WOMAN IN ART
have a remarkable appeal. She has great discrimination in choice of subject, variety in treatment and excellence in technique. Her versatility of design, which means thought, it emphasized by two monuments to the same man in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
One of Miss Walker's earlier works is the Winfield Scott Stratton memorial in their beautiful cemetery, erected 1907. The material of a work of sculpture is a large factor in the decision of its treatment. The crystalline hardness of granite demands simplicity of style. The Stratton Memorial is a rough boulder about nine feet high, the name cut in a sunken plane on the rear. In keeping with the reverse, the front is adorned with two figures emerging from the surface of the rock, partially blended into it, following its irregularly curved outlines. On the rough-finished stone between the two figures is cut the inscription, "'Tis not enough to help the feeble up, but to support him after." The figures illustrate this spirit of philanthropy. One erect and firmly poised reaches her hand out to the other, a younger and more slight figure with veiled face. Soft draperies fall about them in simple folds. The head of the drooping figure is bowed and suggests dependence, while the strong, fine features of the helper radiate a calm power. The firm chin, the tender mouth and steady eyes, the fine forehead—all are notes in an ideal character portrayal.
Nellie Walker's second memorial to this man of philanthropic memory was placed in Stratton Park of the same city, 1908, but repeated claudbursts have ruined the Park, so the statue was removed to the city. It is difficult to believe that the two were designed by the same artist. The public monument is a portrait statue in bronze, which admits of more detailed treatment, but the coat and trousers of the present day do not lend readily to charming lines or picturesque folds. All the more praise, then, if the artist produces truth and beauty from the combined circumstances. The young artist did this, and gave freedom and vigor to the portrait. The overcoat has almost the swing of a mediaeval cloak, while the broad-brimmed hat held in his hand is dramatically typical of the West. He stands like a man on the brow of a hill to scan the landscape, and is a most satisfactory characterization of the man.
Miss Walker has many beautiful monuments to her credit, scattered over this wide western world, in Minneapolis and several in Michigan. One of remarkable grace and beauty is in Battle Creek, erected in 1911—the Johannes Decker monument. Against a rather low wall of light granite
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