THE ENGLISHWOMAN’S FIGURE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3130, 28 January 1911, Page 4

THE ENGLISHWOMAN’S FIGURE.

ARTIST SAYS IT HAS 1 DETERIORATED.

Mr.' Marcus Stone, the eminent- artist, considers that the figure of the- average Englislnvoman lias deteriorated in re”ccnt,' years. This is not due, as in the United States, to violent exercise. “F’ew Englishwomen indulge in athletics sufficiently to change their development,” said Mr. Marcus Stone. “Those who do are in such a minority as to be negligible. Undoubtedly l the figures of Englishwoman have grown avorse, and n't is extremely difficult for an artist noiv to find an ideal model. In my profession wo are students of anatomy almost as much as doctors are, and Ave know how figures are corrupted. I hold that tlie corset is the reason for the feminine figure being worse than'it Avas.

“You scarcely ever see a normal Jengtli of neck nowadays in a Avonian because the shoulders are of necessity held so high. The impression of squareness in the shoulder given by the modern girl is due -t-o the unnatural holding in at the Avuist by the corset. Yoi’tng woman are growing flat-chested, and that also I ascribe to the corset.

“I paint pictures in which the figures are of women of the last century at itsbeginning, Av.hen the' women wore the high-waisted gown and -no corset. I lia\ r e many girls and young women to sit to me and I find that they cannot pose in these gowns properly. They .always sit as though they Avere \vearing corsets; and I ha\’e often devised poses, Avhicli I can do, but which the models cannot because they have always been cramped with, a corset and have lost the natural way to bend.”