OSCAR WILDE BIBLIOGRAPF 
 
 

 
 
: 
 
 
 
LONDON MODELS. 
 
 PROFESSIONAL models are a 
 purely modern invention. To 
 the Greeks, for instance, 
 they were quite unknown. 
 Mr. Mahaffy, it is true, tells 
 us that Perikles used to 
 present peacocks to the great 
 ladies of Athenian society in 
 order to induce them to sit 
 to his friend Pheidias, and 
 we know that Polygnotus 
 introduced into his picture of 
 the Trojan women the face 
 of Elpinike, the celebrated 
 sister of the great Conserva- 
 tive leader of the day, but 
 MODEL. these yrandes dames clearly 
 
 From a Drawing by do not come under our cate- 
 
 HARPER FENNINGTOX. . f ,, ,j 
 
 gory. As for the old masters, 
 they undoubtedly made con- 
 stant studies from their pupils and apprentices, 
 and even their religious pictures are full of 
 the portraits of their friends and relations, 
 but they do not seem to have had the in- 
 < tunable advantage of the existence of a 
 class of people whose sole profession is to pose. 
 In fact the model, in our sense of the word, 
 is the direct creation of Academic Schools. 
 
 Every country now has its own models, 
 except America. In New York, and even in 
 Boston, a good model is so great a rarity that 
 most of the artists are reduced to painting 
 Niagara and millionaires. In Europe, how- 
 ever, it is different. Here we have plenty of 
 models, and of every nationality. The 
 Italian models are the best. The natural 
 grace of their attitudes, as well as the 
 wonderful picturesqueness of their colouring, 
 makes them facile often too facile subjects 
 for the painter's brush. The French models, 
 though not so beautiful as the Italian, 
 pOIMflf a quick ness ol intellect ual .sympathy, a 
 capacity in fact of understanding the artist, 
 
 which is quite remarkable. They have also 
 a great command over the varieties of facial 
 expression, are peculiarly dramatic, and can 
 chatter the argot of the atelier as cleverly as 
 the critic of the Gil Bias. The English 
 models form a class entirely by themselves. 
 They are not so picturesque as the Italian, 
 nor so clever as the French, and they have 
 absolutely no tradition, so to speak, of their 
 order. Now and then some old veteran knocks 
 at a studio door, and proposes to sit as 
 Ajax defying the lightning, or as King Lear 
 upon the blasted heath. One of them some 
 time ago called on a popular painter who, 
 happening at the moment to require his 
 services, engaged him, and told him to begin 
 by kneeling down in the attitude of prayer. 
 " Shall I be Biblical or Shakespearean, 
 sir ? " asked the veteran. ' Well Shake- 
 spearean," answered the artist, wondering by 
 what subtle nuance of expression the model 
 would convey the difference. " All right, sir," 
 said the professor of posing, and he solemnly 
 knelt down and began to wink with his left 
 eye ! This class however is dying out. As 
 a rule the model, nowadays, is a pretty girl, 
 from about twelve to twenty-five years of age, 
 who knows nothing about art, cares less, and 
 is merely anxious to earn seven or eight 
 shillings a day without much trouble. 
 English models rarely look at a picture, and 
 never venture on any aesthetic theories. In 
 fact they realize very completely Mr. 
 Whistler > idea, of the function of an art- 
 nit ic, for they pass no criticisms at all They 
 accept all schools of art with the grand 
 i .it hl ieit y of the auctioneer, and sit to a 
 fantastic young impressionist as readily as to a 
 learned and laU.rious academician. They are 
 neither for the Whistlerites, nor against them ; 
 the quarrel between the school of facts and 
 the school of effects touches them n<>t ; ideal- 
 istic and naturalistic are words that convey no 
 
314 
 
 LONDON MODELS. 
 
 meaning to their ears ; they merely desire that 
 the studio shall be warm, and the lunch hot, for 
 all charming artists give their models lunch. 
 
 As to what they are asked to do they are 
 equally indifferent. On Monday they will 
 
 THE GRAND STOLID BRITISH SCHOOL. 
 
 From a Drawing by HARPER PENNINGTON. 
 
 don the rags of a beggar-girl for Mr. Pumper, 
 whose pathetic pictures of modern life draw 
 such tears from the public, and on Tuesday 
 they will pose in a peplum for Mr. Phoebus, 
 who thinks that all really artistic subjects 
 are necessarily B.C. They career gaily 
 through all centuries and through all 
 costumes, and, like actors, are only interesting 
 when they are not themselves. They are 
 extremely good-natured, and very accommo- 
 dating. " What do you sit for 1 " said a young 
 
 them can talk Greek, many can look Greek, 
 which to a nineteenth -century painter is 
 naturally of great importance. If they are 
 allowed, they chatter a great deal, but they 
 never say anything. Their observations are the 
 only banalities heard in Bohemia. However, 
 though they cannot appreciate the artist as 
 an artist, they are quite ready to appreciate 
 
 WANTS SITTINGS. 
 
 From a Drawing by HARPER PENNINGTON. 
 
 the artist as a man. They are very sensitive 
 to kindness, respect, and generosity. A 
 beautiful model who had sat for two years 
 to one of our most distinguished English 
 painters, got engaged to a street vendor of 
 penny ices. On her marriage the painter 
 sent her a pretty wedding present, and 
 received in return a nice letter of thanks- 
 
 THE MAN WHO SITS FOR COSTUMES AND EXPRESSION. 
 
 From a Drawing by HARPER PENNINGTON. 
 
 artist to a model who had sent him in her 
 card (all models by the way have cards and a 
 small black bag). " Oh, for anything you like 
 sir," said the girl ; "landscape if necessary!" 
 Intellectually, it must be acknowledged, 
 they are Philistines, but physically they are 
 perfect at least some are. Though none of 
 
 /// j 
 
 'WILL SIT FOR ANY HISTORICAL PERSONAGE.' 
 
 From a Drawing by HARPER PENNINGTON. 
 
 with the following remarkable postscript : 
 " Never eat the green ices ! " 
 
 When they are tired a wise artist gives 
 them a rest. Then they sit in a chair and 
 read penny dreadfuls, till they are roused 
 
LONDON MODELS. 
 
 315 
 
 from the tragedy of literature to take their 
 place again in the tragedy of art. A few of 
 ili. in >moke cigarettes. This however is 
 regarded by the other models as shoeing a 
 want of seriousness, and is not generally 
 approved of. They are engaged by the day 
 and by the half-day. The tariff is a shilling 
 an hour, to which great artists usually :..M 
 an omnibus tan*. The two best things about 
 them arc their extraordinary prettiness, and 
 their extreme respectability. As a class 
 they are very well behaved, particularly 
 those who sit for the figure, a fact which i's 
 
 THE MOOT ECONOMICAL MODEL, 
 
 From a Drawing by HARPER I'ENNIXOTON. 
 
 curious or natural according to the view one 
 takes of human nature. They usually marry 
 well, and sometimes they marry the artist. 
 In neither case do they ever sit again. For 
 an artist to marry hi> model is as fatal as for 
 a <inrmet to marry his cook, the one gets no 
 -ittings, and the other gets no dinners. 
 
 On the whole the English female models 
 are very naive, very natural, and very .'OM! 
 huiuouivd. The virtue* which the artist 
 values most in them are prettiness and 
 punctuality. Every sensible model conse- 
 
 quently keeps a diary of her engagements, 
 and dresses neatly. The bad season is of 
 course the summer, when the artists are out 
 of town. However, of late years some artists 
 have engaged their models to follow them, 
 
 8IT8 TO ALL THE ACADEMICIAXS. 
 
 From a Drawing by HARPER PEXXIXOTOX. 
 
 and the wife of one of our most charming 
 painters has often had three or four models 
 under her charge in the country, so that tin- 
 work of her husband and his friends should 
 
 THE MODEL WHO CATS MX HAS " MAlTIITL *AXM AM 
 From m Dnvimg by HAftTKft PE*UMJim. 
 
 not be interrupted. In France the models 
 migrate rn ninue to the little seaport villages 
 or forest hamlets where the painters congre- 
 gate. The English models however wait 
 
316 
 
 LONDON MODELS. 
 
 patiently in London, as a rule, till the artists 
 come back. Nearly all of them live with 
 their parents, and help to support the house. 
 They have every qualification for being 
 immortalized in art except that of beautiful 
 
 "HIS ' FORTE' is EXPRESSION." 
 From a Drawing by HARPER PENNINGTON. 
 
 hands. The hands of the English model are 
 nearly always coarse and red. 
 
 As for the male models, there is the veteran 
 whom we have mentioned above. He has 
 
 THE "DEBUTANTE." 
 From a Drawing by HARPER PENNINGTON. 
 
 all the traditions of the grand style, and is 
 rapidly disappearing with the school he 
 represents. An old man who talks about 
 Fuseli is of course unendurable, and besides 
 patriarchs have ceased to be fashionable 
 
 subjects. Then there is the true Academy 
 model. He is usually a man of thirty, rarely 
 good-looking, but a perfect miracle of muscles. 
 In fact he is the apotheosis of anatomy, and 
 is so conscious of his own splendour that he 
 tells you of his tibia and his thorax, as if no 
 one else had anything of the kind. Then 
 come the Oriental models. The supply of 
 these is limited, but there are always about 
 a dozen in London. They are very much 
 sought after as they can remain immobile 
 for hours, and generally possess lovely cos- 
 tumes. However they have a poor opinion of 
 English art, which they regard as something 
 between a vulgar personality and a common- 
 place photograph. Next we have the Italian 
 
 THE PROFESSIONAL. 
 
 From a Drawing by HARPER PENNINGTON. 
 
 youth who has either come over specially to 
 be a model, or takes to it when his organ is 
 out of repair. He is often quite charming 
 with his large melancholy eyes, his crisp hair, 
 and his slim brown figure. It is true he 
 eats garlic, but then he can stand like a 
 faun and couch like a leopard, so he is for- 
 given. He is always full of pretty com- 
 pliments, and has been known to have kind 
 words of encouragement for even our greatest 
 artists. As for the English lad of the same 
 
"DO YOU WANT A MODEL ?' 
 
 Engraved by II. FiTXKa DAVET, from a Drawing 6 IU 
 
 ...... 
 
 age he never sits at all. Apparently he 
 does not regard the career of a model as a 
 serious p: In any case he is rarely 
 
 it -ver to be got hold of. English boys too 
 are difficult to find. S .nu-times an ex-model 
 who has a son will curl hi> hair, and wash his 
 
 face, and bring him tlu round of the fttuli<s. 
 all soap and shinines*. Tho young school 
 like him, but the older school do, and 
 wlirn ii<- appears on tin- walls of the Royal 
 Academy he is called The Infant Samuel. 
 Occasionally also an artist catches a couple of 
 
318 
 
 LONDON MODELS. 
 
 gamins in the gutter and asks them to come 
 to his studio. The first time they always 
 appear, but after that they don't keep their 
 
 THE MODEL WHO SITS FOR THE COSTUME IN GENTLEMEN S 
 PORTRAITS. 
 
 From a Drawing by HARPER PENNINGTON. 
 
 appointments. They dislike sitting still, 
 and have a strong and perhaps natural 
 objection to looking pathetic. Besides they 
 
 THE USEFUL OLD MAN 
 
 From a Drawing by HARPER PENNINGTON. 
 
 are always under the impression that the 
 artist is laughing at them. It is a sad fact, 
 but there is no doubt that the poor are 
 
 completely unconscious of their own 
 picturesqueness. Those of them who can be 
 induced to sit do so with the idea that the 
 artist is merely a benevolent philanthropist 
 who has chosen an eccentric method of 
 distributing alms to the undeserving. 
 Perhaps the School Board will teach the 
 London gamin his own artistic value, and 
 then they will be better models than they 
 are now. One remarkable privilege belongs 
 to the Academy model, that of extorting a 
 sovereign from any newly elected Associate 
 or R.A. They wait at Burlington House 
 till the announcement is made, and then race 
 to the hapless artist's house. The one who 
 
 THE USEFUL YOUNG LADY. 
 
 From a Drawing by HARPER PENNINGTON. 
 
 arrives first receives the money. They have 
 of late been much troubled at the long 
 distances they have had to run, and they 
 look with strong disfavour on the election of 
 artists who live at Hampstead or at Bedford 
 Park, for it is considered a point of honour 
 not to employ the underground railway, 
 omnibuses, or any artificial means of loco- 
 motion. The race is to the swift. 
 
 Besides the professional posers of the studio 
 there are the posers of the Bow, the posers 
 at afternoon teas, the posers in politics, and 
 the circus-posers. All four classes are de- 
 lightful, but only the last class is ever really 
 decorative. Acrobats and gymnasts can 
 
LONDON MODELS. 
 
 319 
 
 give the young painter infinite suggestions, 
 for they bring into tht-ir art an element of 
 Mviftness, of motion, and of constant change 
 that the studio model necessarily lacks. 
 What is interesting in these "slaves of 
 the ring" is that with them Beauty is an 
 uiu-oMsi-iou> iv>ult n. .t ;i roust-inns aim, the 
 result in fact of the mathematical calculation 
 of curves and distances, of absolute precision 
 of eye, of the scientific knowledge of the 
 equilibrium of forces, and of perfect physical 
 training. A good acrobat is always graceful 
 though grace is never his object ; he is grace- 
 ful because he does what he has to do in the 
 best way in which it can be done graceful 
 because he is natural. If an ancient Greek 
 were to come to life now, which considering 
 the probable severity of his criticisms would 
 be rather trying to our conceit, he would be 
 found far oftener at the circus than at the 
 theatre. A good circus is an oasis of 
 Hellenism in a world that reads too much 
 to be wise, and thinks too much to be 
 beautiful. If it were not for the running- 
 ground at Eton, the towing-path at Oxford, 
 the Thames swimming baths, and the yearly 
 circuses, humanity would forget the plastic 
 perfection of its own form, and degenerate 
 into a race of short-sighted professors, and 
 spectacled precieusea ! Not that the circus- 
 proprietors are, as a rule, conscious of their 
 high mission. Do they not bore us with the 
 haute ecole, and weary us with Shakespearean 
 clowns > t Still at least they give us acrobats, 
 and the acrobat is an artist. The mere fact 
 that he never speaks to the audience shows 
 how well he appreciates the great truth that 
 the aim of art is not to reveal personality 
 but to please. The clown may be blatant, 
 but the acrobat is always beautiful. He is 
 an interesting combination of the spirit of 
 Greek sculpture with the spangles of the 
 modern costumier. He has even had his 
 niche in the novels of our age, and if Manette 
 Salomon be the unmasking of the model, Lea 
 Frtres Z<:n<<ja,ui.> is the apotheosis of the 
 acrobat. 
 
 : \iran 1> the influence of the ordinary 
 model on our English school of painting, it 
 an not be said that it is altogether good. It 
 is of course an advantage tor tho young 
 arti>t MtthiK in his studio to be able to 
 isolate " a little corner of life," as the From -h 
 
 say, from disturbing surroundings," and to 
 study it under certain effects of light and 
 shade. But tins v-ry i>olation leads often t.. 
 mere mannerism in the painter, and robs 
 him of that broad acceptance of the general 
 facts of life which is the very essence of art. 
 Model-painting, in a word, while it may be 
 the condition of art, is not by any means its 
 aim. It is simply practice, not perfection. 
 Its use trains the eye and the hand of the 
 painter, its abuse produces in his work an 
 effect of mere posing and prettino 
 the secret of much of the artificiality of 
 modern art, this constant posing of pretty 
 people, and when art becomes artificial it be- 
 comes monotonous. < >m>ide the little world 
 of the studio, with its draperies and its 
 bric-a-brac, lies the world of life with its 
 infinite, its Shakespearian variety. We 
 must, however distinguish between the two 
 kinds of models, those who sit for the figure 
 and those who sit for costume. The study of 
 -the first is always excellent, but the costume- 
 model is becoming rat her wearisome in modern 
 pictures. It is really of very little use to 
 dress up a London girl in Greek draperies 
 and to paint her as a goddess. The robe may 
 be the robe of Athens, but the face is usually 
 the face of Brompton. Now and then, it is 
 true, one comes across a model whose face is 
 an exquisite anachronism, and who looks 
 lovely and natural in the dress of any 
 century but her own. This however is 
 rather rare. As a rule models are absolutely 
 de noire sticle, and should be painted as such. 
 Unfortunately they are not, and as a con- 
 sequence we are shown every year a series of 
 scenes from fancy dress balls which are 
 called historical pictures, but are little more 
 than mediocre representations of modern 
 people masquerading. In France they are 
 wiser. The French painter uses the model 
 simply for study, for the finished picture he 
 goes direct to life. 
 
 However we must not blame the sitters 
 for the shortcomings of the artists. The 
 English models are a well-behaved and hard- 
 working class, and if they are more interested 
 in artists than they are in art, a large section 
 of tho j'tihlir is in the same condition, and 
 most of our modern exhibitions seem to justify 
 its choice. 
 
 OSCAR WILDE. 
 
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