A Composition for a Pediment 
ALEX. STIRLING CALDER 
A YOUNG PHILADELPHIA SCULPTOR 
By L. R. E. PAULIN 
A FRENCH critic has contemptuously 
used the word “specimens” in speak¬ 
ing of much of the sculptor’s work of 
to-day. Rather than demur let us thank 
him for the aptness of the term. Where 
else save in galleries and collections, public and 
private, can these pro¬ 
ductions against which 
he protests find a fitting 
resting-place? If they 
have no earthly relation 
to anything else, either 
in the conception or the 
execution; if they are 
not an appropriate part 
of house, church, park 
or garden; if they are 
not designed to serve 
as natural and essential 
adjuncts to fixed sur¬ 
roundings, our French 
critic holds, their proper 
place is in the omnium- 
gatherum of the profes¬ 
sional collector of curi¬ 
osities, or worse still, at 
the dumping - ground. 
No doubt his zeal, like 
that of most reformers, 
carries him too far. 
After all, it is the old 
quarrel over utilitarianism in art, and no one 
on his side need want for evidence to prove 
his case in any competent court. 
To look at the matter in its most obvious 
aspect, it must appear extraordinary that our 
young sculptors should be so loth to put 
their talents to the best uses when the dearth 
of what is truly decorative is so glaringly 
revealed on every hand. Whether this is 
due primarily to some error of training or 
to an instinctive prejudice of caste, the result 
is the same. The fear 
of a deplorable mesalli¬ 
ance between “art” and 
“works” seems to haunt 
them. Even when the 
names of the “arts” 
and “crafts” are coup¬ 
led, as occasionally hap¬ 
pens, one observes a 
significant lifting of the 
eyebrows. The thing 
may be done with the 
best intentions in the 
world, one gathers, but 
this consorting with an 
inferior offends the pro¬ 
prieties, is a sign of 
eccentricity. It would 
be better to keep aloof 
from the practical things 
of life, while bewailing 
the prevalence of bad 
taste, and devote time 
and thought to the pro¬ 
duction of the trivial 
and inconsequential. And when all is done 
and ready for the exhibition, we have an¬ 
other nude female doing nothing in par¬ 
ticular, or a problem piece in stone, inscrut¬ 
able but for the key in the catalogue, or an 
A PORTRAIT OF HELEN HARTE 
Cast by the Roman Bronze JVorks 
3 l 7 
