MENZEL AND HIS METHODS: A STUDIO VISIT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2667, 26 April 1905, Page 75

MENZEL AND HIS METHODS: A STUDIO VISIT.

On my askino: if I might see any preliminary sketche-s, he answered: "I never make a cartoon or a sketch. I did that once, but could make no use of IE, and found it a great loss of time."' But when I asked ho-w he remembered so many architectural details, he showed me a little old sketch book. '"Hei-e," he said, "y ou sco a few notes which I took years ago during an excursion on the Rhine. I always- note what strikes me, whether I vfant it or not. Iz comes in sooner or* later. It might oc-st jij3 muc-h time and trouble if I had to g-o and procure those at the moment when I require them."' H-e then returned the picture to its hiding-place.

On hi 1^ lejoining me I took my courage in both hands and asked him if he would grant me a sitting ibv a pencil drawing to a-dd to my collection of celebrated men and women. Naturally, h& demurred. "You know," he said, "I am a devil of a fellow." He seemed rather taken aback when I ai swered that that was what I had always been toil l of him. "I am engaged all next week," h& said. "I have a nr.odel .almost ev-ery day, but look in some sfternoon be-tv.cc-n 1 and 3." As I thanked him a pretty girl model was ushered 'into the room, and imrd& an end to our conversation.

When I presented myself again, after seme 10 days, armed with a portfolio and sketching materials, he sacrificed himself, after somp hesitation, and gave me two sittings, enabling me to maks a drawing ■which is published In Men and "Women of th«-> Century.

He was r-ery communicative — told me vhere to get the coarse, flat, square workman's pencils, with which he produced those admirable* drawings which aro the admiration of the chilisod world, and which, by the way, are done almost-, not exclusively, with the left blind, with the light falling from the right. For near objects, he told me, his eyesight was &c sharp, notwithstanding his 20 years, that he could easily distinguish the pores of the skin of his hand, and this without spec-taelos, which he only übed for distant objects.

Of modern impressionism, -which ho called "an epidemic," he spoke with passionate contempt. — Rudolf Lehmaim, in the "Westminster Gazette.