Page:Woman in Art.djvu/163

WOMAN IN ART people whom he knew, loved, and respected, handed to the Parisians another type of their countrymen, another style of art. The influence of those most unusual paintings, in the bakery window, was like dropping a pebble in the pond,—the resultant circles increased indefinitely. Joseph Israels felt it in Holland and went to see the hand that dropped the pebble; it touched a score of painters here and there. Its influence touched the young woman we know as Elizabeth Nourse, when in her American home, and found a kindred feeling. The technical form of that art kept the circle enlarging (in a way), but producers of the soul and sympathy in that art—you can count on your fingers.

Miss Nourse is in sympathy with her subjects. Be it in Holland along the dykes, or on the wind-swept shores of Normandy, wherever she meets women and children, her heart and her art claim them, and they speedily know her for a friend. During the war, wounded soldiers knew the artist for a friend, for her care and attention, freely given, and her studio became a refuge for those in dire distress, especially for families of artists who were never to return.

In 1921 Miss Nourse received the Laetare Medal from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, for distinguished service to humanity. This was the third distinction she received since the beginning of the war. Her award in San Francisco was the Gold Medal for her exhibit, and in 1919 a silver plaque from the Society des Beaux Arts, in recognition of her work for the families of artists who were victims of the war.

Miss Nourse's work is represented widely in the art-loving world in many private collections and public galleries. It is a matter of taste as to which is the best, for each owner thinks he has the treasure. Antwerp, Ghent, and Rouen have fine canvases, and to go farther, some of her most impressive pictures are to be seen in Australia, in Lincoln, Nebraska, in Michigan, Massachusetts, and elsewhere.

When the younger artists of Paris, led by Puvis de Chavannes and Dagnan Bouveret, founded the Societe National des Beaux-Arts, Miss Nourse decided to send her pictures to the new Salon. They were received "with acclamation," and three years later she was made an associate. Puvis de Chavannes was first to give her his hearty congratulations, saying, "I am rejoiced to know that you have obtained the recognition which your talent so richly deserves."

The drawing of Elizabeth Nourse at first puzzled the French artists, for she is a small, sweet, feminine creature, yet the verdict of one of the most noted critics was, "She paints like a man six feet tall, yet she is frail and delicate, a child in 127