Fuchs

Thus, if you please, Herr Fuchs they choose,

An Austrian Sculptor he

To draw our English King--ph, what An excellent decree!

So wrote a wag when Emil Fuchs had been chosen to draw King Edward for a postage-stamp design. The verse, the stamp, are reproduced in a book* of Herr Fuchs' reminiscences.

Through the month of June the exhibition of Fuchs' work in Manhattan has been attended by many who have read his book, which has been bought by many who have attended his exhibition, so that the reputation of the aged and courtly Austrian has been regalvanized.

Never a great artist, Fuchs might have achieved genuine eminence had he studied more and plastered less. His work has suavity, poetry, a fluid line, it has also a fatal facility that is its undoing. Without the vitality to be great, he chose to be successful. Many who see his paintings, etchings, sculpture, may think he chose badly. Few will think so who read his book.

Born in Vienna, he won a prize at the Royal Academy, Berlin, began his career there in the days when the Kaiser perniciously interfered in the work of every studio. Fuchs at length obtained permission from the imperial megalomaniac to execute a silver equestrian statuette; his reputation was made. He went to Rome, was patronized by yellow Italian noblemen with peaked eyes and thin noses; Queen Margherita came to see his work; John Singer Sargent encouraged him to remove to London. There he sculped everyone of consequence. His book bristles with passages like the following;

". . . Lady Randolph Churchill's habit of wearing about her neck a little medal with the portraits of her two sons created a sort of fashion which led to similar commissions on the part of many other people. . . . The Queen** greeted me with a good morning in a gentle, agreeable voice. . . . 'Do you play bridge?' the Prince asked me. 'No, Sir, 1 have never had the opportunity to learn, nor do I possess the necessary mental concentration for the game,' was my reply. . . . There was a light tap at the door and a messenger entered. He brought a note written in pencil which read: 'Please make me a sketch of our beloved Queen as she lies there on her bed surrounded by the flowers she loved.' 'A.' It was from Alexandra . . . It was at Stanmore that I first met Prince Francis of Teck, the brother of Queen Mary, probably the handsomest man I have ever seen.

* WTTH PENCIL, BRUSH AND CHISEL--Emil Fuchs--Putnam ($7.50). ** Victoria.