The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-11-09
WOMEN ART
What becomes of the Army of Girls
Who Flock to the Schools.

| New 1Ork ENeHtIlb SUI.
1t is estimated that there are between
three thousand and five thousand women
art students in New York city. They come
from all parts of the country; they repre-
| sent many degrees Of ability and their
number is constantly on the increase.
They greatly exceed the number of men
art students. What becomes of them all?
The few notable women artists can be
counted on the fingers. The catalogues of
the exhibitions show thai" even among
mediocre PAINTERS there are more men
than women. In New York's six best
known schools of art the instructors are
almost wholly men.
The League, for instance, which stands
foremost among such Institutions, has just
one woman instructor, while it's students
number one thousand, of whom fully three
quarters are women. These are facts. Their
cause is not clear, but, acknowledging the
facts, what becomes of the women art
students? One Of the ~best-known teachers
of practical designing says:
"Out of five hundred women art students,
about two hundred become designers, fifty
become teachers, twenty-five marry, ten
take to writing about decoration and de-
signing, and ten become illustrators. A
certain proportion simply remain art stu
dents all their lives long. The remainder
become wholly discouraged and either give
1t up altogether or else drift into the many
ways by which a woman with ever so little
skill and ability in art may make ready
money. There is always lots of work for
the woman who can paint a little There's
the coloring of maps, lantern slides and
photographs and the retouching of mega
tives. There are crayon portraits and
Water-coiOr sketches Of various sorts.
Fancy novelties furnish another field for
the discouraged art student. Everybody is
familiar with the celluloid brush and comb
cases. pin trays and paper racks, hand
painted ~rolling-pins and gilded gridirons
that fill cheap shop windows and disgrace
cheaper homes. All these are the fruits of
discouraged art There are also embroidery
designs and menu and Christmas cards
and calendars. Genuine oil paintings pro-
vide another source of revenue. Did you
ever happen to see the crimes committed
in the name Of art that adorn the walls of
rural dwellings in many out-of-the-way
places? They are many of them from the
hands Of discouraged art students and their
manufacture is as follows: A great, long,
panoramaiike piece OF canvas Is set up in
a great, long room. Discouraged art stu
dent no. 1 paints nothing but sky, a great
blue stripe along the canvass upper part.
discouraged art student No. 2 paints
nothing but trees and Shrubbery, with
maybe a COW or two, and a third discour-
aged art student fills up the remaining
lower space with grass; The daub thus
finished is then chopped into sections, each
section framed, and an enterprising agent
goes forth to impose them upon unsuspect-
ing rural districts as genuine oil paint
ings.'
by far the greater number of discour-
aged art students drift into teaching. Not
nrst-claSS instruction such as one gets in
the New York art schools is that which
Is obtained at the 'seminaries' and young
ladies' institutes There are thousands of
such institutions all over the country, es-
pecially in the South, and each must have
its teacher of art. To be sure, the dis
couraged art student is not allowed TO
4 taoao &c che u-1.,lI ill., t. L. -.
tering, all for effect. nothing substantial or
of lasting value. The teacher does most of
the painting herself. One such teacher
told me That at commencement time she
was ~overworked to death, simply from i'm
proving and in many cases painting alto
gether the pictures that were displayed
Lots of art students-girls who have re-
solved to paint nothing lower than the
ing fashion articles. and advertisements
said an ex-art student "Of course, we all
begin on jokes. That seems such an easy
and remunerative way of turning our train
ing to account. But it's not to be depended
upon for bread and butter. | shall never
forget my first joke: 1t was a poor enough
TO my thinking, very good, indeed. | Law
.shed much time and pains upon ii, and
then sent the pair to a well-known comic
ter saying that they, of course. had no
use for the picture: but would l sell the
hopes of becoming a funny artist. Adver-
tisement illustrating pays, but. oh. what a
blow il is TO ones standards and convic-
lions! / once took a lot of sketches 10 an
advertisement agency and the woman in
charge said: your work is too good. These
girls you've drawn are just as natural as
they can be, both In pose and expression.
but they're not pretty. In advertisements
they must, above all elsespe pretty /
soon found out that must'make big long,
dashed impossibilities for eyes. SPOOL
shaped waists and insteps that would have
startled Andalusia itself if / wished to
succeed"
Most of the art students that marry give
I'D their art Immediately after the cere-
mony is performed. There seems to be no
particular rule as 10 the kind Of men that
art students marry The schools apparent
ly keep no record concerning the matter.
| Personal observation, however, proves that
it is, like as not. a man art student. Now
and then il is a PhiliStine, but often it is
an instructor. If there Is one thing more
| certain than another about art studentdom.
il is that the instructor Will marry one OF
the pupils. II wonder how they'll manage
| observed refectively the other day. A
| the instructors are married now. Won
know" All ~spinster art students look upon
themselves as welded TO art. II is not I'M
| likely, however. that. as Mr.. Howeils has
sagely remarked, they could be persuaded
TO commit bigamy. There was once an ART
student whose mother objected to her being
away from home. To this objection the
girl replied: You mustn't look upon IL in
that way. II would have been Just the
same had | married. you know. but then
you wouldn't have objected. / am married
now; married TO art; though / must confess
that I sometimes seriously consider get
ting a divorce on the ground of non-sup-
port