The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1882-07-21
Art by the Wholesale.
The Way Genuine OIL Paintings Are Produced for
the Country Market

Oil paintings, as a rule, are rather ex-
penslye Injuries, yet every year our
country cousins are visited by peddlers
who offer them these same expensive
Injuries Tor mere song, generally for
about the price of good-sized chrome.
AT first the business was strictly con-
ilnod TO the country but apparently the
rural regions have been stocked, and
these oil-painting vendors have been Of
fering their wares for sale in the less
fashionable portions Of the city. An
examination of the pictures reveals the
fact that they are indisputably what
they are represented to bc-gCnuine oil
paintings. OF course, in their execution
they are not Of a very high order Of ar
tistic excellence, being for the most part
mere daubs Of the chrome style Of de-
sign. Yet, taking in consideration their
many faults, they are sold at astonish-
ingly low prices; which scarcely seem
sufficient to cover the cost of canvas
and frames, not to speak Of the artists
labor. In the country the matter has
been explained by the peddlers saying
that the pictures had been stolen, and
the pious countryman chuckles in pay
ing out his cash, imagining that he is
purchasing one Of the old masters that,
perhaps, has been iilched from some
European gallery. In the city, howev.
err, where men are used TO crooked ways,
such ilimsy story obtains no credence,
and the pictures are bought merely as
the productions Of third or fourth rate
painter Outside Of artistic circles il is
not generally known how these pictures
are made. Some have supposed that in
some occult manner they are printed to
initiate handwork so closely as to DEFY
detection. But this is an error. In
reality they are the work Of very infe-
rior artists, or sometimes Of a really good
artist, who takes this means Of replen-
ishing his exhausted cXchequer. The
way in which they are manufacted is as
follows: Around the walls of his stu
do, as he calls it-dirty, turpentnery
room would be nearer the truths
stretched on stout frame a strip of
canvas of the width that the picture is
intended TO be. II the room is fifteen
by ten, the strip will be fifty feet long,
and it will furnish twenty paintings.
This strip is then painted white with
large brush, and when dry everything
is ready for the pictures. First, howev-
er, it is divided into equal spaces just
the size of the intended painting. Then
the artist takes his palette with sky col
or mixed upon it and proceeds TO paint
the twenty skies, one after the other
This he does very rapidly from long
practice. In like manner he paints in
all the twenty backgrounds, one color
at time, until at last heruns over them
TO give them the finishing touches, when
he has on his strip twenty paintings eX-
actly alike. The canvas is then cut on
the dividing lines, and the pictures are
all ready for framing. OF course, the de-
signs used are always simple and conyen-
tional; a very intricate plan would ne
cesstate too much labor. so ruined
mill or IA tumblc-down castle by the side
of a rolling blue river are usually the
stock scenery. An artist working stead
lily can paint about twenty such pictures
in two days, and when they are framed
they are sold for ut least SO, and all
above that figure that the purchaser can
be induced togive. Cincinnati Gazette.