Suche löschen...
The photographic news
- Bandzählung
- 29.1885
- Erscheinungsdatum
- 1885
- Sprache
- Englisch
- Signatur
- F 135
- Vorlage
- Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
- Digitalisat
- Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
- Digitalisat
- SLUB Dresden
- Lizenz-/Rechtehinweis
- Public Domain Mark 1.0
- URN
- urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-db-id1780948042-188500006
- PURL
- http://digital.slub-dresden.de/id1780948042-18850000
- OAI-Identifier
- oai:de:slub-dresden:db:id-1780948042-18850000
- Sammlungen
- Fotografie
- LDP: Historische Bestände der Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
- Bemerkung
- Seite I-II fehlen in der Vorlage. Paginierfehler: Seite 160 als Seite 144 gezählt.
- Strukturtyp
- Band
- Parlamentsperiode
- -
- Wahlperiode
- -
- Bandzählung
- No. 1416, October 23, 1885
- Digitalisat
- SLUB Dresden
- Strukturtyp
- Ausgabe
- Parlamentsperiode
- -
- Wahlperiode
- -
-
Zeitschrift
The photographic news
-
Band
Band 29.1885
-
- Register Index III
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 1
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 17
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 33
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 49
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 65
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 81
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 97
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 113
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 129
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 145
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 161
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 177
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 193
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 209
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 225
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 241
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 257
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 273
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 289
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 305
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 321
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 337
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 353
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 369
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 385
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 401
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 417
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 433
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 449
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 465
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 481
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 497
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 513
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 529
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 545
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 561
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 577
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 593
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 609
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 625
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 641
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 657
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 673
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 689
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 705
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 721
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 737
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 753
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 769
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 785
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 801
- Ausgabe Ausgabe 817
-
Band
Band 29.1885
-
- Titel
- The photographic news
- Autor
- Links
- Downloads
- Einzelseite als Bild herunterladen (JPG)
-
Volltext Seite (XML)
LOcTOBER 23, 1885. 678 THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. We must now had the strongest hold upon the human mind—because, with religion, was wrapped up all other ideas, and the sources of know ledge were in the hands of the priesthood. Art is bound by its very nature to give expression to ascendant ideas. But both art and religion have since been broken to fragments, and these are often so small and so incongruously pieced together, that they refuse to reflect any ideas at all ; or so feebly and falsely, that men, in distrust of both art and religion, have turned to nature and science, which in the strongest minds fill the place of both. But this, after all, is only like saying that the loss of the eye sight is compensated for by the increased stimulation of the other senses. It is a serious loss all the same. Let us try to find, however, what ideas, even in the fragment ary and artificial condition to which it is now reduced, art gives us in our day. The one great distinction and difference which marks it from the art of ancient times, consists in the absence of what is called popular art - the art of the people, hand in hind with every-day handicraft, inseparable from life and use—that spontaneous native art of the potter, the weaver, the carver, the mason, which, as it has been so forcibly pointed out by William Morris, our economical, commercial, industrial, competitive capitalistic system has crushed out of existence. By division of labour, the factory system, and production for profit—yes, our three-headed Cerberus—has devoured the art, together with the well-being and the independence of the people, and stands un appeased at the smoke-gloomed industrial gate, over which is written, “ All hope abandon ye who enter here.” But this basis of popular art was the soil in which all art germinated, and from which the goodly tree grew and branched out, to blossom in the more delicate kinds of painting and sculpture which, since they have ministered to the caprices of wealth, fashion, and luxury alone, branded in a separate class as fine arts, have turned their backs upon their humble relations, the handicrafts, with the result that their house is left unto them desolate. Cut off, as it were, like flowers from their natural stem, they presently lan guish and wither away, or linger in fantastic ghosts, shadows, and travesties of their former beauty. But we are calmly told that “ we must recognize, however, that modern art has no tendency in the latter direction (that of beauty). Beauty no longer suffices for us.”* This is clear and emphatic enough. It comes from the French, too, who have as sumed the position of dictators of taste, at least in painting, to the world at large. It is from a book on esthetics, by Eugene Vvon ; I quote from the English translation. The book is an attempt to find a scientific basis and reasonable position for art under the conditions of modern society, and while the author fails to recognise the causes of its deterioration in the quality of beauty, he boldly acknowledges the difference between past and present aims, and insists on freedom of development. Yet the writer is possessed by a distinction which he himself sets up between decorative, and what he calls expressive art, applying this latter title to the pictorial art of the present day. As if all good art was not expressive 1 In my view, however, all forms of plastic or graphic art, properly so-called, must be dominated by the sense of beauty, as the condition of their normal existence and the condition of their successful appeal to the eye. The expression of beauty naturally controls all other expressions. Otherwise, it seems to me, art is overstepping the border line which divides it from other operations of the mind; from scientific analysis, for instance, and from photography, where the object is totally different, and everything is sacrificed to the attainment of fact. Yet this is just what is happening in modern painting—every thing is being sacrificed to the attainment of fact in some form or other, and painting has almost ceased to be an art of design. The modern French view is frankly expressed in a passage look at things more closely, and observe better. We must paint as well, though in a different fashion. We must work for the general public, for the citizen, the man of business, and the parvenu—everything is now for them.” And he goes on to point out in effect that the painter must do the best he can under these rather depressing circumstances, copy his model, and take comfort in the belief that henceforward the greatest genius will be the man of the least invention, Here, at all events, it is quoted by Veron from Fromentin, who says : “The time has come for less thought, and for less lofty aims. . clearly recognized that painting now exists for a class, which, ■ possessing the wealth, commands all things that may ho ; commanded by wealth, and as these things are many, a money standard is set up, which is in danger of becoming the only standard and test, whether of virtue and character, or artistic ability. The results of such a state of things are visible on every side. We have seen that in all ages it has been natural to art to express the ascendant characteristics and ideas of its time, as well as to reflect the material facts of life. Art is the sensitive plate in the dark camera of history, which records both the mental and physical features of humanity with out prej udice, when all other sources of light are shut out. So in an age when commercialism is supreme, and bourgeois ideas are triumphant, it is only natural that they should make themselves felt in art. Accordingly, we see the influence of profit-making principles in the way in which painters become specialised for certain sorts of work, and in the rise and progress of the middleman or picture dealer. As illustrating this, it is said of Verboeckhoven, the cattle painter, that the dealers were in the habit of sending orders couched in terms like the following :—“ Wanted, by Monday, three pictures of the usual description—cow, with two sheep.” There is a story told of him, too, which is very suggestive of the effect of commercial ideas on art. One day an American entered the studio ; he saw a picture which pleased him, and bought it at the artist’s price—1,200 francs. He could not take it away with him immediately, and, when he came for it some time after, the painter had another, just like it, nearly finished. He was putting in an extra lambkin, when the American re turned. A happy thought struck the latter ; he would take the second picture too ; it would form a pendant to the other. But Verboeckhoven wanted 1,300 francs for it. His customer hesi tated. “Well, well!” said he, “the same price, then;” and, dipping a rag in turpentine, he wiped out the lamb. That grand development of the shop, the modern picture exhibi tion, is, again, another triumph of commercialism in art, which, faithfully following the accepted theory of the trader that supply will produce demand, succeeds in something like real over-produc tion. Consider the huge annual pictorial displays and their chief product—the child of competition in art—the “ pot-boiler.” Truly the temple of art is the market, and its high priest the picture-dealer! “Take your choice (or, rather, the recommen dation of the adroit salesman), go to so-and-so for your fish and your salt water pieces—fresh every year, but all alike. If your fancy is flesh or fowl, you must go further. This other gentle man will give you game pieces—he has a special licence. Then you can finish with flower and fruit,” and so forth. Yes, divi sion of labour has triumphed even in painting, and, to excel, a man must specialize his talents ; that is to say, adapt them to the continual production of the same sort of thing. Thus, and thus only, can he hope to make either- reputation or a living. Very good ; but what becomes of art, unless the whole of art is comprehended in portraiture ? For, in spite of our classifica tion, our labels for landscape, portrait, genre, historical, under this specializing, ticketing, commercial system, the tendency is for painting to become really limited to forms of portraiture. I do not mean merely the production of portraits, though that is a noticeable feature, but I apply the term to characterize a certain literal and prosaic habit of regarding all nature, and literal methods of representation, whether of persons, scenes, or animal life ; while the conditions of the market, even apart from the tastes of the ascendant class we have been considering, cut against even honest and faithful portraiture, but encourage that conscious making up, dressing, and forcing of effect to catch the public eye, amid the further falsification of pictorial values caused by the entire want of classification and harmonious arrangement in the picture exhibition. So that in the result, where every inducement is held out in this fierce pictorial com petition to painters to consciously work for forced effect, and put out their possible neighbour, pretentiousness and meretrici ousness too often win the day. When the decline in modern art is mentioned, it is usual for the average man, imbued with the commercial ideas of the age, . and with the all-sufficient standard of money-value in his mind, to point triumphantly to the enormous sums given for certain pictures in these days, and to the wealth of certain successful artists. But those enormous sums only show that pictures are a marketable commodity in which the chances of large profits are involved, and the fluctuating values in the market make them objects of speculative investments for capitalists. Reputations • The same author says, in another place, “No! perfect art does not necessarily concern itself with beauty of form, unless the object has been specially designed for art use. We must expel the idea.”—prosthetics, page 125.] 1
- Aktuelle Seite (TXT)
- METS Datei (XML)
- IIIF Manifest (JSON)