Studio: international art (13.1898)

Some American Artists in Paris

PORTRAIT RY JOHN W. ALEXANDER

are even surprised that we should ever have linked
them together. Marcius-Simons' nature is decidedly
practical, a rare quality in an artist. Thus, in his
Stumbling Block, depicting humanity, an immense
crowd of men and women pressing onward up a
stony path, their progress to heaven stopped by a
female figure symbolising gold, we find the road
absolutely practicable. And higher in the canvas
we are shown a flight of angels, where the artist has
imagined a rainbow as a connecting bridge between
heaven and earth. It is a strange mixture when
you pause to think of it, this combination of the
practical and the poetical, and Marcius-Simons is
aware of this uncommon side of his nature, as he
admits that he never draws a building of any de-

scription that could not serve the architect.
The Stumbling Block is a remarkable composi-
tion, well planned and admirably carried out.
The predominating colour is a graduated scale
of blue, that starts in a rich, full tone, to melt
into the pale lights of the sky, and mingle with
the soft yellows and pinks of the angels' robes.
Equally interesting are his Saint Marc, and his
many romantic views of Venice ; his Joan of Arc,
a grand conception of the maid, more spiritual
than realistic; and his Columbus. As an artist
he has not always been understood; in fact,
many even among his own countrymen fail to
see his meaning; but to the great majority, an
artist with elevated thoughts will always be
beyond their comprehension. In his quieter
moods he depicts Scotch moors with the purple
heather, the water, the sky, in one delightful
harmony, and he is as great perhaps here, as in
those wild flights of imagination when he leads
us through storm and shrieking wind to mystic
heights, that leave us battered and weary as if
we had in reality climbed them.

Elizabeth Nourse is an example of strength in
the weak frame of a woman. Her work is well
known to frequenters of the Champ-de-Mars
Salon, who cannot help feeling impressed with
the steadfastness of purpose and force discerned
in the somewhat conventionally grouped figures.
And when it became known that the artist who
produced Good Friday and The Family Meal
was but a girl, the world of art was fairly sur-
prised. Puvis de Chavannes was among the first
to discover the talent of the young American,
and when she was made an Associate of the
Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1895, the
great French painter expressed his satisfaction
at the general recognition of her powers. Eliza-
beth Nourse has since exhibited at each yearly
Salon at the Champ-de-Mars, and has always been
much noticed. Her fame is, moreover, steadily
spreading far beyond the borders of France, and
her pictures are always in great demand for exhi-
bitions in all parts of the world. For instance,
last year pictures from her brush were on show in
Tunis, Copenhagen, Nashville, Pittsburg, St. Louis,
Chicago, and Washington.

In this short sketch it has only been possible to
refer lightly to the best class of American artists,
to those who have not only acquired fame in their
own country, but who, in this critical centre of
art, are recognised as men of more than passing
talent. Besides these we have a large contingent
of painters and sculptors, whose names are per-

251