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

IN THE WOMAN’S BUILDING. 83 on a white garment. At a little distance a group of children sur- round their teacher, who, with an open book upon her knees, is holding school out of doors. It is the springtime of the year and of the nation; from the green plain stretching toward the distant sea the trees lift their budding branches. In the background we have the traditional white meeting-house with its single spire, and over a newly broken road a pair of oxen draw a cart laden with wood; the man who drives them is necessarily a very small figure in this large, simple composition. The whole scene breathes the atmosphere of that early New England which lias found its best interpreter in Hawthorne. The harsh but not inhos- pitable Plymouth coast, and the hardy settlers whose courage and resolution, laid the foundations of the New England we know to-day, have been sketched by the young artist with a strong hand. The color scheme is cool and sober; the dress and bearing of the women reserved, simple, and full of character. The thought behind the picture needs no criticism, it is an assertion of the prime duties of woman, the home-maker and care-taker; it is a hint full of sig- nificance to our day and generation, reminding us that unless the higher education now open to our sex makes women better and wiser wives and mothers, it is a failure. No stronger contrast to Miss Fairchild’s decoration can be imagined than that presented by the neighboring panel, “ Woman in Arcadia,” by Amanda Brewster Sewell. The former represented a cool, demure springtime on the Plymouth coast. In Arcadia it is warm, luxurious summer. The color is rich and deep; the pair of half-nude girls in the foreground have a pagan loveliness; the distant group gathering oranges are fair as dream-women. Mrs. Sewell has found “the way to Arcady,” and illustrates it to us very sympathetically. It seems quite fitting that in this great White City, this echo of Hellenic beauty, there should be an Arcadian corner, and it is not unsuitable that we should find this in the Woman's Building. The pair of panels which are placed opposite to those just described are the work of those popular painters Rosina Emmet Sherwood and Lydia Emmet. Mrs. Sherwood’s panel shows us the Republic welcoming her daughters and bestowing laurel crowns upon them. The composition of this panel is very good, and the architectural detail of the background is well studied. Miss Emmet’s companion panel is strong in the same qualities as her sister’s. Music, art, and literature are all personified in an exceedingly well-arranged group of female figures. 3