International studio (41.1910)

The Art of Cecilia Beaux

on at the last, suggesting direct contact of illumi-
nation. The former is a toneful, suave method;
the latter more crisp, vigorous and insistent. The
use of these two methods almost simultaneously has
proved to the average observer a bit bewildering,
each by turn being regarded as a mark of progress
rather than as a token of technical versatility.

Miss Beaux is one of those painters who seem to
have arrived almost abruptly on a plane of excep-
tional accomplishment beyond which compara-
tively little advance is made except in matters of
facility, of which, of course, the public cannot be
informed. Few better works has she produced
than those exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1896,
which took the French critics by storm and brought
her the honor of associate membership in the
Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts and led, four years
later, after an exhibit in the Paris Exposition, to her
election as associataire, an honor accorded few
women. Among the paintings shown at the Salon
were A New England Woman, now owned by the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; Sita and
Sari/a, Cynthia, Ernesta, The Dreamer and Dr.
drier, while included in the Paris Exposition, further
testifying to her extraordinary ability, were portraits
of Mrs. and Miss Griscom, Mother and Daughter;
Mrs.Borie and Mr. Adolph Borie, Mother and Son;
and of Mrs. Hart, of Philadelphia.

Produced about the same time as the latter group
was the painting of The Dancing Girls, the daugh-
ters of Mr. Richard Watson Gilder, which alone
would have been sufficient to make Miss Beaux's
reputation secure, so charming is the conception, so
masterly the interpretation. There is not one trace
of self consciousness in this painting, and though it
may not emphasize the note of modernity as do
Miss Beaux's more recent portraits, it completely
satisfies the eye and the intellect. It is pervaded by
a gentle sentiment, a tender reserve, not incom-
patible with strength and frankness though rarely
so combined, and in it is demonstrated, perhaps
for the first time, the painter's belief in the theory,
"strength at the center and flexibility at the cir-
cumference," which has strongly influenced her
productions.

Miss Beaux's portrait of Mr. Gilder is painted
somewhat in the same sympathetic manner but
with a little more opulence of style. In it the planes
are no better related, the values no more correctly
sustained, but the color is richer, the personality of
the painter more frankly asserted, the intellectual
quality more poignant. Herein one sees those two
elements—imaginative insight and design—which
she herself has said are the sum and substance

IV

of portrait painting, brought powerfully into play,
for while the pictorial interest is potent it is domi-
nated by a penetrative interpretation of personality.
Apparently it is not the visible form which has en-
gaged the painter's attention but rather the men-
tality of the sitter—a sense of the reality and nobil-
ity of the spirit which is bound to uplift and dignify
art.

Perhaps the only trace of evolution to be dis-
covered when comparing Miss Beaux's early works
with her more recent productions is an evident in-
creasing love of color and interest in the problems
it presents. Many of her first notable portraits
were literally studies in white, black and gray, but
as the years passed the palette was enlarged and
strengthened until now the full gamut would seem
to have been run. A color sense is something which
is inherent and rare—something quite .apart from
color knowledge. This apparently Miss Beaux
possesses. And, furthermore, every portrait she
executes is from first to last a personal expression,
carefully composed and deliberately planned both
in regard to line and color—the result of an indi-
vertible intention. It is this that gives them unity
and distinction. Each is conceived, primarily, as
a design with a well-ordered pattern and herein is
explained the decorative quality which is one of
their significant characteristics. Note, for instance,
her portraits of children, which are peculiarly
felicitous. Observe how in each case the little
sitter is so placed on the canvas that the childishness
of his or her figure is made manifest at a glance.
And, furthermore, it will be seen that these children
are provided with precisely the right environment
to emphasize their inherent individuality, giving to
each a simple dignity, which is the badge of inno-
cence and breeding. These portraits are essen-
tially impressions, using the word not in its per-
verted sense, for they reflect those fleeting expres-
sions which are peculiarly the attribute of a transi-
tory state and a child's chief prerogative.

Miss Beaux's portraits are never composite; they
are not in this sense types. It has been brought
against her as an impeachment that she is chiefly
interested in the appearance of things, and to an
extent the accusation cannot be refuted. But it
should be remembered that the inclination may be
purposeful rather than superficial. Miss Beaux
does not attempt to paint what she does not see
but she bends all her efforts toward comprehensive
insight. What she sees she sets down and with the
utmost veracity, employing, however, at all times,
with wise discrimination, her prerogative of choice.

It is not to be supposed that she never blunders,