WOMAN IN ART
harmonious, and the color scheme most satisfying. Hands are acknowledged to be one of the greatest difficulties in portraiture, but the hands of this young girl are expuisite in drawing and color.
The real feminine instinct and refinement in art is expressed in a picture which Lady Alma-Tadema called "Bright Be Thy Noon." Here again the interior and furnishings of the room indicate the choicest of old style carving. The mother has taken the little babe from the quaint cradle beside her bed on which she sits, as she holds the pearl of humanity close to her breast; one tiny hand on mother's face with a finger-tip on her lip as mother and child love each other with their eyes. The bed and cradle-linen and the mother's white gown embellished with lace indicates the woman artist, yet in no way does it weaken the dignity of the picture, but is an added note in the harmonious ensemble.
Lady Alma-Tadema's pictures are all in the way of a loving home life. A catalog of her subjects would also be proof, for all inspire happiness.
America has long been fond of the paintings of Lady Alma-Tadema, and those of Sir Lawrence, and it is surprising that not one of her pictures adorns the National Gallery of British Art. The United States, Germany, and France have been the most appreciative of her art. It may be called a distinctive feminine art, or a story-telling art, yet it is high in the scale of technique, its value in home influence, its insight of character, and its charm of spirit upon other spirits.
The subjects of Sir Alma-Tadema hark back to affluent Greece, and the wife ventures no further into history than the days of besieged Holland, each in keeping with the beauty and truth of the period and national characteristics.
Laura Theresa Epps, Lady Alma-Tadema died August 16, 1909.
More humans are dreamers than the world dreams of. We are all dreamers in various degrees. We make use of our dreams in various ways, according to our age and temperament. In the long ago, in our grandmother's day, there were two ways of looking at dreams: one with a certain amount of superstition, banal or otherwise, night dreams; or day dreams, when fancy worked its will and amused the child with impossible visions and ideas, or, dreaming was a sign of indolence, even laziness in adolescent years. Grown-ups have their day dreams, they always have had, also a great king in exile
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