Evening star., 1926-10-14
THE NORTH WINDOW
By Leila MechIiys.

ming. to visit by appointment Cecilia
Beaux, the great portrait painter III
her New York studio. Every one OF
those women when she started tndt
long climb had a fixed idea OF What
she was going to see when she got 10
the top-an idea very different from
the actuality when, GREATNESS, she
arrived. The gracious lady VINO re-
ceiyed them did not wear palntlnS
smock nor hold a palette in her hand
the room in which they were received
that in which she painted her great
portraits, had the appearance or NV
ing room, the tall north window belns
curtained; there were no pictures on
the walls: there were no tubes OF
paint lying about; there was notnins
to be seen save the hostess ana ner
very charming and characteristic sur
roundings. 1t was a great disappoint'
ment.
But have not we all read in novels
about artists studios with their
sumptuous furnishings, rich hang
ings, unfinished paintings on easels'
finished works on the walls, curloS on
mantel shelves, a general air OF dis
order and Bohemia? How little the
majority Of artists studios conform to
this picture; how few really great
works of art have been painted In
such environment! Possibly In the
sixties, when the old Tenth street
studios in New York were built, there
was tendency to overelaboration
but that was the day of bric-a-brac
mantels and gingerbread houses. Inc
living room walls Of one OF the great
houses in New York were hung with
red plush studded with thousands of
rhinestones, and Society, with a big
s. gazed admiringly. William M,
Chase gathered around him a great
quantity Of beautiful things-brasses,
carvings, draperies~-but ne reeliy
loved simplicity.
The old Tenth street studios, so
long the center of studio life in New
York, are no more. To great ex'
tent .the duplex studio apartments
have taken their place. These are the
most sumptuous Of the studios, but
even they would not be found to
smell Of paint or exhibit the artists
product.
Some of the most famous artists in
New York have what might be called
loft studios. Edwin II. Blashfield,
the distinguished mural painter and
past president Of the National Acad.
envy Of Design, has for years occupied
a studio in Carnegie Hall. one takes
the elevator as far as it will go and
then begins climbing stairs and tread
ing narrow Railways. Finally. JUST
under the roof, or possibly on top OF
It, Is the great painters studio, sui
f1ciently gh.ceilinged and broad tcc
permit the setting up Of great mural
canvas. Mural paintings are pro
duced, not from a high stool. but
movable scaffolding, and the paint re
uuired to cover these large surfaces
comes in pals rather than tubes.
Jules Guerin built a studio on the
roof of one of the high buildings In
New York in order to execute the
mural paintings in the Lincoln Me
mortal. Again one took an elevator tc
the top of the building and then
climbed q flight Of stairs. The room
itself was simply a loft-a workshop
not place for teas or for evening
revels.
Augustus Vincent Tack has beer
doing some big painting in a loft
studio on top Of the Grand Central
Railroad Station, higher still than the
Grand Central Galleries.
X X
One Of the most beautiful studios in
New York IS that of the brothers
Francis G. and r. Bolton Jones. 1t is
duplex apartment in one Of the
studio buildings, with it's lofty main
studio two stories in height, flight
Of stairs leading to a surrounding bal
cony, and reception rooms and a sec
ond smaller studio opening off from
the main room. There is the allies
sential north window with adjustable
screens. There is a beautiful Caen
stone mantel in the center of the west
wall, with a superb blue vase of finest
faience on the high shelf. These two
brothers-one a distinguished land
scape painter, the other a painter OF
figure subjects-have with their owr
hands ornamented and beautif1ed this
studio apartment as the painters OF
the Renaissance beautif1ed what
ever they touched. They themselves
have carved the wood of the balcony
the panels Of the doors, some of the
furniture. They have made colored
windows like jeweled mosaics of bit:
Of bright-colored glass. High on the
wall between the large and the small
series of pictures illustrating the ole
sages. giving fine play to imagination
And yet with all this elaboration the
appearance is of spaciousness and
simplicity.
We have no such studio buildings
in Washington, but we have quite 6
number of we'll used studios, ant
every now and then another Is added
to the list. Mr.. Meryman has erected
a studio building for himself and tive
other artists back from the street be
tween Z and F, Nineteenth anc
Twentieth streets. Three Of the Cor
coran School girls have taken a studio
over a garage, tucked away behind
some little houses on Eighteenth
street between II and I.
There are two ideal sculptors
studios in Washington, the Bush
Brown studio which Mr.. Bush Brown
himself built, connected with hi!
house at 1929 G. street, and the studio
built for and long occupied by the late
Paul Bartlett in lexington, which tn,
painter, Alexis B. Many. is now oc
cupying. These are both big, bare
rooms of huge dimensions; uncovered
brick walls within as well as without
lofty roofs and barnlike doors per
mitting the erection of monumental
works in clay and plaster on large
scaffoldings. The sculptor's tools anC
implements are about. and nowaday'
the smell Of plasterline is ever pres
ent where sculptor works. Bu
these, again, are workshops, not the
atrical backgrounds for social enter
tainmentS.
When Frank Millet painted the dec
grafton for the Baltimore custom
house he occupied a studio in ole
Forest Hall on Wisconsin avenue
Georgetown. A long bare flight o
steps led up to the hall from the en-
trance, and no barer or more barrel
place could be imagined than tn,
studio when one was once inside. TIL,
L a