Art and Handcraft in the Woman's Building
of the World's Columbian Exposition

LzW...«v.-fe.V^ tf'.'-..--. IN THE WOMAN’S BUILDING. 279 Woman’s Building devoted to Belgium. The arrangement of the space is very charming. Passing under some finely wrought hang- ings, the work and gift of Belgian working-women, the visitor finds himself in a salon, hung with good pictures, and filled with cases containing fine examples of china-painting, fan-painting and mounting, miniatures, embroideries, and laces. The best known of the contem- poraneous women painters, Mme. Ron- ner, is represented by one of her inimitable paintings of a group of cats, which hangs in the Hall of Honor. Other people have painted cats, but Mme. Ronner stands to-day as the most famous cat painter in the world. She has studied the habits and character of her favorite animal, and understands cat and kitten nature thor- oughly. The stand- ard of excellence of the painters repre- sented is very high; out of the twenty art- ists who exhibit their work in the Woman’s Building, eleven have taken honors at oth- er important exhibi- tions. A group of COPY OF BORDER OF ANCIENT NAPKIN. (On which salt and bread were presented to the Sovereign on the day of a victory.) Original in possession of Mme. Schabelsjcoi. Russia. etchings by the Countess of Flanders has received much well- merited praise, while the single small piece of sculpture, a plow- horse, by the Comtesse d’Espiennes, makes the visitor wish to see more of her strong, sympathetic work. Some excellent examples of china-painting are exhibited by the School of the Rue de Marais