13 
MANCHESTER WOMAN’S CLUB 
“AMERICAN ARTISTS AND THEIR 
Work” SuBjEct OF INSTRUCTIVE 
TALK. 
IN a few years America will lead the 
world in Art,” said Henry Warren 
Poor, head of the Art Department of 
the Boston Normal school, in the 
course of his Tuesday afternoon ad- 
dress to the Manchester Woman’s 
club. Sketching the history of the 
Metropolitan Art Museum in New 
York during his illustrated talk on 
“American Artists and Their Work,” 
he declared that the Metropolitan col- 
lection of paintings was second to none 
in the world and that its ranked 
second only to the Vatican in sculp- 
ture. Praising the work of present 
day American sculptors he said that 
they were placing this country in the 
first ranks of art. 
Nearly one hundred club members 
listened with interest to Mr. Poor’s 
instructive sketch of the lives of the 
leading American artists and his en- 
tertaining bits of history of the vari- 
ous pictures as they appeared on the 
screen. Mr. Poor did not confine 
himself to a class-room discussion of 
the merits of the various artists and 
their work, but mixed a little spice 
into what might easily have been a 
dry discourse by relating many per- 
sonal anecdotes of the artists. 
Owing to the bright light reflected 
by the snow outside the Chapel where 
the lecture was given the light from 
the lantern was diffused to such an 
extent that some of the darker pic- 
tures were barely visible. Much of 
the beauty of the coloring was lost to 
the audience on this account. Mr. 
Poor explained that the pictures ex- 
hibited. were photographed from the 
originals by himself and that he had 
personally colored the slides to obtain 
as nearly as possible an exact repro- 
duction of the original. He said that 
his experiments in color photography 
had led to a point where he felt that 
he was about to make an important 
development in the matter of blend- 
ing certain shades and tints. 
Beginning with the life and pic- 
tures of Benjamin West, the Philadel- 
phia boy who received his first in- 
structions in painting from the In- 
dians, and who at the death of Sir 
Joshua Reynolds was ranked among 
the first of European artists, Mr. 
Poor rapidly passed from artist to 
artist in chronological order until he 
reached the mordern painters, the 
majority of whom he is acquainted 
with personally as well as he is with 
the work of their predecessors. 
Gilbert Charles Stuart, whose port-. 
raits of George Washington are fam- 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
iliar to everyone, was the subject cf 
an extended discourse by Mr. Poor, 
who described the artist’s method of 
painting and some of his personal od- 
dities. William Morris Hunt’s mural 
decoration in the New York state 
capitol at Albany, “The Flight of 
Night,” has become famous, said Mr. 
Poor, as the “flight of $10,000.” It 
was this masterpiece—done in the 
capitol library—which was ruined 
when a leak occured in the roof and 
the walls and their decorations peeled 
off, the supposed carved oak being 
discovered to be papier mache. 
Homer’s marine pictures, J. W. 
Alexander’s portrait of Walt Whit- 
man, and Charles H. Davis’ land- 
scapes were described at length. 
Among the recent works shown was 
Robert Cameron’s portrait of ex- 
President Taft which hangs in the 
Capitol. Kenyon Cox’s portrait of 
the sculptor St. Gaudens at work was 
another of the more recent pictures. 
Specimens of Herbert Adams’ 
sculpturing were shown. Mr. Poor 
remarked that he and Mr. Adams 
were classmates in art schoool. Dan- 
iel Chester French and Cyrus Dowl- 
ing were other sculptors discussed. 
The latter was referred to as a com- 
ing American sculptor. Sargent’s 
portraits were taken up at some 
length, the latter being of American 
parentage although a native of Flor- 
ence, Italy, and Englishman by adop- 
tion. 
The lecture was concluded with a 
few of Whistler’s works and a detail- 
ed description of his masterpiece 
portrait of his mother. Frequently 
during his address Mr. Poor made 
reference to the fact that the United 
States and especially New England 
posessed wonderful landscape sub- 
jects for the artist, which were the 
equal if not the superior of anything 
to be found abroad. 
Mrs. E. S. Knight presided at the 
business meeting of the club which 
preceded the lecture. Announcement 
was made of the meeting of the 
Home Economics and Art commit- 
tees of the Massachusetts Federation 
of Women’s Clubs in Dorchester on 
February 18. An invitation to all 
music committee chairmen as well as 
other members to attend the confer- 
ence of the music committee of the 
federation was also read. ‘The con- 
ference will be held on Saturday, 
February 19, at the Boston Art club. 
It was voted to send two delegates 
from the Manchester Woman’s club 
to attend the midwinter conference 
of the Federation on Saturday in 
Melrose. A feature of the confer- 
ence is to be Dr. Edward A. Steiner’s 
lecture on immigration. The naming 
Feb. 18,1916, — 
PARENT-TEACHER MEETING 
N observance of Child Welfare Day 
about 150 persons gathered in the 
hall of Price school, Manchester, — 
Wednesday. evening and listened to — 
the report of Mrs. W. E. Rowe of 
Wollaston on the trip of the delega- 
tion from Massachusetts to the na- 
tional convention in Portland, Oregon, 
of the Mothers’ Congress and Parent- 
Teacher association. Mrs. Rowe is 
the first vice-president of the Massa- 
chusetts Branch of the Mothers’ Con- 
gress and Parent-Teacher association 
and was one of the delegates to the 
convention. The talk was illustrated 
by postcard views, projected upon a 
screen by a radiopticon, and was 
mainly descriptive of the points of 
interest along the route of travel, al- 
though the side of special interest to 
the members of the association—the 
educational development of points 
visited— was not neglected. Mrs. < 
Rowe went into detail regarding 
school systems in some of the larger 
western cities. She laid especial 
stress on the Gary system of schools 
which she said made a profound 1m- 
pression upon the visiting delegates. 
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, Bis- 
mark and Butte were cities which the 
delegation visited on its trip across 
the continent and each city presented 
something of interest to the visitors ; 
and the principal objects of their 
visitation were thrown on the screen, 
Mrs. Rowe making brief explanations 
or comments on the pictures. In 
Butte, Montana, the last city visited 
before reaching the coast, a branch 
association was formed with 1000 
members for a start. Seattle, Wash., _ 
San Francisco and Los Angeles, 
Calif., were visited by the delegates. 
(Continued to page 19) 
of the delegates was left to the presi- 
dent. A proposal from the Parent- 
Teacher association that two member- 
‘ship tickets be extended to the junior — 
high school girls having the highest — 
rank in their studies was adopted by ~ 
unanimous vote of the club. Thanks ~ 
for the work of the members in mak- 
ing the recent Guests’ Night a success — 
were extended by Mrs. Knight. 
Following the lecture an enjoyable 
social hour was spent by those pres- — 
ent. Tea was served. Mrs. H. W. 
Purington was the hostess. A selec- 
tion by the Glee club, “Rest, Thee, on — 
This Mossy Pillow,” was pleasingly — 
rendered. 
The next meeting of the club will 
be held on March 7, when the sub- 
ject will be “Current Events.” Mrs. 
J. Harry Poole will be the speaker, — 
