CHAPTER XVI
American Woman as Portrait Painter. Painter of Every-Day Life. Cecilia Beaux, Jean MacLane Johnsen, Elizabeth Shippen Green Elliott, Jessie Wilcox Smith, Etc.
"Such is the influence of art on society, sentiment and
commodities, that we are entitled to estimate nations by
their standards of art."—Fuseli.
Portraiture has long been considered the highest as well as the oldest form of painting. The highest, because man is made in the image of his Maker and must radiate that spirit from within his clay-formed chalice. The oldest, because its first use was a confession of faith in immortality. The oldest Egyptian mummies bore portraits of the deceased that his KA (spirit) after unnumbered aeons of wandering in space, might, on returning, recognize and re-enter its own body.
Portraiture of today has its use for the future. For history and anthropology as well as for art it is most desirable. We preserve the lineaments of our nobility on canvas, on walls, or in stone or bronze, for Time, if he prove gracious; for posterity, lest we forget; for art, that it prove the development and honor of our race.
The portrait painter is confronted with many difficulties. One does not realize that fact unless one has sat for a portrait, and even then it is doubtful if the "sitter" considers himself a difficulty.
Years of study and practice acquiring an enviable technique do not always insure an A Number One portrait, for difficulties do exist for painter and sitter.
The attitude of the sitter toward a painter who has justly earned a worldwide reputation should be that of a patient toward a thoroughly competent physician, committing himself to the man of knowledge and skill and accepting the result. It is much like his attitude toward his religion, largely a matter of faith, and aside from that—well, a portrait painter must be one-fourth a technician, one-fourth human (with a generous sprinkling of wit and wisdom), one-fourth an artist by grace of nature's gift, and one-fourth psychologist. The factors may be divided differently, but this percentage gives a balanced whole. Time and constant effort toward the expression of character give proof of that balanced whole, and make a well-rounded painter who portrays the spirit of the subject.
Such an artist is Cecilia Beaux. And more—which may as well be said right here. Permeating the factors and faculties just named, Miss Beaux has
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