Evening star., 1946-03-24
By Leilo Mechlin

The exhibition of Portraits of
Interiors" by Ruth Perkins Stafford
of this city, wife of Capt Laurance
F. Stafford. U. S. N, which opened
in the Arts Club. 20l7 I street.
March II, to continue until April
5, is of human as well as artistic in
terest. The interiors portrayed. of
which there are %, open the doors
of some of the finest houses of early
DAYS in America to all who would
enter, offering them welcome and
hospita lity, as in times long past.
Nor is this all, for in addition to
the portraits of stately homes,
there are three very fine renditionS
of the interior of the United States
Naval Academy's beautiful and we'll
designed chapel at Annapolis, and
one of the Washington Cathedral.
still in process of erection on Mount
ST. Alban. to say nothing of two
interiors of the United States frigate
Constitution - the Tripoli Treaty
room and the berth deck-done
when the historic vessel was last in
Boston HdrbOr
OF the % works on view. 10 were
painted within the past year. All
are in gouache topaQue color and
rendered with breadth as well as
accuracy.
Six of the portraits" are of in
teriors at Mount Vernon. Others, OF
somewhat similar character, were
painted in the Lee Mansion-not at
Arlington. Va. but Marblehead,
Mass. A few are of rooms in other
private houses in New England, de-
signed and furnished in recent years
in prerevolutionary style, which has
never lost its charm and merit.
1t is perhaps this living, as we'll
as traditional quality, which gives
these portraits of interiors" by Mrs.
Stafford. special significance and dis
tinction. Running the gamut from
parlor to pantry, they speak in no
uncertain terms of those who once
inhabited them. This is as it should
be, for they are not merely for dis
play but guardians of the past
chapters in the development of
American culture. This is the i'm
preston. apparently, that the artist
herself received and has skillfully
transmitted through her paintings.
Annapolis Chapel
Mrs. Stafford has had excellent
training. In her girlhood she
studied at the Massachusetts, School
of Art, from which she was grad
uated with B. S. degree. Later
she studied under Henry B. Smell,
eminent water coloriSt, and Hugh
Breckenridge, painter and teacher.
On account of the merit of her work.
she has been honored by election to
membership in numerous art So
cieties, among which mention may
be made of the American Water
Color Society, Guild of Boston
Artists. Grand Central Art Galleries
of New York and Washington Water
Color Club, as well as the Arts Club
wherein she is now exhibiting
Within the past year, she has held
most successful exhibition in one
of the leading galleries in Boston
One of her interiors of the Naval
Academy Chapel was included in the
| Washington Water Color Club S
recent exhibition in the Corcoran
Gallery.
Up to q few years ago. Mrs. SAT-
ford made her paintings in clear,
transparent wash, but she now en-
ploys, almost exclusively, gouache,
as better suited to her purposes.
Like the late Walter Gay. whose in
fluence on her art she gladly ac-
knowledges, Mrs. Stafford produces
interiors which are invariably three
dimensional. Also they are filled
with light and with air. The sum
| light which streams through the
windows or doors In her transcript
tions is dazzingly bright and so ac-
curately portrayed that one can
Judge by 1t both season Of the year
and time of day. There is also a
charm in its softness-her effects
are never forced. Mention should
also be made Of her handling Of