WOMAN IN ART
was not strong enough to finish it. However, it progressed sufficiently to prove the talent and ability of the artist.
After the death of Miss Dodson, the Corporation Gallery of Brighton held an exhibition of about a hundred of her canvases of exceptional work.
Though speaking of Miss Dodson's figure work, we must also record the fact that she had remarkable ability in portraying poetic landscape. "A Farm Road" leads the eye to an uncultivated garden of nature, where daisies, queen's lace, lavender, balm, and the gorgeous cardinal flowers bloom where Nature's lavish hand planted. An ancient tree inclining over a stone wall on the hillside is a simple subject, yet full of suggestion in its naturalness.
Sarah Dodson loved the out-of-doors and left many records of natural beauty that had impressed her. "Les Etoiles du Matin" is a decorative canvas of ethereal beauty, showing the idealistic phase of her art. A cloud of nude figures is floating aloft, each with her star, as a mere line of light along the horizon indicates the coming of dawn. The tone of the picture is in the pastel shades, commingling soft pink with the silver gray of the night sky; the whole is softly blended with wisps of filmy cloud here and there as drapery. The grace and aerial tints are exquisite.
The world lost greatly from the rich endowment of Sarah Ball Dodson when she passed on in the year 1906.
After her death the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts exhibited a collection of Miss Dodson's work, which to many was a surprise, both because of the large representation of her work and the quality, for thought, sincerity, strength and the delicacy of the ideal radiated from her canvases; hence the wonder was with many that they had not seen more of her painting. Very few realized that circumstances of her life made it impossible for her to further a public recognition of her work if she had wished to. There was competition, it is true, but her delicate health often prevented her sharing in it with other artists. Her limitations were largely temperamental, her thoughts and appreciations were of sincerity and beauty, quietly worked out.
Anna Lea Merritt had a charming painting of Miss Eunice Terry at the Pan-American Exhibition in 1901. Someone in the throng was heard to say to a companion, "Come on, that is only a portrait." Only a portrait! Think what it means in the making! The developing and education of the subject, to the point that his or her portrait would be desired by a family or institution. Think of the years of study, toil, practice, discouragements it takes to make an artist capable of painting an acceptable portrait, not only a resemblance to the person, but to por-
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