LOUIS RAEMAEKERS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12083, 11 August 1917, Page 6

LOUIS RAEMAEKERS.

MAN AND ARTIST. TH E PITCHMAN WHO BAR-ED lIOKENZC'LLERNiSM TO THE WORLD. (By GEORGE CREEL in "Tho Century.") Many groat names will bo handed down to posterity as a result of the 'present! war—names of soldiers, .statesmen, churchmen, descriptive writers, inventors, and organisers. So far, at lca-st, tho arts have been singularly . silent, almost dav.ed, it would seem, i But one figure, hitherto unknown, has | already risen to an imperishable fame | throughout the world, a. modest Dutch ! landscape painter turned to an aveug- | ing fury, lashing out with tho most. ; effective weapon at his com in aud. j The cartoons of Louis Raemaekers I take tho pcon-lc of earth on a strange, haunted journey through the bleeding heart of humanity, past, ancient savageries and old bestialities new sprung to life, by vast, shadowy forms of grisf and despair, and along tear-drenched j ways that lead to a.spirav-.iou. I It is no more possible to consider ! this Dutch ernius as a mere artist, a worker with paper, ink am! lines, than it is to view tho Apostle "Paul as an itinerant orator, Joan of Arc as a military figure, or Rouget do Lisle as a. casual song-writer. The ireme-ndous-I ncr-s of Ills appeal does away with the j medium entirely, for even whilo one ; holds tho drawing, eves ceaso to see, ; mind ceases to grasp, and there is con- ' sciousness only of a great, imperative hand tearing among the very roots of being. It- in;iv ho that this man is more 1 HATED BY THE HOTtEXZOLLERXS than any other, for more than any other ho has bared 1 loh.onzolleniism to tho gaze of the world. Whether victory or defeat, whether peace or continuance of struggle, the/ pictures of the inspired Dutchman will thunder their accusations down the ages. They ! speak tho universal language. The [ artist., lilce tho composer, stands in no ' need of translation. Where men have ! sight, where mon have soul, Raemaekers will be heard, whether the piaeo be Iceland or Asia. Born in Holland forty-seven years ago, tho son or a country editor, he grew to manhood in the simple environment of the average Dutch middle-class home. In time ho became an artist; ha married; lie daubed the usual amount of canvas, sometimes with sheep, sometimes with faces, doing neither worse nor betiter than the scores of other young Dutch artists that clutter tho Low Country. About seven years ago he became cartoonist uii the. Amsterdam "Telegraaf." That was where; the outbreak of war found him. The peace of the world was shattered to atoms as tlio Hohonzoilerns sprang at the throat of the world. From Belgium came a death-cry, smoke clouds darkened tho day. aud tho shirs at night were as red as blee,d with the glare from burning villages. And red a.s blond were the fields where golden boys gave up their lives to stem thoinvading hosts of organised superstition. It is a sophisticated age. It has little belief in miracles; and yet in the case of Louis R-a em ackers there is nothing elsf* to '"believe save that, a, flash of the light that blinded Saul on tho road to j Tarsus found its way into the dingy of- | "fico of the Amsterdam "Telegraaf," striking full upon tho face of the Dutch cartoonist, driving straight into his vague, blue eyes. What else indeed? Until that time he IJAD DONE NOTHING THAT SHOWED GENIUS, or oven first-rate ability. His canvases had been conventional, and his cartoons wero of tho sort that hundreds of plodding artists wcro turning out. drearily in newspaper offices all over the world. Not even in the small puddle of Amsterdam politics had his work made a ripple. What is it but a miracle when such a one, in a- day, gains power, authority, and purpose, each with tho swing and cut of a sword? What is it but a hint of divinity when fin obscure artist changes suddenly, swiftly, tombly, into the invincible champion of an outraged humanity? "Christianity after twenty centuries," the first of his war cartoons, tells of inspiration. He saw that- bowed figure, with anguish, hopelessness, and shnmo in every lir.v. the bared back sinking under the full weight of naked blade and brutal scourge, with bleed on the blade and on the scourge, and over nil THE SAD SHADOW OF A FUTILE CALVARY. From that day to this one tremendous picture has followed another, each

epitomizing all that the human heart ha-s ever known of pathos, anger, contempt. grief, ardour and despair. The rango of Raemaekers is the range of the world's emotion. Raemaekers draws with hi:; life's blood. In every bug there .is an intensity 'that catches at one's throat. Even in hi?, moments of sardonic humour, when b-* exposes I 1 crdinand, the Sultan. tlu> Crown Prince, or the ICaiser in pitiless inLcule, there is the sense of an p' Vrpoe-. When ho draw:-, tbove i--- a sob and a- cave;;:; in every sub:Jo serohe. his visualization of i.ho widows and orphans of Franco bring and {hero i.-; a stark loathing in tho bestial features of his Huns; but h-hird every picture there is the same d"athless wil! to rou?c tho whole world to a realign ;on of horror. His mother war-, f-ermnn. and :-t the outset of the war Holland was j.'trong]y pro-German. Every selfish, toward!v interest drew him to the eaiue of the Central Powers, nnd when ho took bis stand ngainst the KohonxoUorus and Prussimmm, the' path that ho chose was barbed with every sacrifice and danger. Great artist indeed, but greater. braver soul. From the first- a violence of hate drenched hint, for the German influence.-? at the Dutch court j Vi r oro strong, and SV- prudent- burgher*. I Uronlv aware, of tho menace of German, guns, WENT SICK WITH FEAR. OF TPOVBLE. In Amsterdam, as well as from Berlin, hands reached out to throttle him. and pcrf.ee-utitm reached a point where ho was tried in the law courts for alleged breach, of Holland's neutrality. The trial that- wnc. to have been ftaemaekcrs's disgrace became his triumph. A public sentiment, sweeping all before it, declared the cartoons the voice of Holland, and the artist was acquitted. The Cologne. "Gaxc.tte." rnenking the deep anger that was Prussia's, made this declaration in the course of a lending article: "After the war Germany will settle accounts with Holland, and for ouch calumny, etch cartoon or Baemnekers, she will demand payment, with tho interest that is due he-r.'' In T'urone they speak of KaemaeIreiv's v>en :<s a .sword. Tt- is that, in- ! deed, hut far more. The cartoons in which, he slashes away the r.clcmn prej tences of tho centuries, destroying ut- [ tody the grandiose illusions built up j through cmmiiur years, burn into j memory; but those that tako comnleie possession of fhe sou] have to do with love and pity and tr-ar.'*.. At no time docs ho stoop to the edorification of war. His elnr-'on sounds in praise pF tho ecura".? (hat di,?s in defence of a country, his lash is over reedy for Hie beck of roworelice. but no paei fist in the world has evT oounlled ftrtenviekors's terrific exposure of the ghastlv hypocrisy that attomnts 1 TO VEXEEft- BLOOD LTJBT WITH PHILOSOPHIC PHitASE. Others may deal terrific blows against I tho iron .shapo or militarism that I .shadows Europe, but Louis H-acmaekor's stands out as the one great iiitc-rprota-tivo factor of the. war. He has given direction to a .just auger, he has cleared tho path tor pily, he. hits endowed horror with dynamic force, and into every premeditated confusion he has shot the whito bght of his passionate understanding. -Ao man in Europe, not even the heroes of battlefields, is more loved and -admired. .Franco has awarded him t'\eLegion of Honor, and bis visits to Paris havo been mado the occasion of such tributes as only the Latin, unashamed . of his emotions, can give. London, breaking through traditional reserve, bus acclaimed him in equal cieereo. oven though his introduction t< I I II peoplo ceil hardly bo tern c I t Courage, perhaps, is tile great uoiei in B-aeniiickers's work, thousli it. is noil greater than his sincerity. .Just as he fears nothing, no it is tho case, mat lie exaggerates nothing. Even when tie twists faces into weird shapes of terror, there is the conviction that be lias simply seen down into the roul. and :? PAINTING THE HIDEOUS Pi E A LIT Y that has been hidden too long a time. If a certain sheer frcme.ndoustiess attaches to tho simple figure of a- peasant mother, it. is becauso ho sees in thaione wretched soul a nation of mothers crying to God. for the return of slaughtered sons. Let it he said again that it is not possible to judge Louis Ra^roackers as an artist. Ho is a voice, a sword, a 1

flame. His cartoons are the tears of women, the battLei shout of indomitable) defenders, the indignation of humanity, the 6ob of civilisation. They wiil go down into history. They are history. It is one of the great works of the world which he lias done. Perhaps genius was only dormant, waiting lor tho cry oi : goriter.il catastrophe to bring it forth into vivid, terrific life. And yet-—for who shall say that; all things in heaven and earth aro understood ?—it may be that those same voices that cailcd through the orchard of Domremv called to the cartoonist in tlie ouico 'of the Amsterdam " TelegrnHf." that into his simple soul, recommended to God' by its love ol flowers, there fell a tear from on high.