WOMAN IN ART
and determination, the hands indicative of strength and refinement. What a sacrifice was there! This portrait is now in the Academy of Fine Arts at Philadelphia.
Miss Oakley was born in New York; she was a pupil of the Art Students' League, also of the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts. In Paris her studies continued under Aman Jean, Collin and Lazar. She is an associate member of the National Academy of Design, a member of the Water Color Club of New York, also of the Water Color Club of Philadelphia, of the National Society of Mural Painters, the Art Alliance of Philadelphia, Fellow of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and the Society of Illustrators, and honorary member of the Institute of Architects. The degree of LL.D. was conferred upon her by Delaware College in 1918. She was awarded the gold medal of honor by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1905, also the gold medal of honor at the Panama-Pacific Exhibition at San Francisco, 1915.
We realize that American Art has progressed somewhat when we find industrial, mechanical and structural subjects of the present day laid upon our walls by masterly hands, pointing the two-fold message, art in labor and labor in art. This has been done by a few men. We recall the stupendous, hazardous engineering feat of the Panama Canal construction work, paintings by Jonas Lie, who thus earned the sobriquet of "The Panama Painter"; also the murals blazing the genius of the Pittsburgh Mills and of the artist, John W. Alexander.
But who would think of engaging a slender little woman for such heroic work? A few years ago the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Ohio, wanted a large decoration for their new building, symbolizing the chief industry of the Cleveland District, and the architects gave the commission to Miss Cora Millet Holden, resident of their city.
Not long after the war, Miss Holden painted a memorial decoration for the Goodyear Hall in Akron, Ohio, a two-fold subject, "Separation, and Return," in which was mingled the spirit of heroism and pathos. The figures were nearly life size, and the color scheme brilliant as it had need to be in the lobby. Her work there was counted a success, and a greater success was pronounced concerning "Steel Production." For the latter work, the artist made studies in color and in charcoal, working in the mills, to the surprise and admiration of the giants of the molten metal. The huge machinery about and above, men half clad (the human part of the great industry)—
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