The Employments of Women: A Cyclopædia of Woman's WorkPenny, Virginia
General
The Employments of Women: A Cyclopædia of Woman's Work
Penny, Virginia
Women -- Employment
Exhibitions, open to everybody, will afford the public an opportunity to
measure her talent or genius; critics will confine their attacks to her
works; and praise, if she deserves it, will reach her eyes and ears in
terms that she will be able to listen to or peruse without the
accompaniment of a blush." Mrs. Wilson, wife of a physician living in
Cincinnati, has executed busts of her husband and children that are said
to be excellent likenesses. Mrs. Dubois, of New York, has sculptured in
marble several specimens. Misses Lander and Stebbins, and Miss Hosmer,
we believe, find their art lucrative. Sculptors should attend anatomical
dissections; should learn the structure of the human frame, and the
appearance of the muscles under the various conditions to which
circumstances may subject them. Indeed the study of anatomy is essential
to success. In sculpture, we closely imitate the parent, nature. The
most superior specimens of statuary are said to be modelled after
nature, as seen in the unlaced, unpinched, unaltered original--just as
nature's own hand has chiselled. In sculpture, modelling is the
inventive part of the work, and requires taste and genius; copying is a
merely mechanical operation. A pursuit of this kind, if followed from
the love of it, becomes a soul-engrossing study. Means or friends to
rely upon, for at least two years, during the time of study, will be
necessary in most cases; for if the artist is to support herself while
she studies, only the highest earnestness can sustain her; but then
those that are not in earnest should not undertake this art--for "it is
better to pursue a frivolous trade in a serious manner, than a sublime
art frivolously." Without very decided talent it will be some time
before a sculptor comes sufficiently into notice to sustain herself
entirely by the filling of orders. "Sculpture has become almost a
fashion in Paris; but a woman finds it difficult to devote herself to
studies pertaining to the art. Though greater in number than painters,
they have accomplished scarcely any remarkable works." Many women who
might not undertake sculpture, might learn to work in marble for
sculptors. A marble worker in its various branches, writes me: "I think
women might be very well employed in the lighter parts of finishing. I
suppose they are not so employed, because there has not yet been any
organized and extended effort made to introduce them into this line of
business. I am not sure, but think it likely, women are employed to a
limited extent in _chiselling_ marble in Italy and France. Miss Hosmer
has done more than mould for others to copy. She has herself handled the
mallet and chisel. The employment in general is healthy; but lettering,
and indeed fine chiselling of any sort, requiring the eye to be brought
near to the work, raises a dust, which is breathed into the
lungs--though the injury is not very apparent till the lapse of years
reveals it. The qualifications desirable are a good judgment, and eye
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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