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A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ART

It Is Not Languishing, So Far as the City of Omaha Is Concerned.

Mrs. Peattie Writes of the Omaha School of Fine Arts and Other Things of General Intercat.

The Omaha School of Fine Arts has reached a place at last where it is self-supporting. It has been for some time under the charge of the Western Art association, but has never been a very heavy burden to that organization, and is now in a fair way to have no further need to assistance. The work of the art school has a different quality to it this wonder than it has ever previosly had. Hitherto there has been a arge enrollment of pupil, some of whom were in earnest, and some of whom were not. It was the fashion among many to work for one or two afternoons. The work was taken up by many as a sort casual diversion. Among these, there were, of course, some very earnest and enthusiastic workers. And little by little thhis class of sudents has gained ground until there is now a class of students has gained ground, until there is now a class og thirty-five insustrious and ambitious art students.

Five-sixths of them are women, and a rivary in work exists among them which shows the genuine earnestinese with whcih they are animated.

They are there, many of them, by 8 in the morning They work until 6 at night, and some of them return in the evening This is the sort of spirit that made thism Cincinnati and Chicago art schools possible, and its exisence here is far more cheering to one ambitious for Omaha's artistic development than mere numbers could possibly be

Mr J. Laurie Wallace, the conductor of the school, feels that there is very much promise in the work of certain of his pupils.

Unfortunately, the continuous work in the class room keeps Mr. Wallace from doing as much work in his studio as his friends would desire. And this is all the more to be regretted as Mr. Wallace knows how to work along the right lines. He knows how to recognize the beautiful when he sees it, and he recognize the beautiful when he sees it, and he recognizes it as quickly on the Bluffs by the Missouri as he would in the mountains of Switzerland. The consciousness that we have a may smong us who might catch the pecliar beauty of our sky, our plains, our bluffs, and our broads ravines with their wonderful beds of yellow sand, their willow thickets and aspen groves, makes those who are about such things feel a sense of loss that such an artist lacks the time to do the work of which he feels copable, and toward which he is drawn.

By the way, did you ever hear of that early first landscape painter of Omaha, who painted for years, and who finally gave up the effort to feed on the artistic husks of this commercial city, and who now wears a straight jacket down in the Lincoln insane asylum!

There is one art student in this town whose work is more than promising. It has already reached a certain degree of achievement. This young man is Frank Shill, the most talented student, probably, who was ever connected with the art school here.

It is not intended to give the impression that the young man does not need a great deal deal more of hard study. He does. But he has, undeniably, a true, if not a thorough technique and a perception and sentiment that will assist him to do something really excellent if he will only be patient and keep at his studies. The balefil effects on a money maing town such as this, upon a student of any branch of art cannot be too much depreciated. The influence is so strong that it causes the young enthusiast, even against his better instinct and judgement to enter into the money masking market. But even from a financial point of view, it is better ot be patient and thorough. The returns are so much larger when they come. The mediocre, self-conscious artist soon becomes as tiresome to the public as twice-told tale.

But, however, all this has little or nothing to do with Frank Shill, who paints away quietly in his little studio is in a disused two room cottage which stands in the same yard with is home. He has managed to get a north light in it, and while he has not distance enough to do justice to a very large canvass, that is probably a blessing in disguise, since a small canvass, that is probably a blessing in disguise, since a small canvass is safer for a young artist than a large one, just as the short story is the proper thing for a uovelist to serve his apprenticeship in. The largest canvass Mr. Shill has represents "The Gambles," a young man sitting, bowed with humiliation and sense of loss, beside a bare table. The tone of the while picture is gray-the very light is gray-and the effect of this is to give on a subtle conception of the sombre tinge of the young gambler's mind Mr Shill's bost sketch is, however, to my mind a little unfinished one of the Platte river bottoms. The sands are sallow, with a tinge sometimes of pink. The water runs between the ridges like the fingers of a great hand. Above is the opaque Nebraska sky, and between the while, clear atmosphere. It is not a sketch which would not please everyone because the subject is, perhaps, monotonous. But it is attractive to me for the reason that it shows unmistakably that the young artist known how to observe, understand and accurately reproduce a peculiar phase of nature. It shows the from some source he has acquired the courage to look at things with his own eyes, and not with the eyes of some other man.

Mr. Shill can also paint a good portrait but his work in that line may yet be considered largely experimental. For whie he has appreciation and intelligence to catch the most distinctive qualities of any subject-and it is these traits which makes the fine painter of portraits-yet he needs a more intimate acquaintance with the human body.

Never to eary in the study of nature, to persist in spite of all obstacles int he study of the human form is the price that must be paid for excellence in art.

Mr. Wallace has done some of the best portrait work that has ever been done in this part of the country. He has a trick of bringing out the distinctive trait of his subject in a way that seems like an illimination to the unobsercant person who has looked without more than having seen the faces which Mr Wallace reporduces on his canvas. The lionine head of Jules Lumbard, for example, the alert trim, compact features of Dr, Kohnstamm, or the phiz of Mr. Scott of the Chcago Herald, while its expression of tenacity and combativeness, are the sort on which Mr Wallace does his best work.

However, when he paints a sketch of tawny grss, a bunch of trees, autumn-tinted, a far blue line of bluffs and the swooning, deep dky of the Nebraska plains, he suits me best.

There never was such a studio in this part of the country as that which Mr. Fred Parker has at the extreme northern part of the city limits, on the Florence road. The parker place needs no decription to any one possessed of a horse and the appurrtenances thereto, for out about Florence lie the drives which most allure one on summer evenings And whoever is in the habit of going out in that direction kows the neglected and luxuriant garden, where the pretty terraces have long since fallen one upon the other and lost their outlines, the cedars and pines are unacquainted with the knife of the pruner; the grass grows in long and untended masses, the wild grape climbs as it likes about the trees The little house slouches down among its trees like a chilly man in his old overcoat.

Back of this house about 100 feet is the studio of Mr Parker-a very substanital brick building, long, with windows looking toward the north; with an office, a magnificent picture gallery, a work room and a dark room. It is heated by furnace, but it has a fireplace of fine proportions at one end. Egyptian, Mexican, Italian and American Indian curios docorate the place. The pictures on the wall are the work of Mr. Parker's brush from early days of boyhood, when he painted extraordinary compositions of fruit, to the later time, when he made coppies of famous pictures in the falleries of Rome and last of all, is the days of Omaha and Nebraska work. The subject of these last and best pieces of work include many subjects, ranging from Will Morris as a grave digger to Will Girely as a Roman senator.

All of which is entre nous of course.

Elia W. Peattie

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ART

It Is Not Languishing, So Far as the City of Omaha Is Concerned.

Mrs. Peattie Writes of the Omaha School of Fine Arts and Other Things of General Intercat.

The Omaha School of Fine Arts has reached a place at last where it is self-supporting. It has been for some time under the charge of the Western Art association, but has never been a very heavy burden to that organization, and is now in a fair way to have no further need to assistance. The work of the art school has a different quality to it this wonder than it has ever previosly had. Hitherto there has been a arge enrollment of pupil, some of whom were in earnest, and some of whom were not. It was the fashion among many to work for one or two afternoons. The work was taken up by many as a sort casual diversion. Among these, there were, of course, some very earnest and enthusiastic workers. And little by little thhis class of sudents has gained ground until there is now a class of students has gained ground, until there is now a class og thirty-five insustrious and ambitious art students.

Five-sixths of them are women, and a rivary in work exists among them which shows the genuine earnestinese with whcih they are animated.

They are there, many of them, by 8 in the morning They work until 6 at night, and some of them return in the evening This is the sort of spirit that made thism Cincinnati and Chicago art schools possible, and its exisence here is far more cheering to one ambitious for Omaha's artistic development than mere numbers could possibly be

Mr J. Laurie Wallace, the conductor of the school, feels that there is very much promise in the work of certain of his pupils.

Unfortunately, the continuous work in the class room keeps Mr. Wallace from doing as much work in his studio as his friends would desire. And this is all the more to be regretted as Mr. Wallace knows how to work along the right lines. He knows how to recognize the beautiful when he sees it, and he recognize the beautiful when he sees it, and he recognizes it as quickly on the Bluffs by the Missouri as he would in the mountains of Switzerland. The consciousness that we have a may smong us who might catch the pecliar beauty of our sky, our plains, our bluffs, and our broads ravines with their wonderful beds of yellow sand, their willow thickets and aspen groves, makes those who are about such things feel a sense of loss that such an artist lacks the time to do the work of which he feels copable, and toward which he is drawn.

By the way, did you ever hear of that early first landscape painter of Omaha, who painted for years, and who finally gave up the effort to feed on the artistic husks of this commercial city, and who now wears a straight jacket down in the Lincoln insane asylum!

There is one art student in this town whose work is more than promising. It has already reached a certain degree of achievement. This young man is Frank Shill, the most talented student, probably, who was ever connected with the art school here.

It is not intended to give the impression that the young man does not need a great deal deal more of hard study. He does. But he has, undeniably, a true, if not a thorough technique and a perception and sentiment that will assist him to do something really excellent if he will only be patient and keep at his studies. The balefil effects on a money maing town such as this, upon a student of any branch of art cannot be too much depreciated. The influence is so strong that it causes the young enthusiast, even against his better instinct and judgement to enter into the money masking market. But even from a financial point of view, it is better ot be patient and thorough. The returns are so much larger when they come. The mediocre, self-conscious artist soon becomes as tiresome to the public as twice-told tale.

But, however, all this has little or nothing to do with Frank Shill, who paints away quietly in his little studio is in a disused two room cottage which stands in the same yard with is home. He has managed to get a north light in it, and while he has not distance enough to do justice to a very large canvass, that is probably a blessing in disguise, since a small canvass, that is probably a blessing in disguise, since a small canvass is safer for a young artist than a large one, just as the short story is the proper thing for a uovelist to serve his apprenticeship in. The largest canvass Mr. Shill has represents "The Gambles," a young man sitting, bowed with humiliation and sense of loss, beside a bare table. The tone of the while picture is gray-the very light is gray-and the effect of this is to give on a subtle conception of the sombre tinge of the young gambler's mind Mr Shill's bost sketch is, however, to my mind a little unfinished one of the Platte river bottoms. The sands are sallow, with a tinge sometimes of pink. The water runs between the ridges like the fingers of a great hand. Above is the opaque Nebraska sky, and between the while, clear atmosphere. It is not a sketch which would not please everyone because the subject is, perhaps, monotonous. But it is attractive to me for the reason that it shows unmistakably that the young artist known how to observe, understand and accurately reproduce a peculiar phase of nature. It shows the from some source he has acquired the courage to look at things with his own eyes, and not with the eyes of some other man.

Mr. Shill can also paint a good portrait but his work in that line may yet be considered largely experimental. For whie he has appreciation and intelligence to catch the most distinctive qualities of any subject-and it is these traits which makes the fine painter of portraits-yet he needs a more intimate acquaintance with the human body.

Never to eary in the study of nature, to persist in spite of all obstacles int he study of the human form is the price that must be paid for excellence in art.

Mr. Wallace has done some of the best portrait work that has ever been done in this part of the country. He has a trick of bringing out the distinctive trait of his subject in a way that seems like an illimination to the unobsercant person who has looked without more than having seen the faces which Mr Wallace reporduces on his canvas. The lionine head of Jules Lumbard, for example, the alert trim, compact features of Dr, Kohnstamm, or the phiz of Mr. Scott of the Chcago Herald, while its expression of tenacity and combativeness, are the sort on which Mr Wallace does his best work.

However, when he paints a sketch of tawny grss, a bunch of trees, autumn-tinted, a far blue line of bluffs and the swooning, deep dky of the Nebraska plains, he suits me best.

There never was such a studio in this part of the country as that which Mr. Fred Parker has at the extreme northern part of the city limits, on the Florence road. The parker place needs no decription to any one possessed of a horse and the appurrtenances thereto, for out about Florence lie the drives which most allure one on summer evenings And whoever is in the habit of going out in that direction kows the neglected and luxuriant garden, where the pretty terraces have long since fallen one upon the other and lost their outlines, the cedars and pines are unacquainted with the knife of the pruner; the grass grows in long and untended masses, the wild grape climbs as it likes about the trees The little house slouches down among its trees like a chilly man in his old overcoat.

Back of this house about 100 feet is the studio of Mr Parker-a very substanital brick building, long, with windows looking toward the north; with an office, a magnificent picture gallery, a work room and a dark room. It is heated by furnace, but it has a fireplace of fine proportions at one end. Egyptian, Mexican, Italian and American Indian curios docorate the place. The pictures on the wall are the work of Mr. Parker's brush from early days of boyhood, when he painted extraordinary compositions of fruit, to the later time, when he made coppies of famous pictures in the falleries of Rome and last of all, is the days of Omaha and Nebraska work. The subject of these last and best pieces of work include many subjects, ranging from Will Morris as a grave digger to Will Girely as a Roman senator.

All of which is entre nous of course.

Elia W. Peattie