Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1886-10-24
GLNPSHS OF AN ARTISTS LIFB AND
ARTISTS MATERIALS.
Society Women Whose Vanity Leads Them to the
~ShdiO-POSing With aPrsty Model in a
Filtration Scene.
H7nru Ben ia the Inter. ooean

low as twenty-five Genus, anu al AS1oI JAIN
young lady in the city cannot be hired Tor
less than S. per hour. She's q burlesque
actress, and is blessed with q figure so per-
feet that she easily find artists among the
weather. sort willing to pay this exhorbi-
tant price in order to have her pose. In
addition to a form and limbs that are fault
less she has a great range of facial express
sion, and can simulate any emotion neces-
sary for the picture. This young creature
is rapidly growing rich out OF the artists.
She drives in her wi coupe to the studios,
and lives in on of the finest apartment
houses in town. She takes agreat interest
in art, pays fancy prices for pictures paint
! ed of hereslf, and very often lends money
TO her artist friends when they are hard
up. When a picture for which she has
posed is in any of the exhibitions she IS al
ways to be found there on reception days
with some actress friends, and making no
attempt to disguise the fact that she Is
proud of the symmetry of her figure. She
is not the only one on the stage who adds
to a theatrical salary by posing for artists.
Actors and actresses, by the nature OF their
profession, are able to assume various ex-
pressions .offace which other models find it
difficult, if not impossible to do, They
have a leisure in the afternoons, and find
it a lucrative as well as a pleasant task to
while away a few hours before theatre time
in the studios.
These, however, are the exceptional
models. The great majority IS composed
of men, women and children, who follow
no other occupation. They are of all ages,
all n~atiOnalities, all types of features and
form required by artists. Some of them,
owing to the possession of a certain artistic
excellence, are engaged all the time. Others
find it hard work to support themselves.
The social popularity most noticeable in
models is their taciturnity. When one
applies for work at 4 studio she enters the
door so softly that the artist scarcely
knows of her presence. He looks up from
his canvass rs her skirts rustic. model,
sir" she says in a half whisper. What
for?" he asks. Hands and neck" she
replies, or whatever may be her speciality.
Ii he is working ut a picture which needs
such features as she has he engages her at
so much an hour, or may make u bargain
by the week. After this she never speaks.
At the appointed hour every morning she
| ome to the studio and takes her pose
silently. After the sitting is over she cleans
palette, washes his brushes, and leaves the
studio without q word. She is no more
human to him than a lay figure or a bit of
drapery. When she is dismissed at the
completion of the work, he takes her ad-
| Hoo, I,,k ,psNaal Of har ma IN no gphafi-
TUFTS Torso" Limbs Head or
whateverSpecialty he used her for as a model
Models, Us a general thing, are neither
looked upon during sittings, nor remem-
bered afterward by their employers as
human creatures. When the artist wants
to paint a particular feature, he looks over
his list of addresses, or asks his friends to
find foot, a lip, or an eye.
The art school at the Academy Of Design
employs a number of models regularly by
the season, Some of them sit for the por-
trait classes, and exhibit in the students
paintings q great diversity of wrinkles and
rosy cheeks, youth and age, and various ar
engagements of costume. But most of the
models pose for the life class. There Is a
dressing room near the platform, from
which the model comes at the class hour
and ascends the pedestal. For a space of
ten feet around 4 line is drawn beyond
which no pupil is allowed to pass. Here
the model poses for fifteen minutes at q
time, with ive-minute intervals for rest.
Most OF the models are young men and
m in whose bodies the muscular
strength of the one sex and the beautiful
curves of the other are finely developed.
About q c~ertainI model who poses at the
aca iemy there is agreat mystery. She in
sists on wearing constantly n heavy black
veil, which hides her features from all
recognition. Whether she covers her face
because she is hOmely, or whether she is
too modest to allow her identity TO be
known, are questions that none of the stu
dents have ever been able to solve. She
has q perfect figure, and is, beyond all
question, youthful. Further than this no
one in the art school can find out anything
about her. The yelled model remains
still, as she was at first, a beautiful mys-
terry.
The developments in the suit brought
against Mr.. La Fargo disclosed to the pub
lie that a great number of society women
pose as models for their artist friends.
This has been a matter familiar enough
among art circles since pictures were fash
ionable. A wel-shaped woman is no less
vain of her form than n pretty woman is
conceited over her face. To have her
shapely contour portrayed on anv is one
of the greatest qualifications that a finely
proportional women can have. So it is
very usual among certain light-headed
society girls to follow the example of Ma
p~oleon's sister, who sat for q Venus to
CanOva, and to pose for artists whose seCre-
cy they can depend upon. Some of them
sit half draped, but other evince no hesita-
ton to sit nude, with the proviso that an
other girls head shall be used to complete
the figure. They are not, 0ndeed, very pa
tient models. They want to chatter all
the time, and have hard work to hold a
pose steadily for even five minutes. But
the artist who is popular in society circles
can find a,luxury of models that an obscure
painter can not. One of our clever Young
artists has Just finished 4 Hebe, in the
progress of whose painting he used four
different society girls as models, who felt
highly cOmplimented at being asked to
pose for the various charms OF the figure.
1t is perhaps unnecessary to state that nei-
Their their parents nor the public knew
anything about it.
1t is not, however, always an easy thing
for the artist to find in the general run of
models exactly what he wants to suit the
subject of his picture. Two or three years
ago one of our finest painters was in de-
spair TO get 4 certain Ggure for his eompo-
sition. None of the professional models
would suit him, and he had almost relin-
pushed the idea of his picture, when, to
distract his mind, he went TO the theatre
one night. If was q burlesque, a thing OF
tinsel and music and pretty girls. Sudden
ly, during the progress of the piece, the ar
fist uttered an exclamation, and, jumping
from his chair rushed out of the house.
He made his way to the stage door and
sent his card to the manager. The name
ON the card was q great one, and the man
ager was ObSequiOus at the sight of it.
When the artist gained admittance behind
the scenes he requested that the chorus
| girls shOuld mss before him in review As