Studio: international art (23.1901)

Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale

not aim at becoming un
homme manque. There are
but few such ladies at the
present time. They cer-
tainly owe much to men,
but their work is—not an
adaptation, but a gracious
daughter of what men have
achieved; charmed with
true womanliness, it is com-
plemental to the masculine
arts out of which it grew.
Sometimes, under the in-
fluence of a chosen subject,
these sisters of art "play the
man," but they act the part

NECKLACE, WITH DIAMONDS AND TRANSLUCENT ENAMELS BY M. VEVER U^e Rosalind, in "As YoU

(See Article on French Jewellery)

their ways of work, or should she, con-
trolled by "her sweet and wayward
earthliness," keep us all in mind of the
old saying that Intuition is to her sex
both Impulse and Law ?

Such a woman, no doubt, by setting
herself to imitate the methods and the
styles of men, may succeed in develop-
ing the masculine traits of her genius
at the expense of the feminine; and
in course of time, as experience bears
witness, she may make a well-nigh
complete sacrifice of the separate and
peculiar advantages belonging to her
woman-nature. But this loss has no
compensation : it does not enable her
to call into existence those special
feelings and thoughts that form the
inner essence and the life of a man's
manhood. Shakespeare, in his char-
acter-sketch of Osric, sneers for all
time at the man who tries to improve
himself by assuming womanish graces.
To anyone whose tastes are wholesome,
a woman who endeavours to be man-
nish in art is no less absurd and con-
temptible. Like it or not, it is her
office to reveal nature in a feminine
guise, transformed by passing through
the alembic of her womanhood.

In speaking thus I know that I am
at variance with the great majority of
my contemporaries. There is at the
present time very little recognition for

any lady of artistic genius who does ' (See Article on French /ewellery)

32

PLAQUES DESIGNED BY T. LAMBERT, EXECUTED BY P. TEMPLIER