Newspaper Page Text
The Importance of Making Your Home Fit Your Personality
» * •
Mile. Andree Lenique, the Parisian
Portrait Painter, Who Chats Wittily
About House hold Decoration.
under her. As I said before, furniture should
match the personality.
The Empire style is handsome and stately, but
1 find that it does not harmonize with the most
dainty feminine graces. After all, it is identi
fied with the time of Napoleon’s domination,
and we know that he had little appreciation of
woman's finer qualities.
It is a pleasure to see furniture that really
has style. A collection of expensive furniture
not held together by harmony ofi style is like a
company of well dressed lunatics.
What horrors I see in the houses of the
wealthv! Luxurious but hideous arm chairs,
thick downy carpets whose colors quarrel with
everything about them; superb radiators, enor
mous bathrooms decorated with strange fishes
and reptiles, wonderful electric chandeliers, and
Mile. Lenique, the Newest Fashionable Parisian •
Portait Painter, Tells Why Blondes Should Live '
Among Louis XVI. Surroundings, Brunettes Among
Renaissance, and Why Stout People’s Furniture
Ought to Be Strictly Louis XIV.
“Large chairs grew up to accommo
date the crinoline, and now they
are very nice for stout women.”
Marguerite must have had fine qualities or
the poets of the time would not be so enthusi
astic about her. I believe there was a warmth
and spontaneity about her manner that would
win popularity for a hostess of to-day.
The furniture of the Louis XIV. period is
handsome, but heavier and less graceful than
Ihe Louis XVI. stvip. The earlier period is dis
tinguished by couches and arm chairs of very
solid framework, often with lion’s head decora
tions. The arm chairs are very spacious, be
cause the wide hoop skirts of the period re
quired it.
Roth for aesthetic and practical reasons this
style is most appropriate for stout women, of
whom there are many in New York. It is most
disconcerting to watch a fine, solid woman sit
ting on a slender chair that threatens to smash
M ISS ANDREE LENIQUE, the distin
guished Parisian portrait painter
whose work was decorated by the
French Government, has had an excellent op
portunity to observe the interior decoration of
the wealthy and fashionable homes of New York.
Miss Lenique has a studio in the Sherwood, in
West Fifty seventh street, where she has been
painting the portraits of many prominent and
attractive New York women.
In the following interview Miss Lenique
makes some entertaining comments on the
decoration of New York homes and some
practical suggestions to the women who pre
side over them.
By Mile. ANDREE LENIQUE (In an Interview)
T HERE is nothing in the world so becom
ing to a woman as a home that, suits
her.
Every woman should seek to have her home
decorated in harmony with her beauty or, at
least, her personality.
More magnificent homes are being created
in New York to-day than in any other place.
Now is the time when the true principles of
interior decoration should be studied and
mastered.
It is really surprising how little time New
York women of the wealthy and fashionable
classes spend at home. What with shopping,
visits to restaurants and hotels, lunches, mat
inees and so on, they are out practically the
whole day.
In French society it is considered quite im
proper for the woman to he out of her home
In the morning.
if the New York woman followed my sugges
tion of decorating her homo in harmony with
her personality she would stay at home more.
She would have an interest to keep her there,
and the place would have more attraction for
her.
Many women impose their ideas on the dec
orator without having sufficient knowledge of
the subject. That is a mistake. Again they allow
the decorator to go ahead and develop s
scheme (hat is not in harmony with tits own
er's personality.
1 offer a few suggestions that will help
American women to choose schemes of decora
tion and furniture in harmony with their per
sonality.
Li the blonde follow the Louis XVI. style, the
brunette the Renaissance style, the auburn-
haired the Venetian style, the stout woman the
Louis XIV. style and the elderly lady the Res
toration style.
After all, I believe that there is nothing so
hecoming to so many women as our French
Louis XVI. style- the graceful furniture with the
swan's neck motive, so often used In chairs and
couches. The light and delicate tones of hang
ings arid other fabrics make a home that is
most expressive of feminine charm and dainti
ness.
ThlB style breathes the spirit of a period when
social gallantry and grace reached a liner de
velopment than they have ever done before or
since. That was the period preceding the
French Revolution, when our nobility cultivated
such exquisite manners. The women devoted
their lives to coquetry and the men to love-
making. They did not worry about the dollar
then. They acted as if money came naturally,
like the rain and sunshine.
The Due de Richelieu was one of the great
est ornaments of the time. He raised flirtation
to a tine art. He could win a woman with an
epigram. It was easier for him than taking
a cocktail is for you American men. You must
not confuse him with the Cardinal, who lived in
a cruder period.
Women nowadays think so much about being
beautiful. I find that many of the most charm
ing women of our most charming period were
quite plain. Their manners, their conversation
and their surroundings made them attractive.
Furniture helped to make them fascinating.
A graceful chair may compensate for a clumsy
figure. A well chosen fabric will soften a poor
complexion.
Nothing can make a woman more attractive
than a drawing room, salon, boudoir or what
ever you call it, in skilfully executed Louis XVI.
style. It breathes the very atmosphere of
coquetry, of fascination, of entertaining conver
sation.
I have suggested this as the most suitable
style for a blonde, but it. is really suitable for
every woman who can stand light tones. It is
heat for the blonde because a heavier style is
crushing to her exquisite, delicate beauty.
There Is a new decorator in Paris who covers
walls with black paper and decorates houses
entirely in black. He has persuaded one of his
customers to sleep on black sheets in a black
bed, with juHt. a little while lace trimming. He
says that It sets off her charms in the mpst
effective manner.
Horrible thought! A black room is enough
to make anybody ill. 1 feel the same way about
the misguided genius who decorates rooms in
dark purple.
Rooms intended for daytime use should be
decorated in light colors—delicate grays, greens,
blues, browns and yellows. A dining ropm or
smoking room may be dark.
Rich, dark woodwork harmonizes with (he
worship of Bacchus.
The Renaissance style of decoration and fur
niture is the handsomest of all. I have sug
gested it as the most suitable setting for a
brunette. By 'this I mean rather that it is best
for a woman of strongly marked type. If the
blonde feels that her personality is sufficiently
commanding she may choose Renaissance.
It seems to me that a Renaissance apartment,
with its splendid decorations and rich hangings,
should be the home of some romantic, majestic
figure like our Marguerite of Navarre. She was
a magnificent type of the princesses of the
Renaissance period. She was a patron of art-
ists, poets and singers. That extremely gay
collection of stories by her, "The Heptameron,”
suggests liow deeply she drank of the cup of
life.
A modern society woman who modelled her
life on that of Marguerite of Navarre would cer
tainly be interesting. People would not feel
bored at her home. Of course there arc some
ways in which it would he quite impossible for
a t dern lady to follow her
There is an old story about her that, having
entertained a poor wandering minstrel most
A French No-
blewoman of
Louis XVI. Pe
riod. Mile. Len
ique Says That
Her Surround
ings Provided
Much of Her
Charm.
“The ixmpnre style, though stately, is
stiff and doe£ not harmonize with
feminine fascination.”
royally, she thought it best when he said good
bye to her that he should say good
bye to life. From the gorgeous Renaissance
chamber with its carved furniture, its rich bro
caded hangings, its silver goblets and tall
candlesticks he went to a grave down in the
deep dark cellar of the chateau. His last views
of life were glorious. The idea is that she
did not care to have it whispered in court
circles that she had known a person of
such humble position. Modern social imperti
nence cannot approach this. The conduct of
the girl who flirts with a man at the sea shore,
hut cuts him dead in town, may have the same
basis, hut it is very cold and tame in cony-
part son.
Probably the story is exaggerated, as Voltaire
said of the report of his own death. Queen
other things too terrible to mention.
If a Frqnch nobleman of the eighteenth cen
tury should be suddenly confronted with these
things the delightful compliments he was ac
customed to utter would be frozen on his lips.
A harmoniously and agreeably decorated home
Is better than one filled with the most costly
works of art. Too many pictures spoil the
walls. A few good faipily portraits placed m
thoroughly suitable places give personality to
the house.
Some American houses are simply plastered
with bogus Corots, Bouguereaus, Bonnats, et
cetera. They may be horribly, ugly—not even
painted with good paint—but they are signer
with a name. That is sufficient.
I was not surprised to learn that a very
flourishing industry here is the production of
bogus Corots and other works of the Barbizon
school. I understand that some of the most
promising artists of this industrial school were
formerly bootblacks.
When the American law was recently changed
so as to permit foreign pictures over twenty
years old to come in duty free these industrious
workers protested. They said: “You w.ill ruin
a great American industry.” But Congress had
progressed to a point where such an argument
would not hold water, and so the law was
changed. Thus civilization progresses.
The law as it stands is sufficiently absurd.
The work of a rising European painter of the
day must pay a duty because it would compete
with the product of the native artist. No good
American artist asks for such protection, be
cause it would be asking for protection against
the superior brains of others. The protection i£
only for the daubers and forgers.
I do not say this in criticism of American
taste in general. Such things are the outcome
of a conspiracy between little groups of com
mercial schemers and stupid politicians. Amer
icans as private citizens are the most generous
patrons of art in the world.
Here is an example; Mr. Crane, of Chicago,’
has furnished funds to Alphonse Mucha, the
Bohemian artist, to enable him to execute a
colossal series of decorations illustrating the
history of Bohemia. They are to be placed in
a public building. So Bohemia is to have her
history perpetuated at the expense of a private
Chicago citizen. It is remarkable.
The lot of a rich man who feels that he has
to buy pictures is often a sad one. I knew a
wealthy man who built a great new house and
employed an artist who painted dreadful cherubs
and goddesses all over the ceiling of the mam
salon.
"I don’t see that that makes the house any
better,” candidly remarked a friend with a little
hard common sense.
"But I had to have something painted,” said
the poor rich man.
It is the woman’s business to make the home
beautiful, not by buying pictures and statues,
but by choosing harmonious and agreeably con
trasting tints and furniture of good style.
After all, it is color that does most toward
beautifying an apartment. An eye for color is
a born gift as much as a musical ear. We all
recognize the special nature of the musical ear,
but few realize that the same is true of the color
sense. A pleasingly contrasted color scheipe
makes me thrill with physical joy.
For harmonious contrast, the juxtaposition of
two or more complementary colors is not all
that is necessary. They must also differ in
tone and show an opposition of light to dark.
A pleasingly contrasted effect will hold its
own against time for a much longer period than
a more general composition, for the same reason
that a dress of contrasted colors continues to
look well, where clothing of the same prevail
ing hue would look shabby and faded.
When the dominant color has been chosen, the
color scheme should be arranged as an imagin
ary palette, which includes the hangings, fural-'
true and rugs. We may work above the general
color to brilliance and below it to more neutral
hues. A cabinet or even a china vase with other
objects around it may give us the focus of bril
liant color. The rugs and carpet should supply
the lower tones of color required.
How “The Woman Thou Gavest Me” Faced Her Husband
j
j
/
I N the current instalrant of “The Woman
Thou Gavest Me,” Hall Caine's wonderful
analysis of the modern marriage question,
now being published by HEARST’S MAGA
ZINE, his heroine passes into the greatest
crisis of her life.
Sold by her ambitious father in marriage to
Lord Raa, a profligate nobleman, Mary O'Neill
too late awakens to realization of the horrors of
loveless marriage. On the wedding night site
and her husband agree to live as such only in
name. Lord Raa becomes infatuated with
Mary's schoolgirl friend, Alma, into Mary's
life at the time comes again Martin Conrad,
another friend of Mary O'Neill’s school days.
He has become a famous Antarctic explorer.
The two fall in love. Hall Caine, in the great
est paragraphs he has ever written, describes
her agony when she finds that she, a loveless
wife, is in love with a man not her husband.
At last she and Martin Conrad, thrown to
gether by the machinations of Alma, declare
their love
Martin goes away on another exploring ex
pedition. Mary faces the inevitable. Her fa
ther, rejoicing because he expects to have a
grandson, makes preparations for a great feast.
On the eve of the feast, Lord Raa, warned by
anonymous letters sent him oy Alma, returns
home to Mary to demand an explanation. The
scene, in part, follows:
(From the current instalment of "The Woman
Thou Gavest Me,” published in the May
Number of Hearst’s Magazine.)
F EELING too degraded to speak, I look the
letter in silence out of my maid's hands,
and while I was in the act of locking it
away in a drawer Alma came up with a tele
gram from my husband, saying he was leav
ing London by the early train the following
morning and would arrive at Blackwaier at
half-past turee in the afternoon
"Dear old Jimmy!” she said, "what a sur
prise you have in store for him! But of
course you’ve told him already, haven’t you?
. . . . No? Ah. I see, you’ve been, saving it
all up to tell him face to face. Oh, happy,
happy you!”
It was too late to leave now. The hour
of my trial had come. There was no escaping
from iL
• • •
1 was standing by the file at the moment,
and I held on to the mantelpiece as my hus
band came into the room.
He was very pale. The look of hardness,
slmost of brutality, which pierced his manner
at normal moments had deepened, and I could
see at a glance that he was nervous. His
monocle dropped of itself from iris slow, gray
eyes, and the white fat fingers which replaced
it trembled.
Without shaking hands or offering any other
sort of salutation he plunged immediately into
the matter that was uppermost in his mind.
'! am still at a loss to account for this
affair of your father's,’’ he said. “Of course
1 know what it is supposed to be—a reception
in honor of our home-coming. That explana
tion may or may not be sufficient for these
stupid islanders, but it’s rather too thin for
me. Can you tel! me what your father means
by it?”
I knew he knew what my father meant, so
1 said, trembling like a sheep that walks up
to a barking dog. "Hadn't you better ask that
question of my father himself?”
Perhaps I should if he were here, but he
isn’t, so 1 ask you. Your father is a strange
man. There’s no knowing what crude things
he will not do to gratify his primitive Instincts.
But he does not spend five or ten thousand
for nothing. He isn't a fool exactly.”
“Thank you,” I said. I could not help it.
it was forced out of me.
My husband flinched and looked at me.
Then the bully in him. which always lay un
derneath, came uppermost.
“Look here, Mary,” he said. “I came for
an explanation, and I intend to have one.
Your father may give this affair what gloss
he pleases, but you must know as well as I
do what rumor and report are saying, so we
might us well speak plainly. It is the fact
that your father is giving this entertainment
. well, because he is expecting an heir?"
To my husband's astonishment I answered,
"Yes.”
"So you admit it’ Then perhaps you’ll be
good enough to tell me how that conditipn
came about?”
Knowing he needed no explanation, I made
po answer.
“Can’t you speak?" he said.
But still I remained silent.
"You know what our relations have been
since our marriage, so I ask you again how-
does that condition come about?"
1 was now trembling more than ever, but a
kind of forced courage came to me and I
said. "Why do sou ask? You scent to know
already.”
"I know what anonymous letters have told
me. if that's what you mean. But I'm your
husband and have a right to know from you.
How does jour condition come about. I ask
you?”
I cannot say what impulse moved me at
i
Good-bv, Hi miss;e, he answered. "I never believed Ou Id Tom Dug would live to see
ye laving Heme like this. * ’ But wait! Only wit till himself is after coming
back, and ! i! go bail. I t’ll be the divil sit uo for so me of them.”
I rani. Crain * lllnatr rations for “The \\ oman Thou f.n'rst 'lr." la Hrarat'a
Muirnitat*.»
that moment unless it‘whs the desire to make
a clean llrcast and an end of everything, but,
stepping to my desk. 1 totak out of a drawer
the letter which Price had intercepted and
threw it on the table.
He took it up and read it, with the air of
one to whom the contents were not news', and
then asked me how I came by it.
“It was taken out of the hands of a woman
who was in the act of posting it,” I said.
“She confessed that it was one of a number
of such letters which had been inspired, if
not written, by your friend Alma.”
“My friend Alma!”
“Yes. your friend Alma.”
His face assumed a frightful expression and
he said, “So that's how it is to be, is it? in
spite of the admission you have just made
you wish to imply that this” (holding out the
letter) “is a trumped-up affair, and that Alma
is at the bottom of it. You’re going to brazen
it out, are you, and shelter yourself undej-
your position as a married woman?”
I was so taken by surprise by this infamous
suggestion that I could not speak to deny it,
and my husband went on to say, “But it doesn't
matter a rush to me who is at the bottom of
the accusation contained in this letter. There's
only one thing of any consequence—is it true?”
My head was reeling, my eyes were dim, my
palms were moist, I felj as if I were throwing
myself over a precipice, but I answered, “It is
perfectly true.”
I think that was the last thing he expected.
After a moment he said, “Then you have
broken your marriage vows—is that it?”
"Yes, if you call it so.”
“Call it so? Call it so? Good heavens,
what do you call it?”
I did not reply, and after another momeilt
he said, “But perhaps you wish me to under
stand that this man whom I was so foolish
as to invite to my house abused my hospitality
and betrayed my wife. Is that what you
mean?’’
"No,” I said. “He observed the laws of hos
pitality much better then you did, and if ) ata
betrayed I betrayed myself."
My heart choked. But the thought that
came to me, that, bad as his own life had been,
he considered he had a right to treat me in
this way because he was a man and I was a
woman, brought strength out of my weakness,
so that when he went on to curse my Church
and my religion, saying this was all that had
come of “the mummery of my Masses,” I fired
up for a moment and said, "You can spare
yourself these blasphemies. If I have done
wrong, it is I. and not my Church, that is to
blame for it.”
“If j'ou have done wrong!” he cried. “Have
you lost al! sense of a woman's duty to her
husband? While you have been married to
me, and I have been fool enough not to claim
you as a wife because 1 thought you were only
fit company for the saints and angels ”
• * *
And with the last word, in the drunkenness
of his rage, he lifted his arm and struck me
with the back of his hand across the cheek.
The physical shock was fearful, but the
moral infamy was a hundred-fold worse. I
can truly say that not alone for myself- did
I suffer. When my mind, still going at light
ning speed, thought of Martin, who loved me
so tenderly, I felt crushed by my husband’s
blow to the lowest depths of shame.
I must have screamed, though I did not
know it, for at the next moment Price was m
the room, and I saw that the housekeeper
(drawn, perhaps, as before, by by husband’s
loud voice) was on the landing outside the
door. But even that did not serve to restrain i *
him. i
“No matter,” lie said. “After what has'
passed you may not enjoy to-morrow’s cere
mony. But you shall go through it! By
heaven, you shall! And when it is over, I
shall have something to say to your father.”
And with that he swung out of the room and
went lunging down the.stairs.
News of the scene went like wildfire through 4
the house, aud Alma’s mother came to com
fort me. in her crude and blundering way,
she told nte of a similar insult she had suf
fered at the hands of the “bad Lord Raa,” and
how it had been the real reason of her going
to America.
When she was gone I sat down before the
fire. I did not cry. I felt as if I had reached
a depth of suffering that was a thousand
fathoms too deep for tears. I do not think I
wept again for many months after that, and
then it was a great joy, not a great grief, that
brought me a burst of blessed tears.
But I could hear my dear, good Price crying
behind me, and when I said, “Now you see
fdr yourself that I cannot remain in this
house any longer,” she answered, in a low
voice, “Yes, my lady.”
“I must go at once—to-night if possible.”
"\ou shall. Leave everything to me, my
lady.” »
The bell rang, but of course I did not go
down to dinner.
• • •
As soon as Price had gone off to make the
necessary arrangements I turned the key in
the lock of my door, removed my evening
gown, and began to dress for my flight.
The only place I could think of was that
which Martin had mentioned when he wished
to carry me away—London. In the mighty
world of Loudon 1 might hide myself front ob
servation and wait until Martin returned from
his expedition. I
To London, therefore, I would go!
The full loaliilrarrt of “The Woman Thou
'■•’Mt \le,” from which thrar nrerpf* were
token, will bp found in the current number of
HEAHSrs MAGAZINE.