Victor Mindeleff’s Paintings 
WILD ROSES 
and thoughtful examination and study. The 
character of the mounting is also significant. 
Frequently of common trunk board, it is always 
selected with special care as a coordinate part 
of the composition, and occasionally made a 
factor in the general scheme by direct decora¬ 
tion. There is certainly not as much in the 
matting and framing of a picture as in its exe¬ 
cution, but there is much more than many 
suppose, and it is in their attention to these 
supposedly minor details that the modern 
Japanese score against their European 
brothers-of-the-brush. 
The general public deals chiefly with results; 
and it is right that a work of art should be so 
judged, but it is interesting and likewise in¬ 
structive sometimes to look into and become 
fairly familiar with the technical process by 
which the end is attained. Mr. MindelefF uses 
by choice paper not manufactured for or pre¬ 
sumably well adapted to the conveyance of 
water-color pigment—that is crayon or pastel 
papers, which, however, give him a soft surface 
and toneful foundation upon which to build. 
To avoid erasure he draws his design in minute 
detail on transparent paper from which it can, 
when the outline is absolutely satisfactory and 
complete, be transferred. Once fixed in line, 
the color is laid on in broad, clear washes; the 
effort being to arrive at the desired effect by 
first intent and a single application. Unlike 
the modern Dutch method, the greatest care is 
taken to prevent one color from flowing into 
another; and yet while there are no lost out¬ 
lines there are also no abrupt edges. Mr. 
MindelefF rarely uses body color, but his work 
has more of the attributes of oil paintings than 
aquarelles. He gives to them force, virility 
and depth; and yet keeps them crisp, fresh 
and colorful. 
It will perhaps be easiest to realize these 
characteristics by glancing at some individual 
examples illustrated herewith. Consider, for 
instance, the Iris panel. The upper and lower 
flowers are white, the intervening ones purple 
and lavender; the kakemono has a blue-green 
margin, with dark red inner line, and gold 
marking; the bowl is a tea green, and the incense 
box, red bronze; while the rug, covering the table, 
combines in its intricate pattern all the colors found 
in these and other portions of the composition. 
The paper is a gray crayon, and in the middle 
tints of the flowers and high light on the bowl ap¬ 
pears unaltered. The irises are broadly rendered; 
the rug and objects minutely studied. The mount 
is a coarse, gray board on which a chain-like bor¬ 
der, held in place by four conventional -fleur-de-lis, 
has been painted. On the left side, this device has 
been made quite insistent, while on the right it has 
been greatly diminished in strength. At the top, 
in the same unobtrusive blue gray as the chain, is 
an elaborate and more direct conventionalization of 
the flower; and at the base of the design, in Persian 
colors, circular devices repeat it with varying sig¬ 
nificance. 
In the magnolia panel and the poppy panel, 
somewhat the same method of treatment can be 
noted, though in these the definite conventionaliza¬ 
tion is confined to the lower subsidiary panels; and 
l 3 
