SEVERE HARDSHIPS ENDURED

Taranaki Daily News, 30 March 1935, Page 16 (Supplement)

SEVERE HARDSHIPS ENDURED

No Glamour In Occupation Of Artists’ Models STRAIN OF POSTURES EXACTS HEAVY TOLL ATTENTION to the hardships endured by artists’ models has again been aroused following the recent breakdown of Miss Winifred Webb, one of the best-known models in London. Miss Webb has had to be treated in a London hospital for nervous disorders. She was rescued from the sea after a fall from the Palace Pier at Brighton. The view is expressed that, far from being a glamorous occupation, the physical strain of working as an artists’ model may be greater than that borne by a navvy. Among artists and photographers for whom Miss Webb has posed is Mr Bertram Park, who told a “Daily Mail” reporter that she once sustained. a pose for such a long time for an artist who was hurrying to finish a picture intended for the Royal Academy that she collapsed in a faint. ■ , , , ‘ “I know of another fine model who has just had a breakdown through overstrain,” he said. “People who

to faint at their work—the strain of posing can be enormous. “Sometimes models have to keep extremely difficult positions—with back bent, or arms raised high above the head.” Mr Walters said that the “life” of a first-class model in Londpn was from six to 10 years. “After that period of working they become ‘stale,’ and artists and the art schools like to have fresh models, plenty of whom come along, lured by the ‘glamour’ of the job.”