How to Frame Pictures 
1. Beautiful Modern Pattern for toned frame 
2 . Distinctive Carton-Pierre frame for burnished finish 
3 . Whistler Pattern. Severe type for bronze or black 
advantage and give me the same satisfaction as when 
I purchased them ?” The answer seemed simple 
enough. There existed such an assortment of ill- 
chosen frames and such chaos of arrangement, that 
the eye became distracted, it could not rest for an 
instant on any one spot. 
Simplicity is the first essential in all decoration. 
In the case stated, the water-colors and, prints, 
naturally lighter in key than the oils, should be 
placed by themselves on the walls of the apartment 
best lighted from the windows or from artificial 
means. The oils, arranged about two or three of 
the strongest canvases (which could bear more or 
less massive frames) would require but narrow, inex¬ 
pensive flat moulding. 
Large pictures hung in a small room give a 
cramped feeling, a sense of oppression. The carry¬ 
ing out of a scheme often resorted to by students, 
that is by crowding the walls with every sort of photo¬ 
graph, trophy or colored print, produces the same 
result. 
Some one has said that it is a good rule to hang 
pictures so that the center will be on a level with 
the eye. This depends, however, on the furnish¬ 
ings of the room. When the furniture is of irreg¬ 
ular size, that is, for example, a high bookcase 
PAINTING BY SEIGNAC 
The frame, while ornate, is entirely secondary to the 
picture. Courtesy of the Schultbeis Galleries 
on one side, a low table on another, a desk of medium 
height on still another, pictures need to be placed 
above and away from the several pieces to leave a 
more or less uniform margin about them. 
A frame may be a beautiful piece of carving in 
itself, but to the vision it must be subordinate to 
what is inside. An oil painting, rich in color or bold 
and vigorous in treatment, demands a frame of bold 
pattern. Burnished gold gives the richest result, 
but for an inexpensive substitute, a deep frame of 
black with a narrow line of gold on the inner edge 
can be used to advantage. Sometimes the delicacy 
or texture of a painted object may be intensified by 
violent contrast. Professor Lazar, a well-known 
instructor in Paris, once made this remark to his 
young women students: “For your flower pieces, 
use a frame with an ugly ornament.” A picture 
having a complicated foreground, such as shrubbery, 
grass or flowers, requires a frame with an inner 
flat surface. A sunset would never look well in 
a bright gold frame. It would “glow” to best 
advantage in a dull setting. In the landscape by 
William E. Plimpton, you will note that the frame 
is of the severest pattern, having a deep flat bevel 
to carry the eye into the canvas as through an open 
window. The original is finished in a dull bronze. 
45 
