The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-08-26
NAN AS A WORK OF ART.
Great Artists Discuss the Male
and Female Form.
W. II. Chase Says the Female Has Lost
Its Noble Outlines and Bsames the
Corset-Others Favor Women for
Beauty and Man for Proportion.
lcoPYRIGHr, 1899 !

I COPYRIGHT, lcS2-l
| Does woman deserve the credit she
has had for such long time Of monop-
/ olizing the greater part of the beauty
| IN the world? Does the masculine or
the feminine figure approach nearer the
ideal type of beauty? And among men
and women as they are to-day, in which
sex is the finer type Of beauty more fre-
quently found? In short, which de-
serves to be called the beautiful sex?
These questions were laid before the
leading figure artists OF New York
artists who have spent years in the
study and portrayal Of the human fig
ure-and these are the answers which
they made:
Il am inclined to think" said Mr.
William NJ. Chase. shat the wonan's
figure, in its best development, is rather
the more beautiful But the question
is a very difficult one to answer, for
how can anything be more beautiful
than the form of well-developed man
of fine proportions? After all, it must
be answered differently for different
epochs of the race.
Al SOAoAOC4 IlC OIcCh lOCdlS Oh
beauty as they found expression in
Greek sculpture, undoubtedly the fe-
male form is the most beautiful Of all
things. The Venus of Milo is certainly
the finest and noblest embodiment of
beauty Of which we have any knowl-
edge
But among the moderns, the people
~ &ha - l. !
that the masculine fgnre has kept
nearer to the ideal type of beauty.
Probably the reason is partly because
men live more healthful and more
athletic life than women, but mainly
because they have dressed more health
fully. The influence of the corset upon
feminine beauty has been ruinous. It
is almost impossible to find female
figure that is not distorted Even when
women themselves have not laced, their
figures show the hereditary distortion
that has come TO them from the genera
lions OF women who did lace.
Il do not want TO be captious about
the modern style of dressing. do not
think women have dressed as pictur-
esquely and as artistically in a long
time as they do now. But. notwith-
standing that fact, this other fact still
remains, that the corset has so distorted
the fine proportions of the feminine
form that one is seldom seen nowadays
that approaches the possibilities Of
feminine beauty. When you do find a
beautiful woman, one whose figure does
not show the interference Of clothing
with her artistic proportions, her figure
is more beautiful than the best mans
figure. But it is far more difficult to
find"
4 have often said TO nv classes" Mr.
J. Carroll Beckwith replied, that the
proportions of mans figure approach
the ideal type of beauty more nearly
than do those of woman. If we carry
the question back to the Greek sculp- (
lures we find that the strongly mascu- /
inc types, such as the Farnese Her. (
Jules, are not pleasing. The excessive
muscular development interferes with .
he harmony OF proportion. The same
hing is true of the feminine types.
Those that are markedly feminine are
Tot entirely pleasing. The Venus de
dedici, for instance, is not as pleasing
IS the Venus Of Milo The former &C
,ents too much the peculiar feminine
characteristics.
THE most beautiful feminine types
Ire those that approach the masculine
n their proportions, such as the figures
Il the Fates. And in the masculine
ypes those that possess somewhat Of
eminine characteristics, like the Her.
nes, approach the nearest to ideal