The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-10-14
THE STUDY OF ART.
PICTURE OF GIRL STUDENTS LIFE
IN A PARIS ATELIER.
What One of Their Number Says of Their
Work-A Pleasant Bit Of Student Life.
Sunday Afternoons-Not UnfeminIzed.


work-A Pleasant Bit OF Student Life.
Sunday Afternoons-Not UnfeminIzed.
Better than any words of mine is what one
of these girl students says herself in some
notes which l asked her TO make for me in
addition to the sketches made by another girl
at the same atelier. give them Just as they
are:
For any girls coming to study art in Paris,
TO live as we do in a quiet hotel, is far better
and more economical than to board with a
French family or pension, unless with wish
to master the language Nothing can be
more simple than our habits. We have one
room, and we descend to table d'hote when
we choose-not otherwise. We cook our own
breakfast over spirit lamp at a m and so
straight to the atelier where we work till -
Then dejeuner at n cremerie and work again
till p. Returning TO our hotel we can
dine if we like, but more often we boil our
kettle, have tea and an egg, and spend the
evening over a book 1t sounds rather n
monotonoUs life, yet we all find it very at
tractive, and the weeks slip by only too fast.
Even the regular morning walk is pleas
ant. At the hour the Quarter Latin Is filed
with street sellers wheeling their stalls about
housewives marketing i'll their white caps,
and little children in black pinafores mot
white ones being taken to school by their
their way TO business, a newspaper in one
hand and a roll in the other, imply that hard
working Paris is waking up 70 its daily life.
STUDY OF CHARACTER.
Our atelicr gives us every opportunity for
the study of character. In daily work to-
gether most peoples natures are clearly dis
played. There is the elderly Spi;Ister, pre-
vented from study in her youth, and always
envying the younger students who have their
l.,E. -.
artist who has been toiling for years without
making any visible progress, hut who stiLl
hopes TO succoed one day. Another, equally
hardworlSing, with her whole soul IN her
work, scornS such n thing us outward APP
pcarancc, and her dress, once aesthetic, looks
like a worn out robe de chambre slowly
melting into n bundle of rags. But few
who combine the love of fashion with the
love of art comes here in costumes more
suited to the Champs ElySecs than our
crowded studio, where they are in serious
danger of rubbing against pallets, knocking
down eaSelS, etc.
"Companiouship i one Of the plc:lSantcSt
bits of student life. Our frugal tea parties,
when the hostess boils the kettle and sets the
table, and we all sit round the fire and dis
cuSS the last exhibition, especially our own
professors work therein, or the Success OF
one of Us III getting into the salon, which Is
sation never flags, for some of US have lived
at the ends OF the earth, and can describe
them well, and others are political spirits who
belong To a debating society, and wish IN re
construct the world after their pattern,
which the rest good-naturcdIy but Tesolutcly
disapprove Then where to spend our Sun
day afternoons Is always an important con
sideration. Nearly always We 60 out of
town 10y road or rail, and after six days
rflr NJ 81
ing with oil and turpentine, the smells, sights
and sounds Of the country are only too de
lightful
INTERESTED ~ WORK.
"Such arc our pleasures; but, after all, the
most interesting thing is our work. Every
Monday we have the excitement of posing the
new model. We begin enthusiastically, but
Tuesday, after the professor has criticised our
drawings, our spirits usually sink a little.
Lower still they get Wednesday and Thurs
day; by Friday, when the second professor
comes, they are usually down at zero. Satur-
day finds in deepest despair, only comfort
cd by the resolution To do better next week,
and that day is generally devoted 10 water
colors, or pen and ink sketches, or portraits
of some picturesque fellow student, usually
kept rs a souvenir when the time for leaving
the atelier comes, and the girls who have been
working together all winter 60 their several
ways, TO meet aEain-whcn and where, who
knows, Probably never"
But still they have done good work, poor
girls and mingled it with great deal of in
nocent enjoyment. And though Paris IS,
most will agree, not a desirable place for
girl to study in alone still necessity has no
law, and in community Is much safety Then
young students seem 70 70 through the ordeal
IInscath,d and, - far rs / could judge, with
out being unfcninizcd. For they are work
inSwomen, and, as they honestly say, have
no time" for anything but work. Il Is idle
ac-s which breeds the follieS, or worse than
folles, of many young people, teaching them
TO substitute Irritation for love, and the crav-
ing for mere admiration instead of that self
devotctlness which, however sad, Is, at least,
moro nGalc than the selfish vanity of a con-
oucriEs beauty. The busy life of a working
woman may harden her little, but it viii