Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-01-27
AS ONE WOMAN SEES lT
Honesty 10 the Best Policy In Artistic
, Values, Even Though Water Lilies
Sometimes Look Like Hard.
Boiled Epqs
BY SARAH ID. LOWRIE

VII the WullS anu pTOppeQ against tuc
walls and in various stages of completion on
the working easeS. They were of the type
that Is generally called genre that Is, they
represented a little corner of life that is
familinr-two old women seated by a hearth
drinking tea, an old man and his wife going
out OF their little garden gate two persons
pauslng on the church steps TO "pass the
time of day. basket of fresh gathered
peas waiting to be shelled in the sunny
corner of an old kitchen. Here and there
were landscapes, mostly studies Of sunsets
reflected in pools left by the tide. Near my
chair, propped by work chair, was a pic
ture Of water lilies in pool. The water
lilies looked like hard-boiled eggs and the
pool went up hill. II was q very poor pic
ture, l thought, but IL would be impossible
not to know the water lilies were water lilies
and the pool a pool. The other pictures
were what 1 would call good, comfortable
pictures; that is, they gave you pleasant
sensations and in some cases pleasant
thoughts into the bargain.
The artist herself was also good and com
portable. and gave one pleasant sensations
and often pleasant thoughts by what she said
and what she did and what she was. and the
generally serene, effective aspect Of her.
Her studio was a place also in which she
not only worked but in which she lived and
received her friends. And everything, from
the great jars OF brushes to the little kitch-
enette that opened out Of what looked like
bighboy, was clean and In order and ready
for its next use.
thought about her adaptability to the
changes and chances of this mortal life as
listened and looked about. She had beer
born rich and was educated to be rich and
generous, and her art was her own choice for
a pestime, or rather for an escape from too
much convention and prosperity. Then, as
Il young woman she had lost her private
means through no bad management OF her
own-a fall In the family fortune--snd on
of thot oh .Lo al
dear companion and intimate friend of Il
woman of great character and wealth. who
shared with her all tho responsibility Of
n life full of big affairs.
And then on the death Of this friend she
had been deprived not only of her home for
many years but of comfortable and gener-
Gus legacy by the chance destruction Of a
new will and the quibble of doubtful clause
in an old one.
1t was at that time she had turned TO her
art to give her relief not only from boredom
but from poverty. She studied picture cx-
hibtions from the point Of view of ex-
hibitorS. and she studied pictures from the
point of Wow Of dealers. and she studied
dealers from the point OF view Of patrons
and buyers.
CHE learned what size pictures are easiest
~ hung on the line, and she learned the
ropes for oil the recurring exhibitions over
the country from here to California. and
she found out how best pictures can be boxed
and insured and expressed and followed up
and kept moving. And she got TO know TIE
demands of the various types of dealers and
agents. In fact she-who had all her life
adapted herself to large stately drawing
rooms and to an existence of dignitied hap
penings on n conventional scale, with only
now and then n secret excursion of her own
into the adventure of art and frugality and
chance encounters--now adapted herself to
life of adventure and art and chance en-
counters. But she insured herself against
starvation in it--Since it could no longer be
n luxury-by seeing to it that what had
hitherto been only sure means of pleasure
should from henceforth be also sure means
of support.
A ND she accomplished the miracle Of
"A living by art as we'll as living for art.
She sold her pictures and continues to sell
them. And that, too, not to her friends but
to dealers. She is past middle age, she Is
not strong woman. she has many claims
from her old life which she must still honor.
she retains all the hallmarks of the staid
and important life of her youth in her person
nnd in her quiet manner Of distinction, ye.
among the artists she has great and sincere
place and the most modern of the moderns
count at least on her interest if not always
on her admiration.
She could not have made the two quick
turns, especially the last in her life, IL she
had not had temperament and an esthctc
sense of values yet at that eleventh hour
breakdown Of her normal career she could
not have made good at her new venture II
she had not been blessed also with an honest
sense Of values And those two kinds of
senses are not the same and are not iu-
variably combined.
T HAVE known some would be artists fail
l. because they were not possessed OF
sense of esthctic values, but / have known
more to fail, not only materially but men
tally, because they lacked an honest sense OF
values. That Ii. they deceived themselves.
l saw the studio Of one such last year.
II was very dirty with the accumulation Of
trash not cleared up and valuable belongings
not put away. The valuable belongings
that had been the work Of other artists
were going to ruin under the neglect and
dirt Hudd!ed in corners and lying in dirt
and piled on the trash and on the valuables
were half finished Canvases in all stages OF
experiment. Il clutter of ideas in color and
generally devoid of form that was recogniz-
able 10 the ordinary observer as an idea.
If they spoke language It was the language
Of an individual speaking TO cult by signs
that needed. even for the cult, explanations
and emcndations.
l asked my New York artist about the
owner of this chaotic studio, and what she
knew about her. 1t appeared that she knew
n good deal, among other things that some
tally. and that the studio was but the re-
fection Of a disordered and unhappy mind
1t appears also that among the artists of the
newer school there has been much of this
disintegratlng malady in New York City
q kind Of hysteria OF disproportionatisln SO
that they weep over imaginary tragedies and
laugh wildly over real ones. They break
real ties and bind themselves fanatlcally to
trumpedup relationships. They preach the
natural and elemental and then live life uf
artificial times and seasons that au animal
would spurn by instinct. They insist on the
primitive In their product ons and yet resort
10 the most meticulous analysis of all that
they think or do. They insist on freedom
from the trammes of convention and fall
into the trammels OF silly and often vicious
habits. They speak in tongues" in their
art, saying II is only for the initiate, and
vet they preach that democracy is the only
salvation Of civilization. They take for u
calling tie great art Of giving beauty to tho
world, and then they boast that nothing they
make can be understood by the world let
alone bought with unclean coin for the
world.