International studio (43.1911)

American Society of Miniature Painters

MISS DUNLAP BY MARIA J. STREAN


be a clearer understanding among the contributors
of the proper definition of the term “miniature.”
In England at the time of the organization of what
was probably the most important exhibition of
miniatures ever held, that at South Kensington in
1865, the problem was finally decided by “admit-
ting as miniatures all such works as were drawn to a
small scale, with exception of porcelains.” Today,
especially in America, there is a much more re-
stricted but no less definite classification of the art.
The peculiar characteristics which specialize the
miniature, those things which make it the product of
a specific technique, would seem to be the things the
discerning artist should first of all emphasize and
perfect, as, for example, the material on which it is
painted, unlike that used for any other painting, the
mellow, exquisitely grained, polished sheets of
ivory. The true miniature obviously should reveal
and not disguise this beautiful surface quality. The
choice of subject is a secondary matter, but impor-
tant as one of the elusive elements which define the
work closely. Unloveliness should not enter into
it. For the student of the technique, studies of still
life, animals and grotesque effects done on ivory are
valuable, but these should not be catalogued in ex-
hibitions as miniatures. But, preeminently, the
thing which most clearly draws the line between the

miniature and the small painting is that indefinable
thing called style. The instinctive correct drawing
to scale, so that the question of size is never marked;
the feeling for the decorative form, picturesqueness
and the artist’s own temperament expressed in the
picture—all these things enter into it and yet it is
none of them. The truly successful miniaturist
must either be born with this sensibility or must
so recognize it that its achievement becomes a
chief aim.
It is deplorable that an art so perfected and digni-
fied by Holbein, Isabey, Cosway, Cooper and Mal-
bone should in this age have become so decadent!
The modern miniature has not, until within the past
fifteen years or so, commanded the respect or even
the interest of the master-artist or the connoisseur.
Photography is largely responsible for this, and the
fact that the field has been overrun by the clever
amateur who has catered to a cheap popularity.
Some years ago Laura Hills, Lucia F. Fuller, Alice
Beckington and a few others, all accomplished
painters in the large, took up the work and began to
show what fresh vision, originality and sincerity of
purpose could do. They, with an ever-widening
circle of followers, may today be called the “minia-
ture secessionists,” as they are not only reviving
something of the rank and distinction of the court-
ly old art but are developing a vigorous new
school, thus securing again for miniature painting
a worthy place in American art. A. T. S.
A collection of works by the late Walter Shir-
law, N.A., will be on view in the galleries of the
National Arts Club, New York, opening March 1.
Mr. Shirlaw was born in Paisley, Scotland, in 1838,
and died in Madrid, Spain, December 26, 1909.
His father was an inventor, and maker of fine hand
looms for weaving the Paisley shawls. When the
son was three years of age his parents came to New
York City. At the age of twelve he left the public
school on his own responsibility and apprenticed
himself to a bank-note engraving company. In
1870 he started for Paris. He found Paris under
siege by the German army and turned toward
Munich, where he remained several years under
Wagner, Ram^urgh and Kaulbach. On returning
to America he settled in New York and became
identified with the art of this country. He was a
man catholic in mind and taste.
Mr. Shirlaw is represented at the Buffalo Fine
Arts Academy, the Indianapolis Art Society, the
City Art Museum of St. Louis, the Art Institute of
Chicago, and elsewhere, notably in the Library of
Congress, Washington, D. C.

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