Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-05-17
WOMAN AND HOME.
ENCOURAGING PROGRESS MADE BY
WOMAN WITH THE BRUSH.
Our Sisters in the Old world-Ladies Who
Have Ruled at the White House-What
Took the Boys Homs-Something About
Dress and House Decoration.

Our sisters IN the Oiu WOriu-Aaules VINO
Have Ruled at the White Hopse-what
Took the Boys Home-Something About
Dress and House Decoration.
At present interest in England is aroused
by the preponderance of women artists in the
lists of successful candidates for admission TO
the Royal Academy schools According to
the official reports for the first quarter of
1888, ten of the twelve new probations were
women. This year, ten out of sixteen was the
proportion in favor of the gentler sex. At
the same time, official records show that the
vast majority of successful female students
are utterly swamped before arriving at the
gold medal stage, and that, of those who pass
successfully through the schools, few ever
ever achieve anything above ''damning medi-
ocrity." What is true in the mother country
is destined to hold good in the United States.
Yet the number of women artists here, who
do attain excellence and recognition of their
abilities is most gratifyingly. on the increase.
Since Rosa Bonheur placed herself in the
front rank of living painters, the number of
her sex who have attained fame with the
brush has grown steadily and surely, until
no exhibit of canvases In the Old World or
the New World can DO held that does not
show among the best paintings displayed the
work of a woman artist In oil, in water
colors, in black and white, the fair workers
in the ateliers of America are conquering all
before them, and not a few have won fame
and wealth. That the number of these sue
cessful ones does not increase i'm proportion
10 the growth in the number of art pupils
passing through the schools of the land is a
result based upon natural causes. The male
artist is such for life The woman artist is
such-in nine cases out of ten-until she
marries. Rosa Bonheur was content to wed
art only, but her example is followed by very
few of her sex. The majority infinitely pre-
fer to wed a home, to ally themselves to rest.
to wed a man able to lift the burden of hfes
cares from their slender shoulders Then
come family cares, and she must be an excep-
tional woman indeed who does not put aside
the palette for the cradle and sketch box for
the accessories of the nursery.
And still despite the barriers raised by her
own nature, the number of eminent, success
full, even famous, women artists grows stead
lastly. The multiplication of art schools for
women; the widened field for women artists
opened by the makers of Christmas, New
Years and Easter cards-these and other
causes are constantly at work developing
feminine talent that, under favorable condi-
lions In after life, brings its posseSsor from
comparative obscurity into the full light of
public recognition and public patronage.
The women students in the schools of Europe,s
art centers are among the most jealous and
painstaking. They possess none of their male
collaborateur's fondness for detrimental
hilarity and students frolics, nor have they
the means, as usual thing, for such indul-
gence, even did they desire it. They are
abroad to study, and they do it; then come
home and devote themselves to their profess
sion. The number of these worthy young
women is constantly increasing, and though
the ranks of the devoted little army are deci-
mated-as to art-by the artful little god
with the bow and arrow, yet the catalogues
of the Salon and the galleries and collections
Of American cities show that women in art
are growing quantity, welding a power
and occupying position not dreamed of a
decade ago.-Pittsburg Bulletin.