WOMAN IN ART
One of those earnest workers was Sarah Ball Dodson. She was born in Philadelphia and early began study in the Academy of Fine Arts. Her father was Whatcoat Dodson, for many years instructor in that Academy. Later she had three years of study under Evariste Vital Luminais, and yet another year with Jules Lefebvre, and still later had the helpful criticisms of Boutet de Monvel. Her first public exhibition was at the Paris Salon, 1877, and the work was "L'Amour Menetrier." Serious illness in 1893 continued to hamper her work for the rest of her life, yet she continued to progress. In spite of the illness referred to, a large work from Sarah Dodson's studio was a drawing featured in the Pennsylvania State Building at the Columbian Fair, that same year, entitled "Pax Patriae," an eminently worth-while canvas depicting "The Signing of the Declaration of Independence in the State House, Philadelphia, Fourth of July, 1776." It was her most important historical work, and remarkable as coming from the hand of a woman. The artist painted it in 1883, and it was most favorably received in Philadelphia that same year. It represented her early style and the grace of her composition. A decorative frieze called "The Dance" was exhibited in the Exposition Universal at Paris, 1878, also in her early style. The development of her later style is well brought out in "Deborah," the least academic of any of Miss Dodson's work, and it represents her in the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D. C. Aside from the technique, the artist had thought out her subject well. She conceived the woman-judge of Israel, Deborah, in her crude house of stone, under the palm trees on the camel-path between Ramah and Beth-el, in the hill country of Ephraim. The artist painted the prophet-judge in her house alone, in meditative mood, on her heat of stone. Her nether garment of white is girt about with a leather girdle with its Hebrew inscription in letters of silver. Being at home, her sandals are removed. She leans forward in her intense earnestness of thought, for she is in deep distress concerning the welfare of Israel, for the people have done that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah. A parchment sheet lies at her feet. Evidently the prophetess had the gift of the sixth sense; she sees the outcome of the battle that is to be fought at Mount Tabor. Her attitude is such that she could rise on the instant and send for the chief of the army of Israel, as she did. The spirit of the time and the subject, no less than the personality of Deborah, is impressive.
In later years Miss Dodson lived a while in Brighton, England, and while there painted in St. Bartholomew's Church "The Invocation of Moses." Another work, strong in its beginning, represented "Pygmalion and Galatea," but the artist
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