Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-12-15
WOMAN PAINTER
FAILS TO FIND
DARK BEAUTIES
Mrs. Davis Says American
Women Excel in Form
and Feature.

NEW YORK. Dec. 15.-Beauty may
draw US with a single hair, but Pro-
fessor Starr Of the University of Chicago,
insists that this hair, in order to beckon
to him, must have a kink in it.
Only in Africa is the fatal gift dis
tributed freely, says the authority ON
anthropclogy, whose declaration that
American women are not beautiful has
met with prompt reprisals on his Chi
cago campus and elsewhere.
To tn denials and comments on Pro-
lessor STAIRS dictum which have been
forthcoming from prominent artists We
add the opinion of a well-known woman
portrait painter and globe trotter, Mrs.
Cecil Clark Davis.
Mrs. Davis may speak with authority
by reason not only of her studies Of
American types of women, but also by
right Of her extensive explorations into
the parts Of Africa where women walk
in beauty, like the night" according to
Professor Starr.
Professor Starr might not consider
me an authority said Mrs. Davis, but
| have been all over Africa-north. south,
east and west-in the usual places and in
the romte ones. l have never seen any
native women that I.could honestly call
beautiful. In the Congo they are poor,
NAeA7AN AobAA4t6 LA4ll=o.
But in Ameica we have a great deal
Of beauty. Our young women have a
singular loneliness apart from any con-
slderation of face or feature. 1t is that
very fit look they all have, the feeling
Of power one senses in them.
Our American woman is so well
dressed, so we'll shOd, so well turned
out. She is so right and straightfor-
ward. She does all things well.
Beauty of today is an intelligent
beauty. Our young woman is amazingly
older than any of the rest of us, and
yet she seems a marvellous child as she
drives along, as so many girls did dur
ing the war, in a big eighty horse power
car, guiding the machine with her little
hands. 1t is their sense Of power and
achievement that often lends beauty to
these fine young creatures.
'She is neither ugly nor artificial The
whole modern tendency is just a reaction
from fifty years Of sitting Victorianism.
All societies go to these extremes. We
shall swing back again to a more staid
existence. These great liberties OF today
are not bad signs.
Eve always had our fine American type
which Charles Dana Gibson portrayed.
People sometimes say that art affects life,
and that after this artist drew his types
women uncOnsciously or otherwise foI-
lowed them.
But couldn't 1t be possible that, in-
stead of an artist bringing about a GER
tain type, he really pointed out the type
to us, showed US beauty that we hadn't
seen before in just that way? For in
stance, in japanese prints we note GER
tain things that interest us. They have
beauty of line, of color and of tone. Then
If we so to Japan we discover these same
objects and effects that the prints pointed
out to us. 1t is question whether they
would look that way if We had not Gene
upon the prints first. Therefore 1 be-
Heve that artists teach us to see types
"The American girl would have had
this beauty anyway, but it took Gibson
to come along and point it out to US.
During the war beauty became very
evident. The Uncle Sam type of man
began to be seen, the lean, strong soldier
without the whiskers, of course. 4
LAS to these Africans who live in a J
somewhat natural state-if people con-
slider that beauty-you may recall that
said nature was most inartistic,
and that her sunsets were often very
poor.
THE Polynesians out in the Southern
Pacific are considered beautiful, but
that is not altogether what has drawn
artists there. Gauguin went down to
the islands because he wanted freedom
and cheap place to live. He tried to
go back TO Paris later, but couldn't get
money enough.
1.-THE conditions of life make these peo-
pie graceful and untrammeled. Perhaps
hat is what seems handsome about
Them"
Mrs. Davis work as painter Of portraits
s widely appreciated. She has trav-
lied extensively and has had studios in
Paris and London and Chicago, where she
has had many well-known men and wom-
N as sitters. She was the first wife Of
he late Richard Harding Davis, famous
var correspondent.