Page:Women in the Fine Arts From the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentiet.djvu/98

Rh example of portraiture. Magnificent assurance of method it certainly has, controlled also by a fine sobriety of feeling, so that no part of the ensemble impinges upon the due importance of the other parts ; it is a balanced, dignified picture. But in its lack of intimacy it is positively callous. One has met these ladies on many occasions, but with no increase of acquaintanceship or interest on either side—our meetings are sterile of any human interest. So one turns with relief to Miss Beaux's other picture of ’Dorothea and Francesca'—an older girl leading a younger one in the steps of a dance. They are not concerned with us, but at least interested in one another; and we can attach ourselves, if only as outsiders, to the human interest involved.

"These pictures suggest a moment's consideration of the true meaning of the term 'style' as applied to painting. Is it not more than the mere ableness of method, still more than the audacity of brush work, that often passes for style? Is it possible to dissociate the manner of a picture from its embodiment of some fact or idea ? For it to have style in the full sense of the word, surely it must embody an expression of life as serious and thorough as the method of record."—Charles H. Caffin,

In the International Studio of March, 1903, we read: "The portrait of Mrs. Roosevelt, by Miss Cecilia Beaux, seemed to me to be one of the happiest of her creations. Nothing could exceed the skill and daintiness with which the costume is painted, and the characterization of the head is more sympathetic than usual, offering a most winsome type of beautiful, good womanhood. A little child