Studio: international art (10.1897)

The Work of T. Millie Dow

through his own senses, and not filtered through art as a whole must move on, striking new conven-

the eyes and hands of any school or group of tions out of the mints of fancy. The conventions

workers whatever. The old masters sit enthroned of a period are nevertheless its limitations; they are

in his memory no doubt, but only in a certain the confessions of a more or less articulate man

I'EONY ROSES
BY T. MILLIE
DOW

aloofness from things common and everyday
does one perceive their influence. He is quite
modern, in the sense that all good work of every
period must be modern.

To imitate past masters is not only to confess
one's inferiority, but it is an admission of sterility.
The day that imitation takes the place of inven-
tion and evolution, the birth of the arts is stayed—
witness architecture.

Here and there an artist, moved by a certain
passion for some past conventions, may make from
out these ancient materials things beautiful and
interesting; it is dangerous to say what an artist
with a sincere love of his work may not do, but

that he cannot entirely express his meaning ; they
are the marks that stand for the illiterate's signa-
ture, accepted in default of more precise particulars.

These conventions may be rendered beautiful by
the artists that employ them, and in their natural
surroundings possess a charm and naivete' that
touch us as the lispings of a child touch us—
oftentimes more strongly than the most cultivated
eloquence of maturity, but the lispings of a grown
man are absurd affectations; we may admire
Chaucer and we may admire Pope, but we do not
admire Pope's imitations of Chaucer.

Mr. Dow has many dealings with the super-
natural—I do not use the term in any occult sense;