International studio (14.1901)

Eleanor Fortescne-Brickdale

NECKLACE, WITH DIAMONDS AND TRANSLUCENT ENAMELS BY M. VEVER

( See Article on French Jewellery)

not aim at becoming un
homme vianque. There are
but few such ladies at the
present time. They cer-
tainly owe much to men,
but their work is—not an
adaptation, but a gracious
daughter of what men have
achieved; charmed with
true womanliness, it is com-
plemental to the masculine
arts out of which it grew.
Sometimes, under the in-
fluence of a chosen subject,
these sisters of art “play the
man,” but they act the part
like Rosalind, in “As You

their ways of work, or should she, con-
trolled by “her sweet and wayward
earthliness,” keep us all in mind of the
old saying that Intuition is to her sex
both Impulse and Law ?

Such a woman, no doubt, by setting
herself to imitate the methods and the
styles of men, may succeed in develop-
ing the masculine traits of her genius
at the expense of the feminine; and
in course of time, as experience bears
witness, she may make a well-nigh
complete sacrifice of the separate and
peculiar advantages belonging to her
woman-nature. But this loss has no
compensation : it does not enable her
to call into existence those special
feelings and thoughts that form the
inner essence and the life of a man’s
manhood. Shakespeare, in his char-
acter-sketch of Osric, sneers for all
time at the man who tries to improve
himself by assuming womanish graces.
To anyone whose tastes are wholesome,
a woman who endeavours to be man-
nish in art is no less absurd and con-
temptible. Like it or not, it is her
office to reveal nature in a feminine
guise, transformed by passing through
the alembic of her womanhood.

In speaking thus I know that I am
at variance with the great majority of
my contemporaries. There is at the
present time very little recognition for
any lady of artistic genius who does
32


PLAQUES DESIGNED BY T. LAMBERT, EXECUTED BY P. TEMPLIER

( See Article on French Jewellery)