Page:Woman in Art.djvu/156

WOMAN IN ART 1877, and the next year two others, "On the Borders of the Marne" and "Peasant's Home in Normandy."

One of Charlotte Coman's most characteristic canvases portrays "Pocony Hills in Winter," a charming delicate landscape; the violet of the distant hills beautifully expressed.

In 1910 Charlotte Coman, at the age of seventy-seven, became an associate of the New York Academy of Design. She was already a member of the National Academy of Women Painters and Sculptors of New York, the New York Water Color Club, Society of Painters of New York, and the Art Workers' Club.

At the Midwinter Exposition in San Francisco, 1894, Mrs. Coman was awarded the bronze medal for her work, and from that time on, each year she exhibited, her paintings called for a medal or prize. She was one of the first women wholly devoted to landscape painting, and with the picture she unfailingly caught the peace and restfulness that belong to the blessed out-of-doors. There is no doubt as to her knowledge of how a landscape should be painted. A New York critic and writer speaking of an exhibition said, "Mrs. Charlotte B. Coman more than holds her own with the men in a lovely stretch of hilly country, which she has painted with artistic feeling and thorough knowledge of landscape construction."

"Early Summer" represents Mrs. Coman in the National Gallery at Washington, D. C., and another, "Clearing Off," is in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

She lived to the proverbial age of scores of good artists, having passed away on November 11, 1924, in her ninety-first year. Among the women she may be classed as a pioneer painter of landscape in America, and a poetic painter she certainly was.

The question is asked why do artists—many of them—live to very old age? To put it another way, is art rejuvenating and if so, why? Because art calls into play the creative thought and power within us. The Creator is eternal, man is His offspring. His attributes shared with His children are spirit, for He is spirit. Those attributes are unseen except in the result of their activities—their use. We have bodily functions wherewith to use all of our spirit powers; power is spirit, love is spirit, wisdom is the spirit-guide. Thought is the emanation of spirit through the brain. Love becomes emotion in contact with kindred emotion, it exalts the spirit; beauty of sunset or flower, face or form; grandeur of mountain or storm; horror of fire or flood; 120