Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-01
THE QUEST OF BEAUTY
A Painters Search for an
Ideal Feminine Form.
MOST: COMMON FAULTS
A SERIES OF EXERCISES THAT
MAY MEND THEM.
May Be Practiced at Home or With a
Regular Instruc-
MosT COMMON FAULTS

Written for The Evening Star by Katherine Morton.
It is as well to confess that when went
to question Edwin Rowland Blashfield on
the vital question of feminine loneliness L
did not expect to gain any practical 1nfor-
nation. To be sure, there are few, II any,
in America who are so great, authorities
upon this subject as is Mr.. Blashfield. Few
artists in our land have studied the real
and created the ideal woman through SO
long and broad. range of years and ex-
perience as he has.
But before my mind rose the vision of his
wonderful wall flowers" the women of his
artist dreams. the ideal figures that repre-
sent the human understanding and religion
and philosophy and emancipation; the god
dess figures that surmount all other figures
in the Congressional Library and range
around the collar of the great gold dome.
tits all nonsense to ask him about hui
man woman's faults and Beauties, i
thought in an advance state of discourage.
ment. He will talk in terms or the ldeai
and the classic, and there won't be Word
of help or encouragement or warning lor
the scrawny and the freckled and the
prematurely gray"
Then Mr.. Blashfield entered his drawing
room, where l was waiting. and the very
handshake of him and his good, wholesome
smile showed him, ex-president of the So
ciety of American Artists. able to come
down from the region of the great gold
dome. with its galaxy OF stately beauties
and talk of things. that concern the every
day people who walk about below.
you want to know what are the most
common faults that / find in searching the
ideal model?" he said Women of this
day lack the powerful arm of the classical
beauty. for one thing. For another, there
is tendency among legs to lack the proper
length as judged by the measure of the
trunk. In other words, women are inclined
to be short-legged."
There, in that one paragraph, Mr.. Blash-
field had furnished enough food for thought
to keep all the gymnasium instructors in
the country working over hours to digest 1t.
Two Hard Problems.
First, our arms are lacking; second, our
legs are short What are we to do about
the matter-the two matters?
Take the Dianas of early artists he
went on. Fs"Thefr arms are most beautiful
and powerful at, the. same time. 1t is the
rarest thing in the world to find any such
arm nowadays. soMany women lack strength
of arm. The limb is evidently weak, unde-
veloped. Those Uwho have good muscular
development in this portion usually lack
roundness and beauty in it. The muscles
stand out, in asmasculine way, and there
is none of the graceful roundnesS that is so
much desired by the artist"
rs this especially an American failing?'
l asked him. II c. .- -.-
mon in many models, and my models are
chosen from all traces, for l work in New
York, and that is a wonderfully cosmopoli-
tan city. Arms are too slight in the great
majority of cases.
do you see any hope for the lettering of
this mattef?,F s9.i;. III. ysl
"A great deal of hope. 1t is a splendid
thing this physical couture that is becom-
ing universal among our women. America
ought one daysto produce a race of women
with the forms of Diana and Hebe. The
athletic training that began as a fad and
is now developing into almost a religion
will bring about wonderful results in the
line of national beauty. If only the heads
don't keep on growing larger. That is one
of an artists greatest trials, You know the
classical standard calls for a small head
for woman, and the modern head is dis
tressingly large, as judged by Venus and
other beauties of old l don't know what is
to be done about 1t, for the modern brains
must have some place to stow themselves
away, L suppose. Perhaps we shall come to
form an entirely new standard of beauty
in this respect,
It Builds Up.
1t looks as if his final suggestion offers
the only way out of the difficulty, does
it not? Physical culture can do almost
everything toward the building up of
bodies, but it is at loss when it comes
to the building down of heads; especially
| with all the colleges and clubs and uni
versities doing their level best to make the
matter worse. Evidently there is nothing
| for it but to make ourselves contented
with our brains, even if they have cost us
| our heads.
what about the American woman's
| hips?' / asked. do you consider thai
they are too large as a general thing?
Some travellers and students have said
So"
81 don't agree with them Mr.. Blash-
field was prompt and decided. 1.-THE fault
is by no means common. Among the wo-
men whose figures are at fault in this re-
spect to be found many Europeans
as Americans
"And the other common fault?"
Short lower limbs: They are supposed
to equal the rest of the body in length
and they seldom do SO. The fault is so
common that the eye is used to it and does
not realize it as fault. A. student once
attempted to criticise a statue of Venus,
saying, What long legs she has! The
fact is that most women. the women he
| was accustomed to seeing, have short ones
Get Your Measure.
This latter fault is less easily remedied
than the lack in arms, and yet it is not
beyond our power to do something about
the matter. Study yourselves, and see how
nearly you conform to classical standards
Take your tape measure or your foot rule
and find out whether your legs measure
less than the rest of your length. Look
at pictures of Grecian statues and COM
pare your own arms with theirs; are they
as round and as powerful as the ideal
ones?
In perfecting your arms there are two
points to be considered Mr. Blashfeld has
warned yoa3 First, they must be strength
ened as to- muscle; second they must be
rounded as Ito flesh. Exercise will attend
to the former; massage to the latter
The exercises Taught for developing the
arms are Infinite in number They are
performed with and without apparatus and
the results are largely the same, whichever
one of many excellent methods you choose.
Dumbbells,, Indian clubs pulley weights
wands, games like bowling and tennis
homework, movements without apparatus
any of these things may give you the
large and vigorous arm that the artist de-
mands. A woman who had the most beau
tiful right arm I ever saw told me that
she had built it up from a lean one by per-
sistent egg-beating with the old-fashioned
kind of beaten II did not set out to beau
tify my arm" she explained II was mere
ly making cakes to support my family by
their sale; but the arm was reaping the
benefit all the time. My left arm is as
small and feeble as other peoples"
Tension Enlarges.
Exercises which call for tension are the
most rapid means of enlarging slender
arm. Go through motions in which you