The Oregon Daily Journal from Portland, Oregon • Page 54

THE OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL. PORTLAND. SUNDAY MORNING, JULY 6. 1913. Paul Chabas' Famous Work the Most Discussed Painting Recent i Years Is This Picture Gloripus Work of Artl Chastely, "Portraying the Loveliest Dream1 Nature Even the Ad-miration of Any Lover of the Beautiful-' As Some of America's "Mock Immoral-ists" a Shocking Example of French Immodesty Which Should Be Barred froni the Public Gaze in the In-terests of Decency the Children? RE ire nation- of prurient A' prudes, mock moraUaU and tMteleta tajbarUiiiT In Chicago the police ordered the print removed from a window, an Incident that Is Interesting as showing that Comatock was not alone in his' "Bath House 'John" condemn-.

ed the work Improper." United 8tates officials shared the Comstocklan ThiX la the question that hubeen nlsed by the assault made In york upon JPaul Chabas'a painting et tie nnde, "September fMorn.w vTlie episode 1 has used to cast discredit npon our taste and' moral standards In Europe, and many cultured Americans Indignantly bare the European View; On the other band, there are nndoubtedly respectable Americans who bold that the picture Is demoralizing, and bare no sympathy with the artlstto rlew -a ensisted largelf of eorrectlhl hodlly deformities, can see nothing, fcnt heantv la thla nicture. 1 1-' "If I had a daughter, he said! this picture Is the kind of decoration I would like to see on her wall, and If I had a son I should be happy id nave nun cease jus eyes on every day. It shows the beauty of the i 1 1 i.j Paul Chabaa human form as nature intenaea ij to be. It cannot but inspire highel emoUons-In any but the degenerate and fortunately the degenerate class; represents but a small minor Sty of the American nation. To see; the beautiful purifies the emotlona' gives one an aesthetlo bath," so td apeak, and psychologically such s) bath Is Taluabla" i Abraham Caban.

editor et the "Jewish Daily Forward, the New Torn Jewish newananer which renresents the (French I Artist, Who Artist, Who point This newspaper has lnterrlewed a long list of Intellectually representative American and found few who did not praise the picture warmly. The paln(Inc represents a younc girl, little mow than a child, bath-Ing In a lake In September. She la drawing i berself together (:: with an attitude natural to one who feels chilly. She Is entirely nude; and th girlish figure Is beautifully drawn. It requires a powerful imagination to HaiK anything suggestlTs la tha Those who condemn tbe plctura are opposed to all representations of the nude but in addition, they sea something particularly objectionable in the crouching attitude of the figure in this case." Artists and the majority of broad-minded persons see in It only the natural action of, a human being feeling a slight chill, but the puritans' are strangely, ex felted by it This is the point on the more intelligent critics centre their criticism.

They allege that it not a simple picture of the joude, but an alluring suggestion of 'concealment. The answer to this Is that such a Tiew shows a distorted mini that seeks to discover eril in ererythlng. i The painting won a gold medal at the Paris Salon and was bought by a rich Russian resident of Paris, The artist had refused to sell it to aa 'American lest It be taken out of the country A fine print of the pio ture was, however, exhibited in an art store in New York. Anthony Comstock, the professional vice crusader, ordered the picture removed. The art dealer refused, and when Mr.

Com stock appealed for an orjer 1 to remove it i from a court he was not sustained. Painted "Sep.tem -ber 1 suggestion that should order its he re innocence. That any one should SouTBeautifuL II the youth of our wish to banish it is Incomprehen- land are not aware of this fact -if, slble. I should be ashamed to ad- standing before the rare portrayal. turn to the foreign makes natural a gesture of fear.

The crouching Venus is In the same position. "Anglo-Saxons are a race of hypocrites. Mayor Gaynor srepresents one variety of our hypocrisy when mlt that such a point of view Is of the Body Beautiful In 'September American. That 'September Mom' i Morn' they are not elevated, do not sender. "The picture is demoralising in the extreme and especially calculated to excite Immodesty In the said Mr, regard tneir own bodies and the bodies of others with a purer rev- erence, but on the contrary, are caused to feel ashamed of their bodies and the bodies of others, the fault lies not with the perfect -ture, but with a false and most im- should be asked to move on and some shocking, horrible theatrical posters allowed to remain would be funny If it were pot so sad.

Rose Pastor the East Side working girl who married J. O. Phelps Stokes, a member of a mill- lonaire family, and now lives with -her husband among her people, the most advanced socialistic ideas! is In entire accord with those who uphold the rights of Tionest, sincere, art "We could print Chabas's picture" lit our paper, and it would do good rather than harm." he said. people are so constituted that a beautiful picture like this conveys nothing but Smutty suggestions to them. People of that type scarcely hear an ordinary English word with-.

out interpreting It in some Indecent manner. are to be classed with degenerates. J' This picture Is the very embodl-' ment of beauty and purity. It up lifts the mind instead of dragging it down to the mire of obscenity. One must possess a very low psychology Indeed to construe this beautiful thing into something suggestive of -Lady Constance Stewart Richard- son was the one person interviewed 1 not American.

She is an authority because her artistlo specialty con-1 slsts of barefooted dancing. To regard the nude body from a Sex oolnt of view; ia! a In Comstock. The human figure should never be displayed in 1 public without proper clothing. We must save the children from such sights." Ae. against Mr.

Comstock's view here'ls what Miss Xnes Milholland, the New Tork suffragist leader, a thoroughly representative young woman, "The picture is exauislte and dell cate, depicting perfect youth and The customs division of the New Tork Post Office opened a consignment of prints of the picture for the purpose of collecting duty. They were at" the nude and referred the prints to Washington for 'instructions. The high postal officials there were doubtful whether the picture was fit for circulation in America, and pass- ed It up to Secretary Bryan, with the He has the viewpoint of the slov-' euly chambermaid who sweeps the dirt. under, the bed. "Americans strain at a moral -gnat and swallow a cameL There is no country where divorce is so speedy and remarriage so preclpI-Y tate as here." Judge Wauhope Lynn, the dlstln-.

gulshed. Jurist a popular' leader among warm-hearted Irishmen, de- fended, the picture heartily: "I don't think you can Justly Judge the American attitude toward art by Anthony Comstock. have known Tony for thirty years. At the beginning of that time people thought they should do away with offensive writing and signs on fences and in other public places, and they set Tony to do the work." But now he Is going outside his spoke for the picture: fif-prf. 'September Morn' Is a glorious Work of art portraying the loveliest dream that nature ever made real-tie human Body Beautiful "The Body Beautiful is as sweet and pure and sacred a thing as the periect education, and our business is not to condemn the artist and his work, but the educators and their workvv'v-' "Even If our educational system has succeeded In leaving not one clean-minded youth in the land, It seems to me more wholesome to meet the shame that lies in an unclean sUte of mind with frankness that is pure than to meet it with pure hypoCTasy." It is only Just to say that there are Americans more cultured than 1 Anthony Comstock who cuestlon the propriety of displaying the picture In public, i This type of opinion is well represented by the Rev Syd- ney N.

Ussher, associate rector of St Bartholomew's Church, a very fashionable New York Episcopal congregation. He said There is no doubt that there is different standard of morality -abroad from what we have in America 1 in Questions of art. The humiliating reason is, we must admit, 1 American Girb" Beautiful;" London's Australia's "Venuses" YLdy ifBui it Is a sin rather on the part of the parents than on the part of the children. It is all her figure is inoffensive, and It Is not the kind Which is evolved by the dlrectoire corset; her complexion Is her own, and her clothes are coverings. Every woman knows what that "Prison-officials will notWtt picture of any woman, even a saint.

"icn am deeply ChU-'ina Jriwner's we must not asiume that S'HC tLai 'u b(Xlle? our ordinary citizens hare the moral- ffn the beginning of their lives, and ity of convicts. We cannot of "cha sight would women because some men are ab- suggestion from normaL Miss Mary Shaw, the actress, cou Seine girls and women who grip one's attetf tlon as with eager nervous hands. These girls are mostly dark dark as Circs and the long, shameless, man-enthralling eyes of the classio seductress haunt and fascl- aste one up and down the length of every boulevard. They possess ieliue gface of i movement and the slim shape of them suggests sylph In a dlrectoire corset if one can imag-f 'j i IV TOTH1NO like a girl to put other girls In their placel 1 1 One observing girl who has taken that task upon herself fs aa Australian, who writes under. name of Dulcle Deamer.

Having completed her Observations of New York girls, she has sailed back to London. From there she will hurry home to Auitralla after" analysing the charms and defects of the girls of most "I wish there could be'a picture aW6r9? tne best Interpreter Ib- sen's female roles, said like 'September Morn in every distinction means. She badly needs an Australian friend to teach ber how to dress. The New York girl Is beautiful; Never have 14 I visited a city where the beauty average for all classes of was so high. A really plain girl is almost as rare there as an ichthy-osaurus.

i( The typical New York girl is of medium heightin fact mote often short' than tall- with a pretty figure, a good carriage, the small- est foot In the worldl 1 honestly believe; per-Yf, 1 i iih fju runmii uuiuia. snow wmaow in town, people who Attierteani lack an artistic conscience. They hare not, the cour. are Used to the sight of the natural: numan body are never corrupt The in. such a combinatlon.fAnCthey.know lr to dress with one That exception, iM8 than the average European.

is their feet which, to put it not- -inasmuch as America can never as a rule, carry out the sylph eimile. i I have become- eminently a. nation of art-seen sartorial creations so much up to the lovers, because realism is here too moment that they i well ahead jofXireen- opposed to Idealism, I age to stand alone for an 'opinion. "A few years ago I was arrested for playing the womans role in 1'Mra Warren's by Bernard When the play was sanctioned by law those who had) been busiest in slandering it were the most eager to see it Puritans cased their women as with armor from" head to toe, and they." were whited sepulchres. We are reacting from that sort of thing, and that Is why men find the slit skirt ay mx'i- wu uui uu.i i wouia not recommend aa vivid an feet taste and style as regards dress, exquia- cay dream and a nightmare, being carried example of nudity; as 'September morn' tor pubiio exhibition, i am itely manicured hands, brunette coloring, a l.

around by a pair of shabby, squashed, trodden-very pretty faceand an expression as hard as down shoes which the average Australian girl 1 plece.orraadineUL.v- i i Richard Bennett the actor, has- sure the xreat malorltr of obserr- -rnvato pleasures, not nubllo ers would not be inclined to take 5 neen piaytog i leading role? la SdlilTti fSTra JZzEj The female wew, xorjwr js aoouv uie naro- csif Damaged Goods trier which. est thing on earth granite, paving slabs, home- Before sailing from New Tork, Pulcle Deam-ier epitomized her girl impressions for the bent efit of readers of this newspaper. "The American girls are beautiful." she said. JLondon girls are positively dowdy. And now" 111 share my most Important discovery with you.

If you want to see Venus on her native heath, you must go to Australia. There Is no doubt about that Can you blame me for hurrying hornet" More in detail, the pretty Australian said: "Where Paris offers chic, seductive fashion plates, London offers homely dowds. I was never in any city where ordinary feminine good looks were-so conspicuous by their It one should accept the standard of the London streets as typical for the whole of Britain, one would toe forced to conclude that the great majority of English women are plain commonplace, and shockingly badly' The London woman who nost persistently i assailed my observation la. usually shortish maAa atones and adamant not beths excepted. James ji Montgomery Flagg, probably the most popular black-and-' white artist in America and a social caricaturist of great ability, ex splcuoua type is sex-conscious to such an abnormal extent that it gets on 'one's nervea This same constitutes a certain decadent but potent fascination, exotic, hectic, and supreme-.

vShe is not a womap; she Is a cold-blooded bandit with a calculating eye extract-; ing Jewelry, theatre tickeU, expensive restao- pressed the feelings of his craft though dealing with a repulsive subject is warmly commended by good men and women. In discussing the picture Mr, Bennett remarked cleverly: WVjVi "Chabas's Morn' Is no inore Immoral than the lovely morning would be without the figure of the girl in the waters of the lake." 1 Dr. Homer Glbner. the noted New rant meals and; automobile rides from her iV ,4 "But In Australia our beautiful girls are not when he said: in vonunenuu iuurope, they are braver in life and art" David Belasco, the masterly con- structor of stage spectacles, spoke -wormly for the picture: The presentment of this shy little maiden bathing in the coolness of a' lovely September morn can conjure in the Imagination no sensation save that of a recognition of her own childlike Innocence. To be privileged a view of Innocence such as this Is ennobling, whether we see It ia the picture or in real life." circle of male acquaintances, She has nOuse only Venuses la faeefand form; they are ex-' There is something the matter at all for any man who cannot "show her a uisite la their taste tor dress and personal brain of a man who gives good time' and how any man full posses- adornment; and, far from being hard and cal- his time to seeking the prurient slon of his senses can have any use for culating; they are sympathetic, human.

IfNeir Only a diseased mind can find any more tnan i.can,comprenena.''rS:-" woma.iose.ineir thing immoral In 'September Yl York surgeon: who approaches the ii- standpoint my me naye waipneu so come nearer man any jpn is preparing to iaxs a quesuon. irom a unique i -Never tn tivld girls has ana women as ia jne aflsuu aenusv fr na ine cow water Because nis proiessionai work KVS. 5.