International studio (81.1925)

mceRtiAcioriAL

with the delicate nature of this
work and its subsequent bur-
nishing. But the work went
ahead with a will, and week by
week the tale of the tournament
unfolded its pattern along the
various panels. The decoration
was designed to run frieze-like
about the room, with only inter-
mission where doors and win-
dows cut in, so that the space to
be covered was of considerable
extent. Sometimes the working
days ran well into the night as
the time for finishing began to
draw nigh. Sundays became
pressed into service, and many
a half hour was snatched from
the family board to add just a
few more leaves of shining gold.

The finished room was ready,
however, for the Ehrichs on the
appointed day, and was set up
in their Fifth Avenue galleries
in January, 1924. It was further
exhibited at the Architectural
Show in New York the following
month, at the end of which event
it returned to its permanent
home in the Sixties. As it stands

" LADIES LEADING THEIR KNIGHTS " WALL DECORATION BY FRANCES BURR today, giving UpOn a charming

little garden in the rear of the

history of art are many where low-relief modeling house, the completed room almost belies the fact

has been blended with painting, but it is unusual of having made the exhibition rounds, so securely

to find an artist of today turning to the old does it fit into its surroundings. Through a

Italian methods with the same relish that Miss carved doorway one steps from the gay little

Burr finds in them. dining-room on to a flagstone path leading under

Her first experiment in the new-old medium a trellis and on between the flowering borders to

was in the nature of a decorative screen, and a little marble fountain spouting as merrily as if

among the first to see the possibilities in this kind it were some sylvan retreat instead of a cleverly

of work were the Ehrich Galleries of New York reclaimed New York backyard where once the

City. When they asked for something of the same unsightly paraphernalia of domesticity was wont

nature to exhibit on the Avenue Miss Burr pro- to flourish.

duced her finished model for the medieval dining- The general scheme of the room is low in tone
room, and the upshot of the whole matter was the but vibrant in key with the tiled floor a deep red,
Ehrichs' promise to exhibit the completed room the wainscoting and other woodwork a rich brown,
during the coming season at a specified date, and the painted walls a succession of harmonious
About eight months or a little more Jay between colors shot with gold and silver. The details of
the promise and the appointed day. Hardly the woodwork were designed by Bradley Dele-
realizing what lay ahead of her, the young adven- hanty, architect, and the lighting fixtures of iron
turer in ancient modes of art set about her task were made after designs by the artist. The theme
with fine determination. The gesso work reached of the decoration is a medieval tournament, and
often to thirty applications before the surfaces the Queen of the Tournament is depicted in the
had become sufficiently elevated for carving and panel over the mantel on the west wall coming
gilding. Then too the application of the gold and over a bridge with her attendants to take part in
silver leaf ran into many protracted sessions, what the festivities. On the same wall to the left is seen

four fifty

SEPTEMBER I I) 2 ;