Humorous stories; Short stories, English; Supernatural -- Fiction
of the Nuremberg rather shy of maturing their future judgments too
rapidly and too irrevocably.
As regards Knopfschrank’s work, they did not lack opportunity for
inspecting and appraising it. However resolutely he might hold himself
aloof from the social life of his restaurant acquaintances, he was not
minded to hide his artistic performances from their inquiring gaze.
Every evening, or nearly every evening, at about seven o’clock, he would
make his appearance, sit himself down at his accustomed table, throw a
bulky black portfolio on to the chair opposite him, nod round
indiscriminately at his fellow-guests, and commence the serious business
of eating and drinking. When the coffee stage was reached he would light
a cigarette, draw the portfolio over to him, and begin to rummage among
its contents. With slow deliberation he would select a few of his more
recent studies and sketches, and silently pass them round from table to
table, paying especial attention to any new diners who might be present.
On the back of each sketch was marked in plain figures the announcement
“Price ten shillings.”
If his work was not obviously stamped with the hall-mark of genius, at
any rate it was remarkable for its choice of an unusual and unvarying
theme. His pictures always represented some well-known street or public
place in London, fallen into decay and denuded of its human population,
in the place of which there roamed a wild fauna, which, from its wealth
of exotic species, must have originally escaped from Zoological Gardens
and travelling beast shows. “Giraffes drinking at the fountain pools,
Trafalgar Square,” was one of the most notable and characteristic of his
studies, while even more sensational was the gruesome picture of
“Vultures attacking dying camel in Upper Berkeley Street.” There were
also photographs of the large canvas on which he had been engaged for
some months, and which he was now endeavouring to sell to some
enterprising dealer or adventurous amateur. The subject was “Hyænas
asleep in Euston Station,” a composition that left nothing to be desired
in the way of suggesting unfathomed depths of desolation.
“Of course it may be immensely clever, it may be something epoch-making
in the realm of art,” said Sylvia Strubble to her own particular circle
of listeners, “but, on the other hand, it may be merely mad. One mustn’t
pay too much attention to the commercial aspect of the case, of course,
but still, if some dealer would make a bid for that hyæna picture, or
even for some of the sketches, we should know better how to place the man
and his work.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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