432 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



of individuality and originality is greater than,.all else, and in this, as in every- 

 thing which helps a woman to rise above her natural dependence, is an incalcula- 

 ble benefit. The thousands of so-called "art-teachers" in the country, undoubt- 

 edly retard the possible art development of our corner of the world by constantly 

 assuring their pupils: " You don't need to know anything about drawing, you 

 can paint just as well by sort of working out the design with the brush, and then 

 painting it in," etc., etc., as if the drawing were not the heart, the soul, the liv- 

 ing foundation of every picture ? 



But aside from the drawing, there is another thing of equal importance, if 

 not for the execution, at least for the inspiration, of any art work, from a bunch 

 of violets to the " Death of Caesar." And this is a knowledge of the growth and . 

 development of art in the world, a familiarity with the most beautiful things 

 a man has executed, and some comprehension of their productive causes. 

 There is no patient wood carver who will not gain new interest in his work by 

 some knowledge of the quaint creations of the middle ages, the wealth of pictured 

 wood with which Durer and Veit Stoss enriched the narrow streets and pointed 

 gables of Nuremberg; not an enthusiastic crewel worker who will not work faster 

 and dream fresher designs, if she knows something of the tapestries which the 

 patient fingers of Matilda and her ladies made to bloom with the story of Eng- 

 land's conquest, or of those more wonderful ones, for' which the great Raphael him- 

 self madejthe designs. Even a simple baby -face is drawn better if one has in mind 

 not only the sweet little cherubs which one sees upon the streets or in one's own 

 home, but a miz-maze of all the divinity which Murrillo, Corregio, Francia, and 

 a host of others have drawn from the child world. There is positively no end to 

 the benefit of cultivation and intelligence in even the most elementary art-work 

 and if one could persuade Mr. Alma Tadema to compete with Mrs. Brown- Smith 

 in making a crazy quilt, the effect of it would be felt immediately, for with that 

 artist's knowledge of the color and form effects of the past and present, there 

 could be no doubt as to who would bear away the prize. 



'-' But," says some fair objector, "one can't learn all these things without 

 going to Europe, and we cannot all afford to take a trip of such magnitude." 

 Dear friend, the thoughtful observer of crewel roses would answer, you must do 

 all this in order to appreciate a trip to Europe, and it can be. very easily done. 

 Books are so much cheaper than they were a few years ago, that any one who is 

 willing to endure some deprivations in the way of dress for instance, can have a 

 respectable art library, while the abundance of photographs of all pictures easily 

 accessible, enables every one to become familiar with the works of the masters 

 at small cost. Moreover one can obtain large carbon photographs at from three 

 to six dollars a copy, which are really the most satisfactory reproductions of the old 

 masters, because they represent all the cracks and defacements of the old can- 

 vases and give no false impression as to their preservation. Art culture is a very 

 subtile thing. One can not get it from a few months sojourn on the continent, 

 or by a hasty brushing up of knowledge in preparation therefor, it must be a slow 

 growth fed by constant observation of good models, and this is why the carbon 



