Deep Sea

Still are the waters about Rio de Janeiro, deep are they and clear. Be- cause of their stillness, their clarity, to Rio last week repaired Zarh H. M. Pritchard,* painter. He paints pictures of the deep sea. Where the coral spreads its fan, where sea-grass lifts and sways to currents vague as wind, and blunt-nosed fishes ply, this way and that, their white bellies agleam, their eyes phosphorescent, there goes Painter Pritchard in a kind of diving suit. His pictures are hung in the Natural History Museum, Manhattan, in many European galleries. Says he:

"I work on the ocean floor exactly as I would work in my studio. All my sketches are done in color under the surface. Sometimes fish eight or ten feet long have come close to me as if they were curious, but I have never been attacked. . . . The smaller fish exasperate me."

* Artist Pritchard's Christian name was originally Walter. Because of the annoyance he derived from letters intended for other Walter Pritchards, he changed it to Zarh. Said he: "There were eight other Walter Pritchards. One was a drunkard, another was a man who never paid his bills, and a third was constantly running away from his wife. It was this last Pritchard who determined me to change my name. I received a letter from his wife. She begged me to return to her, saying that the daughter, Mary, had grown into a fine, tall, good-looking woman. So I changed my name to Zarh, which is Persian for light."