International studio (50.1913)

A Painter of the Figure in Sunlight: Lillian Genth

sion. This sincere painter has been deflected
from her course neither by the public nor by the
growing absorption of many artists in realism.
The tendency in present-day painting is strongly
toward realism and distinctly away from idealism,
for fear of becoming sentimental, which is quite
a different thing. Not to compose dream figures,
but to discover and portray the actual beauty
that is inherent in the human form if one but
has the eye to see, is her aim.
Miss Genth’s career is an interesting illustration
of what a woman painter can achieve alone and
unaided, save by her own genius. She was born
in Philadelphia, and received there her early art
education in the School of Design. She began the
study of art in a somewhat dilettante fashion, and
her interest was not thoroughly aroused until a
competitive scholarship with privilege of a year’s
study abroad was offered, when she threw all her

energies into the winning of the scholarship, in
which she was successful. She then left for Paris
and studied under Whistler. Later she spent two
years studying the old masters in the galleries of
Europe.
Her work during this period was very different
from the style she developed later. At this time
she painted figure pieces, genres, picturesque im-
pressions of peasants and the usual Continental
scenes—all sombre and low in tone. One day, in
Brittany, she posed a nude figure out of doors.
A new and poignant realization of beauty came
suddenly upon her. In this quick vision of the
human form in the open, she had found her par-
ticular field of expression.
Shortly afterward she returned to Philadelphia
and established herself there. The vivid impres-
sion of the brilliant light here in America im-
pressed her strongly. After the duller atmosphere
of Europe it came with start-
ling intensity. Henceforth
she would paint light and
become the high priestess of
sunlight. So the nude figure
in the open has occupied
her attention, almost with-
out interruption, since her
return. Naturally, her pal-
ette has tended to be keyed
higher and higher. She threw
off the cloak of semi-melan-
choly and became buoyant.
There is some psychological
connection between the vivid
sunlight here in America, in
which objects at first appear
stark and quite denuded of
atmosphere to the eye accus-
tomed to the softer but duller
light of England and theCon-
tinent, and the vital quality
of much of our American art.
The brilliant light seems to
produce a certain quality of
brilliancy in the mental way
of seeing, as well as in the
atmospheric quality or tone
of the painting.
The Mary Smith Prize
won in 1904 with Peasant
Houses at the Pennsylvania
Academy of the Fine Arts,
was the first prize she re-
ceived on her return. In nine


A JUNE AFTERNOON

BY LILLIAN GENTH

LVI