Page 24 - Studio International - March 1972

Art Nouveau. When I visited Szarskoye Selo in
1932, the residence of the late Tzar, I found the
whole building furnished in this style. The
creed of Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) was
formulated by its creator Henri van de Velde :
`La ligne est une force' (`the line is a power').
Though the style did not last very much more
than a decennium, it dominated books,
houseware, architecture and, in a subterranean
way, art also. (It would be interesting to pin
down the traces of Art Nouveau from Puvis de
Chavannes to Matisse, from Rodin and van
Dongen to Worpswede, etc.)
Art Nouveau was the style at the time of
Eggeling's youth and influenced him very
obviously, as can be traced in an early painting
belonging to his niece Mrs Schupp. But it
became overshadowed when he was groping for
his own personal expression as an artist in
Italy and Paris between 1912 and 1915.
He did very few paintings, mostly drawings.
In all these drawings done in France, Italy and
Switzerland there are hardly any traces anymore
of Art Nouveau. The influences of Cezanne and
Derain, especially Othon Friesz, with whom
he worked on the Riviera, are clearly
visible in all these meticulously executed
`cubist-school' drawings. But soon another
influence made itself felt, that of the Douanier
Henri Rousseau. And from there, in a great
number of nature studies, his originality begins
to develop. From these, still naturalistic and
even cubistic articulations of trees, men, rocks,
etc. form-THEMES start. He begins to sort out
natural objects into as many aesthetic objects,
or as he called them later: 'instruments'.
However, these drawings have little —if
anything—to do with Art Nouveau. They led to
its main theme 'La ligne est une force'. There
is another element of his practical life that might
have played a role in his exclusive choice of the
line as his central theme.
Around 1910 he gave drawing lessons for
2-3 years to beginners at the Lycée Zuoz,
Switzerland. To make himself understood, he
had to develop a teaching method. His position
was difficult, as he had no degree; his original
profession was that of a bookkeeper. Methodical
as he was by nature, he began there (as he told
me later) to search for the simplest way—not
only to teach—but to understand what the
elements of drawing could be.
From his 'Rousseau' pencil drawings grew,
rather rapidly (1917 ?), a reduction of the still
naturalistic form-themes into free aesthetic
form-themes. But always in the realm of the
line. It is here that Art Nouveau, the experience
of his formative years, can clearly be traced.
But what came out of it was something quite
different : original and new.
Instead of the sentimental guirlandes and
lilies of the jugendstil he conceived (in a kind
of integration of cubistic experience with Art
Nouveau) a very forceful, totally logical
structure : 'La ligne est une force'.
His tablets are the documents of this newly
acquired originality. But not its end—no, only