Daily Post - 16.12.1943, Blaðsíða 3

DAILY POST
T
General StilwelFs Danghter
Exhihlts 9er Paintings gH
Miss Alison Stilwell, 22-year-
old daugther of Lieutenant
General Joseph W. Stilwell,
Commander of the American
forces in China and India, re-
cently gave an exhibition of
her paintings at the New York
gallery of the famous déaler in
ancient Chinese art, C. T. Loo,
for the benefit of Chinese war
orphans.
Born in Peking, where her
father was military attache at
the American Embassy, Miss
Stilwell heard no English until
she was three years old, as her
parents wanted her to speak
Chinese perfectly.
When Alison was ready to
go to college, her father engag-
ed a Chinese artist to paint a
mural on a living-room wall in
their Peking home. Alison wat-
ched and was greatly impressed
by the artist’s achievement.
She decided she’d rather stay
in Peking and take up pain-
ting.
The General was very pleas-
ed with his decision. He arrang-
ed for Prince P’u Ju, celebrated
Chinese painter, to be her teac-
her. P’u’s teaching was as tradi-
tional as his painting. P’u Ju
sat on one side of a flat table;
Alison ,on the other. She chose
a subject and he painted it
while she watched. Then she
took his painting home and
copied it. Next day he criticiz-
ed her work.
FIRST ORIGINAL PAINTING
After two years Alison pic-
tured an old monk in her mind,
and he became her first originai
painting.
“When I showed him to my
father,” she recalled, “he said:
‘Well, Al, that’s a very good
portrait of me’.”
The portrait of the monk is
one of 55 of Miss Stillwell’s
studies now, on display in New
York City. AIl of them are in
Chinese style, arid imaginary
scenes, except one, which de-
picts a large green grasshopper
on a lily stém. This painting is
theonly one in the ,col!ection
which is nct íor sale.
“That is our pet grasshopper,
Gangrene,” Miss Stilwell, said.
“He used to hop all around. our
house in Peking. Sometimes he
would hop onto the dinner table
and nibble at the spinach.”
Alison sells her paintings at
very modest prices. “That
means I have to do a good many,
but it also kéeps me from going
stale,“ she explained.
LIKES IMPLEMENTS OF
CHINESE ART
Alison likes everything about
Chinese art; the silk, or the rice
or bamboo ppper she paints on,
rabbit and fox hair brushes
with jade handles she paints
with, and the ancient stones on
which she grinds her sticks of
ink and paint. In fact, the young
artist’s enthusiasm for China is
exceeded only by her adoration
of her father.
Tiny and brown-eyed, Miss
Stilwell was dressed in a green
frock of soft jade color which
might have blended with any of
her paintings, when she chatted
about her father.
“He never tells us much
about the war,” she said. “We
learn more from the newspapers
than from his letters. After the
withdrawal from Burma last
May, when he led that 140-mile
(225 kilometers) trek through
he jungles, all we heard about
it from him was ‘We had quite
a hike.’ His letters. are more
apt to be filled with inquiries
about the family and his dog,
Gary, a big black schnauzer.
“I’d like to describe my father
in terms the public knows little
about. He is a connoisseur who
collects old ivories, snuffboxes,
and saddle rugs, and an artists
who paints landscapes and illu-
strates his own poems with pen
and ink drawings. He can speak
fluehtly five languages —
French, Spanish, Chinese, Ger-
man and Russian. He knows a
little Japanse too.’.’
WANTS TO RETUENS TO
CHINA
When asked about her life in
China, Alison said: “We had a
very happy life in Peking, and
of course want to go back.
Everybody who ever lived in
China always wants to rpturn
there.
“I can even cook Cliinése
food. That is because I belong-,
ed to a little cooking glass with
three Chinese girl friends. V/e
would meet at each other’s
honjes and the Chinese cook
would show us how to make a
different dish each time.
“Oh, yes, the Chinese girls
were my best friends. They
were so lively and gay, yet
more serious-minded, funda-
mentally, than American girls
living in the United States.”
Miss Stilwell has tvo brothers
and two sisters. Her eldest
brother, Joseph W. Stilwell,
Jr., is a lieutenant colonel of
the U.S. infantry, serving with
his father in Chungking.
Benjamin is the youngest of
the Stilwell family. While in
China, he went in for the Chi-
nese sport of fighting crickets.
These crickets were trained to,
fight in rings, weighed in at the
start of a match, just like game
cocks. If they seemed reluctant
to join the battle, the boys
tickle them wih rat whiskers
tied to theend of an ivory stick.
Each cricket thinks the other
has attacked him and the battle
begins.
Benjamin also made a hobby
of collecting cricket cages, made
of gourds, often beautifully
carved, and ornamented with
ivory tops. He is living with his
mother and sisters in Carmel, |
California.
Nancy, older sister of Alison
Stilwell and wife of Lieutenant
Colonel E. F. Estabrook, is also
living in Carmel. The two Miss-
es Stilwell and Mrs. Estabrook
have been working for nearly
a year in the clinics of a veter-
ans hospital at Carmel as nur-
se’s aids and receptionists. Ali-
son, however, had to give up
her work at the hospital to
paint enough pictures for the
exhabition.
Round The Press
Continued from. p. 2.
ber, underwent modifications
of guns and radio equipment.
The squadron shoved off in
January, wenc to the front,
operated successively out of
Guadalcanal, the Russels and
Munda.
Ace of the.squadi'on is Lieut.
Kenneth Walsh, with 20 vic-
tories.* In the course of opera-
tions Walsh made four crash
landings; in his first engage-
ment he had his canopy shot
away, but destroyed threé ene-
my planes: Like other U.S.
* Still tops for U. S. flyers in
World War II: Marine Major Joe
Foss, in a Wildcat, 26.
ó
Miscelianeous
Co-Prosperity Sphere. In
Hsinking, Manchukuo, the Jap-
controlled radio announced that
“delicious bread and biscuits”
could now be made of 66%
flour, 40 '■< superior Manchukuo
dirt.
*
Chance of a Lifetime. In
Philadelphia, the Navy Procure-
ment Office announced that it
would be happy to buy spare
anchors—so long as they weig-
hed two and a half tons.
*
Faithful Follower. In Phila-
delphia Mrs. Ray MacAtee, who
swore she had never been a
back-seat driver became a con-.
ductor on a strejetcar whope
molorman was MacAtee.
*
Underworld. In Great Falls,
Mont., whoever took Mrs. J.
E. Grady’s three steaks left 60
red ration points for her on the
kitchen table. In Kansas City,
whoever made off with S. W.
Porter’s car got with it a col-
lection of religious Iracts and
Bibles. In Philadélphia, who-
ever looted Juggler Walter
Burns’s car got an assortmpnt
of Indiari clubs, colored wood-
en balls, spinning plates bat-
tered hats, a trumpet.
*
Jack Pots. In Ogden Utah,
Victor Adams dipped his hands
into a box to draw the winner
of a $1,000 war-bond lottery, •
drew his own name. In Gordon,
Wis., Autoist Roy Guest saw a
ihawk overhead with a part-
ridge in its mouth, honked his
horn twice startled t.he hawk
into dropping the bird in front
of the car
*
Horrors of War. In Philips-
burg N. J., Seaman Horace A.
Smith applied to his ration
board for a new “A” gasoline
book to replace his old one,
then dutifully followed the of-
ficial regulations and bought
an ad in a local paper “LOST
— in Mediterranean Sea, ‘A’
gas ration book.”
fighter pilots he was firsthand
sure that the U.S.’s new figh-
ters had not got this speed,
range and climb at the expense
of safety; several of his squad-
ron’s planes flew home with
as many as 70 bullet holes in
them; one landed safely after
a collision which had torn the
ailerons oíf and sliced 43 inches
from one wing.