FIVE

LLAURA COOMBS HILLS is a favorite of lovers of miniature painting. She has a fine, fresh style of her own. Her spirit is buoyant, natural, and without affectation. She is a craftsman of extraordinary talent. No difficulties seem to daunt her. Her coloring is positive, and she seems undismayed in rendering any tone of dress or background or face. Her painting of flesh color, particularly, is just and true. Temperamentally, Miss Hills must be counted as one of the soundest and truest of miniature painters, by which is meant that she looks at life with clear seeing eyes, and records what she sees truthfully and with sympathetic understanding. The accompanying picture, Persis, is a good example of Miss Hills' work. It shows a child with brownish-red hair, wearing a dark shade of pink ribbon. Her dress, of the faded pink variety, wherein the lights approach flesh coloring and the shadows are silvery, merges into golden tints. The background of sofa and tapestry offers a variety of greens throughout, with a note of clear orange in the bit of cushion to the left of the child's right arm. The floor and the arm of the sofa repeat the color of the hair. A few patches of blue and blue-green in the tapestry supply a relief for the colors of the figure and the cushions.

It was somewhat over twenty years ago that Miss Hills began to paint miniatures. Up to that time she had done some illustrating and decorative painting, worked on china, and some commercial designing. She was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, September 7, 1859, and was a pupil of Helen M. Knowlton, of the Cowles Art School in Boston, and also of the Art Students' League in New York. She was in England on a visit when a girl friend of hers remarked on her work, and asked her why she did not turn her brush to miniature painting. Miss Hills was at first reluctant to attempt a new line of art. But after some consideration she got several pieces of ivory, persuaded some young girls to sit for her, and in a short time turned out seven miniatures. She was surprised to find how easy the work appeared to be. She had understood that miniature painting was difficult and required a special talent. She was not wrong about that, but until she undertook the work she was not aware that this special talent was hers. She was delighted. Her outlook was clear and full of promise. She had a work of beauty to do and she knew that she could do it well.

People interest Miss Hills, and the picturing of people, especially young people, is a delight to her. The people she paints are very real, and they are distinct and individual. She has painted over 200 miniatures, and they are something more than portraits. They have a pictorial quality that gives them a very special charm and distinction. It has been observed that if the subjects that she has pictured in her miniatures had been rendered in oils on large canvases, "they would be found decorative and impressive." Miss Hills was a member of the Society of American Artists in 1897, and was made an associate of the National Academy in 1906. She is a member of the Boston Water Color Club, Copley Society, New York Woman's Art Club, and the American Society of Miniature Painters. She has exhibited in several of the world expositions, and has received a number of medals for merit.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 4, No. 23, SERIAL No. 123
COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.