Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-06-25
Especial Correspondence

ELIZABETH GARDNER.
wood lattice work, jungle idols, beaten
copper vases, heavy purdahs with heavier
fringes, Moorish soldiers saddles and other
samples of native industry from tropical
climes adorn every bit of available space
mot occupied by pictures. On a screen
hangs rich costume of gold brocade which
once belonged to the rajah of Benares.
In corner of the studio are a series of
studies of some of the race types of India.
A Brahmin, with lowering brow; q wretch
eddy lean Hindoo, with that peculiar violet
blue skin which comes of old age; fierce
Belouchi, and splendid sample of the
youthful Afghan. Mr.. Weeks himself
looks like an oriental, with his black
beard and mustache, his sparrowhawk
nose and his dark skin, the result of long
exposure to tropical sun.
Miss Elizabeth Gardner is a native of
Exeter, n. H., and a graduate of Laselle
seminary. Her studio, prettily hung with
pictures and fine old Gobelin tapestry, is
Mt 70 Rue Notre Dame DIES Champs. She
came to Paris twenty-five years ago. when
the difficulties in the way of the serious
study of art for young woman were al
most insurmountable. She met with en-
couragement from the family of Rosa Bon
heur. whose sister is still her best friend.
academy under Bouguereau and Lefebvre.
Her favorite subjects are women and chill
dren, and she has been a successful con-
tributor to the Paris exhibitions for twenty
odd years In 1887 she received a Salon
medal, the first ever awarded in Paris to
an American woman. Every corner of the
pretty studio where she works is taken up
with choice samples of carved oak furni-
ture; the floor is streWed with the skins of
wild animals, and the stars and stripes,
which, displayed at the window, defended
her door from aggression during the try
ing days of the Commune, may still be
seen, tattered and torn.
Frederick A. Bridgman inhabits hotel
on the Boulevard Malesherbes, with a
large studio just behind it, separated from
the house by pretty garden. Both house
and studio are full of oriental curiosities-
gold embroidered stuffs, thick piled rugs,
iewelry in dead gold and dull tinted beads,
stained glass windows, divans, oak panel
ings, quaint fantastic jars, crockery, plates
and weapons, clay images, ornamented
pipes, oak sideboards black with age, and
what not? He is a southerner by birth
born at Tuskegee, Ala, in 1S47-and has
spent two winters in Algiers, year in
Egypt, Nubia and along the Nile. The ma
terial which he gathered in these regions
furnished him with subjects for the many
paintings so well known today to art col
lectors. In October, last year, he opened
class of painting for ladies, which is well,
attended
Miss l.. Lee Robbins is young lady of
twenty-five, who paints in huge studio at
"a Rue d'Assas, overlooking the Luxem-
bourg garden. She has been in Paris nearly
all her life, having come over to France
from New York when eighteen months old.
Her sound artistic education cost her ten
years of unremitting labor in the schools
of Carolus Duran and Jean Jacques Hen
ner. The bare sight of her studio, with its
brown walls and vast size, unrelieved by
any of those gorgeous knicknacks so dear
to the heart of most artists, shows that
E,uch sober work is done there.
Henry Mosler's studio is at No. Is Rue
de Washington, just off the broad Avenue
aes Champs Elysees. 1t is spacious and
well lighted, its chief ornament being some
antique Breton furniture in dark carved
oak wood very quaint and picturesque in
style Breton costumes and sketches of
Breton scenery are visible on all sides. Mr.
Mosler is pupil of the we'll known French
painter E. Hebert After working for
some time at Dusseldorf and at Munich,
he finally settled in Paris, and since 1873
has been an annual exhibitor at the Paris
salon. Mr. Mosler opened last year an art
glass for ladies, and is at present organic
ing 2 party of his pupils to set out in June
on an artistic pilgrimage to Quimperle, one
of the most picturesque towns in Brittany,
country which is the delight of artists.
Mr. Mosler is married and has five chill
dren, one of whom, his boy Gustave, aged
sixteen, bids fair to rival his father in the
art of welding a successful brush.
@. S. TrueSdell, a native of Waukegan,
near Chicago, began his study of art at the
Art academy, Philadelphia, in 1878, and
worked there during three winters Mr.
Truesdell paints all his pictures from nat
ure, and spends about six months of the
year in the country. He is now at Ecouen,
few miles from Paris, where he has
passed the winter and painted his Salon
picture ''Sheep and Shepherdess." He has
several portraits to paint in French and
American families in Paris
Peter A. Gross, who has his studio at 9
Rue nuperre was thrown on his own re-
sources at the age of sixteen and began the
struggle for life-now working in saw
mill, now driving a lumber train or teach
ing in a school. He was led into artistic
pursuits by chance. His first envoi to the
Salon was accepted and well placed. This
was in 1888 The picture represented the
oahAe vi 'he Mains anu hoM hahSs
in the Academy of philadelphia. The year
following he contributed Mare Rinard, VI
water effect, now owned by the Comte de
Moustier. He has since steadily advanced
in public favor, and bids fair to become
one of the best of our American landscape
painters.
Julius E. Rolshoven, the pastelist, was
born at Detroit in the year 1853. His
father, a well known engraver in that
town, sent his son julius, who early showed
a disposition for art, to Dusseldorf. Ii
1887 Mr.. Rolshoven decided to come te
Paris. He entered the studio of Tony
Robert Fleurv and RouRuerean. and ex