The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-07-02
MANY AMERICANS
 STUDY HIGH ART | arge Classes Arc Found In
 Many Cities ARTISTS PRACTICAL ADVICE Walter Gay Discusses Question of How Americans Can Best Equip
 Themselves-cltles That
 Offer Advantages.

Boston, July 1.-Art students abound
 A single American institute has more than 2OoO of them. Such cities as Boston New York Philadelphia, Washington, St.
 Louis, Buffalo, San Francisco, Mlnneap- olis New Orleans and others have well attended schools of art. withal the ateliers In Paris and in other European cities are so filled with Americans that the students from other nations hardly know where to plant their easels. If American art does not eventually qualify as the greatest art of the twentieth cen- tury its failure will be the fault of the general conditions, and not of insufficient schooling.
 The question has often been raised
 whether the student had best carry on
 the necessary studies from start to finish
 abroad, or altogether in this country, or
 should begin his work here and complete
 1t across the water. The safe and sane
 middle course, favoring division of the prospective artists time between Amer
 lea and Europe, is the one commended by distinguished American painter MT. Walter Gay, who by reason of his na-
 tionalty, speaks competently from the American standpoint, and yet. from the circumstance of his long residence in
 Paris, with thorough familiarity with art
 conditions there.
 Mr. Gay, who is a member of the So-
 ciete Rationale des Beaux Arts the So-
 ciete des Amis du Louvre. the Munich
 Secession and other organizations, lnas
 for some years served as European cor
 respondent of the Boston Museum of Fine
 rt nd 10th h Iic of
 tion in Copley square has frequently se- cured opportunities to purchase impor- tant works of art. In another respect MT Gay has been rendering an extremely valuable service, for he has acted as di- rector of the studies of the pupils of the school of the museum who have been awarded prizes entitling them to resi- dence in Europe.
 MT Gay, who has just left the United
 States after a brief visit has been spe-
 ially interested in the progres made by
 American schools or fine arts. Asked the
 familiar question, Should the young
 American who wants to become a painter
 of a sculptor go abroad or remain in
 tins countryY' Mir. Gay replied: Both.
 I am not ot those who believe that America as yet offers all the conditions requisite for the best training of a pro-
 fessonal artist We are too young a na-
 ton; our civilization in many respects is as yet too crude. We are improving rapidly as note on the occasion of each
 visit; yet it seems to me that to advise art students agains. going abroad at al
 as I have sometimes heard done, is ill- timed. There is, necessarily, an atmos- phere in European cities which Is still absent here. In order that the young artist may get his eyes opened he needs at least a brief period of study abroad. "At the same time, from what I have IL. l. Paris and other European cities, I be- lieve that every American student, unless very exceptionally situated would best remain here while acquiring the ele- ments of his profession.
 "We have an art that Is buoyant and positive. Some of the best painters and sculptors in the world are Americans. and many of the strongest of these are in- structors in our country. A student in this city for example, learns to draw and paint in the classes of men like Ed mund C. Tarbell. Frank w. Benson. Philip Hale, painters, or Bella Pratt sculptor, to as good advantage as any where in the world.
 'In many European cities and partic- uarly in Paris, there are difficulties
 which work very seriously against the
 beginner. For one thing young people of the United States do not come in close relationship with the masters un- der whom they study. The distinguished French artist makes his hurried rounds once or twice week, glances at the work says very rapidly It is good or It is bad and passes on to the next. In American art school classes, as I have observed them, the instructors take a personal interest in what their stu dents are doing, and in many cases be-
 come personally acquainted with them. There is, furthermore, in such a schoo, f.. and I presume in other American art
 schools with whose work I am not so well acquainted-a very desirable har- mony in the quality of teaching. The artists here sympathze with each others point of view, and each endeavors to prepare his pupils for the work of the other. so there is little or none of that learning under one master and unlearning
 under another, which is so fatal to prog ress.
 Particularly for women students, American cities, such as Boston. New
 York or Chicago, offer distinct advan- tages. They know under whom thew are going to study. and what the work will be like, while in a foreign city. ig- norant of the language they resort gen erally to those atelers in which a ma jority of students are already American. | The social conditions there are unfavor- | able. the American girl discovering that many things she has always been &C., <, customed to do subject her to annoyance | in Paris She finds herself more or less | narrowed down to small circle of ac- quaintances of her own nationality; she may not come in contact with the men who are destined to be great. unless these
 men are also Americans. In every way
 she would be better situated for learning
 the elements of her profession in her own country.
 "Of course, after the student, man or
 woman, has become thoroughly well trained in drawing and painting, and 1t is nearly time to strike out independent ly then he should unquestionably spend as much time as he can afford abroad. Art knows no country. Wherever it is