The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-05-04
[New York Eyenine post.l


sumed or OF the ingenious processes which are
employed in connection with it. As the sale
OF these pictures is not confined to the cities,
extends all over the country, wherever peo-
pie are willing to pay for bit of decoration in
gilt frame, and prefer what the peddlers glib
ly call genuine oil paintings" to chromos,
Autographs or cheap engrayings, large sup
ply is constantly called for. Yet the facilities
for their production will be found by any one
who investigates the subject to be ample; and
however much the demand for such household
Injuries may be stimulated by the prosperity Of
the country, there is no danger that it will not
be met by the enterprising manufacturers in
New York.
There are two kinds of cheap pictures in oil
those produced in the studios by artists of vari-
oas degrees of ability and those manufactured
in the establishments devoted to the business
on large scale, and which turn out duplicates
of an oil painting as similar concerns in other
branches of industry turn out hats, coats, or
shoes. Paintings of the first named class are
called apot-boilers," from their being usually
thrown off by artists to furnish the means to
"keep the pot boiling" These, although show
ing signs of the haste with which they are
painted. are sometimes not without merit.
They are mostl. sold in the better class of auc-
tion houses in New York, and many artists, in
the absence of more lucrative employment,
find their chief means Of support in supplying
the demand for this class of work. A clever
artist can paint tolerably attractive canvas in
comparatively short time; and although he
will put into it little Of the Imagination and
poetry and careful thought which he would
bestow upon work for the Academy exhibit
bition his technical facility will enable him to
make salable picture of it. The visitor to the
auction stores in the lower part of the city will
often find "pot-bollers" from the studios of
well-known artists. These have been gather
ed by the picture dealer, who is well acquaint-
ed with the sources of supply, and with the
worth of ready money to the impecunious ar
fist. Sometimes the pictures are sold on ac-
count of the painter, sometimes they have been
bought at low rate by the auctioneer who Of
fers them at his picture sales until he can dis
pose of them at profit.
What are technically known as buckeyes"
are works of q different class. They are pro-
duced in great numbers at certain establish
ments in this city by workmen and girls who
have been trained by the degree Of mechanical
skill necessary to make copy of the picture
is given them to duplicate. In some of tho
workshops the walls are covered with canvases
upon which the copyists are busy at work. One
paints the sky and the distant effects; another
follows with the foreground, another paints the
figures, and still another finishes the picture.
The work is done with great rapidity, and the
result, as may be expected, is not pleasing to
an artistic eye. Yet the facility attained by
constant practice is such that the rude copies
of landscapes thus produced bear a sufficient
resemblance to the original to give them q
market value as pictures.
The largest mandatory of cheap paintings
in the country is in Cortlandt street.. A three
story building is devoted to the business, and
in the busy season nearly one thousand pictures
a week are turned out. Some of the processes
and the upper story, which is the ''studio" or
workshop, is carefully guarded against intru-
sion. The doors are kept locked, and no one
except those employed in the establishment
ever, obtained admission, witnessed the meth
DDS of manufacture, and saw the pictures grow
to completion under the hands of the busy Gar
tists.'
The first step in the production of the daz-
zling landscape in a gilt frame which is to be
or picture peddler is the preparation of the
canvas This is done by passing cotton cloth
through machine by which it is coated on
both sides with mixture of glue and whiting
and gives something Of the appearance and
firmness of canvas. After being thoroughly
dried the cloth is ready for the stretcher or in
ner frame. The stretchers are produced by an
ingenious machine which shapes joints and fas-
ten them with great rapidity and by third
machine, tended by an Irish youth OF artistic
proclivities, the cloth is quickly fastened upon
the stretcher, and made ready for the coming
landscape. The canvas then passes to the stn-
did," Here line of girls stand around long
tables, their dresses splashed with paint and
their appearance anything but that OF the ideal
artist in well appointed studio. On the walls
near by hang what seem to be stencils of varl-
rious patterns, which the girls have been train
ed to use with great facility. The process en-
ployed is an adoption Of what is known as The
orem painting, and also as Poonah or Oriental
the outlines and principal figures in the land
scapes are one after another rapidly made, and
the picture then passes into the hands of
more advanced painter for completion. A few
skilful touches from her hand supply the def
ciencies which the use of the mechanical con-
trivance has left, and after receiving liberal
coating of varnish, and remaining short time
in the drying room, the picture is ready for
market. The frames are made by machinery
in the story below the "studio." They have
considerable breadth but little thickness; yet
although 80 unsubstantial they are quite orna-
mental in design, and whom covered with
metallic preparation known as dutch metal
or Clutch gilt which resembles gold leaf but
has not particle Of gold in it, they are brilliant
and snowy enough to satisfy the most exacting
purchaser. Thus it will be seen that in these
genuine oil paintings the oil which is used
is about the only thing genuine. The can
vas is cotton cloth smeared with whiting; the
frame, which looks 80 substantial, is mere
she'll, and the glittering gliding has no gold in
its composition. But like many other shams
the sham oil painting has found great many
admirers.
When the pictures are finished they are not
Immediately framed, but for convenience are
stacked in bins in thevwarehouse, according to
Subjects and the several kinds are known by
numbers. No. At, for instance, will be an Ital-
ian landscape with a pair OF romantic lovers in
the foreground; No. 156 q scene on Lake
George, in which the mountains are bathed in
Eight that never was on sea or land" and
No. 81 a pastoral subject, with prize cattle
calmly reposing by the side Of an impossible
brook, and herdsman who would be curl
osity in real life. OF the different varieties OF
pictures designated in this manner, most OF
which are landscapes, there will be hundreds
of duplicates, and some subjects which have
proved exceptionally popular are reproduced to
a surprising extent. OF one view on Lake
George, for instance, more than five thousand
copies have been sold. AS the girls and boys
employed in the business are paid from fifty
cents to one dollar day, and the artists who
finish the pictures work at low rates, the cost
of production is small. The foreman of the es-
tablishment is a German artist with consdera-
Bile experience in his profession. He superin-
tends the use of the stencils, and claims to have
made great improvements in their application.
At any rate the result Of all this cheap labor is
uring 22x36 inches, surrounded with resplend-
emit gilt frames, and boxed for shipment, are
sold at from $50 to $75 dozen and smaller
sizes as low as $15 dozen.
There are several ways of disposing of the
different grades of cheap pictures to the public
The auction sales at which "a choice collection
of valuable works by American and foreign
artists" is announced by plaeard are known in
every city of any importance. In New York
the dealers have permanent auction rooms in
Broadway, and other parts of the city, which
are kept well supplied with "pot-boilers" and
"buckeyes." Regular sales are held dolly, and
pictures are also sold at private sale. Some
iow-priced foreign pictures, generally figure