THROUGH THE EYE OF AN ARTIST

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2766, 9 May 1916, Page 6

THROUGH THE EYE OF AN ARTIST

LOUIS RAEMAEKEJJS AND HIS WAR CARTAS

(By Louis R. Freeman, in the "Outlook.'")

"It will be a pity, " wrote an English journalist" after yjsiting ail exhibition of Louis Raeriiiaekors's war cartoons. in London, ' '"'if neutral nations should not havo tliei', benefit of seeing tlx© shafts that havq penetrated tho hide of oven Gcrm/i n self-satisfaction. Ridicule is a powerfu 1 weapon, and may reavh much furtbei; than oven tho biggest of big guns.'* , The report, tha/o . arrangements arc being made for 'il.it 1 exhibition in New York of a numbei: of the most notable war cartoons of thi 5 now famous Dutch artist awakens th-a hope tliat the United States, tho ctwe neutral that most needs their galvanic infhcii-.tt, may yet be prodded out d.i a self-ceiurcd aloofness that has never once failed to shock and dismay ever y American returning home from Europe uinoe tho outbreak of the war. . "l'our lack of interest, lack of sympathy, lack of understanding, of the war were, bc| me; almost tragic," a Frenchman who had heen on duty at 'the Pan-Amerii;; in Exposition recently said to the wriHr in Paris, "and. I suppose) the lack 0: f interest and sympathy —and a lack of ' responsibility as well— N are. directly due to the lack of understanding. I wonder if- you ever will understand?" It is, indeejjj understanding that we need, and, thjfi being the case, perhaps nothing could, be better for us at this time than a <:liaiico to study Raemaekers's cartooniV. They it was, scarcely less than ' -'the swarms of Belgian refugees and, 'the 'mounting casualty lists, that bro hghfc England to a broader understandinc; of the meaning of the war, and the;it may, be that will avert the tragedy ;of a continuance of the menial aloof uess and careless irresponsibility whici)), save for our easy charities to Belgium and Serbia, have characterised tlv i' attitude of America as a'nation from the very outbreak of the gieat Euroji ean. struggle. ■At the h i (ginning of the . war Louis Raenuu&etfs-was an illustrator of books, and up to that was known, even in his own count) -y, only as a very clever artist. _ .The warmth,of his sympathy for Belgium a/n(l his flaming indignation at the way flie cant of Kultur had been | invoked by the Germans to condone : what had happened there drew him at once into the campaign which Schroederi of , the Amsterdam "Telegraaf," inaueurai ;ed against the weak-kneed and guilaer-S( >eking neutrality of Holland. Tho folia -wiig extract from an editorial in the '! OPelegraaf" explains something of the nj ii;ure of the dragon which thsse two Dutcih knights set out to slay: ■ "We (shall not ccase- to combat a Governa tent (and an accessory Press) which, 1 mder tho mask of a dignified iieutraloi.\% provides Germany, by an iudefensii Lie export policy, with the most nat iessary provisions, thereby placing her :'(n a state to continue the conflict, arid committing treason, not only to its o 'tvn Fatherland, hut also to the cause $,if! humanity, which, by a powerful, mor-ally elevated Government, would be senv'sd in a wholly different way.". ; 1 Huns' Bete Noir.

Raeiriaekers's quick wit, ready sympathyf. i Vad keen human insight, together with .his fluent draughtsmanship, gave him nil ideal accoutrement for his "quahr.el just," and before a year , of •the wajr was over he was being acclaim,ed as ,the first, cartoonist of .his time. Germa:'iy, aghast at tho impression his facile/drawings were making upon lieutrftl o pinion, first tried to' buy lii's inactivity, then to palsy, his pencil-hand by threats, and finally put tho price of 12,00 0 marks upon his head, which rathet cheap appraisal of the haim Raon welters wan doing tho Teutonio cause I .still stands. - But, despite the notice attracted to Kaen jiaekers in Holland by the undaunted w ay in whiclv he had torn 'the mask from; tho face of Kaiserism for the bene fit of liis own people, the flood tide ofi-kis fame was not. reached until the fall of 1915, when he opened a modest exih'ibitioii of liis work in London. Tho mof ;ropolis welcomed him, kindly hut quietly, as "the man : whom the Hv/us fear most." Then it went to see ;(his. cartoons, paused, gulpei/i once' or twice,- .and finally with til "Itching fingers and compressed lips, ■w snt home to. think. At the end of a v. <eck it arose, arid,, with very un-British r inreserve, thunderously hailed the visj--lor as. "the man who was teaching I England to understand the war." '. I, will never forget the ; look of i iniugled hon'or ; and cnlightennient in i the face of the. editor of ono of Lon-

ion's most prominent -weeklies whom ho met . in a New Bond Street, gallery 'on the opening day of the llaemaekcrs inhibition. ■ '""By. heavens, sir," ho said huskily, "I never knew what tho war meant before—never knew where the line was 'drawn, what we were lighting for. It has taken these drawings to teach me, and.l am going to make it my duty to' see that the lesson is passed on to every Englishman in these islands." The following Saturday his paper contained an announcement that it had heen arranged that Raemaekers would ■licnceforward. draw an original cartoon for cach issue for the duration of the war, while this extract: from an editorial will give some idea of the way the lesson of the great Dutchman's cartoons "was sinking home to every man that saw them: "These, pictures, with their haunting sense, of beauty and their, biting satire, might almost have heen drawn by the linger of the Accusing Angel.. As the spectator gazes upon them tho full weight of the horrible crueltv and senseless futility of war overwhelms the soul, and, sinking helplessly beneath it, he feels Mncliued to assume the samu ■attitude of despair as is shown in the cartoon entitled 'Christendom after Twenty Centuries.' Never, so long as these pictures endure, will the punishment of Germany, cease for her crimes against Belgium first and foremost, but also for her studied brutality against women and children. . . . The groat achievement of tho genius of this Dutch artist- lies in his power to deriionstrate tu his fellow creatures war in its entirety, and not only ono small part of it. The great majority will leave this exhibition with an entirely new sense of the hackneyed Teuton' . phrase: Krieg ist Krieg. They will come away saddened and depressed, and yet with a new determination to do whatever lies within their power to prevent any return of even tlie temporary- triumph of Prussian militarism and all that it stands for and represents. That is a great, gain. Only when the general or popular conscience is touched can wo hope for tho certainty of' peace, which will bo a peace in very truth, and not a mere trace to enable Prussia to rearm herself and to renew that manhood whicli she lias wasted so prodigally." But while thero is no doubt that tho general effect of the Raemaekers cartoons in/helping to make Great Britain understand what it is fighting for and against has been to stiffen tho British resolve, one could not make, a greater mistake than to imagine that the groat Dutchman is a militarist. He hates war and all that goes in its train; indeed, as some one wrote in England, "no man living among these surging seas of blood and tears comes nearer to tho role of Peacemaker I,hail he." But the peace that ho works for is not a matter of arrangement between diplomatists and politicians, of belligerent and foreign nations; it is tbo peace

which the intelligence and soul of the Western world shall insist 011 in tho years to come.

His Createst Achievement. 11l ono of Raemaekers's cartoons, entitled "The Hostagos," a- wide-eyed Belgian child asks the question.. "Father, wliat have we done?" Ana "What have wo done?" is tho question that will arise in tho mind of ©very person who sees these cartoons. Then, in natural .sequence, will arise the question, "What must, wo do to prevent for ever the possibility of a recurrence of this horror?" "Crush militarism— Prossianism," Britain answered, and forthwith began to gird for the mighty task. America will doubtless answer in somewhat different words, but if tho lesson of tho Kaeniaekers cartoons sinks home on this side of the water their import will be the same. Then, and' not till then, will tliere_ he a foundation upon which to bnild for futuro peace. So ■ far, Raemaekers's _ greatest achievement has been the bringing of the true meaning of the war home to England. ' Can he do as much for America? Wo can only'hope and wait. Aloof and self-centred,' we have hardly yet even groped for tho light toward which England had heen struggling for a year when Baemaekers appeared with his torch. , Possibly in our own case the Dutchman's gall-tipped pencil could be better employed as a prod than as a torch. But one thins; is s certain—unless we develop a "will for the truth," a national conscience in international affairs, aiVl a willingness to shoulder our own obligations, come what may, it is not likely that we will be either led or driven very far out of the slough of aloofness in which we have allowed ourselves to Hounds? ever since the outbreak of the waT.