The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1876-02-06
HANGING PCT URES.

How to hang our pictures is the next worry
after curtains, and yet the way out OF this
wood is as clear or clearer than the other
Our plaster walls are not made for driving
nails into, and they are easily defaced If We
try to drive nails into them without the AID OF
practiced hand. We have to get carpenter
| to come with his hammer, and we set him az
tapping the wall like a wood-peoker to hnd
the solid places by the sound, and then put
in his nails at venture And then we are
the slaves of the studding timbers and our
pictures must hang where they will, not
where we will.
The first device for getting more liberty was
that Of fixing permanent brass or iron roo
along the upper part of the wall just under
the cornice, and hanging the pictures from
that, moving them back and forth till We had
them where We wanted them. But this has
clumsy look and . mechanical, and suggests
the notion that we are taking advantage OF an
accidental gas-pipe to suspend our pictures
from. We want something simpler and less
obtrusve than this, which is only suited to q
pubic hail; and what seems to just hit the
mark, is strip of wood nailed along the
wall st any height desired. Ordinarily, 1t
will be best to fasten it directly under the
cornics; but this depends upon the height OF
the room.
If the room is q very lofty one, by fixing
the strip some distance below the cornice, we
avoid the monotony of q number OF cords or
wires spreading over the wall, and we can
utilize the space thus left between the strip
and the cornice by hanging there some casts,
or pieces Of armor, or objects OF any kind that
will bear being hung above the level of the
eye. Very few things do bear this-1 mean
of things that are of size to bring into our
houses at all; but there may be such, and
while Wa should like to have them on the
wall of our living room, Wa do not Want them
to drive things away that need nearer looking
It No picture ought to be hung higher than
the height Of the average human eye when
the owner Of the eye is standing. 1t is the
almost universal rule in our houses to hang
pic sures much ebove this level, and they can
not be enjoyed there.
If the picture is Q portrait, or it it have
human faces in it, its eyes shonld look as
nearly into ours as possible; and II there be
no such simple guide, perhaps good rule
will be to have the line that divides the pic
turs horizontally into equal parts level with
the eve. Ii one starts in hanging pictures
with the determination to place them SO that
they can be easily seen and enjoyed without
stretching the neck the least, or STOPPING the
body, he will be pretty sure to do we'll. In
remote farm-houses and country taverns We
often see pictures, particularly portraits,
skyed as high as if their owners had been
Academy hangers, and the painters young
rivals of new school.
Isuppose the reason is that the simple
hearted owners think picture such precious
thirg, it can't be hung too securely out of
the reach Of meddliOg hands. They are often
not clear in their minds as to what q picture
is meant tor, and not finding in it any practi-
cal relation to human life and society, they
treat it with reverence and put it where it
will disturb them as little as possible. But,
as people come to enjoy pictures and get some
intellectual, spiritual nourishment out OF them,
they want them, as they want their books,
where they can see them and use them
Scribner for february.