DOI Artikel:
Dowie, Ménie Muriel: Wladlislaw's Advent
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21805#0094
Wladlislaw’s Advent
By Menie Muriel Dowie
I
When I first saw Wladislaw he was sitting on a high
tabouret near a hot iron sheet that partially surrounded
the tall coke stove ; the arches of his feet were curved over the
top bar, toes and heels both bent down, suggestive of a bird
clasping its perch. This position brought the shiny knees of his
old blue serge trousers close up to his ehest—for he was bending
far forward towards his easel—and the charcoal dust on the knee
over which he occasionally sharpened his fusain was making a
dull smear upon the grey flannel shirt which his half-opened
waistcoat exposed.
He wore no coat: it was hanging on the edge of the iron
screen, and his right shirt-sleeve, rolled up for freedom in his
work, left a strong, rather smooth arm bare.
He alwavs chose a corner near the stove : the coke fumes never
J '
gave him a headache, it seemed. It was supposed that he feit the
cold of Paris severely ; but this can hardly have been the case,
considering the toughening winters of his youth away in Poland
there. My observation led me to believe that the proximity was
courted on account of the facilities it afforded for lighting his
cigarette
By Menie Muriel Dowie
I
When I first saw Wladislaw he was sitting on a high
tabouret near a hot iron sheet that partially surrounded
the tall coke stove ; the arches of his feet were curved over the
top bar, toes and heels both bent down, suggestive of a bird
clasping its perch. This position brought the shiny knees of his
old blue serge trousers close up to his ehest—for he was bending
far forward towards his easel—and the charcoal dust on the knee
over which he occasionally sharpened his fusain was making a
dull smear upon the grey flannel shirt which his half-opened
waistcoat exposed.
He wore no coat: it was hanging on the edge of the iron
screen, and his right shirt-sleeve, rolled up for freedom in his
work, left a strong, rather smooth arm bare.
He alwavs chose a corner near the stove : the coke fumes never
J '
gave him a headache, it seemed. It was supposed that he feit the
cold of Paris severely ; but this can hardly have been the case,
considering the toughening winters of his youth away in Poland
there. My observation led me to believe that the proximity was
courted on account of the facilities it afforded for lighting his
cigarette