Beautiful Women

NZ Truth, 25 October 1924, Page 14

Beautiful Women

—, + Critics who imagine that beauty has left us m these stressful days (writes the British artist, Sir W. Orpen, m the "San Francisco Examiner") never grow weary of lamenting the disappearance of those picturesque types of humanity whose canvas memorials cover the walls of countless art museums. They ( suggest that a parade of women with bobbed or shingled hair m company with their tooth-brush moiistached escorts would provide conclusive evidence of a deplorable decline m artistic ideals. It is not easy to understand how such futile nonsense can gain currency. Instead of showing signs of decay our contemporaries are much superior m looks to their ancestors. As all artists know, the human countenance changes out little with the passage of time, and all types are reproduced with startling fidelity from age to age. The distinctive difference between past and present, as a painter conceives it, is that the race to-day possesses more character and provides much more welcome models than the picturesque horrors m paint we have inherited from the Victorian, Georgian and Jacobean periods. A Vandyke pointed beard or flowing military whiskers can add a touch of distinction to a face devoid of intelligent characteristics. Similarly; dolllike features crowned with ringlet curls under an enormous hat convey a suggestion of charm. Such models, however, are no longer sought as a source of inspiration, and have no consideration" m art. They persist only m the province of the chocolate box, types for which seemingly there will always be admirers. Modern painters decline to continue on the misleading lines of too many of the portraits of the past, which, although done m good faith, were without true regard to likeness. Our predecessors were much easier subjects for portraiture, for they wished to r-e depicted as they looked and not as they actually were m themselves. Nowadays it is the delineation of character which every portrait painter attempts. If he is lucky enough to secure commissions, he has no difficulty m finding ideal types of beauty m wonderful variety, and, what is equally important, character as expressed m the human face. Vivacious Miss 1924, with her short, wavy tresses, general air of capability and self-reliance, has nothing to concede to her simpering sister of the 18th century. Our modern women are of sterner stuff than their forbears and possess a vigor of mind which inspires an artist to transfer something at least of their personalities to the dead square of canvas. To accomplish this he is necessarily forced to sacrifice picturesqueness. It is a quality m the painter's mind that sees what a man or woman is rather than what he or she looks. If you paint only what you see with the eye, you are m danger of producing a soulless misrepresentation. Art is no longer governed by decorative falsehoods. Artists often select faces that m earlier days would have been classified as horrible and paint them so that they become beautiful, for character is fused into the design. To be true to their art, they must paint with the mind and pay more attention to the heart than to external appearances^ — everyone, after all, knows how deceptive these may be. Modern women are more artistic m their fashions, and while shedding much of the merely picturesque have gained strength of character which makes their styles of beauty more entrancing.