Evening star., 1902-03-29
THE NURSERY WALLS
Best Taste for Art May Be-
gin on Them. /,
PICTURES AND CASTS
WELL SELECTED WILL TEACH
WITHOUT BOOKS. rs
Little Folks Unconsciously Absorb
Valuable knowledge in an
Easy Way.
PICTURES AND CASTS
Written foc The Evening Star.

hiiAteh ~. ne ENeIlIlS
When a child is just too old to have a
picture of pink baby and blue cat on
the walls of it's room, and yet too young to
indicate its own tastes, there comes a time
when the whole house should be regarded
as sorehouse from which to draw for the
tit wall decoration of the nursery.
The average nursery, with it's Mother
Goose things and friezes; it's border of ba-
bies with hoops and kittens with collars,
is distinct abomination. Any house that
has such a one for children ten and twelve
years Of age, and even younger, ought, if
any sort of proportion is to be maintained,
to have oilcloth on its drawing room walls
and chromos over that. The nursery walls
are of far more Importance than the draw
ing room walls. And little care, and
very little expense, indeed, will make pos
sible a room which shall be veritable
school room.
How to Paper the Walls.
First of all, the walls must be plainly
papered. A soft gray or olive is best. That
will be a shock to the sensibility which be-
lieves In big pink roses and nodding scarlet
poppes as the height of the appropriate
to make a room attractive. People who
know. however almost unreservedly unite
in decrying fiowered and highly colored pa
per as trying to nerves and eyes, and in
commencing the olives and gray as espe-
cially fit for children who are active and
restless and need quieting surroundings.
If there be "a border above the rather low
set picture mOlding, the paper may be deep
cream above this, or, if one likes, it may
have a simple and unobtrusive little pat
tern of roSebudS morning g1orieS run
ming over it. The molding should be of
wood to match the woodwork of the room.
The pictures are next to be considered.
Take down and throw away all the pic
lures of children in night gowns, children
in roses, children with puppies included.
Take down all the little paper dolls and
the rubber brownies and the juvenile Ger
man favors that hang everywhere, gather
ing dust and offending the eyes. Place
these among the chidren's toys, if they
like them-and they probably do like them;
but do not have them on the walls.
Go to some shop where inexpensive cop
les of the old masters are for sale. Carbon
copies and photographers of the best things
in the world may be obtained at prices
ranging from fifty cents to two dollars, not
to speak of the penny prints. The pictures,
which will be appropriate and which the
children will come to love, are endless.
There ought to be a Sistine Madonna. If
you can, let this not be a small picture.
Let it hang well down from the moding
by a long wire, that if they like the
children may climb on chair. and as half
of them will, talk to the child and touch
the glass over the little face and hands.
Then there are children by Van Dyke, a
copy of Guido Renies Aurora, etc. Studies
in animal life, such as the Landseer and
Rosa Bonheur pictures, or any others to
teach love and care of animals, are espe-
cially to be commended.
The Use Of Casts.
The casts afford variety of subjects to
delight child, the Della Robbia studies,
the Donatello Laughing Boy, the st. John,
the Singing Boys, and bits of frieZes to be
hung above the door and in shadowed cor
ners. Teach the child the value of the dark
frames against the drab olive back
ground, and how dark corner is lightened
by bit of white plaster. Study the pic
lures and casts for which they most care,
and add to the sort which most appeals to
them. Encourage their comments and
questions, tell them stories about the char
acters in the pictures, and little by little
teach them the artists and something about
them. All this can be done at night, when
story time comes, and the children will
never know that they are having the most
important lesson of the day.
AS the children grow a few years older
nearly everything that is best in drawing
and sculpture may be introduced. There
can be no objection in the world to the
Winged Victory and the Venus de Milo, and
the Apollo, and IL the children's tastes have
been prepared earlier by the studies on the
greatest lessons in morals, if a wise intelli-
gence can shape the teaching.
AT the scrap-book age there can be no
greater aid to this sort of study than the
penny prints of good pictures a few cents
worth of which will keep children busy and
amused for any number of rainly forenoons,
and association with which will be of life
long benefit. Also in the back of magazines
and in art catalogues and advert isements
can be found quantities of little half-tones
of the very best pictures, and if the chill
dren are given these to cut out and arrange
they will soon learn the names and some
rude sort of classification. A game can
easily be instituted which shall permit the
placing of these pictures in scrap books
only when their names shall have been
learned and something about them can be
repeated. 1t will not be long before the
name of the artist spoken to the children
will bring at once to their lips the names
of the artists pictures, and the name of
one picture will recall to them both artists
name and the titles of his other work. The
moment all this is made work and called
lessons much of it's value is gone. 1t must
all be absorbed; it must all come to the
children by contact, and quite uncon-
sciously Four or five years attention to
this sort of art education will send a child
to school equipped with an invaluable store
of knowledge, and what is more the pos
SCISSOR of tastes which he might otherwise
never have known.