The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-11-17
AGAINST THE NUDE IN ART.
A Paper Suggested by the Picture of
1.-THE Nymphs Bathing"
A Strong Argument Showing the Tndelicacy
and Impropriety of Such Exhibitions
"A Plea for Decency.

l have been requested by Mrs. Stone to
give, in connection with a sketch OF Bou-
guereau, my opinion in regard to 1.-THE nude
in art" 1 do not propose to enter upon any
crusade against the nude,'' nor do l come
with severe condemnation of this one par
ticular picture by Bouguerau-which, if we
must have 1.-The nude in art, is as beautiful
a picture, with its soft, low cOloring. as art
could possibly make it-but 1 wish simply to
give my convictions upon this branch of art
in general. 1t seems to me there are two Sc
rious objections to the exhibition of pictures
OF nude women. First, the indelicacy of it.
1 do not believe it can be gainsaid that what
is indelicate in actual life does not lose its
indelicacy when reproduced in art.
If a dozen naked women entered a room
filed with people, we would be shocked at
the I~mmodesty, the downright vulgarity of
the proceeding. If an artist places these
dozen women on canvas for the public to
gaze at, has the indelicacy entirely disap-
peared?
l think we deceive ourselves in trying to
educate ourselves not to care when the max
edneSs of our sex is exposed to public view.
| know there are many women who choke
back their objections, who dare not say a
word against such exposure because it is art,
high art, and they are told art Xcuses every
thing and art must have this field; and they
fear they may expose their ignorance of art
by c~ondemninga thing which has been APP
proved by artists for centuries.
My dear women, the artists of the past
have been men, and men have done in art
exactly what they did in literature-made it
frequently indecent till women entered
there and bravely demanded q publication.
OF course the artist would cry out indig-
nantly if he was to be denied this field for
his brush. The anatomist growls and remon-
strates when viyisection is refused him; but
art can do without the one quite as well as 1t
has been decided science can do without the
other.
If the artist must paint the nude let him
paint his own sex or palnt chlldren-he has
no right to snatch from women the cover
ing that civilization and decency have
ordained they must wear.
TWO GROUNDS OF OBJECTION.
This idea of d~ecency, which is a large factor
in civilization, is right-it is to be trusted,
it means something, and cannot with i'm
punity be disregarded.
How ever beautiful the female form may
be, the delicacy which clothes it and forbids
the world to contemplate it is more beauti-
full still; and art, though it claims for itself
great preTO2dIlVSS, DdS no TISuI 10 WOuuu
womanhood by inSultingly ignoring this
delicacy, and then seeking to peryert the
Judgment of woman by flattery and false
arguments so they shall make no protest
against such treatment.
The second objection l make to the exhi-
bition of pictures OF nude women is still a
more important One-lt is a moral one.
Every picture appeals to something in the
nature of the observer; aud art, to serve its
highest purpose, should address itself to the
noblest aad purest impulses and feelings.
There is sufficient sensuousness in human
nature to answer all human needs without
making any effort to arouse it. 1t is fire.
q~uently said with great JUNCTION i'll vindica-
ton of the nude that Ito the pure all things
are pure" butthat is no vindiCation, for all
are not pure. and we are our brothers
keeper" For pure women we feel no con-
Germ. They need not be taken in considera-
ton in this matter at all.
What an amazing blunder some men make
in fancying the vulgarity and sedUctions of
the world threaten only their wives and their
daughters-that if no INFECTION reaches wo-
men no harm is done. The gentleman of
this city who expressed his intention to take
his wife to see Bouguereau's "Nymphs and
Satyrs'' in Stokes's restaurant, in New York
city, and said he did not believe the picture
would harm her at all, has small compre-
hension of the situation. Harm her! A
pure woman may pass through the mire Of
sin without speck or tlnge, with only her
heart made holier and more tender. All,
the eyes are gazing in the wrong direction.
The enemy is not approaching from that
side. 1t is sweeping up from the opposite
direction toward where our sons are biv-
ouacked.
So long as throughout the whole wide
world, in every city and every town, there
are places of i%ll-repute prepared to meet the
demands of sensuality, SO long as we are
told by gifted men ana good men, like Lecky,
the historian, that there is no hope that this
nameless sin can ever be wiped out from the
world because of an excessive demand which
will never cease-then we know that there is
a vast army who are not pure, and what
weight has the saying that "to the pure all
things are pure" since we know this army is
being forever recruited by sons of women as
good as we.
cannot refrain from quoting a passage
from Lecky, taken from the chapter on the
position of women in his history of Euro
pean morals. Speaking of the ''prostitute,'
he says: She remains while creeds and civil
~lization rise and fall, the eternal ~priestess of
humanity, blasted for the sins of the people,"
Mark you, eternal priestess of humanity"
for Lecky believes this creature is ultimate
ly the most efficient guardian of virtue"
that but for her the purity of countless
happy homes would be polluted"
THE BEAUTY WHICH EXALTs.
This is a mans view, and we are to place
some confidence in it, and though none OF
us, I think, take the hopeless view of the
case that Lecky does, yet there are sufficient
facts before us to make it evident that frail
humanity should be guarded against every
influence, even the slightest, which may
arouse s-ensuouSness.
l do not sympathize with the old puritanic
idea that all beauty is a snare OF the devil, but
we should offer Tor contemplation only that
beauty which exalts, which softens ~ferocity
and Gains all the passions, and draws the
soul upward as the sur draws the ocean to
the heavens; and l do not believe the CON
temptation by men of the naked female fig
ure does this. We may say it ought to, but
it does not. There's the fact, and facts are
stnhhnrn thinos and will not be smiled