MODERN FIGURES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 136, 12 June 1933, Page 10

MODERN FIGURES.

One of England's most famous sculptors, Mr. Frank Dobson, lias evolved the ideal feminine figure of the 20th century —flip modern Venus. She „is highbreasted, with a slim, long waist, narrow hips, and strongly developed muscular thighs. This physique, in the opinion of the sculptor, is typical of the modern girl, and in order to produce .his modern Venus, he used numerous models to sit for his working drawings. The shoulders of one were included, part of tile trunk of another, ajul so on. The-result gives the impression of more than a dash of Epstein! Within a few months' time, thousands of papier macho reproductions of this plaster figure will flood the world, for it was executed on behalf of a famous corset company, and marks an interesting fusion between commerce and art. Mr.

Frank Dobson has works on exhibition in the Tate Gallery, and in all the principal art galleries of Europe. Ho told a correspondent that the work was actually commissioned two years go. He took a year to think about it, bearing, in mind all tho ideals of feminine beauty throughout the ages. Another, year "was necessary for the completion of all the preliminary sketches, the modelling in clay, and the final casting in plaster. The modern Venus made lier debut in London recently at a special display in her honour, flanked by panels drawn by Mr. Dobson to illustrate the changing loveliness of the highest type of fern ale beauty in the various phases of'civilisation. In his 12 sketches drawn from the past, Mr. Dobson preferred to begin with an Egyptian. She is slim with straight hips and high breasts —not so ' very different from the present fashion, although she is 5000 years old. , "Wdiiien in Egypt were powerful and active, and there were great queens there thousands of years before Cleopatra," he remarked. Next is shown a girl from the island of Crete, period 4000 years ago. She has a wasp waist that 'might' belong to ' a Paris beauty of the 1890's—but she-is also an athlete. Some of the Cretan women of' the time 'wore 'frilled- crinolines, with large bosoms protruding over low decolletages, which further emphasised the constriction of the'waist. •"

The third'figure is Etruscan, and here tho pendulum has swung ' back • to the natural figure. • She lias .the slim form of a young active woman, and, in fact, is moro like the 20th century Venus than any other in the series. After her comes tho Venus do. Milo, the well-known, late Greek figure, representing the' type 4 of ideal feminine beauty, which Rome inherited from Athens. The Venus de Milo is majestically beautiful, massive and maternal, bu.t she is very remote from the present ideal. The Gothic lady from Medieval France is - even more remote. She was made for motherhood, and tho waist serves only, to emphasise the ample bosom and the wide hips. The figure fashionable in Germany about the year 1500 'represents the latest and most sophisticated "period of Gothic art, with long slim legs and arms, a small high waist and roundecl stomach. She belongs to the Northern world of tall cathedrals and armoured knights with waving plumes But in Italy, tho Renaissance had begun, and artists were rediscovering the beauty of classic art. The ideal women of Signorelli and Michelangelo wes' stern,'.'massive figures,; without

waist's at' all,'and with totally', 'unfeminjno appeal. Tho sweeping and, voluptuous . curves of Venetian beauty popular during the 16tli and 17-th centuries was rivalled by the tight-lacing of Elizabethan days. Tho corseted waist was continued into .a vast bell of upholstery veiling the whole of'the lower part'of the form. Tight stays'.remained^the vogue throughout the 18th century —the age of music, of witty conversation and sophisticated pleasure. The famous nude of Goya, the Spanish painter, came at the turn of tlie 'century. She is utterly and magnificently feminine. But in Franpe and England, at .the time when .Goya was painting, another typo was fashionable—the- Directoire and tlio Empire figure, very slim and with a high waist. This gave way to the crinolined woman of the middle "of last century, and' eventually to/.the figure shown in the last of Mr. Dobspn's panels. He has taken it from a fashionable French portrait of the 1890's. Elaborate corseting produced an unnatural wasp-waist, which is emphasised by the large hips and wide bosom."' ,