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"Try to Look Like a Witch!"
 

BARBARA ED\\ ARDS
 

'S" F.'KTHER, .'Vrthur Rackham, was quite unlike the
popular conception of an artist. There was nothing
bohemian about either his appearance or his behavior.
He was a neat, tidy, punctual, conscientious, hardworking man;
a conformist in a navy-blue serge suit and navy-blue and white
spotted bow tie. Indeed, he seldom varied from this attire: when
one suit grew shabby, it was relegated to the studio and his tailor
made him another identical one. It \yas only in his middle-age
when we moved to the country that my mother finally cajoled
him into tweeds, as more befitting a country gentleman.

Neither was his attitude to art the sometimes fashionable one of
"art for art's sake" or "art for the sake of self-expression." He was
lucky, he felt, to have been granted a talent to do what he enjoyed
doing. To do his job well and give pleasure to as many people as
pos,sible was his ambition. In spite of the fame that came to him, he
remained completely humble about himself and his work.

All this I see when looking back over the years. As a child, nat¬
urally, I took him as he was, navy-blue suit and all. In spite of his
correctness, he was never prim. He had a great sense of fun and
loved playing with children.

I was never turned out of his studio while he was working and.