The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-07-18
NUDE MODELS.
Very Few Perfect Women and the PrettieSt
Of All COlOred Maid of Yonkers.
New York Herald.

Huence models to sit or pose-frst, necessity;
second, vanity. Mr.. Sarony is authority for
saying that he has seen in his long experience
women, like men, have some peculiar develop
ment of exceptional grace and beauty. A man
may have magnificent head, a we'll developed
chest and arm, the muscles of which are the per-
lection of symmetry as they lie along the bone;
or leg not overburdened with fat not distorted
in the development of its muscles, but straight,
clean cut, we'll rounded. Old men with copious
capillary development, with long flowing boards,
high foreheads and patriarchal look are utilized
for St Peter or St Paul down as far as the neck;
but st. Paul with shriveled neck, a concave
chest, weak stomach and puny arm would
make the artist a laughing stock. AS with men
so with women. One has an exquisite profile
over the top of her head forehead of special
purity, straight, aquiline arched nostril nose,
"a tiny, shell-shaped ear, an attractive stretch
from ear to bust, we'll rounded shoulders sym
metrlcal figure here there, but never or
hardly ever. everywhere. A fact which has been
reproduced millions Of times belonging to
woman whose name has been spoken by mill
lion tongues was part and parcel of one of the
ugilest and homelest figures mortal woman
ever cursed with Artists understand this better
than models. A favorite model in the Universe
Jy building is hunchback girl whose figure from
the waist down is perfection. Another who is
well-knOwn in all the studios of the city has a
| perfect bust a homely arm but an exduisitely
nodded hand. Nude models are hired every day
in the year, but with very rare exceptions, and
then only in cases of depraved and inexcusable
taste, 1T is so entirely matter of business with
both employer and employed that the condition
OF nudity attracts no attention and suggests no
comment of an improper character
Many years ago the artist Regis Gignoux
accosted at the entrance of Fulton ferry on the
Brooklyn side, as he was going home quite late
at night from the Century Club by an old woman
who begged for assistance. Having Just missed
car the artist turned to give the petitioner
tride, when his artistic eye took in in an instant
the marvellous. the most unique make up he ever
saw. The beggar was an old woman, an Italian;
wound about her head was parti-colored
| 'kerchief. Her forehead, though low, was broad
and unwrinkled, hereyebrows black as night and
| beneath them flashed eyes of exceptional power,
without the faintest trace of womanly tender
| ness. Her neck was tanned and tawny. her
arms and hands like knotted rope, her costume
neat, cheap and bizarre. He gave her quarter
and his card, directing her to call at his studio
| in University Place the following day. She
| did so, and was introduced by him to
several of his friends in the figure line,
| and from that hour until the day of
| her death the old womans comfort in q pc
| cunlary sense was assured. Her daughter a
| girl OF twenty-five, accompanied her mother.
and at the earnest solicitation of the gentlemen
| present. who assured her as gentlemen only can
Of their entire sincerity in the matter, she re-
| tired with her mother behind the screen, from
| which she shortly emerged nude and attractive
| to degree. In speaking of it subsequently, Mr..
Gignoux, who made himself responsible for the
| pecuniary satisfaction of mother and daughter
! for years thereafter, said: Never before did |
| see such head and face as the mothers.
Never before, living or in marble, dreamed of by
| the artist and transferred to canvas, did l see
such perfection of figure, such compact solid!ty
Inf. Al, =
| 1t may be of interest to know that years after,
| when Mr.. GignouX moved with his family to
| Paris, the old woman being dead, he provided
| generously for the daughter, who married, and
IS to day the wife of one Of the most influential
| settlers in Minnesota.
AS suggested before, the two causes inducing
models to pose are, first necessity, second vanity.
| Those who pose from necessity are rarely beauti-
| ful in their face. Now and then there is a hap
| py combination of face and figure, but as a rule
/ some feature alone is utilized. 1t may be
| the face the arm, the leg, the back, the bust;
| but although that one feature may be per sc
alone worth literal copying, the entire physique
Is, as a rule exposed; because, although its out
| lines may not be perfect, they are substantial
and the tact and face manipulation of the
artist readily supply any deficiency in the model
! itself. Young girls and old women alike are en-
| plOyed young and old men are, the aver
| age pay being 90 cents an hour One can readily
| understand the WEAKNESS the excessive fatigue
that attend the standing III a strained or even a
| natural position in the presence of class or in
| the studio of artist. Consideration of a
| models nerves or muscles doesn't enter
| at all into the bargain. The
model hires herself to stand or sit, or lie, as the
| within of the artist may direct. for a certain
| space of time. she to receive a specified sum in
| payment. Old men gifted with patriarchal
heads and boards sometimes get as high as ST. so
| per hour. Women with pretty children some
| times receive much, but young men whose
sturdy iimbs serve as models are content, and
| have to be- with fifty cents an hour and some
times from early in the morning until late in the
| afternoon, they with a simple exhibition
| of leg, or arm, or other feature that amount
Among the artistic developments to be found in
Saronys studio, Tor instance, is a series of chill
drens pictures. There is the good girl. the bad
GIRL the mischievous GIRL the pretty girl the in
n0cent girl. the gamin, the street rowdy the
little tough, the crying child. the laughing child
These are all reproductions from one little girl
whose name is perfectly we'll known to all the
artists in New York, and whose precocitv as a
poser is regarded as something marvellous Be-
tween starvation and despair poor creatures
often find themselves. They don't want to starve.
they shudder at the very thought Of crime thew
are unfamiliar with the wicked WAYS that are
open to them, they have tested the charity and
humanity of their kind and find them wanting.
Happy is she with the flashing eve and the pretty
head. Fortunate is she with the outlines Of
beauty to whom comes the suggestion, ''Why
not offer yourself as model? You are sure of
respectful treatment of cash on delivery. of the
wherewithal not only to keep the wolf from the
door, but to have door from which to keep the
wolf" Naturally, supply for this sort of mate
rial IS much greater than the demand, and.
although posing has not attained the proper
tons as business in this city that it has in
Paris, in Vienna and in Rome. it is gradually
attaining the proportions of steady occupation,
and at a mild estimate, the names of more than
a hundred entirely reputable women and girls
are on the books Of artists who seek and use
them.
1t may seem strange to the ordinary reader
that vanity could ever induce a woman to ex-
hiblt herself IN the presence of one or more stu
dents, male or female-for these models are
utilized AS much by women artists as by men
but it is fact nevertheless, and the regular
professional models feel toward them and their
gratuitous posing very much as regular writer's
who hunt the worm of bread and butter and
seek the charm of bird and bottle hv literatnro