1911 F.K., “Studio-Talk Brussels,” The Studio, 51, 214 (January 1911), 324-328. BRUSSELS.—After the striking victories gained at Turin in 1902, and at Milan in 1906, by the representatives of modern art in Belgium, one had hoped for similar triumphs at the Brussels Exhibition of 1910, and it is as incomprehensible as it is deplorable that this modern school of Belgian art, whose influence has been felt in all the countries of Europe, should have been unrepresented there. As M. Robe has written in “L'Art Moderne,” “Now or never was the moment to appeal to the public for a verdict upon our work. I grant that the authorities have rather looked askance at the products of our brains, and so far have not entrusted to us the elaboration of plans for public works and buildings which are destined to form permanent records of their day. But here we had a unique occasion to make a display of our talent, and even had the result been disastrous, if it is indeed true that our work is destined to have but an ephemeral existence, the evil could not have been permanent or lasting, as is the case with so many of the monuments and buildings which deface our public squares.” On the other hand, the preface to the catalogue of the German section begins as follows:— “At the moment when our Art Industry is about to give an account of itself . of its aims and capabilities, it is only seemly that, before going on to speak of the work of our own country, we should remind ourselves of what our German artists and craftsmen owe to their Belgian confreres.” The writer of the preface then proceeds to mention the names of Lemmen, Finch, Serrurier-Bovy, Horta, and goes on to explain the influence of and the exact position occupied by Henri Van de Velde, “whose name stands as a monument, so to speak, of the sympathy existing between German and Belgian genius.” Furnished Cottage Exhibited at the recent International Exhibition, Brussels, by M. Van de Voorde, architect | M. Van de Voorde’s Cottage: The Dining Room MM. Serrurier-Bovy, of Liège, and Van de Voorde, of Ghent, exhibited at the Brussels Exhibition at their own private expense. In THE STUDIO of April 1898, in an article entitled, “Some Artists at Liège,” I endeavoured to show the very interesting effort made by M. Serrurier-Bovy to modernise the art of furnishing. “Building,” he says, “upon those 385 principles which, I am convinced, form the only durable foundation for a new art, I have sought merely to study, to refine, and, above all, to simplify.” The plans of the different rooms in the Serrurier pavilion were purposely commonplace in the extreme; they were, in fact, just such rooms as would be met with in the most ordinary house; there was no adroit dovetailing of one room into another, so as to give little odd corners capable of picturesque arrangement. In simple rectangular rooms the various interiors were arranged, their furniture was such as would look equally well in other surroundings, the mural decoration such as admitted of its being applied elsewhere with the same success. The general effect was obtained by the pieces of furniture themselves, with the wall and ceiling decorations offering pleasing harmonies of colour and form. The cottage of M. Van de Voorde was distinguished by its admirable proportions and by the agreeable air of light and homeliness it gave. The architect was fortunate in obtaining the co-operation of Mme. D’Angotte, who chose and arranged artistically the various useful and ornamental articles; of Mlles. Mabel Elwes and Meta Budry, who designed and executed the mural decorations and embroideries; and of M. Acke, who made the furniture. M. Van de Voorde’s Cottage: The Dining Room | M. Van de Voorde’s Cottage: The Kitchen Curtain Machine Embroidered on Golden-Brown Ground. Designed and Executed by Mabel Elwes | Cushion Cover Embroidered on Royal Blue Ground. Designed and Executed by Mabel Elwes 386 Cushion Cover, Machine Embroidered on Orange Ground. Designed and Executed by Mabel Elwes Hand-Embroidered Bedspread. Designed and Executed by Mabel Elwes | Cushion Cover Embroidered on a Green-Blue Ground. Designed and Executed by Mabel Elwes In previous articles upon the Exhibition we were only able to refer very briefly to the charming exhibits in the Salon Français des Arts Décoratifs, of which M. du Bousquet had the organisation, and M. Lambert the control of the architectural features and of the general scheme of decoration. In the section of Fine Arts, the French Commissioner, M. A. Saglio, and his coadjutor, M. Fritsch-Estrangin, made a superb display of their national art, and had one been compelled to give a single prize for excellence in the Section of Decorative Art, it must have been unhesitatingly awarded to the designer and executor of the very numerous and wonderful pieces, to the refined work of that master of his craft, M. Lalique, who materialised his beautiful visions in the exquisite little Salon of the perfumer Coty. F. K. 387 F.K., “Studio-Talk Brussels,” The Studio, 53, 219 (June 1911), 74-76. BRUSSELS.—The eminent sculptor of Brussels, Charles van der Stappen, died recently while yet his fine talents seemed to promise still greater and more powerful achievements. He had a considerable influence upon the evolution of the Belgian School, not only by reason of the value of his productions, but also on account of the force of his teaching. This son of a simple workman, a common plasterer, was able, thanks to his indomitable will, to elevate himself to the summit of his art, and one is astounded to learn that this highly cultured artist, this brilliant conversationalist whose utterances rested upon a foundation of solid knowledge, was hardly able to be given a board-school education. Fortuitous circumstances brought the young men to the studio of the painter, Jean Portaels, where at that time E. Wauters, Agneesens, and Verheyden were working, and it was owing, perhaps, to this that he escaped from the conventionality resultant at that period from an erroneous comprehension of antique sculpture. He was one of the first to join that group of sculptors in France, P. Dubois, Mercié, Chapu, who sought in Florentine Renaissance work for their refined observation and elegant execution; but the Brussels artist never lost the rugged qualities of his race, and so came to avoid the dangers of affectation. “Le Dévouement: Portion of the “Monument de l’Infinie Bonté” by Charles Van der Stappen The fine and instructive qualities in Van der Stappen's work come from a close study of all aspects and manifestations of life and of their application to decorative art. Later one recognizes in several of his important works the effect of that democratic tendency which was so magnificently expressed by his friend, C. Meunier. Van der Stappen was unquestionably the most prolific and varied of all Belgian sculptors; ever interested in new materials and new methods of work, astounding us always by the prodigious activity of his imagination and his insatiable thirst for knowledge, he undertook with the same enthusiasm and almost always with equal success, the making of sculptures and works of plastic art the most diverse in nature. He was also a remarkable teacher and 388 set himself to reorganise art teaching in his country and to accord to the crafts and to applied art generally their due measure of value and importance. Certain of our most prominent sculptors owe a great deal of their success to him, in common with Rousseau, Rombaux, and P. Dubois. F. K. 389 F.K., “Studio-Talk Brussels,” The Studio, 54, 224 (November 1911), 158-160. BRUSSELS.—We give some reproductions of the work of the celebrated painter Henriette Ronner, whose studies and paintings were to be seen recently on exhibition at the Cercle Artistique of Brussels. Henriette Knip (her maiden name) was born at Amsterdam in 1821; her father, himself an artist of repute, was the son of a painter, and both her brother and one of her sisters painted also. Hence it is not surprising that Mme. Ronner’s vocation should have been marked out for her from infancy, and in fact she made her first artistic début at Düsseldorf when only fifteen years of age. In 1850 she married and came to live in Brussels, where she died recently. She owed her earliest successes to her studies of dogs, “but,” writes one of her biographers, Henri Havard, “it happened that one day a cat strayed into the studio and aroused her curiosity by its unfamiliar attitudes and its startled glances, gradually absorbed her attention and finally achieved the conquest of the artist. Soon she submitted to the tyranny of the intruder to the extent of devoting all her time and all her ability henceforward to a study of the animal's attitudes and characteristics. Mme. Ronner has left a permanent record of all the peculiar traits, all those subtleties of expression, all the sly and malicious postures which form a never-ceasing source of interest and amusement to the observer, and for this we owe her thanks.” Two of the artist's children have adopted artistic careers: Alfred Ronner, who died unfortunately before his talents had achieved their full development, and Alice Ronner, who is decidedly one of our finest painters of still-life subjects, and those whose work we give a reproduction. She has technical ability of a very high order, her skill in composition, her drawing and her colour are remarkable, and all her work has an attractiveness that is in truth quite masterly.