Studio: international art (27.1903)

The Work of A nn Macbeth

coat collar, and away with him gladly enough to woods, as fishermaids or nymphs, for love of being
the sunshine of the garden terrace or the diapered for a time en campagne ?

shadow of the chestnut-shaded walks. Away on the far horizon from this favoured spot

In the winter, the late autumn, or early spring, student and model will imagine Paris-still magnetic,
the Cafe des Lilas (its full name was much longer) though scorching; will talk of the distant Quarter,
used to be a merry, low-ceiled spot. Now, alas ! it speculate concerning the fortunes of those left;
is no more. Thick with caporal smoke, it held and when the days get shorter, the sun less brilliant
much that was interesting within its old walls of an on field and shore, will gladly return to the BouP
evening. How many a nouveau has begun an Miche, the studio now so dusty, unless leased to a
upward or a downward course whilst sitting at those friend; the life of the well-beloved art highways
little tables. How many celebrities, and those to and by-ways ; the quaint, narrow, ill-paved streets,
be, have drunk bocks whilst discussing art, politics and all.
(seldom), philosophy of a kind (often), and life

always; whilst the admirable, the fictitiously A N APPRECIATION OF THE
admirable, nouveau works, always works, early and / \ WORK OF ANN MACBETH,
late, at the schools, and sports his oak—a rickety / % BY F. H. NEWBERY.
brass bolt, which would infallibly yield on pressure

—so that he may finish a charcoal sketch by the The association of the needle is with the
light of a kerosene lamp. woman's hand, and though the sewing machine

But the kerosene lamp does not always burn, may have robbed the expression of much of its
even for exceptionally industrious nouveaux, nor truth and of all its sentiment, it may still be said, to
do these remain such for ever. There are days, as paraphrase the words of a well-known dictum, that
well as nights. Afternoons, when chums look in, "the hand that holds the needle beautifies the
when tea—save the mark !—is brewed by the pro- world." And by this no disparagement is intended
prietor of the studio or his model, who so naively of that vast army of tailors whose office it is to
does her share to add to the gaiety of the nations clothe mankind. For the dress of the modern
represented by the guests. Then are there also Occidental man knows no art in its composition,
days in a boat at Nogent-sur-Marne, or Courbevoie nor can decoration, however added, redeem it from
on the Seine ; or in the woods of Vincennes, its state of sad monotony. But happily the work
Boulogne, or further afield
at Colombes; or even a
picnic amid the rockers at
Fontainebleau.

And then, again, when
Paris is shimmering with
tropic heat, the Boul'
Miche scorching, the Place
de la Concorde like a
Sahara, and the cafes—
even favourite ones which
play at being shady by
means of oleanders or
orange trees in tubs—seem
no longer possible, is there
not some paintable Breton
or Norman fishing village,
cheap, fresh, and quiet, to
which all save the very
poorest may flee, with
Yvonne, or Marie, or
Marcelle—pierrot and
pierrette-wise — who will

contentedly pose day in,
out,
40

"embroidered table cloth designed by ann macbeth

day out, en sable, or in the worked by Christine lester