International studio (18.1902/1903)

of South Kensington, with al) its " correctness"
andplastercasts.
The student arrives in the Quarter, perhaps, in
the springtime. The friend—that friend who has
been at Julian's for a year past, and has obligingiy
offered to show him round — does not think it
necessary to meet the train. The cab from the
Gare St. Lazare, engaged after an interchange of
almost incomprehensibie French and littie less
incomprehensible Engiish, rattles away towards its
destination aiong the wide boulevards, through by-
ways, across the river, artd up a seemingiy endless
street, narrow and picturesque, to an 2773^<3M<; near
the Luxembourg, Then, when the box, easei, and
odds and ends have found temporary iodgment
with the and cabby has been paid what
seems (and is) an extortionate fare—the octroi his
kind levies on ail TzwzwM entering the French
capital—hve fiights of stairs must be ciimbed to
reach Johnson (for so iet us cali him), who, the
<r<7w;*<?7yg remarks, as it is only a iittle after eight
in the morning, may not yet have risen.
But it proves not to be an " off" day with
Johnson, and so a knock on the door, on which
his card is nailed with a tack at each corner and
one in the middle, produces an " Entrez ! " To be
candid, Johnson is at his toilet, but evinces no
astonishment. He had forgotten for the time being
that he was expecting any one, but that is to be
looked for in the Quarter where one often forgets
to get up till the afternoon.
The room is very much like those of scores of
other students. It combines within its four walls
the sitting-room, studio, bedchamber, and kitchen,
with—as was once wittily remarked—
the peculiar features and disadvantages
of all these. It is fairly commodious ;
for rooms, except 773<373^<37*<f<?j, rule large
hereabouts. In many cases they are
those of historic hotels (palaces), still
retaining in panelled walls and deco-
rated ceilings more than a memory of
the high estate from which they
have fallen. On the walls of John-
son's aA?/&7-, as he liked to call it,
hang sketches innumerable; nudes
from Colarossi's, with a vividness of
flesh tints worthy of a freshly-copied
Rubens; landscapes, with figures of
an impressionist type ; charcoal " time "
studies, most of them smudged by the
hands of admiring or critical friends;
snapshot—also impressionist—photo-
graphs of friends, models, groups in
34

the and other odds and ends, the subjects of
which appeal most to the artist who is a camera man
as well. Against the walls are stacked a score or so
of canvases, a discarded easel or two, and a few
packing cases ;—the latter because Johnson could
really paint decently before he came to Paris, and
sends over a picture now and then to an accommo-
dating dealer in the purlieus of the Haymarket,
who used to give him hve-and-twenty per cent. of
what the work fetched, tell his patrons they had a
bargain by a rapidly-rising young artist, and coolly
inform Johnson himself that if he could not do
better he needn't send over any more !
In the far corner of the room stood a stove, on
which the owner does (or some obliging model
does for him) his cooking, stews his afternoon tea
when giving an informal hve o'clock, and brews
his matutinal coffee. The bed occupied one
corner ; a bachelor's bed, which looked as though
it was never properly " made," and the untidiness
of which was after midday disguised by a travelling
rug thrown across it. In a word, this o%<2772<57-<?
^<37-732<? was very typical of scores of others in the
Quarter.
Johnson quickly dressed, found his hat, and then
out went 7M?32&a333 (for such he will be called for a
time) and mentor into the clear springtide air of the
sunlit street in search of rolls and coffee. Hard
by was the little <37^773^7-3'? which the ^33<fM73A of the
neighourhood patronised—a quiet little place,
where a roll and <r<3/g <323 /<337, almost <z<? /2A, made
a hole in but half a franc. And where, in times
of leanness, madame had a smile and — what
was of infinite more importance—a trustful heart,


" THE LUNCHEON HOUR " FROM A PHOTOGRAPH
BY CLtVE HOLLAND