Page:Woman in Art.djvu/94

WOMAN IN ART. It is so pure one can look at it as into the corolla of an Easter Lily. It recalls these lines by Shelley:

"Spirit of beauty,

Thy light alone—like mist o'er mountains driven,

Or music by the night wind sent

Through strings of some still instrument,

Or moonlight on a midnight stream,—

Gives grace and truth to life's unquiet dream."

The more delicate the whispers of life to life, the more of truth and harmony; the more thrilling the beauty, the more deeply is the soul touched, and the higher is it lifted to meet inspiration. Delicate and deep of soul is the mind that could produce so calm and steadfast a Truth as the clear-eyed woman who looks out from her fountain home, holding her mirror to her utmost height.

We note in the work of these four painters advancement in technique, in delicacy that indicates spiritual perception, refinement of thought,—and the ideal has resulted.

We are all conscious that the phenomena of nature produce in the mind, through the senses, various effects on the spirit. Douglas Volk painted a picture he called "The Song of the Pines." It illustrates what has been said. First, there is harmony in composition. The soulful young woman, standing in a forest with uplifted face, is listening to the music of the pines.

Aeolian tones escaping on the breeze

Are wafted—are they not?—to unseen leas

In that fair realm where praise is gathered in,

And wafted to that upper realm akin

To where the Holiest of heaven abides,

And listens to the music of the spheres

And harmonies of Nature's wordless psalm.

'Tis Nature music thrills with holy calm,

Soft fingered by the leafage of the boughs:

Sight, sound, and color play upon the heart—

The heart responds with praise, with song, with art.

Then there is the harmony of color tones: a simple robe the deepest shade of autumn's wine, and deeper shades of sable at her throat, a throat that holds at poise the beauteous head as seen against the rich green foliage of the trees; a glimpse of heaven's blue between the stalwart stems, and a hint of its reflection in an intervening lake.

Most subtle is the harmony of spirit given by the trees in whispers to the spirit of a human soul. 70