The times., 1899-07-10
HEIGHT & COMPANY,
5t3-5I5 Seventh Street.

zone man" show. and, taking again hint
from Whistler, he has made of these little
periodical exhibitions of his striking ex-
amples of decorative ingenuity. The ar
rangement of the exhibition rooms and the
very framing of his sketches and pictures
are carried out on strikingly original lines.
"Vulgarly ostentatious," say his fellow
painters; "charmingly original, says
society, and focks to see. And as it is
society who buys and not the fellow
artists, Mr.. Menpes is seemingly content.
And now for his latest. He has been
giving q house warming, and yesterday
such leaders of society as the Duchess of
Sutherland, the Duchess of st. Adams,
Lady Cranbourne, Lady Riddlesdale, to-
gether with such theatrical celebrities as
Ellen Terry and Mrs. Brown Potter, ad-
mired the lovely rooms and passages and
gathered together in the huge studio which
looks over Cadogan Gardens. The scheme
of decoration which they came to see is
thoroughly Menpesian in its originality.
He has gone to his beloved Japan, not only
for his artistic inspiration, but for the
craftsmen themselves to carry 1t out.
There is a practical side Of Mr.. Menpes'
art, and during his visit to Japan ne was
struck with the fact that in that country
one can obtain the services of artist crafts
men for good deal less than the wage
that is paid to the day laborer in this
country. Accordingly he engaged some
seventy of them, and under his directions
and according to his ideas they have been
working for the better part of year in
the decoration OF his house Metal work
ers, wood carvers, embroiderers, painters
on porcelain, and silk weavers, each and
every craft was represented by men whose
skill was the hereditary result of genera
tions, and very beautiful has been the
result.
"And yet" says Mr. Menpes, they work
for a few pence a day and live upon the
heads and tails OF fishes because they could
not afford the middles." But the house is
no haphazard collection of curios and odds
and ends of Oriental decoration. One CO.
herent scheme binds the whole place into
one harmonious whole. 1t is floral in its
( idea and each room has for its decorative
motive one flower. The drawing room, for
| instance, relies upon the peony for its en-
/ tire scheme of decoration; the studio on
/ the camelie; the dining room on the cher
! ry blossom; the entrance halls, which are
{ three in number, on the chrysanthemum.
/ There is one exception to the flower treat
4 ment. This is a small morning room
I where the fish has been taken as a dec
Grating motive. Fish disport themselves
upon the paneled ceiling and upon the
walls; on the carved doors, the handles OF
which are bronze lsh. ana so forth
! throughout the whole room.
1t may be objected, of course, that Mr..
| Menpes' house is in England and not in
| Japan. and that SO markedly stylistic and
| eXtraneous a scheme of decoration is out of
place. But one is inclined TO forego this
criticism in view of the infinite beauty of
the craftsmanship and the absolutely satis-
| flying color scheme which pervade the
! whole. This, of course. is to be placed
entirely to the credit of Mr.. Menpes him
self, and shows that under all surface &C.
centricities there is the true artist