CATALOGUE OF AN EXHIBITION OF DRAWINGS BY JULES PASCIN WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY MARTIN BIRNBAUM BERLIN PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPANY 305 MADISON AVENUE NEW YORK CITY JULES PASCIN From an original etching bv Emil <>rlik CATALOGUE OF AN EXHIBITION OF DRAWINGS BY JULES PASCIN WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY MARTIN BIRNBAUM JANUARY 30th-FEBRUARY 20th 1915 BERLIN PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPANY 305 MADISON AVENUE NEW YORK CITY JULES PASCIN ONLY the wise Americans in Paris find their way to the Café du Dòme, and accordingly it is not surprising to find that Jules Pascin, the most distinguished artist in the group of young men that until recently met there, is not known to our dilettants. Moreover he is an artist's artist, a*man who works to please himself and who produces the kind of art that the bourgeoisie the world over is anxious to smash with cheap cudgels. It was there­ fore an embarrassing relief for him to find that when he came suddenly upon us,— charmingly simple and unheralded,—the con­ tents of his portfolio moved one of our cleverest critics to exclaim,—with a profound enthusiasm not at all characteristic of him,— that as far as modern art is concerned, nothing of greater importance may happen throughout the winter, than an exhibition of this artist's work. Pascin himself is extremely modest about his achievements, and we rather regret that he has not brought along some of his more 3 pretentious oil paintings which were among the memorable things at the annual exhibi­ tions of the Berlin Secession. Essentially, however, his is an intimate art which can be appreciated better in a private study than in a public gallery, and he is very fairly repre­ sented by the present collection of his works. Small groups of his drawings were first seen here in the International Exhibition of Mod­ ern Art, and the Exhibition of Austro-Hun- garian Graphic Art (1913). He was born on March 31st, 1885, at Wid- din, Bulgaria, but his youth was spent in Vienna. Artistically he is what the Germans call an auto-didakt,—that is to say, a self- taught man,—and the first real stimulating impulse was an exhibition of French Impres­ sionists. Lautrec and Renoir have remained among his household gods ever since. Before he became a professional artist, however, he spent some time at Bucharest with his father, who was a grain merchant. To-day Pascin is grateful for this business experience, because it liberated him from the influence of schools and brought him into contact with the every­ day life of the people. Eventually his witty drawings came to the notice of the discerning editor of "Simplicissimus," and their instant success in that weekly enabled him in 1905 to 4 go to Paris, where he has been residing ever since. Until the war broke out Pascin was one of a group of foreigners,—Nils von Daniel, Ru­ dolf Grossman, Ernesto de Fiori, Hermann Haller, and others,—who sipped their coffee or liqueur on the corner of the Boulevards Raspail and Montparnasse, while discussing the importance of a Henri Rousseau or Picasso. They were just starting to exhibit as a group known as the "Dòme" when the great war scattered them to every corner of Europe, and they may never meet again. Their art, which has almost no quality in com­ mon, has merits which are popularly recog­ nized only after years of propaganda. Indeed, Pascin's work offers the worst kind of a stum­ bling block to the layman, for he chooses types which, while familiar to, are never men­ tioned by polite society. The wings of his blasé cupids are stained with the mud of the gutter, and his insolent chauffeurs, monstrous women, deformed criminals, emaciated, vi­ cious children, uncanny animals, and careless inmates of the harem, call to mind Otto Wein- inger's unpleasant theories, and encourage the very pernicious habit of raising moral issues which theoretically have nothing to do with an honest attempt to analyze the artistic 5 values of a painting or a piece of sculpture. If Degas is permitted to go behind the stage curtain, and among scrubwomen for his in­ spiration, Pascin's subject matter is his own affair, and it may be argued that we ought to feel grateful to him for discovering so much beauty in ugliness. These drawings, there­ fore, should be judged merely as the works of a marvellous, piercing observer, an artist who gives intense vitality to everything he touches and who is a strange mixture of naïveté and extreme sophistication. Almost daily, Pascin makes studies from life, which may be recog­ nized by their violet color, and his composi­ tions, while not transcripts from nature, call into existence a hitherto unexpressed type of woman. We are awaiting with impatience the first fruits of his sojourn in the Southern States and among the negroes of the West Indies. Already he is following in the foot­ steps of Lafcadio Hearn, and is discovering for himself the peculiar beauties of various types of ebon-hued Americans. The delicious humor which crops out with almost every stroke of his pen will undoubtedly find rare material here. Like so much of the work of Daumier, Beardsley, Lautrec, and Rops, the drawings of Pascin are often superficially perverse, but 6 really they are powerful satirical caricatures. Invariably, too, we find a Gallic charm which has been traced by his German admirers to Watteau. This lyric grace is present in every­ thing he attempts, even when he is stirred by Cubism and Primitivism, but he is not gallant or piquant in the elegant and comparatively innocent eighteenth-century sense. His draw­ ings are at times the last word in erotic raf­ finement. One of his little dishevelled dolls, thrown carelessly on a chaise longue, can be as terrible and suggestive as Beardsley's Mes­ saline, and he would have been the ideal deco­ rator for la maison de la Comtesse Gourdan. His colors are those of fading orchids, and at times they are as exquisite and delicate as the bloom on a Conder panel. His vision is as fresh and intense as a child's, and he culti­ vates an apparent immaturity which should not be confounded with lack of power. Some of the expressive sketches by old masters strike the same peculiar note, and that may account for the ardent enthusiasm which artist col­ lectors like Max Klinger and Emil Orlik evince for these drawings, and also for the fury of those who are mystified by the use which Pascin has made of his rare compe­ tence. CATALOGUE DRAWINGS 1. Massage, Soins de Beauté. 2. Au Bord de la Mer. 3. À la Campagne. 4. Conversation. 5. Bal à Montmartre. 6. Les Amants. 7. Le Printemps. 8. Whiteehapel. 9. Monsieur, Madame, Bébé. 10. La Marchande de Fleurs. 11. Les Amies. 12. Dans le Parc. 13. Trois Femmes. 14. Petite Rue à Montmartre. 15. Les Femmes-Peintre. 16. Composition. 9 17. L'Attente. 18. À Tunis. 19. Au Bord de l'Eau. 20. Beignade. 21. Visite. 22. Les Camarades. 23. Dessin. 24. Une Promenade. 25. Au Bain. 26. "Saloon" à Londres. 27. La Famille Heureuse. 28. Café à Montmartre. 29. Brigands. 30. Paysage avec Figures. 31. Horse Market. 32. Cavaliers. 33. Halloo! 34. La Leçon. 35. Dessin. 36. La Mauvaise Route. 37. Dessin. 38. Intérieur. 39. Dispute dans la Cuisine. 10 40. The Parents' Lecture. 41. Three Girls. 42. Moulin Rouge. 43. In the Park. 44. The Circus. 45. La Visite. 46. Roumanians. 47. Gypsies. 48. Love in the Jungle. 49. The Good Samaritan. 50. Study. 51. In Africa. 52. Study. 53. The Harem. 54. Pets. 55-59. Five Etchings. 60-64. Five Wood-engravings. The case contains "Hyperion," "Kunst und Künstler," and Heine's Memoirs of Schnabele- wopsky,—all containing illustrations by, or ar­ ticles about Pascin,—and Emil Orlik's etching of the artist. 11 .