Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1897-11-21

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Oriental Studies.
Special to the Register.
New York, November 20.-What
stimulant prudery is! twenty-five
statues as bare as the palm of the hand
could be added to the collection of the
Museum of Art without making any I'M
due stir in Gotham, SO long as the
prudes let them alone. Because they
had driven the poor little Bacchante
that MacMonnies made out of Boston,
the army of the "rigidly righteous"
thought to do the same in New York
and so force her on to Chicago. But
the grave and reverend trustees of the
Museum were, as you know. not to be
frightened into an improperly to art, by
the fanatical shouts of "Oh how impro-
pert" from a chorus of well-meaning
but uniformed old ladies. | wondered
the other day when the rain was pelt-
ing down, when so many old ladies of
all kinds of grimness and wearing every
variety Of spectacles were heading for
the Museum of Art. / followed them
in and heard at once GREATNESS inQuir-
les: Where is the Bacchante statue?'
Many of them had to be called back to
deposit their dripping umbrellas, so
great their haste to view the ''abomina-
ton" | don't know what would have
happened if the way to the Bacchante
had not led them by nude Aphrodites,
nymphs and so on by the dozen. These
were either world masterpieces from
the antique or the thrice crowned work
of the best of the moderns, not con-
structed with any thought of Boston or
Kalamazoo. The absolute calm Of these
unclad ladies of antiquity, however,
rasped SO painfully on the army of spec
tacled prudes that when they at last ar
rived at Bacchante they gave vent to abb
solute disappointment. What, is that
herr" was the frequent if ungramat cal
cry that went up, " that little wisp-ot a
thing!" A little later they came back
to the thought of the prudery that con-
demned her, well. come to look close
at her. she actually hasn't rag Of
clothing on her, but''-looking around
her company is worse.
| dent know what they saw. Heaven
forbid | should trouble TO read ill-dl-
rected thought. but | can tell you that
| saw only light,
AIRY VISION IN BRONZE
of girlish Joy and reckless laughter.
must say that the pictures of it l had
seen did faint justice to its grace and
charm Its poise On enc foot-the as
cending line carried on exquisite curves
up to the bunch of grapes that she
holds on high-%conveys naturalness
for all it's artistic daring That is a
triumph in itself. Then the appraised
foot has no French aggressiveness, only
exhuberance. The chubby little child
laughing at the appraised grapes lies
easily, and you feel, safely, in the hol-
low of her left arm. Careless as she
may be of Boston or the w. CT. u,
you know she will not drop the baby.
Then the upturned, laughing face
there should be a better light on 1t
is simple merriment. The modelling
Of the limbs and body,is very truthful.
1t is no old Greek in its realism. For
they, at their best, localized in their
reach for perfection. The spare, al
most lank form with its consequently
prominent joints is not Greek at all,
but modern and truer than Greek.
At any rate, the treatment goes to
marvel with the whole figure, which
can give unmiXed pleasure OF line TO
the eye no matter from what point you
look at the work. | don't think, how
ever. that it would be in place in
stately library. 1t would not, as the
good old ladies fear, drive the book
worms to drink. 1t would not set the
tawzly-headed old professors who haunt
the alcoves to writing Swinburnian
sonnets to the blue-stochngs about
them; but, it would, | fear, so raise
their spirits and even their toes that 1t
would be impossible to keep order, and
MANY dull, heavy books would never be
written.
WOMEN AND WATER COLORS.
One cannot help thinking that woman
is making her way in art. The Water
Color Clubs exhibition which has open
ed our art season, shows seventy-three
women out of 1863 contributors. There
may be more who conceal their sex I'M
der mere initials, as r. Z. Sherwood"
stands for Mrs. Rosina Emmett Sher-
wood: but there are " Florences Nam
MES. Marys, Matildas, Carolines, Char
lottes. and so on that are undoubtedly
feminine. 1t should, perhaps, be sur
prising that there are not more yet,
when we remember how many thou
sands of young ladies take water col
ors' with their seminary courses all
over the Union. Yet those of us who
have been called on to admire Sophia's
really wonderful work for girl of her
age will not regret the domestic re-
tirement into which that wonderful
work falls in ninetynine cases out OF
a hundred. With the men it is differ
ent. They are not painting in water
colors. as a matter of course. A strong
election it must be that takes man into
art of this busting American world of
ours Hence even in this paradise of
women in art. we find the stronger,
healthier note among the works of the
men. One expects more landscape and
seascape than life studies in water
color-it so easily and beautifully ex-
presses Natures gentler moods-and
this exhibition is no exception. The
work of the club members, too. runs
more distinctively to American land
scapes. and that is much to be thankful
for. We do tire. don't we, of the ever
lasting Dutch windmills. French pop
lars. and views ION the Grand Canal
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