WOMAN IN ART
seems to be a name for the Muse to conjure with, so that Lydia Field Emmet comes to our knowledge as a portrait painter also, but her art produces the most charming of little people. One fancies they are more obtainable than adult sitters, and more difficult to "catch." But she wins their hearts and catches their graces, and out from her studio come the dear little faces, both boys and girls, all wreathed with smiles and circled with curls and early flowering of humanity with spirits fresh and pure, minds and manners naïve and equally ready for knowledge as for play. Through these avenues of heart and mind the artist enters their young lives and their interests, and because she loves children and has the gift, she paints them admirably.
One of the first pictures by Lydia Field Emmet that came to the knowledge of the writer was called "A Portrait Study," and is like a bright jewel in the memory. A globe of gold fish on one end of a low-carved taboret of mahogany; the smallest boy sits on a comer of the taboret, his hair pale golden, his suit buff; the taller child is in a suit of bright golden brown, to match his hair; he stands with both hands on the rim of the large bowl. The background is of transparent browns and gold. It is a perfect harmony of the shades of two colors; the spray of green sea weed in the water is the accidental note that emphasizes the harmony.
We cite a few examples of the work of Lydia F. Emmet because of the real child spirit she portrays. Criticism is not the glass through which we should always look at a painting. It has its place and its use, but the spirit in the painting should be the spirit of the subject depicted by the sympathy of the artist. Sometimes the lack of sympathy makes a failure of a canvas where technique is lauded by the critic. Man has painted pretty children before now, but rarely has man caught the indescribable halo of purity and love that emanates from the innocent heart and mind of childhood.
Miss Lydia Field Emmet is so full of love, sympathy and understanding of the child heart and nature, is so gifted with genuine motherly instinct and love, that she can do and has done what mere man, or mere artist, cannot do, painted the attributes of spirit.
Of this wonderful gift children themselves are the best judges and the quickest to recognize it. One day a lady on the street saw a young woman at some distance, coming toward her, having in charge a toddler less than two years old. The child was crying, grieved and discomforted. There was no altercation between the two, simply an indifference on the part of the maid. No nearer than forty feet, the baby ran to the lady with hands outstretched crying, "Take ba', take ba'," and as the lady stooped to take the baby, the little arms clasped around
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