Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-09-06
PATRONS OF THE SCULPTOR .
Ladies Who Want Their Faces Duplicated
in Marble or Terra Gotta.

Ladies Who Want Their Faces Duplicated
in Marble or Terra Gotta.
Sculptors have at last become the rage
as well as painters. It is all the style
now for woman to have her bust made
by a sculptor of renown. If painting
renders the expression Of eyes and face
bust shows plastic beauty, the graceful
bend of the head, the curve of the neck
and the slope Of the shoulders. Beside,
there is certain dignity of bearing at.
tached to a bust that one in vain tries to
see in painting. Marble seems to bring
out all the austere virtues of the model !;
it is cold; it is classical. A mundane Wis
ltor entering a drawing room In which
he sees the bust of the lady he is calling
upon Is apt to be so impressed with her
cold dignity that however willing he was
on his entrance TO engage in an innocent
Irritation, the sight of the bust Will freeze
his intentions. How different it is with
a painting. The face is sure to have its
finest, most engaging smile, the dress the
most becoming shade and cut, the pose
most suggestive of amiable sociability,
the head so tapering, soft and shakable,
the whole so charming, so fascinating,
that every gentleman beholder cannot
but think: How lovely that woman
must be in tete-a-tete."
Some ladies prefer terra Gotta to mar
BILE; it gives the bust more life like ap-
pearance; the accentuation of the feat
ures is less austere and hard. But terra
Gotta is most fragile; climate and dust
Affect it; besides, it is not considered
nearly as elegant as marble. 1t is much
more disagreeable to pose for bust than
a painting: the sculptor's studio is gen
orally cold, bare, scantily draped apd
furnished; the model must mount on a
hard bearing block, for she must be
raised certain distance above the eyes
of the artist. The wet clay 10 first applied
on an iron apparatus; then the sculptor,
with large strokes of the gauge. traces
the shape Of the head and the outline of
neck and shoulders, after which. with
the end OF his thumb, he models the
face, forms the nose, digs out the eyes,
gives shape to the neck and cheek and
sketches tie ears. s'How slovenly a
sculptor goes about to make works Of
art, - exclaimed lady, surprised to see
a great artist in his stained white blouse,
an old straw hat over his eyes, his face
full Of splashes of clay and his hands
wrist deep in wet mud. The great sculp-
tor Pajau. before the king and the whole
court at Versailles, used to take his coat
off and raise lis shirt sleeves above the
elbows TO work at his models.
Society women are as hard to please
with busts as with oil paintings. They
watch the progress on the bearing block
with feverish anxiety, for the artist may
aecentuate features which ought 10 be di-
minislled, and lay no stress on those
which produce harmony in the ensemble.
My ears are little out of proportion,
are they not:" remarks the Countess s.,
whose rival in society is often compli-
rlented for her small, pink. shell Ike
appendages. Small ears do not inoi-
cate intelligence" answers the sculptor,
as be delicately mods the auricle. But
- s-as are certainly tno small" "Ah-