International studio (43.1911)

Earl Stetson Crawford

photographic copy but as an abiding suggestion of
the real presence of the person in the room in which
the picture hangs—a composite, portraying not only
the features but the character, personality and mind ;
and presenting, not a frozen image of one mood, but
the many-faceted phases that unite to the making of
the individuality of the subject; so that, as a pres-
ence within the room, the picture shall be quietly
decorative and delicately unobtrusive, appealing to
one’s love of beauty rather than existing as a clam-
oring voice calling for attention and sought simply
because of the unavoidable insistence of its call for
recognition. With these broad conceptions and his
sensitive manifestation^of color, added to his intui-
tive sense of inherent character, Mr. Crawford, as a
painter of portraits, is an original exponent of this
form of his work, though his somewhat mystic and
symbolistic manner of treatment is one that is not
readily accorded recognition by the pure realist and
materialist.
As a portrait sitter to this artist the writer is en-
titled to speakas a “ chiel takin’ notes ”—to the effect
that this then youthful art student worked with such
fervor and enthusiasm as to become oblivious of the
sitter as a human entity; and so enamored was he of
the elaboration of his composition as an artistic
whole that time, place and model receded to the
plane of the insignificant, as compared to the devel-


ACROSS THE CANAL, SLUIS

BY E. S. CRAWFORD


SKETCH, MISS RUTH ELY

BY E. S. CRAWFORD

opment of his thought portrayal—to the utter for-
getfulness of the physical demands of said sitter,
such as fatigue, hunger and time allotment of pos-
ing ; and a rag and a hank of hair were mild expres-
sion of the value attached to the human sentient
who comprised, for the artist, simply an art ideal—
in the abstract.
In his early youth Mr. Crawford’s ambition to be-
come an architect resulted in his taking a full art
course in Philadelphia, where he was born. Then,
by the winning of some competitive prizes during
this time and the recognition he there received for
the talent shown in painting and decoration, he was
deflected from this original ambition and went to
Paris, where he studied under such masters as Bou-
goureau, Constant, Laurens, Chavannes and
Whistler. Later on he traveled extensively through
Europe, making a conscientious study of the
works of the early men in Belgium, Germany and
Italy—Van Eyck, Memling, Holbein, Botticelli,
Lippi, Francia and Giorgione—this latter still prov-
ing the most apparent influence in his work of
today, which has become so distinctive that no trace
of servile imitation exists, though, at all times, the
primitive, the Japanese, the Chavannes and Whist-

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