The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-09-29
PAINTING LAID
TO DEAD PEOPLE
PICTURES TREATED IN
A PARIS PAPER.
Methods and Astonishing Achievements
of the Dramatist Sardou and Other
Subconscious Artists-The Gift With
drawn as Mysteriously as It Was Be-
slowed Upon Them.
Boston Transcript.

= GlClt ny jules bO1o. uC dubAO1 ID VI
the opinion that the so-called medium
istic or spirit pictures have not re-
ceived the amount of attention to which
they are entitled. He has devoted con-
siderable study to the work Of the me-
diums. as also the work of the mystic
symbolists, and finds interesting matter
for comparison. NJ. B0is says; -
brush. the pencil. the brain. and the in
resistible and automatic impulse. 1t
is even useless to take. any note Of
what is going on. The spirit, so say the
believers, does it all. It is the spirit
that guides the hand, or, rather, i'm
pels it. And thus are executed in q
few hours delicate works which would
have otherwise taken several days. .
"The most celebrated, doubtless, Of
these subconscious artists, is Victorien
Sardou. Two of his drawings are very
curious. One of them represents a house
on the planet Jupiter and the other the
animals quarters at Zoroaster's home.
Everything was quite spontaneous and
unprem editated in the phenomenon: M.
Sardou told me how he all Of a sudden
known as an author he had written a
comedy about Bernard Palissy; and the
Odeon had refused it. Hence he was
full of spite, and he wrote a satlrlcal
romance in which our earth became an
object of horror, while the ideal resi-
dence of young dramatic authors was
the planet Jupiter. :,
idea M. Sardou happened to drift into
spiritualistic circles. He wanted to do
as others were doing; so he took up
i pencil. His hand wrote automatically:
/ BERNARD Palissy.' Here is pleasant
visiting card, said he to himself, and,
: as it happens, one of my acquaintance.
He questioned: Where are you9' Ber-
rubbed his hands. well, Well! You
must tell me what is going on there.
And, to the. great surprise Of our i'm
provised medium, instead Of written
words such as he expected to come
from his pencil, or from his burin (for
some Of his designs were engraved by
himself), landscapes made their appear
ance.
"Such is the origin of these curious
l works, which have so little relation to
the violent and incisive style OF the
dramaturgist. They were, without point
of support, without proof, as it woven
out of a dream, out of fluid, out OF
sprigs of nothingness. They might be
called the fy-tracks Of the Beyond
, They are effeminate, weary, capr1clous
, subtilized, of structure so slender, SC
uuSUdDlO, 81 uuUdiduCONt3 Cho1O ~ oSSA-AA
T quite paradoxical to think that the au
thor of 'Patrie' should have been able
to evolve them from his powerful I'M I'M
agination, so little in sympathy with
these linear perplexities and doubts
this feeble flora, these homesick stones
, these gates plated Of dragon flies
these rosettes. like crushed butterhle1s
|. HAnd the fantastic insinuates itself
= in the midst Of all this-soft stalrcases
supported by an almost yaporous sheet
Of water, facades made out Of musica
+ notes, as in Mozart g House, columns
, of elder pith, roofs Of sparks, faunE
| playing tenpins, flying satyrs, giants
: caught in spiders webs, etc.
: sfFrom the palace Of the Prophe
8 Elias the imagination Of the MEDIUM
9 becomes still more fantastic. M. Sar
r into certain shape. When he came t.
Y place himself under the influence hi
: pencil was twice broken: What is thu
Q matter9' asks Sardou.. 7 must have
larger kind of paper Il have none.
Go and get some And the Influence
directs him to a certain stat1oner
shop that he had never noticed, bu
before which he had often passed. Thi
strange power was quickly Withdraw
are convinced the spirit said to him
you have better things to do AM
Victorien Sardou was no longer me
$ How did M. sardou do it, Hi
. . hand Jumped here and there, every
. where, busy, but uncertain, confused
:, worker, which did not allow one to fore
. see it's purpose. When one sees see, nm
at work says an account IN ne h If,
:. perceives at once the lack Of premedi
!, tation and purpose; his hand, impellet
i by an occult force, follows the pencl
f or the BURN in the most irregular an
L confused way, going with unexample'
l.. rapidity from place to place, and work
; ing over all parts of the drawing a
: the same time, without any method o
$ system. From this there results at frs
~beh esnao BE- Until t
quite completed.'
lar proceeding is not NJ. Sardou s ow
work; we have seen all medium artist
proceed in the same manner
M. Bots relates that the painter an
en.graver, Fernand Desmoulin, tn
friend of Emil lola, several years ag
suddenly found out that he was a me
dunn. Under an influence, which h
himself persists in believing to be ez
trahuman, if not superhuman, he drew
painted and engraved strange figures
unsuspected landscapes, and even al
thentic portraits Of dead people-a]
} totally different from any Of his pre-
vious owrks. -
In the first place, the drawings, dry
points and water colors due to til
spirit influence, and which are signe
by Astarte, old master and instructor
are finished with rapidity such (fro1
twenty-five to forty minutes) that N
Desmoulin, could not in the same lengt
of time cover the same space with eve
) the slightest sketch. And then, hi
hand does this work unconsciously, fc
he does not know what he is doing; b
; works in the dark, and often with hi
| hands blindfolded.
! The power which came SO suddenl
and unexpectedly to M. Desmoulin he
/ departed, and he is no longer capa bic {
, producin gthese old masterpieces. +
has returned to his, previous conditio
\ and is now normal and consciol
artist again. He is so thoroughly co,
WINGED, however, that those prodigi'
) of his pencil or his brush are foreign
himself that he has refused to pa
! with them, and intends to leave the
, to museum as so many psychologist
documents.
AN EMPTY TITLE.
, Detroit Free Press.
Il Friend of the Family-Why do you a