Page:Woman in Art.djvu/218

WOMAN IN ART work is soft, it is strong and clear. Her work in oil colors is equally effective, because of the same technique, and her color schemes most attractive and rich.

In early years when talent was budding and ambition soaring, Lillian Westcott met the crux of a lifetime from the lips of her mother—should it be music or art that her work and wealth of thought should be devoted to? Today we see the result of her decision, after two days of thought.

Mrs. Hale's first teacher was William M. Chase, who has been a great developer of native American talent. It is evident that she had talent, and after watching her work for some time, Mr. Chase said frankly "that he was afraid to interfere with what she was doing." He felt that she had unusual gifts, and was in sight of a goal formed in her own mind, and her technique was her own. At the instigation of Mr. Chase, Mr. Edmund C. Tarbell became her next teacher, but as supervisor only, for like Mr. Chase he would not impose his art upon her, but left her free to work out her own art instinct. While studying in Boston, Miss Westcott was in the lecture classes of Philip Hale, who proved an enthusiastic helper. Thus three understanding artists have assisted in the development of a distinctive artist and her art.

Lillian Westcott Hale was born in Hartford, Connecticut, December 7, 1881. She studied with William M. Chase, Edmund C. Tarbell, and Philip Hale, and is a member of the Association of Federated Arts of Boston, and the Associated Artists of Concord. She is represented in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Philadelphia Arts Club, and the Corcoran Gallery, at Washington, D. C.

The Metropolitan Museum, New York, has an effective canvas representing "Celia's Arbor," an out-of-door problem of sunlight on white. The young girl in white reclines in a deck-chair, a white umbrella softening the direct sunlight. It is a masterly work. In contrast is a portrait of the mother of Mrs. Hale, which might be called a symphony in gray, in which the varying shades are beautifully blended.

Mrs. Hale has received numerous awards; in 1910 a medal at the Buenos Aires Exposition; a gold medal for her work and gold medal of honor at the Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco, 1915; a gold medal from the Philadelphia Arts Club in 1919; the Potter Palmer Gold Medal at the Art Institute in Chicago, 1919; the Beck Gold Medal, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 1923; and the Julia Shaw Memorial Prize, National Academy of Design, New York, 1924.

Lillian Westcott Hale was one of the seven women painters of America whose work was chosen to represent American Art at the World's Fair in 174