International studio (26.1905)

still the requirements have been loyally and cor-
dially followed throughout the work, with the
result that there is here no building full of decora-
tions but a noble building fitly decorated.
Unless we are in danger of riding a hobby to
death, we should be inclined to lay some of the
initiative that has achieved so much for beauty in
St. Paul to the fair at Chicago in 1893. That ex-
ploit in architecture had showed the country that
its own men could work wonders. Minnesota, St.
Paul, the people who wanted a fine capitol building,
the Board of Capitol Commissioners themselves,
none of them made any great pretense to art. They
set to work to find out what the best should be, and
in effort, in perseverance, in an open purse and an
open mind, they did their best to obtain it. And
they fell to work at a happy time. Surely, in
decoration, the painters had had the best sort of ex-
perience in the individual successes and the collec-
tive unrest of the resplendent Library of Congress.

"COURAGE" DANIEL CHESTER FRENCH

"CHARITY" DANIEL CHESTER FRENCH
so striking as the concord between the mural paint-
ing proper and the architectural facts of the
interior.
When local pride had been overcome sufficiently
and the item of larger expense staunchly met for the
use of Georgia marble, the material for the interior
came into question. A building of such dignity and
grace, a true dome of sheer marble, could not be
spoiled by marble veneer, even had Mr. Gilbert
been the man to stoop to the expedient. Instead,
he selected the Kasota stone, quarried in the region,
which had heretofore been tested only in strength,
being reserved for foundations and retaining walls.
This, he found, took a good but not too sleek polish
of a fine grey buff colour. The stone is the keynote
of all the interior decoration. It has governed the
selection of contrasting colours in the various
marbles and other materials used, and with them
has set the limits for the painters. More important

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