The Modern Venus

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 147, 24 June 1933, Page 19

The Modern Venus

One of England's most famous sculptors, Mr. Frank Dobson, has evolved the ideal- feminine figure of the - 20th century—the modern Venus (states a correspondent). She is high-breasted, with a' slim, long waist, narrow hips, and' strongly developed muscular thighs. - This physique, in the opinion of the sculptor, is typical of the modern girl, and in order.to produce his monern Venus, he used numerous models to sit for his working drawings. The shoulders of one were-included, part of the trunk of another, and so on. The result gives the impression of more than a dash of Epstein! , Within a few months' time, thousands of papier mache reproductions of this plaster figure will flood the .world, for. it was executed on behalf of a famous corset company, and marks au interesting fusion between commerce, and art. Mr. Frank Dobson has wo_ks on exhibition in the Tate Gallon-, and in all the principal art galleries of Europe. He told a correspondent that the work was actually commissioned two years ago. lie took a year to think about it, bearing in mind all the ideals of feminine beauty throughout the ages. Another year was necessary for the completion of, all the preliminary sketches, the modelling in clay, and the final casting in plaster. IDEALS OF BEAUTY. The modern Venus made her debut in London recently at a special display in her honour, flanked by panels drawn by Mr. Dobson to illustrate the 1 changing loveliness of the highest type of female beauty in the various phases of civilisation. In his 12 sketches drawn from the past, Mr. Dobson preferred to begin with an Egyptian. She is slim with straight hips and high breasts—not' so very different from the present fashion, although she is 5000 years old. "Women in Egypt were powerful and active,. and there were great queens there thousands of years before Cleopatra," he remarked. Next is shown a girl from the island of Crete, period 4000 years ago. She has a wasp Waist that might belong to a Paris beauty of the 1,890's —but-she is also an athlete. Some of the-Cretan women of the time wore frilled crinolines, with large bosoms- protruding over low decolletagcs, which further emphasised the constriction of the* waist. The third figure is Etruscan, and here the pendulum has swung back to the natural figure. She has the slim form of a young active woman, and, in fact, is more like the 20th century Venus than any "other in the series. After her comes the Venus de Milo, the wellknown late Greek ' figure, representing the type of ideal feminine beauty, which Rome inherited from Athens. The Venus de Milo is majestically beautiful, massive and maternal, but she is very remote from, the present ideal. The Gothic lady from Medieval France is even more remote. She was made for, motherhood, and the waist serves only to emphasise rtho ample bosom and the wide hips. The figure fashionable in Germany about the year 1500 represents the latest and most sophisticated period, of Gothic art, with long slim legs and arms, a small high waist, and rounded stomach. She belongs to tho northern world of tall' cathedrals and armoured; knights with waving plumes. But in Italy, the Renaissance had begun, and artists were rediscovering the beauty of classic art. The ideal women of Signorelli and; Michelangelo had* stern, ■" massive, figures, without waists .at' all, and with , totally unfeminine appeal. V* '7,7. « WASP WAISTS. The sweeping .and' voluptuous curves of Venetian beauty popular during.the 16th and 17th centuries was rivalled by,the tight-lacing of Elizabethan days. The corseted waist was continued' into a vast bell of upholstery veiling the whole of the lower part of the form. Tight stays remained the vogue throughout the 18th century—the' age of music, of witty conversation, and sophisticated pleasure. , . The famous .nude of Goya, the Spanish painter, came at the turn of tho century. She is utterly and'magnificently feminine. .* But in France and England, at the time when Goya was painting, another typo was fashionable—tho Directoire and the Empire figure, very slim and with-, a high waist. This gave way to the crinolined woman of the middle of last, century, and" eventually to the figure shown in the last of Mr. Dobson's panels.- He*has taken it from a fashionable French portrait, of the 1890's. Elaborate corseting .produced an unnatural wasp waist, which is emphasised by the large hips and wide bosom. , ~- ■ . . .' ■

Al-woman beggar arrested in Prague told the police that her collections brought her an income of about £1200 a year.