THREE

AART beckons and the artist follows. Only an artist knows what the lure of art is. The field of art is full of enticements. Little incidents, apparently insignificant, have sometimes been sufficient to change an artist's career and direct him toward his most brilliant achievements.

William J. Baer was thirty years of age before he painted a miniature. More than that, he had never seen a miniature that interested him, and he believed that miniature painting had limitations that precluded it from serious consideration. He was an instructor of drawing at Cooper Institute, New York City, an illustrator for magazines, and a painter of portraits, and had no thought of painting miniatures when, in 1892, he finished a very successful portrait of the late Alfred Corning Clark of New York. Mr. Clark was so pleased with the painting that he expressed a desire to have a copy of it in miniature. Mr. Baer did not believe that a result could be obtained worthy of the effort, so he refused to try it. Mr. Clark renewed his request, and Mr. Baer again refused. A short time after, however, having some leisure, his mind turned back to Mr. Clark's request, and, upon consideration, he was prompted to make a quiet attempt at miniature painting. He supplied himself with the necessary materials, and made his first experiment by copying a head from one of his own pictures, a profile of a young woman. The result was surprising to him—detail, patience, eyesight and hand served him well. In another week he had painted the miniature of Mr. Clark from his original sketch in oil colors. When Mr. Clark saw it he was delighted and asked for another. And so, out of what was at first a mere diversion, Mr. Baer developed a perfected art.

With the showing of Mr. Baer's miniatures at the First Portrait Show in 1894, his success was definitely assured.

In 1896 he painted his first ideal miniature, "The Golden Hour," now owned by Mr. Robert S. Clark of New York City. The idea of this exquisite picture developed from an effort of Mr. Baer's to paint in profile from memory the head of an auburn-haired girl that he had seen. A well-known English girl who had posed for Sir Edward Burne-Jones and Sir Frederick Leighton, happened then to call at his studio. Several sittings, in which a number of pencil and red chalk drawings were made, gave him an entirely different idea. The profile developed into a lovely dream picture, in which woman's crowning glory, her glowing hair, was poetically idealized. The picture shows two profiles, like twin sisters—the first with hair of dark copper tinge, the second at the left with hair of brilliant auburn, melting into the sunset colors of the sky.

This was the first of a number of ideal works by Mr. Baer, and was followed at intervals by others of like charm. "Primevera," painted in 1908, which is Mr. Baer's most important and ambitious endeavor, represents Flora, the handmaiden of spring, and is a delicate color poem.

Mr. Baer was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on January 29, 1860. He studied art in Cincinnati and in Munich. He returned to America in 1885, and for several years was an instructor in various art institutions. In 1897 he received the first-class medal for miniature and ideal subjects in New York, and he was an organizer and a former president of the American Society of Miniature Painters. Mr. Baer is at present treasurer of that society and an associate of the National Academy.

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.