Studio: international art (34.1905)

Mrs. Traquair

AVERSATILE ART WORKER:
MRS. TRAQUAIR. BY A. F.
MORRIS.

Floating strains of melody act upon some
artistic temperaments as the sun acts upon the
sensitised plate in photography; music prints on
such minds a vision culled from things heard not
seen, and by the incarnation of these mind-pictures
we obtain those works which appeal to every

ILLUMINATION BY MRS. TRAQUAIR

imagination, and satisfy by the fine intention ot
their subjects.

Mrs. Traquair of Edinburgh, who has secured
fame through her mural decorations, is so con-
stituted ; music fires her brain until it seethes with
colour-schemes that formulate and find expression
in designs full of the highest feeling, and having a
depth of meaning which is refreshing after the cult
of the commonplace into which so many realists
have drifted, and in which the indifferently endowed
have found an opening for the display of their
acquired technical skill.

Imagination is the " touch of nature," that gives
the kinship to poetry, music and painting, and
each in its turn inspires the other. Music has
had a great influence on Mrs. Traquair's career.
Especially has it played its part in her mural designs;
it was indeed the prime factor in the decoration of
the Catholic and Apostolic Cathedral of Edinburgh,

ILLUMINATION BY MRS. TRAQUAIR

for, straying into the new building one day while
service was in progress, the swelling notes of the
organ resounding through the church so worked
upon her, that when the prayers were over she
walked up to one of the Deacons and, without
pause or ceremony, assailed him with the remark
"I want to paint these walls." Being well known,

ILLUMINATION BY MRS. TRAQUAIR

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