Free The Genius by Theodore Dreiser

containing a genuine
Rembrandt—which impressed him, but none like these that had
definitely stirred him. His interest in art was becoming eager. He
wanted to find out all about it—to do something himself. One day he
ventured to call at the Art Institute building and consult the
secretary, who explained to him what the charges were. He learned
from her, for she was a woman of a practical, clerical turn, that
the classes ran from October to May, that he could enter a life or
antique class or both, though the antique alone was advisable for
the time, and a class in illustration, where costumes of different
periods were presented on different models. He found that each
class had an instructor of supposed note, whom it was not necessary
for him to see. Each class had a monitor and each student was
supposed to work faithfully for his own benefit. Eugene did not get
to see the class rooms, but he gained a sense of the art of it all,
nevertheless, for the halls and offices were decorated in an
artistic way, and there were many plaster casts of arms, legs,
busts, and thighs and heads. It was as though one stood in an open
doorway and looked out upon a new world. The one thing that
gratified him was that he could study pen and ink or brush in the
illustration class, and that he could also join a sketch class from
five to six every afternoon without extra charges if he preferred
to devote his evening hours to studying drawing in the life class.
He was a little astonished to learn from a printed prospectus given
him that the life class meant nude models to work from—both men and
women. He was surely approaching a different world now. It seemed
necessary and natural enough, and yet there was an aloof atmosphere
about it, something that suggested the inner precincts of a shrine,
to which only talent was admitted. Was he talented? Wait! He would
show the world, even if he was a raw country boy.
    The classes which he decided to enter were first a life class
which convened Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings at seven in
one of the study rooms and remained in session until ten o'clock,
and second a sketch class which met from five to six every
afternoon. Eugene felt that he knew little or nothing about figure
and anatomy and had better work at that. Costume and illustration
would have to wait, and as for the landscapes, or rather
city-scapes, of which he was so fond, he could afford to defer
those until he learned something of the fundamentals of art.
    Heretofore he had rarely attempted the drawing of a face or
figure except in miniature and as details of a larger scene. Now he
was confronted with the necessity of sketching in charcoal the head
or body of a living person, and it frightened him a little. He knew
that he would be in a class with fifteen or twenty other male
students. They would be able to see and comment on what he was
doing. Twice a week an instructor would come around and pass upon
his work. There were honors for those who did the best work during
any one month, he learned from the prospectus, namely: first choice
of seats around the model at the beginning of each new pose. The
class instructors must be of considerable significance in the
American art world, he thought, for they were N. A.'s, and that
meant National Academicians. He little knew with what contempt this
honor was received in some quarters, or he would not have attached
so much significance to it.
    One Monday evening in October, armed with the several sheets of
paper which he had been told to purchase by his all-informing
prospectus, he began his work. He was a little nervous at sight of
the brightly lighted halls and class rooms, and the moving crowd of
young men and women did not tend to allay his fears. He was struck
at once with the quality of gaiety, determination and easy grace
which marked the different members of this company. The boys struck
him as interesting, virile, in many cases good looking; the girls
as graceful, rather dashing and