Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1884-11-13
THE FRENCH ARTISANS.
a Day Among the Wcrkmen O!
Gobelins and sevres.
Watching the Weaving OF Tapestry-
The Potter and the Clny-Where
the Artistic Heat Il
Greatest.


! IiailS NOl. BaiiiInOre American.
/ The workshops Of Paris do not usually face
on the -thorough fares nor even upon the old
J narrow streets They are mostly found in
! the courts. What we call squares or blocks
/ in our American cities, divided wholly by
/ thoroughlares are not to be found in Paris
The streets are usually far apart, ard the
Subdivisions are by means Of interior alleys,
which DO not run through, but ramicy into
passages and courts. In the gay parts of the
city these passages and alleys are often COW
cred in with glass roofs, and form little col
onies OF shops where fancy goods are sold,
but in the buster parts Of town these alleys
and passages contain the workshops. Trades
Of different sorts tend TO get together In
one of these courts. for example, there
may be dozen different shops, all al
work making brass bedsteads; in another all
VIII be making wrought-iron gates in an
other .he silvsring Of mirrors may be going
on; in ano.heT inlhi1 woodwork on carved
furniture, reproducing exactly the old carved
furniture OF the Museum of Cluny, or max
Ing stainei-glas4 windows, joining up mosaics
of luminous color held together 10y slender
Ines OF Lead. Il is not until one turns away
from the iouleyards and goes among these
workshops that he feels the greatness of
Of the morkmen, their patience. dexterity,
and ingenuity, the simplicity Of their tools
AMI the marvels that they do with Them the
refined taste and sense Of beauty visible
ywhere-these make the stranger feel
that he is among race OF artists
spent n whole morning at the Gobelins
watching the weaving of tapestry. | had
expected 20 find elaborate apparatus, but
there is none. This weaving, which produces
work like the finest painting, is done wholly
By hand. \ child may see how it is done,
but only an artist could do it. A child
might see how n sculptor chisels the marble,
but only an artist can make a statue. The
warp is strung vertically, and consists OF
strong cotton lines; the wool is of colored I
woods Of endless varieties Of tint. The artist /
manages the warp with the fingers Of his /
left hand, like playing on harp, and passes |
the wool through them with "a wooden needle, !
upon which it is wound. That's all But |
the exquisite shadings Of 1esh color and |
irapery and flowers can only be compared 30 |
the finest painting II is sheer nonsense 10 !
speak Of odd Gobelins as if tie arts were
LOST. On the contrary, he Lost Gobelins ever
made are On the looms to-day.
They are just completing q series OF tapes
tries for the foyer Of tho Grand opera, repre-
sentng fruit, wine, game, fish, ices, coffee,
ana tea-sil draped allegorical figures full Of
dash aud Saycty, and the color is delicious.
The Soi'dlusn we're very polite and taikative.
ard answered I'll my questions with the ut
must kindness The work shops are CON
Quoted pretty much they were centuries
ago. No apprentices are received over Is
years Of age, and all Of tho artists had spent
their lives there.
At Sovres which, like the Gobelns. is now
under government patronage-there is an ex-
celient museum Of potteries Of all races and
all age, and study Of the collection will en-
rich tie ceramic culture of anyone, however
learned he may be. And there is hardly
sort of pottery that has not been exclusively
done ut Sevres
There is an usher who conducts the visitor
through the workshops and explains every
process from the preparation of the clay to
the colorin-, glazing, and gliding. He does
not explain merely, but takes You to the
spot, introduces you 10 the workman who
IS doing that particular thing, and lets the
speak for himself. Indeed, there
seems 20 be Il sample workman of each sort
detailed for that purpose, for the visitor sees
lniy Cng Of each kind, and sees them in log
cal sequence. The man at the wheel took a
lal ut clay and whiried it into Pretty +
vase, talking III the while, and telling why
Ie did this and why he did that The ordi-
nary potter who makes nower-pots or jugs
SOS the same tools. The motive power of I
he wheel was ia. worlInan's foot: but the ]
nan "Gs an artist and IN his explanations he
played, as 1t were. with that piece OF clay in I
mere wantonness d power, spinning it from !
no form Ct beauty to another. each exquisite ]
- al
mpho.e hattenins it down into q bread, c
hallow bowl, now Etru>can, now Egyptian, q
low Greek--but Away lovely q
All the stages OF the celebrated Sevres blue !
r. sbonu. il goes into the fire duh gray; t
t come, out that inimitahle color that all the 1
world admires The process of gliding, of I
antiig and glazing are shown, and, last of I
H. til, furnace is shown III operation. and
b n | went inside cold, empty furnace, a
nd into one which was Just being packed for {
ring.
The tendency of worknen of different sorts e
0 flock together may be a survival Of the Q
Id guilds. 1t makes each court or web of T
ireets a school OF the particular craft which c
carried on there. One cannot make fire Il
nth one log, and the greater the number of {
,gs the bigger the blaze. Emulation, inven- D
on the admiration that good work receives D
rom the workers and the rdicule of bad I
'ork or false taste tend TO the conservatism Z
I what is good and the elimination OF what
bad 1t is the thousands of artists work
x in Paris that makes Paris the place for
rtists to work London is "A good market j,
n pictures and therefore good place for =
n artist but Paris is the place where the :,
lost logs burn and whore tho artistic heat ;,
greatest n