Page 80 - Studio International - May 1974

comparison with the perception and exhibition becomes rather bottom (e.g. Athena on show here) and his Albers and there were Hans Purrman,
panache of the remainder. There can heavy with sketches and watercolours. allegorical figures (e.g. Sensuality, Willi Geiger and Albert Weisgerber,
however have been few professional Many of the watercolours are also here, a version of the famous names better known in Germany than
artists who were so fortunate in their fine enough but like his contemporary Sin) have poison-green skin, seem to abroad. Perhaps von Stuck's
material. Even now the names of Wilson Steer they can go a be suffering from Parnassian reputation as a teacher has more to
those he painted are well-known, bit far in allowing the water hepatitis and emerge from a gloom of do with the law of averages than with
which in view of his prolific output is to dominate at the expense of colour. a slimy and faintly-glowing reds and any unusual didactic ability however,
remarkable. Had Sargent or Laszlo However I am sure that these greens. for Klee was unhappy in his studio
been spared the ordeal of painting the shortcomings are due to the On the evidence of this exhibition and neither Kandinsky nor Albers
dim rich by the hundred we would reluctance of the owners to lend so (the first ever devoted to him in seems to have derived much benefit
in turn have been spared acres of fine an array from off their walls for England) Franz von Stuck (1863- from his teaching, largely because von
dull and lifeless canvas. Even as a two months 1928) was a member of the Stuck forced his students to work
wai artist MacEvoy was fortunate, as When one sees the work of the Wilhelmine Second XI, an exclusively from life and forbade them
the two portraits of holders of the inheritor of the English tradition of unadventurous Symbolist redoing the use of colour.
Victoria Cross lent by the Imperial portrait painting at its best one is Classical and Biblical subjects Although von Stuck basked in
War Museum show, for they are reminded of the great talents which according to the current taste for glory in Munich until his death, he was
painted with all his finest skill to show the members of the NEAC possessed. sensational imagery, and a maker of not without his eminent critics. Sniped
their courage and determination. Even without the help of famous idealized and decorative portraits of at by Tolstoy in What is Art? (if the
When it came to the painting of sitters to enhance their fame at least society ladies whom, as the son of a critic is good enough he can make
machinery of war he was not so half a dozen now enjoy saleroom peasant, he understandably adored. even a tiny target look the size of a
successful and his large Night reputations as high as when they In fairness to von Stuck however I house) he also suffered a grapeshot
were at the peak of their fame. They
created an atmosphere as telling of
their times as did Lutyens in
architecture and Elgar in music.
Standing in the gallery looking at the
wall on which Mrs Johnstone and
The Marchioness of Salisbury hang
one gets a delicious insight into the
ordered pattern of the lives of the rich
and cultivated which lasted until the
slump. MacEvoy when he was
brilliant was among the very best and
at his worst he was usually better
than the best at their worst.
Comparisons with the past are
always tricky especially as he was
so very individual and so very much
a man of his time, but it is useless to
try to expunge the name of
Gainsborough from the record. At the
Ambrose MacEvoy Mrs Ambrose MacEvoy
Oil on canvas, 29¼ x time he was held to be Gainsborough's
natural successor with Orpen perhaps
Flying was clearly a bore to him. as Reynolds's and Sargent as
The Morley Gallery are to be Lawrence's, and surely his love of
congratulated in bringing to the feathery brushstrokes and total lack
notice of the public once more the of reliance on naturalism to achieve
work of this remarkable talent. Since his effects must allow the comparison
his death there have been four to hold some weight.
exhibitions devoted to him but the Robert Corbett

last one held in London was in 1954.
A lot has happened since then to should point out that the Piccadilly Franz von Stuck Study of a girls head 1896
reinstate him and his fellow members Franz von Stuck, at the Piccadilly Gallery does not show many works Oil on board,15½ x 15½ in
of the NEAC as important English Gallery, London, 26 March-4 May of the highest quality and that we are bombardment fron Julius Meier-
painters. This is not to say that his Once upon a time the eminent art in any case dealing here with a G raefe who considered him to be as
reputation suffered an eclipse after historian with whom I was visiting painter who was a legend in his own much of a tragedy for German art as
his death, but the adulation given to the Watts Museum turned to me and lifetime. One of the two most Böcklin, with whom he has much in
brilliant portraits of near and dear asked in a throaty German accent : celebrated Munich painters of the common 'Stuck is the greatest
relations does tend to keep them out 'Don't you sometimes think Watts period (the other was Lenbach) von achievement of the Munich Carnival
of sight of the public. There are, as was a painter fascinated by the Stuck lived like a Renaissance Prince Renaissance"; 'He turned barmaids
in all exhibitions, several omissions markings of his own excrement ?' The in a pompous villa which he designed into sphinxes and sphinxes into
which one regrets. The portrait of question also seems relevant of Watts's himself and decorated with a sense barmaids'. Von Stuck shrugged off
Claude Johnstone in a fawn hat— Bavarian contemporary Franz von of Kitsch that is impressive because it such assaults. He had achieved the
although visible through the windows Stuck, whose technique, to adapt is so inflated and all-pervading. In good life and was determined to enjoy
of the Rolls-Royce showroom in Dorothy Parker's famous phrase, runs Munich he was lionized throughout it. Entertained to breakfast in the Villa
Conduit Street—would have put the the gamut of effects from A to B : in his lifetime. His fiftieth birthday was Stuck, the Berlin Impressionist
balance of the sexes straight as well as other words from the mean and thin marked by a torchlight procession, Liebermann asked the master if he
being a sensitive portrait of MacEvoy's to the monotonous and thick with the master appearing on his balcony always ate so much. 'Usually more',
most extensive patron. Although there nothing in between. There is to acknowledge the congratulations replied von Stuck, 'but I am a bit
are two portraits of his wife and one of something nasty about von Stuck's of the assembled host, and he was the embarrassed in front of you.'
his daughter the glorious Blue and paint, something unhealthy about his recipient of more medals, city- That last quotation comes from the
Yellow — Mrs Claude Johnstone colour preferences and something freedoms and honorary doctorates excellent catalogue introduction by
would have been a delight to see worrying about his preferred subjects. than any politician. Were he alive Godfrey Pilkington. It is perhaps too
again. Also the remarkable series of The Medusa with cold, lapidary eyes, today Hollywood would make a easy to make fun of the subject of Mr
the Sturt family painted in the early Salome, Judith and Holofernes, musical about him. Pilkington's latest exhibition which,
twenties—the haunting Napier Susanne and the Elders, centaurs, Von Stuck has a more important it must be said , is worth seeing. The
Alington, the fashionable Lady fauns, mermaids and nymphs are the claim to fame. He was a teacher at the history of the art of von Stuck's
Alington and the skittish Lois Sturt personified desires of an overheated Royal Art Academy in Munich and period is bursting at the seams with
all show different aspects of his imagination and exude the essences some very famous painters passed curiosities and he is surely one
remarkable powers. of a supercharged but abnormal through his studio as students. There of the most curious of them.
Without these tours de force the libido. Von Stuck's Greek goddesses were Kandinsky, Klee and Josef Frank Whitford