The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-09-07
ART STUDENTS In PARIS.
TIE LIFE OF AMERICAN WOMEN
IN THE ATELIERS.

A Glimpse Into the Academic Julian
The Mixed Glasses and Do They De-
moralize the Girls Who Attend
Them P-some Rumors That Had
Little Foundation.
CCopyi0ht.)
PARIS, Aug. 29-ln the two ateliers Of
the Academic Julian for men there are.
perhaps, 600 students In the two ateliers
for women there are about 400. l do not
say that these figures represent the numeri-
cal proportion between the sexes in the
multiplied art schools of Paris, but in the
student world of the Latin Quarter the
women who are painting, modelling and
drawing cOms to the surface more and
more frequently. In the galleries of the
Louvre and Luxembourg one is constantly
stumbling upon their easels Absorbed
each in her copy of a Murillo or Raphael.
they seem oblivious of the crude art criti-
cism of the hordes of tourist lookers-on.
On the banks Of the Seine, in the cathe-
drals, in the narrow streets that divide the
crumbling medi9val buildings of ROuen,
everywhere the woman art student is en-
evidence.
AT Julian's they show the corner In which
Marie Bashkirtseff sometimes worked ny
herself, her easel and some Of her sketches.
| They do not speak of her work with any
marked degree of respect, though | hays
| heard young painter of the opposite sex
say they spoiled her with flattery. adding:
ut was pity, for she had good stuff in
| her."
The Academic Julian is probably better
known in America through the number of
| American students it has attracted than any
| other Partisan art school. The ntelier for
| women in the Passage des Panoramas is
approached through one of those labyrinths
! OF roofed-in arcades bordered with shops
| which are among the sights of continental
| cities. One climbs a narrow winding stair.
where models lie in wait to thrust their pro-
| fesslonal cards in ones hands on the landing,
| and is admitted under the slxylight If a
| dinghy brown room, with brown floor
brown walls hung with casts and sketches.
| and raised platform in the middle of one
side, behind which are hung reddish brown
draperies and on which a nude brownish
woman is sitting.
Clustered about the model, their easels
touching. are groups of women painting,
| some the full figure, some the head and bust
| only. They do not look up at a strangers
entrance; thew do not speak except
when the model changes ever so slightly the
position of one cramped arm. Then comes
| volley of impatient EXPLANATIONS, and the
brown woman silently and without move
ment OF her features resumes her pose
The students are young, from 10 to 81 or
%, quietly dressed, with Bohemian disregard
of the prevailing fashions, and as the min
utes go on in the stiffness of the place Won
could hear the fall of pin. A clock strikes.
AT the first note the model rises and steps
down from her chair. There Is a
lifting of heads and the voluble
chatter of magpies. The atelier
is not full. One should sea
it In winter. Many have not returned from
| the mountains from the sea- from the river
| In January they sit so close they cannot
| move. Mademoiselle, whose easel is there
| is the strongest worker. She is not in to.
| day. They discuss one another with perfect
| frankness and without jealousy, assigning
| TO each her exact position in the student
| world. The model stands quietly mean
| while, looking without much interest at
one or two of the easels The students saw
nothing to her; her attitude is unconscious,
nonchalant Presently she winds scarf
half about her person. In fifteen minutes
she is to pose again. Her face is dark and
not without beauty; her figure heavy, indo-
| lent, unattractive.
There used to be mixed classes at Julian's
for men and women, but the separation is
now SO complete that the students of one
sex know absolutely nothing about the
doings of the other With the exception of
the professors, who are the same for the diff
ferent schools, and the models, no male
being crosses the thresholds of the women's
| atellers, and save for the models, no women
under any circumstances are allowed to
visit the studies of the men.
Mixed classes, however, exist in Paris,
and the Academic Colorassie, which per-
mlts them, is by some artists allowed a
| hiohar Tnli n1c Ill.
in considerable numbers are studying at
both these schools, and their presence in
classes made up Of the two sexes before nude
models is frequently the topic of lively dis
c0sSion. That their attendance is some.
| times misunderstood, a little conversation
repeated to me yesterday abundantly ex-
| emplifies: A young Frenchman called on
an American friend at one of the ataliers.
Noticing the bright, intelligent looking girls,
why don't you set up housekeeping with
one OF themp was his immediate question,
"Hush ~ said the Anne rican. You don't
know what you are talking about. These
are my country women, the truest women In
the world, and your thought dishonors
them"
Nonsense" returned the Frenchman.
you can't play me for a fool. Don't
know the habits and customs of respectable
womens Would respectable women be
herep
IL must have been such misunderstood
ings as this, or else understandable generali-
cations from isolated instances, which
started the reports that gained such cur
rency in New York in the spring. apropos
of Mr.. st. Gauden's mixed class in sculpture
at the Art Students League, of the loose
ness of morals into which women studying
art in Paris. and especially American wo-
men, were said to fall These reports, if
true, pointed to such foulness in the atmos-
phere of the ateliers and such rottenness of
life in the side streets of the Quarter Latin
that it seemed only right that parents with
daughters to educate, and, for that matter.
sons, should judge whether art were god
dess worth serving with the mud knee deep
about her temple
1t was with some idea of learning the
true condition of affairs that set myself to
making the acquaintance of such of the
American students as | could find in town
In the early autumn, and after talking with
them feel assured that, wholly aside from
the question of the propriety or ad Instability
of mixed classes of painting or sculpture,
the young woman or man vi no studies art
in Paris has much the same problems TO
meet as in any other city. The French
capital is probably less wicked than Lon
don, no more wicked than NeT York; the
kind of life one lives depends altogether on
ones self, as everywhere.
There have been Individual cases of scan-