PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 4, No. 23, SERIAL No. 123 COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC. [Illustration: THE GOLDEN HOUR. BY W. J. BAER Actual size. 4 inches high, 5 inches wide. COPYRIGHT. 1896, BY W. J. BAER IN THE POSSESSION OF MR. ROBERT S. CLARK, NEW YORK CITY] _AMERICAN MINIATURE PAINTERS_ _William J. Baer_ THREE Art beckons and the artist follows. Only an artist knows what the lure of art is. The field of art is full of enticements. Little incidents, apparently insignificant, have sometimes been sufficient to change an artist's career and direct him toward his most brilliant achievements. William J. Baer was thirty years of age before he painted a miniature. More than that, he had never seen a miniature that interested him, and he believed that miniature painting had limitations that precluded it from serious consideration. He was an instructor of drawing at Cooper Institute, New York City, an illustrator for magazines, and a painter of portraits, and had no thought of painting miniatures when, in 1892, he finished a very successful portrait of the late Alfred Corning Clark of New York. Mr. Clark was so pleased with the painting that he expressed a desire to have a copy of it in miniature. Mr. Baer did not believe that a result could be obtained worthy of the effort, so he refused to try it. Mr. Clark renewed his request, and Mr. Baer again refused. A short time after, however, having some leisure, his mind turned back to Mr. Clark's request, and, upon consideration, he was prompted to make a quiet attempt at miniature painting. He supplied himself with the necessary materials, and made his first experiment by copying a head from one of his own pictures, a profile of a young woman. The result was surprising to him--detail, patience, eyesight and hand served him well. In another week he had painted the miniature of Mr. Clark from his original sketch in oil colors. When Mr. Clark saw it he was delighted and asked for another. And so, out of what was at first a mere diversion, Mr. Baer developed a perfected art. With the showing of Mr. Baer's miniatures at the First Portrait Show in 1894, his success was definitely assured.