Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (July 9, 1911)
THE OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL, ' PORTLAND, SUNDAY - MORNING, JULY- 0, 1911 HPEE sbbi j ... .s - LOVE7vVADE tffSJC fifJScox fmxA, zs THIS being ft flry story, which happens also to be very real, one can't surrender the charming " Iteme of detail to the Impertinent Actions that are so often interwoven with plain fact. The two who have been left behind have rejoiced and have mourned, both at once. It would have been much easier and far more convincing- to depict them an mourning and chagrined only. But It isn't so. They grieved over their loss of their sister Beauty of the Wood, because they felt that she was lost w to the idyl that had been perfect in trilogy d must 'be maimed In mere duet. - Yet they re joiced, for her sake, that she has found her fairy prince and wlij live life as womankind. , including , artists, has always longed to live It You see. human nature Is born to be selfish: but when you let it loose in rairviana. ic can De a little unaeinsn. too. But the quaint, old-fashioned, brick-edged .lawn, at Cogslea in the 'exquisite Creshelm valley- near Philadelphia, did looic forlorn srfter the wedding was' over, and the bridal couple had gone, and the three hammocks under the little group of trees stretched taut and empty where once they had been occupied, every one and all at once. Amid the blooming scene - - of flowers and bending boughs, those hammocks al most looked the desolation of broken home ties. . And within the house-where the dignified old mahogany stood formal and severe as mahogany yehould in fairyland and the Creshelm valley, and i the homely fireplaces stared white as If on parade, which le the Way fairy fireplaces ought to stand everything was very quiet and subdued, as though 'the fair prlnee had made off with more than his bar of the life and gayety of that quaint corner as?? s. v?aM 11' . 11 i - . . WW . w m ... m m'm.m.am sjsj a sl ; --v v.-.-. a m r 1 h" x i - i . . 1 , L- jStV .vf yt , vj-j I Vfy 'r i V, IfZ7r til V:-:f r; ; 1 r s 1 'Twas Perfectly Idyl lic the Way These Women Lived in a Lonely Retreat, Till One of Them Indulged in a Real Romance ONCE there were three artists, all beau tiful of spirit, all inspired of dreams, ivho were able to live together ana they were women. There are many things in the world that have been held unbelievable, and this is the first of them. The prosperity of artists is the second; and fairy tales are the third. The name of one of the three artists was Elizabeth Shippen Green; the name of another it Violet Oakley; the name of the third i Jessie Willcox Smith. This is the fairy story about them, and it is, of course, entirely unbelievable; but any unbeliever who, up to and including June ign, had 'possessed the hardihood to braye the mystery of the encjianted wood in which those three princesses of dreanps h'af"bf tried themselves, would have seen with the eyes of conviction the blissful and undeniable fact. After June 3 things would have been diferent indeed, were different to all in- truders tn the shy domain of their secret A r cadia. For the most startling climax possible e t.tt I -f - 1 '4 Tatriana naa occurrea on mat very aay. The fairy prince, who is always rearing and charging around in the environs of the Sleep ing Wood, getting acquainted, came right in, and walked right up, and carried right off the first of the three charming hermits. So that Miss Green's name now is Mrs. Iluger Elliott, which is the appellation the fairy prince goes by in Providence, R. I., where he hails from; and the pair of them are off, to Europe, while the other two princesses of fancy's most real domain are left alone, to mingle rejoicings with their mourning. . w era 4. y t t - mm 1 tit 4o 4 VJ a woman under her own roof- of fairyland. But that, of course, waa just fancy. The hammocks were empty, the house quiet, because Miss Oakley was away on some errand In Phlladel puia ana Miss stmitb was making ready to depart on ome expedition of her own. 80 that la the sequel to the most unbelievable fairy atory that has ever happened In reality, and In tbla prosaic, scientific twentieth century, of all the laat in which one would look for it to happen. ' gome eight years have passed since those three girl artiste you have seen their dreams realized in their pictures many a time thought that .they ought to be able to live together in peace and com fort, to create their "artistic atmosphere'' for them selves, to have a true home with all the happiness that can' abide tree. They were all for their art? in those earlier days; and they aro all fur their art still, jtlarimge neun t take the newly wed Mrs. Elliott from her brushes and her pencil. But they were ao much for their art that none of them admitted man an presenting even the possibility of proving a disturbing factor. Of course, marriage might happen to any one of them. But then, so might death. They were not terrorized maidens, living In fear of raging heroes who went about eeeklng artistic souls to devour. They were rather young women who bad seen enough of society to find the male of their species quite an agreeable sort of a creature, although prone to be more admiring than Intellectual. So they adopted no harah rules toward this menace to celibacy. They tolerated him as part of the natural order of things; but. each In hr own am bitions, thev relegated him to the level where he belonged, filling his picturesque and hair-raising place in creation and often qualified to sign ciiecks In payment of Illustrations for profitable magazine en gagements. Meanwhile, es they worked with a heart and a half apiece amid the surroundings they were making eo congenial, every one of them adhering faithfully to her peculiar line of, work, their reputations grew apace, and incomes that might almost be called riches flowed Into" their coffers. It was a menage based on eminent common sense, with an adjustment of expenses that fell fairly on Individual shoulders and a copartnership in comforts that let no one feel discrimination. Some day, when all mankind is composed of artists over whom some fairy godmother has waved her wand of aUrutsm and fraternity and sorority, too, of course socialism will discover ire model In the household at Cogslea, in the enchanting Creshelm valley. They were so united and so happy that. In spare hours artiste who are earning real money do have spare hours, like the rest of us: but not too many they made sketches of one another. That was one of the delightful avocations of fair sisters In the olden Jays, when there was so much sisterly love in well-to-do families, end so little art that we wonder the sitters didn't scratch out the crooked eyes of their fona portrayers. With real artists. It becomes a truly thrilling task. Think of having for your subject your dearest girl friend, whose Innumerable charms of nature you know, down even to the seraphlo magnanimity thai is willing to let you wear her new earrings, if you want to; and then, of realizing that you can. and ought to, depict all those admirable attributes of ber soul in the one, composite expression of her face. Only a woman artist can appreciate the idyl that 'Princess Cutup" cvFlirt by Birth mil " i - W V : v - 77 W "X 1 " " I s jC i ' , ' 'V TAtJ ' ' ' I M I " 'VV, & Is THESE be parlous years for princes, King George and his popular coronation to the contrary notwithstanding. But sometimes, without any fuss and feathers, a likely prince manages to pick up treasure trove of love and money while nobody happens to be watching them. Youthful Prince George of Greece not the son of good King George, but. the son of King George's oldest sou and heir begins to enjoy his good fortune in September, when he becomes the spouse of Princess Elizabeth, daughter of the crown prince of Roumania. It's a little early to talk about it, but if the handsome young couple have any children-rand royalty never seems to be troubled with lack of them those scions of two of the least important royal houses in Europe are destined to be kin to the proudest monarch" of the world. . , ., It is .strange, but true, that even we. demo crats or republicans or independents of the United States may have the -chance to contribute to their support by ringing up passenger fares, doesn't rare a .ul,u.B twti iujuh buu Buvveuug vuai .uw wfta Is a granddaughter of Emperor Nicholas of Rus uiuvivcb, as our various occupations unve us un in sia. Tney n earning our proudly independent livings. For those royal kids are slated to have their fingers in many of our industrial pies, as their great-grind-dad has before them; and we won't know them for our bosses, although tier -., : , . ELIZABETH Is a Roumanian-Anglo-Saxon-German peach, with large wads of British wealth back of her, still belonging to her mother, the crown princess of Roumania, but certain come to her In the ordinary course of royal events. She Is only 17. the prettiest princess In Europe as pretty as her mother was at her age; and that saying has power still to stir the imagination of every con noisseur of beauty across the Atlantic. She just budded, and went ahead blooming. In the picturesque backwoods of Roumania while the sons of the officers who had given their hearts for a smile of her mother's almost broke their necks to get a similar smile from exquisite little 'Elizabeth. She sn't stingy with them, tor life is rather simple there; but they all knew the smile could mean noth ing more, oven as their handsome fathers knew her mother's arch badinage and gay laughter when she tamo as a bride from Englanu permitted no trespuK beyond the bounds of respectful, subject homage. Bite was one of those pearls in a golden setting that were passed over by more ambitious royalty until young George, only 22, grasped the momentous fact that he was of an age, a rank and a kingdom precisely suited to her. He made a dive for the pearl and won her In a breath. Now they're to be married, and if the king business only kitep on a paying basis in Irritable little Greece .they ought to be nappy ever afterward. Maybe It won't. Every other year or so the rentless Greeks, who seem to have wholly forgotten the fables of their own Aesop, rush up and- down the streets of some opolia or other, sasnlng their kind King Log and yelling that they want a King Stork or a toy republic. Then King Oeorge Invites them good-humor eUly Into the palace, gives them coffee and cigarettes and re marks : , "Well, boys, I'm tickled almost to death to see th t you've been reading that new serial about Ther mopylae and bully old Leonidas and feel like heroes again. It's been a long time since you invited me down from the masthead of the British man-of-war where, as a midshipman, I was being punished for stealing prunes, and all you're paying me for the work of being royal figurehead here Is $200,000. But It's twenty-eight years since 1 took a short chance fur big money In the American grain markets, and I salted down a few millions then which I've Invested In American stocks and bonds, wltb those industrious democrats sweating out the dividends and Interest. As soon as you can arrange to elect your friend president I'll .move out and start a Greek wine business In Paris, for I've got a large family and I'm willing to earn my living, al though out of practice now.'7 ' men tne neroio patriots perceive mat ineir King i noot lor tnem, ana respects mm aocora son of the late king of Denmark, and his sia. They have five sons and one daughter, and grand children tumbling up as fast as prolific nature can provide them. So King George has never been alto gether in fun when he declared he was going Into the . wine trade, if need arose. And young Prince Oeorge, although his rank In Greece is precisely what that of the preeent prince of Wales was in Great Britain whan .King Edward VII was alive, isn't so euro of having a zr S It M ft J - 'IS i A V IP largo patrimory for all the American investments of the king. But he is blood cousin to nearly every ruler and prince In Europe, as his promised bride is on ber own account. Pretty Elizabeth's mother waa Marie of Edinburgh, her father being the immensely wealthy duke of .Edin burgh. Bhe i a cousin of the kalser'a and of King Oeorife of England, and the yrtixzle maker who tried to decide which royalty she lan't related to would go crazy within half an hour. Crown frliices Marie's education In England had given her a turn for riding and other outdoor sports that kept her akin like velvet and her spirits always -dancing, When sue cast her lot with oid-fashluned, picturesque but inconveniently dull Roumania, she determined that life wasn't worth living unlesn she had soma excitement out of It. Her court ladies held up their mlttened hands In horror when she took her first canter, and they were sure that their crown prtnee had married some sort of scandal incarnate, especially when she picked the beat-looking cavaliers of the little realm to ride with and chat with. But the crown princess soon showed them she wanted nothing more than to have hef ladles share her, gayetlea, and the staid old court waa at last trans- . formed .into one of the liveliest, likeliest pleasure places In Europe. Her private fortune was so immense that the could bear costs of entertainment that flattered the vanity ot her subjects, and Elisabeth, her daughter, grew up In an atmosphere of brightness and good cheer that might have spoiled the daughter of any other mother. As It -is, Elisabeth has only had a chance to peep' Into the romances that can surround a princess when she la whirled into the responsibilities of marriage and . under conditions of rank that make her only on re- : move from, being a crowiu-princeas herself. - if And that, as her shrewd mother observed while arranging the match with young Prince Oeorge, la the : -best thing thaticaa happen to both of thm. . " v. - fx 6 tt -vAt- " I f t , tYi tl( f f'..w. - " , Hi I -7 i comes of an existence affording episodes like that. .. Miss Oakley's portraits of Miss Green and- Miss Smith were remarkable triumphs of the art that can selte the inmost spirit and put It honestly te the stranger eye. Mls Green's achievement In picturing Miss Oakley seemed to convey the remarkable faculty for concentration and the reserve of mental power that have characterised Mlsa Oakley's life and work. These Incidents) are only hints of the life the ated by checks little and big, as their work earned them from week to week and. from year to year." All three of these women artist had, from - the very beginning of their careers before even their careers had been more than hoped for the tie that binds together those whose instruction has been gained in the same studio, for they have all been students at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Miss Oakley received some early lnatructlon under Carroll Beckwltb. at the Art Students' League..' but eoon went to Franco and studied under Raphael Collin and Aman Jean in the Academle Montparnasse. Tilt nvt mmmr tnrA her at Rvt In Ruinx. SSnrl&nd.. at work under the direction of Charles Lasar; and the following winter brought her to the Pennsylvania Academy, for a full working year under Miss. Beau and Joseph De Camp, while ehe owes to Henry Thurin there her first work in composition. After that academy training, she bad the courage to open' her studio. ; ,VJ But, even then, she felt the need of the techni cal knowledge that comes out of the experience of practical illustrators. She became a student ot Mr. Pyle, and it wss he who urged her to try her hand at stained glass. Her decorations of the Church of All Angela, In New York, were the seal ot succeu upon ber career. . COLLABORATORS IN ILLUSTRATION. Miss Oakley has been always conspicuous for hef grasp of color, and her talents have led her naturally to a number ot artlstlo triumphs In the designing; at windows, the decoration of interiors such as make a masterpieeo of the great hall la the resldenoeVaf Charlton Yarnall, In Philadelphia, and the magnificent paintings which ornament the Pennsylvania v State caDltol at liarrlaburtr. There is a solendor and a oene ine sex oi ineir creator u an aia not snow me grace and exquisite fancy of the woman in every thought behind them and every line of their execu tion. -v v Miss Smith studied In the School of Design for Women In Philadelphia and worked hard,-for ' two vears. in the classes of the Pennsylvania JLcadermr f the 'lne Arts, bhe plunged at once into actuajl ad-j vertlslng with on of the magasines; but she, too,! went to Mr. Pyle for the helpful and practical in-1 structlon that was to round out her studies and At' her for the wide variety of work that has sine oeme to her. especially along her own peculiar lino of . decorative treatment for the most familiar ot every- She was a collaborator with Miss Oakley In early years tn the Illustration of "Evangeline." Bhe soon grow into the remunerative pages of the big maga sines, and her range of work has been very , bread. Her style Is even more forceful and vigorous than Mlae Oakley's, although it has been remarked that she does not display more soiiaity or treatment, . Of late years her peculiar ability has been dis played In the depiction of child characters. It Is she who, most of all. has. given to th modern world the pictures of fairyland as children ought to know ; it, and no one can surmise, better than she ana her friends of Cogslea how many of those fairies and children of lovely fancy and reality have grown right up there in the mysterious shadows and lovely ' sunlight of the Creshelm vale. , Miss Green's favorite medium waa ' long the pen and Ink that makes for so much freshness and ae- . curacy In all artlatio development. Bhe too, has been a favorite Illustrator of the stories children love, and it was her hand that depicted the exquisite soenes ia Carmen Sylva's "Fairy Tales." QUICKLY EARNED SUCCESS ' ' Three years were spent by Miss Green . la the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, one in . the classes for the antique and two In the life classes. She learned much from her teacher there, Thomas P. Anschuu. and was more thun qualified to reap riches of instruction from the lectures she attended after-': ward, by Mr. Pylo, on the work of the illustrator. ' She had just six weeks et a trip abroad and came back to do such work as she could obtain, In adver Using and In magaaine Illustration, tihe found that her Individuality and her range of observation rapidly brought her work into extensive demand, until she waa overcrowded with orders from publishers, which left her all tne happier until the time arrived when the greatest happiness of all comes Into a woman's life. It Is strange how seldom the sequestered ' maid, who longs and longs for the fairy prlncs to turn up, ever casta eye upon his gallant figure; and equally strange bow liable he is to appear when she doesn't care two1 pins whether he doesn't arrive to Interrupt her crocheting. Tne Cogalea trio didn't care a slnsto pin; and when the admirers did arrive, they wero al ways taken on suspicion ae to their true right and title to the rank qualifying them to recognition. But when Mr. Elliott appeared there was a real isation that he surely did have valid claims, whicit were proved to be completely genuine when he turned out to be director of the Rhode Island School of Design, There, Indeed, waa a fit suitor for a woman artist, one who could unJerstand, sympathise and so. predate. .-"'' .- - .i-t'.. ,--:..'.- '.' j,. -!- - The engagement was formally announced last autumn, and everybody wondered how Miss Oakley and Miss Smith would take the romance that was ta remove to Providence one of their elose-hearted trio. Weil, the good fairy who had watched ever them all those other years Sever quit her duties. inspired them to be the bride's attendante when the ceremony wil performed that took her frm thtii. And so the Impossible tale of happlneee reach 1 ' natural, charming end as such etoriee do In the t the glrle make pictures for. with love In plui.t with every one happy as can bo. But It Is a eurloue story tr-hsppn l t'' t.-- of the twentieth eentury Isn't It? n if he ts ars actually maktnir real the fair ri. -t o , beer only Imagined