WOMAN IN ART
her neck as she cooed, "I lov's oo, I lov's oo." "Nothing is the matter," said the maid, "she simply doesn't want to walk with me."
The incident cited vouches for one reason of Miss Emmet's success with children; she is so distinctly feminine, and to the mind of a child that word means love.
In 1912 Lydia Emmet was awarded honorable mention at the Exhibition of the Carnegie Institute for the portrait of a winsome, golden-haired lassie of three or four. Her bonnet has slipped down her back where she holds it by a ribbon in each hand. Apparently "Olivia" was crossing the room when someone spoke to her. She had just paused, and on the instant the artist caught the spirit of motion in abeyance. It is a trick or art of eye and hand that is reminiscent of the activity of soldier and horse in the military paintings by Lady Butler. The effect is vitality; spirit is in link with mind.
A portrait of "Brother and Sister," painted some time ago, proves that Miss Emmet belongs to the so-called painters of aristocracy, or shall we put it the other way, that she belongs to the aristocracy of painters. Taking the word in its simplest meaning—refinement—both are proven, the subject and the painter, and it may well include the little girl's pussy-cat, for she comes under the same refined influence. It is a charming picture.
Her subjects in themselves are charming. Charm is their hallmark.
Lydia Field Emmet was born in New Rochelle, New York, 1866, and studied with William M. Chase, Mowbray, Kenyon Cox, and Robert Reid in New York, and with Bouguereau, Robert-Fleury, Collin, and MacMonnies in Paris. She is a prolific painter and has a delightful circle of women and children portraits to her credit far and near. She is a member of the Art Students' League of New York; she was elected a member of the National Academy of Design, in 1912, the Women's Water Color Club, New York, and the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors.
Louise Cox was the name signed to a charming little canvas that was sent to the National Academy of Design for the exhibition of 1893. It was a nude figure reclining on a couch in absolute grace of pose, exquisitely painted, and the color scheme was rich and harmonious. The artist called her creation "Psyche," for this impersonation of Soul certainly possesses the ethereal quality. It won for the artist the rarest of all honors conferred upon American women, admission to the Society of American Artists. Another proof of its art value (the critics and judges having passed upon it) was the fact that it was sold within a few hours after the exhibition opened. It was the first showing of the work of the young artist.
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