New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-10-18
NETWORK DAILY TRIBUNE, TUESDAY OCTOBER 49, 1881

author makes such to-do and which he Is not
content to leave to the unassisted judgment
of his Judges, is throughout utterly mechanical mar"
and commonplace The storks, inspired not py nature
for the author evidently has never seen sloI p''
coped each and all from japanese pictures are SIN ana
lfeess and injure dado which, without thei' "o"u
have some merit But the whole design shows how great
failure is possible where designer has allowed ne
10 think too much OF what must be "the true phcP'7 "'
decoration and has forgotten that fancy TASTE ana III
agination are the max rs of their own laws.
TO orr thinking the best hope in this competition Is
found in designs like those marked Wilma Kappa ahu
Sub Rosa" though Of the two bearing this latter motto
the one at the left hand, consisting Of wall OF White
lilies is so much the better 20 make us wonder 10"
the same design can be the author of the oiher
The designs signed "Vinna Tappa" show n real
feeling for decorative effect, knowledge Of material
and a sense of proportion with goou sense VI
color In one, the "wall is covered win
a silver network on ground of grecn-bue, in
which the hues are very silfully varied. The dad'
carries out the suggestion Of the given by the wan
somewhat more definitely with sea-wecds and hSh' ana
the border at the bottom of the dado Is composer OF
shells OF one only, the simple curves oil winch arc
treated with much bOldnoss The irezc Is composer "a
the same Shells with the sea-anemone As deecfloe''
this reads little much like naturalism TO De Gooi
decoration but except the dado, where the 7h ana
the seawecd but little conyenuonazeo' tue u'''
ment of the objects is We think, yer! h"p"' 'N'
to this is n design OF the author III Whch money
bees. the honey comb and beeniyes are made 10 play
their part here, though the drawing Is very Clever
and The ingenuity in quite distinctive, we
feel that realism is earned little too far the
design Sub Rosa" Is design III some
what the same spirit as those OF "Nhh'
Tappa" but less fancifu. IL would be very pretty
paper for a summer drawing-room in country house
There are designs here in which the parts are
better than the whole The "walls" in "Spes ana
,Ic' viii ~ daiO
each are unsatisfactory. The may be said Of -
Wallpaper must be- wallpaper not picture motto
which saws very Dramatically something that may be
true or not. as circumstances lead us.
As the designs that are purely eomlc-ohe COM
posed will the reader believe usl Of nothing but open
scissors !-anOther with frieze of monkeys throwing
down rose leaves which ike streams OF cotted blood
across The avail" and are caught by dado oi more
monkeys another with shirtng Of rough rocks sup
porting dado of smooth brick work. and ro6sl-ca't
"wall above with fricze of sky IN when Owls ana
bats are sporting, the wall spotted over with DHtrf'Hp
plants, aud the dado supporting an Ny-Serah'nm
lastly design several panels covered over "lh the
sticst possible scenes from the lie Oh t't 't'H' D"
people the old AssyriaHs!
There are fOdr large designs here o the same Manu-
two signed 'Ohue Hast, Ohue Rast' and Two "Hcip
yourself and the gods will hclp yon' IN "mch great
patience has met great ignorance and with the usual
desperate results large sheets Of paper not the
FIRST gumcr Of OF beauty or proportion oil FORM
or color and OF course no sense all Of what dccora-
ton " means what IL is good Tor.
But though the exhibition does not contain much OF
actual ueror1nancr there j. promise and We are
sure that We have here the beginning oi movement
that must in no long time produce good fruit We con
graduate Nc,sr- Warren Fuller on even go much sHc-
cess as has occn gained in tins hrt effort to encourage
the arts pf design here al home, and we hope they may
find their profit in continuing their good WORK unli IL
shall longer necessary to look abroad for our wal
papers.