International studio (27.1905/1906(1906))

The IVhipple School of Art

esting to note the characteristics of such a ven-
ture in its earlier stages, and for this purpose
we are fortunate in being able to bring to notice the
undertaking of Charles Ayer Whipple in this city.
Mr. Whipple, like many of our artists, had his
day in the Academie Julian in Paris, and had an
early experience of the inspiration of working with
a number of other students all earnest in the desire
to excel. In Mr. Whipple’s day the academy had
not attained its later huge proportions. It was then
easily housed in a ramshackle old building in the
Rue de Faubourg, St. Denis. “The history of the
school,” said Mr. Whipple, in writing recently of
his reminiscences, “ is interesting. Thirty years ago
Julian was an artist of some ability. He also had
an eye for business. Accordingly he rented the
Studio in Rue de Faubourg, St. Denis, and put on
the outside of the door a notice to the effect that
the studio was free to all students who desired to
work. He invited the most prominent artists to
come and criticize, among whom were Bouguereau,
T. Robert-Fleury, J. Paul Laurens, Jules Lefebvre,


ILLUSTRATION BY W. H. TOWNLEY

Gabriel Ferrier, Benjamin Constant, and in a short
time the place was crowded, and he opened Studios
in different parts of the city for both men and
women.”
The work of teaching has always appealed to
Mr. Whipple’s taste. Shortly after returning from
his apprenticeship abroad he formed a sketching
dass in Boston, where his home was. But not until
the past two years has he attempted the full under-
taking of an art school. He is still busily engaged
in his own work, and maintains besides his Studio
in this city another in Boston. In his New York
studio he is at present engaged on a portrait of Mr.
Henry Dexter. The vigorous nonogenarian is
represented Standing. An earlier portrait of the
same subject is seen in the photograph of the studio
reproduced on another page. This is, in passing,
an interesting room. Its hangings and carvings
and cabinet work combine a little of many lands
and centuries, a valuable resource for suggesting the
mise-en-scene in certain kinds of work. A hanging
at the door, for instance, with the story of the
Good Samaritan is a piece of Flemish work. A
tapestry panel near-by is of Spanish workmanship
of the fifteenth Century. There is a bishop’s chair,
curiously carved, Standing in one corner, the hood
surmounted by a cast of the Venus de Milo. In
another is a German buffet of the sixteenth Century,
and a little further one comes upon carved cabinets
in Italian Renaissance style. A large wardrobe
with carved panels of the same period is near two
pedestals of carved wood, spiral in form, and
worked with a detail of harpies, which we learn
carne from an early Renaissance church. There is
an interesting Spanish-Moresque ehest inlaid with
ivory and a Louis XII ehest in low relief; a high-
backed Henry IV armchair and a Louis XIII
armchair with spiral legs and arms. A pair of old
brass candlesticks of rare design belong to the period
of Louis XIII; a Dutch writing desk with inlaid
marquetry work, to the period of Louis XIV. The
whole bespeaks a lively interest in the splendid
craftsmanship of the days before the crafts were a
reaction, and a fondness particularly for the work
of the old carvers and joiners.
In his portrait work Mr. Whipple has had the
fortunate opportunity of making a study of some
of the most prominent figures in our national life
of recent years. Mr. Isham in his recent book on
American painting, in speaking of the wonderful
work of Sargent in depicting character and the
valuable record he will leave in regard to the notable
men of the time, remarks that we should probably
be better equipped to understand the present pos-

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