10 The Woman Citizen WITH BRUSH AND CHISEL Birthdays in Art

By MARY FOSTER

HE hundredth birthday of the a growing one, and although there are no National Academy of Design figures available to prove it, one guesses spiritual quality in face and poise and has had a two months’ cele­ that the proportion is about equal to the background, it is painted with a vigor bration. The President of proportion of women to men artists of of handling and a strength of concep­ the United States offered his all grades, the country over. tion that make it nearly incomparable. congratulations in opening the party,More important than the matter of Lydia Field Emmet is a portraitist of andT all Washington followed him. Then numbers is the quality of work. This another school, painting with smooth after a month of exchange of courtesies, Centennial Exhibition testifies to the and quiet care in place of the bolder the Academy left Washington for its na­ coming of age, so far as the Academy is technique of Miss Beaux. Her color is tive New York and began the second in­ concerned, of American women who fresh and charming, and her posing of stalment of its Centennial Exhibition. paint and model. Mrs. Milbank with the tulips of spring As academies of art go, this one is a The dean of them all is Cecilia Beaux, gives the keynote to her portrait. She mere child, with uncounted years of one of the women honored with the title too is a full-fledged Academician, and vigorous growth ahead of it. A sober, of Academician. Her work hangs both the winner of innumerable prizes. serious child, it is conscious of its posi­ in the Metropolitan Museum of New The third woman to put the proud tion, of the dignity of its opinions, of the York and the Art Institute of Chicago, initials N. A. after her name is Helen importance of its mission. A conserva­ and she is known abroad as well as here Turner. Her particular interest is in figure painting, and she is constantly tive child, whose conservatism “repre­ in her own country. Her lovely por­ sented among other things, the preser­ trait of Mrs. James Drinker and her experimenting with new subjects, new vation and continuation of the durable, son dominates the gallery in which it groupings, and even new technique. A the weighty, and the lastingly precious.” hangs. Serene and beautiful, with a rare Southern woman by birth and education, There are those who doubt her artistic training has been______almost en- that last phrase, who feel tirely in American schools that the Academy has fol­ and studios. lowed too closely the middle Of the Academicians who line, and in keeping away are sculptors, Evelyn Long­ from the worst of American man Batchelder was elected painting, has occasionally in 1919, Bessie Potter Von- missed the best. noh in 1921, and Anna Hy­ Nevertheless, the Academy att, now the wife of Archer is the most widely acknowl­ Huntington, in 1922. The edged art authority in this work of the three women is country. Election to its very different. Mrs. Batch­ ranks is an honor that lay­ elder did the Fountain of men and artist alike recog­ Ceres at the Panama Pacific nize as a proof of noteworthy Exposition, and the huge accompl ishment. bronze doors of the library Almost from the begin­ at Wellesley College are her ning, the Academy, theo­ work. retically, has considered the Bessie Potter Vonnoh, on art of women along with the the other hand, is partial to art of men. Practically, there small bronzes. Her work is were no women among the always firm, yet delicate, and founders, and few stand on her statuettes have qualities the rolls of deceased Aca- that remind one of the grace demicians. In 1902 the and sweep of the old Tan­ Academy elected Cecilia agra figures. Beaux to full membership, Standing at a corridor’s and that was the beginning end, Anna Hyatt Hunting­ of the influx of women ton’s life-size bronze “Diana” whose names are familiar to­ scarcely seems to touch the day. ground in the thrill of the This year the roll of chase. A hound leaps from Academicians and their As­ under her flying feet, and sociates shows the names of the whole composition has twenty-seven women in a to­ the graceful uprush of swift tal membeiship of two hun­ and joyous flight. In addi­ dred and seventy-nine. It is tion to Mrs. Huntington’s not a large number, but it is Cecilia Beaux'* lovely portrait of Mr«. James Drinker and American honors, she has the her son dominates the gallery in which it hangs.'* added distinction of being a