September, 1921 
25 
Harting 
The painted, mirrored screen in a 
sombre corner deepens the vista of a 
room by catching and reflecting light 
and contributing a centre of brilliant 
interest. Screen by Karl Freund 
motion after all, but to stare at a 
broken wall of panels pushed into the 
corner of the room and sufficiently 
high to conceal the pantry cupboards 
or the tallest butler from the farthest 
end of the dining room table must 
nullify its proportions and spoil the 
beauty of the screen itself. 
This portentous obstruction can be 
avoided by making the pantry door 
into a twofold screen which is left un¬ 
folded only when needed, and in re¬ 
pose acts as a door, panelled, carved, 
painted, decorated or otherwise. 
The screen is frequently called upon 
to create an imaginary form of seclu¬ 
sion called “privacy”. Low screens 
not exceeding 4' in height are placed 
near the desk or reading table or 
chaiselongue protecting the writer or 
reader’s head from the outside world. 
One finds many handsome and genu¬ 
ine lacquer and leather screens to suit 
this purpose. 
As Wall Decorations 
An excellent result is achieved in 
the usage of fine old screens of a non¬ 
repeating design as wall decorations 
and wainscots. In our days of rapid 
change of taste and residence, this 
method gives an immediate effect with 
comparatively little effort and expen¬ 
diture. By covering great wall spaces 
with a screen of fine color and good 
invention one follows the example of 
the Chinese. Their screens were es¬ 
sentially wall decorations and com¬ 
posed as such. Many lovely old 
screens painted on silk or leather or 
painted, printed or decoupes on 
paper will feel more contented 
on the wall than exposed to the 
eternal wear of being moved 
about. 
In making use of Oriental 
screens it must be remembered 
that different types of screens re¬ 
quire different surroundings. The 
painted Chinese, Japanese, or 
Korean screen is often a picture 
of the highest beauty and indi¬ 
viduality. It should not be 
placed in too close proximity to 
European paintings; the mixture 
of style is often not at all felicit¬ 
ous. Lacquered screens, on the 
other hand, being for the most 
part decorated with more formal 
designs, may safely come into 
contact with Western art, which 
{Below) A fine old Queen Anne 
screen in the Chinese taste, painted on 
tooled leather. Such a screen war¬ 
rants use as a wall decoration 
Harting 
In concealing a door placed near a 
source of light, the transparent screen 
both lends distance to the corner and 
softens the light instead of shutting it 
out. Screen executed by Karl Freund 
they will set off as a patterned back¬ 
ground sets off a picture. Indeed, as a 
background for anything—paintings, 
flowers, porcelain, furniture, or even 
a beautiful human being—there is 
nothing so good as a lacquered 
screen. Against the shining surface 
of black or red lacquer beauty stands 
out with more than an ordinary bril¬ 
liance. For the portrait painter the 
lacquer screen is an almost indis¬ 
pensable piece of studio furniture. 
But screens should not be placed 
in a room consistently furnished in 
the spirit of a time which knew no 
screens. A Gothic screen is an ab¬ 
surdity, and while it may be tempting 
to the owner to put a magnificent 
tryptich in a sumptuously carved 
frame on the floor, it would be bad 
taste to do so. 
M aterials 
Screens have been made of every 
possible material—of wood, of paint¬ 
ed and embroidered silk, of tapestry, 
of embossed leather, of paper, of 
porcelain, of glass, of anything and 
everything that can in any way be 
worked into a plane surface and per¬ 
suaded to stand on end. Screens of 
tapestry and embroidery are eminent¬ 
ly suitable for small rooms. 
In apartments where the fireplace 
is too close to a door, the opening 
may be filled with a transparent 
screen which acts both as door 
and as screen for the fireplace. 
This is the purpose of this screen 
made by Karl Freund 
