The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-09-03
AMERICAN GIRL
CALLS To GIBSON
Famous Artist in Black and
White HomeSiCk
TIRES OF ART GALLERIES
Lure of New Ambition to Shine as a
Painter Led Him Abroad and
Now He Wants to Re-
turn Home.
TIRES OF ART GALLERIES
From the New York World.


When Charles Dana Gibson, creator of
the Gibson Girl" the acknowledged
champion and foremost delineator of Miss
America, sailed away from these shores
last November, he formally babe good
by to the American girl.
It was not an assumption or jest. He
said "Good-byw in earnest.
He did not say this to the girl herself.
He said it to her picture-his picture OF
her. Te was tired of the pen, he said,
after making it do wonders that no
other artist, American or European. had
been able to make it do. The brush was
to be his weapon in the future. He was
tired of being the greatest satirist or
American society. He wanted to be
painter. and it was a matter of much
discussion among the painter people that
he had turned the usual process upside
down. Most men with great ideals began
with painting and then turned to Illus
trating to make money. Gibson made his
fortune at illustrating and then went to
painting.
At least this was the Gibson programme
when he sailed away. The Gibson Girl
the girl who tried to look like his pic
tures-sighed. and the society he had so
cleverly pricked with his pen refused to
believe that anybody would ever be able
to take his place any more than England
had found anybody to take the place OF
Du Maurier.
Followed New Ambition.
And so Gibson, rich in dollars and IN
fame, bought him paints and brushes and
began to do the thing he had dreamed
of doing-painting and studying In the
galleries of Europe.
He went to Italy to Rome. Genoa,
| Florence, Venice. He went to Spain and
saw the masterpieces of Spanish art
For a time he worked and rambled with
immense enthusiasm. He played and he
studied as he had worked, with splendid
energy.
But something was missing something
that he could not find in Europe
Can you guess what is was?
Perhaps he did not know at first how
TO give it a name But 1t was missing
just the same.
The something that was missing. the
something that called him was the Glib
son Girl.
When Gibson looked at the Del Sartos
in the Pitt Palace he saw the face or
the Gibson Girl shining through the can
vas When he studied Giorgone at the
Nff'''Ssa
trooped under the stately trees of the
landscapes The fat Titians in Rome
actually turned his thought to the slen-
| der statelier types he had put on paper
| in New York No, even Fortuny and
Yelasquez, those Spanish wizards of the
brush, whom more than any other paint
ers in Europe he had longed to study and
| emulate left him still restless.
The Gibson girl was still calling
| Then came Paris He had been there
before, and it did not satisfy him. There
was the Louvre and the Luxembourg and
the tart atmosphere his friends had told
him would be enough
| But they were not enough. GIBSON
fatty said he was coming back.
| In plain words he was homesick
Yet this would never do. His friends
told him so. He had gone abroad to
| spend Several years. In quiet study and
| "higher'' work To come home within
| six or seven months would make him look
! like a gutter. He hadn't given himself
| time to do anything big in painting. 1t
was too soon to be homesick.
Hears Call of Old Love.
| The actual fact is that Gibson had be-
| gun to pack up preparatory to coming
| back to New York when his friends per-
suaded him to tick it OUT to hold fast
to those ideals" about painting.
That is. to say, the friends accomplished
| a compromise He has decided to post
pone for a little while his return to New
| York, for a little while longer to turn a
| deaf ear to the siren call of the Gibson
| Girl
But the Gibson Girl has won out, as
so many New Workers. prophesied she
would-Charles Dana Gibson is homesick.
| and he is coming back to New York.
"Gibson Will soon return TO New York, .
| tor xxJhO iG init
| mately acquainted with the wittiest of
draughtsmen. land l am much mistaken
If he doesn't again take up the pen-aft-
| er declaring that he wouldn't. 1t is very
| hard for him to keep away from It, As a
| cartoonist of society, as the picture blo9-
rapher of the American girl. he Is pre-
eminent His situation is like that of
an actor. great in society comedy, who
had been persuaded he could win tri-
umphs in Hamlet Only a miracle could
make Gibson great as a painter. I
shouldn't be surprised II the galleries of
Europe had depressed rather than inspired
him. AS our satirist he has no compete
tor AS a painter he has many giants
living and dead to compete with. He has
the privilege of simply playing with paint
ing. But he isn't built that way. And
| this is what he has found out. Besides,
! the pen and the brush are very different.
He is a genius of the first order witt the
pen. In all friendlness doubt II hin
brush work will ever rise above the aver
| age level.
But the public doesn't care about the
art question. The American girl doesn t
| care a hatpin about these questions eth
| err.
And she is calling Gibson home.
TROUT BEFORE THUNDERSTORM.
/