DECORATIVE LANDSCAPE 



with their little conventional figures, dec- 

 orate the covers of my pamphlet. 



It is a common saying among painters 

 that certain of their craft treat landscape 

 in a decorative manner. Some painted 

 landscapes are said to have a decorative 

 effect, by which it is meant that the prin- 

 cipal lines and masses form an arrangement 

 which balances and which is beautiful in 

 itself without regard to the concrete details 

 of the picture. L'Hermite's "Haymakers" 

 is an example which comes to mind at the 

 moment. Such pictures are apt to be ex- 

 tremely effective. It is still more inter- 

 esting to note that the best artist pho- 

 tographers also exhibit "decorative 

 landscapes" in their salons. Mr. Charles 

 Vandervelde, for example, one of the best 

 landscape artists in America, has a notable 

 penchant for this sort of thing. His camera 

 has depicted for our delight a number of 

 really wonderful pictures of this sort. The 

 significance of this fact lies here, that Mr. 

 Vandervelde's pictures are taken direct 

 from Nature. If his photographs are 

 "decorative," therefore it must be that 

 Nature herself also has her decorative 

 aspects. There must be certain landscapes 



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