by In Finland the influence of England was
obituary notices, Beardsley was extolled English medievalism in The Studio manner particularly strong. Gallen-Kallela, painter,
amidst copious illustrations and, in 1898, the were decidedly sentimental (particularly graphic artist and designer of textiles, stained
artists' circle of San Luc held a session to Brull and Gual), and it is scarcely surprising glass, furniture and books, probably the best
honour the memory of Burne-Jones. that a reaction should set in against what was known artist of the era, visited England and
One great intermediary of English Art in slightingly called 'la sweetness ingles'. Gone was greatly impressed with the achievements
Barcelona, Alejandro de Riquer, the artistic were the days when admirers of Ruskin and of the Arts and Crafts movement. Back in
director of Joventut, had himself worked in Rossetti indignantly tore up the cynical Finland, he kept in touch with these ideas
London and even produced a study of An­ French paper Gil Blas. The tougher works of through The Studio, although by about 1905
ning Bell. But if other artists and editors were Isidro Nonell were rooted rather in Daumier this admiration had waned. His friend Louis
to reproduce and imitate the drawings of and a harsh observation of the grotesque. Sparre, patron of many Finnish artists, wrote
Beardsley, Burne-Jones, Walter Crane et al, Nor did Picasso's Pre-Raphaelitism long contributions to it from 1895, and reproduc­
(as in fact they did in various Catalan survive his introduction to Paris and the tions from its pages were recommended as
periodicals), it was of course necessary for works of Gauguin, Lautrec and Van Gogh; it models for artists by the Helsinki newspaper
them to see these works. There is plenty of had perhaps always hovered on the edge of Hufvudstadsbladet. In the applied arts. the
evidence that one of the easiest ways of caricature. The incursion of The Studio into Anglo-Belgian A. W. Finch, working at the
doing this was provided by the ubiquitous fin de siecle Barcelona is ·perhaps only Iris ceramics factory, used The Studio as well
Studio magazine. Senors de Sucre and interesting as a page in the history of taste. as writing about the English Arts and Crafts
Sebastian J unyent, old friends of Picasso, But, through the English art which it dis­ _movement in Finnish, while in architecture
told me in May 1958 that The Studio was seminated, it may also have played some the journal familiarized the young Finnish
always to be found in Eis Ouatre Gats part in Picasso's taste for the morbid and ill architects with the works of Norman Shaw,
tavern, the meeting place of Picasso and (Pre-Raphaelite), for the colour blue (a Voysey, Webb and Mackintosh.
his friends. It is also among the p·apers favourite of Conder, Whistler and other In Norway also, artists and designers felt
whose receipt was always acknowledged by English aesthetes in the nineties), and for the impact of British ideas and again The
Joventut at the time when Picasso was con­ the genuine French and Catalan art of the Studio proved one of the main channels. In
tributing to this periodical. Rafols, in an middle ages which inspired such works as 1893 the painter Gerhard Munthe broke
introduction to his useful study of Catalan La Visite or Les Deux Sceurs. away from naturalism to a decorative art with
'Modernismo', writes that the Pre-Raphael­ Phoebe Pool stylized forms based on subjects from Norse
ites were first revealed to him in The Studio mythology and with motifs suggesting old
and El Camerada, and that when very young, Norwegian Viking or peasant crafts. In this
he fell in love with one of the singers at case the attention was reciprocal, as his
Sitge's because he saw in her the incarnation work was first mentioned in The Studio in
of English illustrations, reflecting Shannon 1896. Gustav Vi gel and visited England at the
and Whistler. t_urn of the century, becoming a regular sub­
Reading The Studio for the years from The Studio in Scandinavia in the 1890s scriber to The Studio from 1901 to 1928 and
c. 1898-1901 one finds long illustrated his interest and that of his younger brother,
articles on book-plates and pictures for During the 1890s most of the Scandinavian the painter Emmanuel Vigeland, in decorative
childrens' books, together with a number of countries were experiencing revivals in their and symbolic design demonstrates the
illustrations by the imitators of Pre-Raphael­ arts. Usually the trends in painting came from importance to them of ideas received from
itism, such as Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale. Paris, but with architecture and the applied this source.
All these have reflections in Barcelona, arts the impact of the Arts and Crafts move­ In Sweden The Studio became very popular
particularly in de Riquer's medievalizing ment and of Art Nouveau ensured that the and during the ten to fifteen years after 1893
book-plates and Picasso's well-known lead frequently came from Britain. Here The it became a common household article in the
menu-cards for Eis Ouatre Gats with their Studio was one of the most important chan­ homes of cultivated people. Architects and
use of a strong wood-cut outline, partly nels through which these ideas came. artists particularly concerned with aspects of
derived from English book illustrations, In Scandinavia the Arts and Crafts move­ design received many ideas from it; Carl
posters and the covers of English magazines, ment frequently became fused with national Westman and L. I. Wahlman regarded it as a
including The Studio. (It must of course be romantic ideas and this was particularly main source of inspiration for their architec­
remembered that the Catalans were in close noticeable in Finland and Norway, owing to ture and Karin Westberg, founder of the
contact also with Munich, and that the contemporary strivings for complete inde­ Friends of Handicraft organization was
linear style of the menu-cards and book­ pendence of both these countries. Con­ deeply influenced. Ideas transmitted through
plates was international though it appeared sequently in their cases it is common to find The Studio coupled with the effects of
in Barcelona with a pronounced English painters and sculptors concerned with Walter Crane's exhibition in the National
flavour.) Picasso also produced a quasi­ nationalistic tnemes, for example subjects Museum, Stockholm, in 1896 all greatly
Pre-Raphaelite drawing of a woman with a drawn from Viking Art or the Kalevala, and affected Swedish designers. Painters were
drooping head and long neck for Arte Joven at the same time being attracted to idioms generally less interested. The one important
which he helped to edit in Madrid (1901 ). influenced by folk crafts of their countries. exception was Carl Larsson and here again
Moreover, it is perhaps only a coincidence In Sweden and Denmark, with their greater it was the ideas on design which particularly
but worth remarking, that many of the same immediate tradition of independence and attracted him. In the home which he built for
illustrations by Beardsley which appeared in comparative prosperity, influences from the himself at Sundbqrn, in Dalarna, and which
a Studio article of 1893 were also reproduced Arts and Crafts movement are more confined was to become such a model for the cultured
in Joventut in 1898, as part of the long study to designers of applied art and to architects. Swedes, he incorporated many ideas which
devoted to extolling the merits of this artist. Iceland at this time was still rather too he had learnt from this source.
(These included drawings for 'Salome' and peripherally situated and insufficiently pros­ John Boulton Smith
'Marte d'Arthur'.) perous for considerable artistic development. □
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