WOMAN IN ART
fame, on the work of Miss Beaux she called "A New England Woman." It is well named. The picture is in a high key; the room is in white, the sun-lit garden is seen through dainty Swiss curtains; the motherly woman in her white afternoon gown, seated in her easy rocker, is resting from her duties of the morning; her palm-leaf fan suggests 90° in the shade outside, but the home-maker looks extremely comfortable, as if conning a happy thought. It is a restful picture, and might be called "Contentment."
That type and character of New England womanhood is becoming more rare with the passing of each generation. In art and literature we hark back to them with a sense of higher valuation, deeper appreciation and love.
Miss Beaux was awarded first prizes by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts for seven or eight consecutive years from 1885 to 1893, when she received a gold medal from the Arts Club of Philadelphia; the Dodge Prize in 1898, National Academy of Design of New York; bronze medal in 1896 at Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; first class gold medal and cash prize of $1500 at Carnegie Institute, in 1900; gold medal at the Exposition Universelle, Paris, in 1900; gold medal, Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, in 1901; first Corcoran prize, Society of Washington Artists, 1902; gold medal Universal Exposition, St. Louis, 1904.
She is a member of the National Academy of Design of New York, and the Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts, Paris; and fellow of Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In 1912 the degree of Master of Fine Arts was conferred upon Miss Beaux by Yale University.
A glance about the room where Miss Beaux receives her sitters may well serve as a background for the few portraits used to exemplify in some degree her work. An ample room in its three dimensions, it proves a fact of nature which Ruskin garnered for his knowledge and philosophy: "We know a cocoon is the work-shop and home of a silk worm; a web the habitation of a spider, and that a nest is wreathed by a bird,"—for here our portrait painter has the light and shadows that produce values: rich hangings and accessories needful for backgrounds; a Sir Philip Sidney chimney, the approach to its hearth an avenue formed by two divans, suggestive of sociability and comfort; and neutral-toned screens sufficient to lend distance and privacy for the artist at her easel. Such is the studio of Cecilia Beaux: a few choice things, and nothing superfluous.
During this first quarter of the twentieth century one can scarcely take up any art publication without discovering that Miss Beaux has added a new portrait to her industry and honor. And with each result of her indefatigable work, the
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