Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-07-10
A WOMAN PAINTER WHO THINKS
ARTIST MUST BE PUBLIC SERVANT
Portraver of Mann Phases of Child Life Discovered e Chor
of Natural CtuHesines8 Says Pictures Should
Be Painted Prmorilp to Decorate.

| CHILDREN, Of course. are cherubic and
~ angelic and seraphic; they are also
annoying and clumsy and funny, and II
was through the perception Of this sec
| ond category that a Philadelphia woman,
who made her reputation In painting
pictures OF children, got her first IN
splratlon Sarah 8. Stilwell Weber, whose
magazine covers have presented almost
every possible combination Of child at
tributes, invented or discovered, or. per
haps, rediscovered, the funny angel
She ls a bit of rebel against recog-
nlzed conceptions Of the place OF art IN
life. Art has been too much the prerog-
ative and pet OF the rich 1t should be,
she thinks, the companion and servant
OF everybody, and her idea of hersen as
an artist is to be first of all public
servant. AS far as the honor OF being
known as an artist is concerned, che pre-
fers TO be known as an Illustrator
rather than as an artist" What was
the difference? she was asked.
"A picture 10 n decoration of wall In
a house, a place In the street or page
in a book" she said ut should be
painted for the place where II Is to live
and not Just painted for its own sake
For instance, / paint a portrait OF
child. l must know first the room where
IL Ia to hang and the place in that room
where II Is always to be. The room (that
vital place where people live day atter
day. is the frame OF the picture and
what we call the frame s the connecting
link between the picture and the room.
The whole is to be a decorative scheme,
and l paint the frame as carefully as the
picture.
THAT picture must be more than
likeness OF the child: 1t must be the child
that Is, It must intimately suggest ana
reverberato that child, it's colors and It's
faucies and its queer particular note. lf
Won want likeness, to pore over In after
years and recall the way each look ana
feature went, the photographer can pro-
vido you with amazing reproductions
But they will not be well suited to dec
crate a room.
SIN the same way, the newsstand In
the street, the library table and its books
and magazines. are theatres where dec
oratlon must play its part. The maga-
zine cover must have the spirit OF the
part the magazine plays In life, ana
paint my covers to help decorate the
street and the home. I can't see pic
ture that is to say, drawing made
Just for its own sake, on the outside OF
a magazine. In the same way an illus
tration of a story in n book or magazine
should not try to usurp the centre OF the
stage, any more than portrait should
usurp the centre of the stage in room
"The illustration must embellish the
page, and not draw your attention from
the reading matter; 1t must elucidate
and help out the meaning, just as the
carvings of saints and flowers and ami
mails on n facade held out the meaning
OF cathedral"
Despite the fidelity of Mrs. Weber's
paintings to child life, she rarely uses
a model, preferring to depend upon the
spirit Of her memory. In fact the vivid
action which she portrays is perhaps the
result of this attitude-the skipping and
running Of little folk at their play can
not be learned from "a set pose" She
has learned a great deal from the study
of her own little girl.