Cecilia Beaux, Thoughts on Teachers

"Couple in Summer" by Cecilia Beaux

Cecilia Beaux wrote: "The criticism at Julien's was small and there was no theory. What came to me from overhearing did not apply to me, and what I got was chiefly encouragement to keep on as I was going. I am not sure that there is not a good deal to be said for silent treatment in Art. 

What the student above all needs is to have his resources increased by the presence of a master whom he believes in. One who is in unison with a living world, of various views, all of whose roots are deep, tried, and nourished by the truth, or rather the truths that nature will reveal to the seeker. He is the present embodiment of performance in art. He is serious, quiet, a personality that has striven. Nothing breaks the sobriety of his visit. His thoughtful consideration of your drawing will be impartial. He will do you justice and will be gracious toward your earnestness, but it will be a simple matter for him to probe your weakness. 

If his interest is slight, you suffer. If he seems to recognize in you some evidence of power to come, you will feel it in his few concise words as he passes on. Courage and persistence to perceive the truth flame up and stronger, quicker pulses feed subconscious force.

The men who criticized at Julien's were not great, but they had beliefs. Their work was personal and unmistakable, but they laid down no laws of their own invention. Never did the least sign of a desire to teach their personal view impinge upon their delivery of the 'message' to students.

Fortunate is the pupil whose master brings with him far more than he personally contains or is aware of, as something communicated. A student's first conceptions of Art should not be delivered to him in small packages. He should find in his master more than is given to him. Or let him feel only a sense of his relation to Art, to the Subject, his preceptors only liberating him upon the road, warming his desire toward what he is attempting to do, not showing him the overmuch and the myriad possibilities of it, but the simplest solution. He must find out the secrets for himself later, if ever."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Background with Figures" by Cecilia Beaux.)