Identifier: reallatinquarter00smi (find matches)
Title: The real Latin quarter
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: Smith, Frank Berkeley, 1869-
Subjects: Artists
Publisher: New York, Funk & Wagnalls Co.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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Text Appearing Before Image:
Imagine this ball, with its procession of
moving tableaux. A huge float comes
along, depicting the stone age and the
primitive man, every detail carefully stud-
ied from the museums. Another repre-
71
sents the last day of Babylon. One sees
a nude captive, her golden hair and white
flesh in contrast with the black velvet litte
on which she is bound, being carried by a
dozen stalwart blackamoors, followed by
camels bearing nude slaves and the spoils
of a captured city.
As the ball continues until daylight, it
resembles a bacchanalian fete in the days
of the Romans. But all through it, one is
impressed by its artistic completeness, its
studied splendor, and permissible license,
so long as a costume (or the lack of it) pro-
duces an artistic result. One sees the mise
en scene of a barbaric court produced by
the architects of an atelier, all the various
details constructed
from carefully stud-
ied sketches, with
may be a triumphal
throne of some bar-
baric king, with his
slaves, the whole
costumed and donein a studied magnifi-
cence that takes
Text Appearing After Image:
ones breath away. Again an atelier of
painters may reproduce the frieze of the
Parthenon in color; another a float or a
decoration, suggesting the works of their
master. The room becomes a thing of splendor,
for it is as gorgeous a spectacle as the
cleverest of the painters, sculptors, and
architects can make it, and is the result of
careful study—and all for the love of it !—
for the great Quat'z' Arts ball is an
event looked forward to for months. Special
instructions are issued to the different
ateliers while the ball is in preparation, and
the following one is a translation in part
from the notice issued before the great ball
of 99. As this is a special and private
notice to the atelier, its contents may be
interesting: Bal des Quat'z'Arts,
Moulin Rouge, 21 April, 1899.
Doors open at 10 p. m. and closed at mid-night.
The card of admission is absolutely per-
sonal, to be taken by the committee before
the opening of the ball.
The committee will be masked, and com-
73

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