Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 July 1882 — NUDITY IN ART. [ARTICLE]

NUDITY IN ART.

p araso sNo Longer Used by Ladies In Visiting the Galleries. “I have been taking another look at both the Royal Academy and the Grosenor Gallery picture shows,” writes Olive Logan to the Cincinnati Enquirer. “One thing that is very striking in both exhibitions,' and is carried to a very unusual extent lor English exhibitions, is the great quantity of nude subjects. Only a couple of seasons ago, when Alma Tauema exhibited a nude figure at the Academy called ‘The Sculptor’s Model,’ there was a terrific outcry about the impropriety’of it, and one day a party of prudish ladies put up their they passed it, for at the modern picture galleries in London the public are sensibly allowed to retain their umbrellas and parasols as they walk through the rooms. I suppose the authorities never expected these necessary articles would be used as a protest against any of the works of art exhibited, but so it was in the ease l mention; but the public mind can be educated up to almost anything, and the day has come when the British matron has put aside the squeamishness, which . Thackeray ridiculed, and now critically discusses the nude in painting and sculpture. Hit Fredericd I«eighton’s Phryne in Eleusis is provided with only a floating scarf of cherry gauze, some three Inches wide, and even that the beautiful creature is la ? ing aside as rapidly as the nature of her condition will admit. You hear women discussing among themselves the length of her limbs, the true proportion of her waist and bust, and quite uncon cernedly seating themselves in front of the picture to study it long and well. Another picture, called ’The Golden Age.’ shows a big, quite nude girl wiping her back with a Turkish towel by the side of a little brook. A slight shiver seems to be passing over the bather, who digs her toes downward on the towel on which she\ stands, and I heard a pretty young (woman yesterday telling a gentleman, what relationship, if any, there was between the two I know not—that ‘Ella’ always shivered like that when bathed. The information seemed deeply interesting to the listener. The most conspicuous nude picture at the Grosvenor is Burne Jones’* Tree of forgiveness.’ Phyllis is popping out of the almond tree at the passing and astonished Demophdon, who looks like the individnal Dan Bryant used to sing about as if he thought she’d better go‘way fromdere.’ Both parties are devoid of the slightest vestige of clothing. Yet nobody seemd to see anything amiss iu the contemplation of‘this painting. It is, of course, the masterpiece of the exhibition, and go where you will you will be forced to take your turn at.the end ~i a big crowd to get a glimpse of it. Burne Jones’ other Siicture, ‘The Mill,’ has also a curious eature. Three very beautiful and properly draped maidens t re dancing on a lawn in front of a mill, and in the mill pond a lot of men are bathing. The girls do not seem as if they intended to take any steps to prevent these public ablutions by applying to the authorities to suppress them as a nuisance, but are dancing away as unconcernedly as if nude men were a a natural component part of every rural landscape. Perhaps they were in the old medieeval, monkish days depicted in ‘The Mill,’ and as for ‘The Tree of Forgivenness,’ we all know there were no tailors, nor haberdashers, in mythological times—lucky times ! “Of course, you know that I may say that after a twenty years’ experi ence es continental picture galleries there is nothing astonishing in these things—when seen in continental galleries. But what are we to infer from their acceptance iu the modern galleries of London? I am sure ii Dickens and Thackeray could look in at the London picture galleries of to day and see the toleration of hitherto tabooed subjects in marble and on canvas, those great students and chroniclers of the manners of their times would be astounded at the change which has occurred since their dav.”

New York hotel men, boarding house keepers, poultry dealers, farmers, and even members of the legislature, have been debating the question as to which will keep the longer, drawn or undrawn fowl. The hotel proprietors are in favor of a bill to compel poultry men to remove the entrails of fowls before sending them to market. This they would call “drawn fowl.” For some reason the dealers are opposed to this and claim that the undrawn fowl would keep longer than the drawn. From our general knowledge we should certainly favor drawn fowl, and this Is the opinion of a Dr. Porter, of Bismarck. Dakota, who writes that facts in his J>art of the country prove that drawn owl keeps the best. He says that hunting parties always remove the entrails of all they bring home, and, in his experience, birds shot and drawn will keep and remain sweet three days longer than the undrawn. He has noticed that when the viscera are allowed to remain for any length of time, the flesh acquires an ‘‘intestinal flavor, not at all agreeable except to very ‘gamey’ persons.”—Dr. Foote’s Health Monthly. The trial of Thomas E Bnelbaker, for manslaughter, in killing Armstrong Chumley on the Bth of August, 1880, has commenced in the Cincinnati common pleas court. Governor Crittenden, of Missouri, feels good because "there is a healthier feeling” in that state since the death of the distinguished Mr. James. Mr. Crittenden says that travel has Increased, the people now feeling more secure while riding on the rail.

There Are x dozen known instances where people hare been cured of rheu.uaii.-m by lightning striking thehouse. If lightning wn>a-mii»d tc attend to busianss, it could be oi great value to man. —Detroit Free Press.