The daily herald. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1886-1887, 1886-11-19
THE STUDY OF ART.
PICTURE OF GIRL STUDENTS LIFE
IN A PARIS ATELlER

what One of Their Number Says OF Their
work--A Pleasant hit 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 / asked her 10 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 10 study art IN Paris,
to live as we do in 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 s a. m and 60
straight to the atelier, where we work till 2.
Then deieuner at cremerie and work again
till 8 p. M Returning to our hotel we can
dine II we like, but more often we boil our
kettle, have tea and egg, and spend the
evening over book. II sounds rather a
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
WIFI SITtcb bbltfh MuttliIR IutlT bllllh
housewives marketing in their white caps,
and little children in black pinafores mot
white ones being taken to school by their
bonnie or garcon Streams of men, too, ON
their way to business, newspaper in one
hand and roll in the other, imply that hard
working Paris is waking up TO its daily life.
STUDY OF CHARACTER.
"Our ateier gives us every opportunity for
h. 81 To-, Hail a.,
gether most peoples natures are clearly dis
played. There is the elderly spinster, pre-
vented from study in her youth, and always
envying the younger students who have their
life before them. Beside her is a patient
artist who has been toiling for years without
making any visible progress, but who still
hopes to succeed one day. Another, equally
Woodworking, with her whole soul in her
work, scorns such thing as outward ap-
pearance, and her dress, once aesthetic looks
like worn out robe de chambre slowly
melting into a 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 Elysees than our
crowded studio, where they are in serious
danger of rubbing against pallets, knocking
down easels etc.
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
GUS the last exhibition, especially our own
professors work therein, or the success of
one of us in getting into the salon, which is
held as a universal triumph to ALL CONVEX
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 TO re-
construct the world after their pattern,
which the rest good-naturedly but resolutely
disapprove. Then where to spend our Sun
day afternoons is always an important CON
sideration. Nearly always we go out of
town by road @or rail, and after six days
spent in the atelier, its close atmosphere reek-
ing with oil and turpentine, the smells, sights
and sounds of the country are only too de
lightful.
INTERESTED IN WORK.
"Such are 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 us in deepest despair, only comfort
ed by the resolution to do better next week,
and that day is generally devoted to water
colors, or pen and ink sketches, or portraits
of some picturesque fellow student, usually
kept as a souvenir when the time for leaving
the atelier comes, and the girls who have been
working together all winter go their several
ways, to meet again-when and where who
lnowsi Probably never.n
But still they have done good work, poor
girls and mingled it with great deal of in
nocent enjoyment. And though Paris is,
most viii agree, not desirable place for a
girl to study in Alone still necessity has no
law, and in community is much safety Then
young students seem to go through the ordeal
unscathed, and, 80 far as could judge, with
out being unfeminized For they are work
ingwomen, and, as they honestly say, have
"no time" for anything but work. 1t is idle
ness which breeds the follies, or worse than
follies, Of many young people, teaching them
to substitute filtration for love, and the crav.
ing for mere admiration instead of that self
devotedness which, however sad is, at least
more noble than the selfish vanity of con.
quering beauty. The busy life of working
woman may harden her little, but il will
never degrade or deteriorate her. -Harper's
Bazaar.