Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-11-04
GALLERY AND STUDIO.
scientific Measurements ms n Help
to Picture Making.

While artists are to be.regarded as the
closest observers of nature there are occa-
sional slips in their seeing that surprises
one. The late Sanford Clifford, whose
reputation for accuracy was oil the high
est, and who began work with the most
careful measurements and prospective
studies, could still make plumbers that
appeared surprising to those who knew
him. While in Athens he made series
of sketches and measurements for his
| last picture, the Parthenon, in ruins. and
seen in the warm, rosy light OF late alter
noon. 1t was his desire and intent to
make the details of the building rs accu-
rate as photograph. Judge, then, Of
his own surprise, when he had called in
his studio neighbor, S. j. Guy, to critcse
his nearly completed picture, at the re-
mark of that artist: "Why, Mr.. Clifford,
you've got q Parthenon that has facade
of only seven columns, whereas. it really
had eight" Careful as he had been in
the drawing OF that work he had dropped
out the whole OF column.
DISCOVERY.
Mr.. Guy has the repute of being the
most scientific of the painters in New
York. He can analyze composition,
|
hidden curves and lines as accurately as
the chemist analyses drug. He it was
who made discovery regarding the Par
thenon that is little known, ii known at
all, by the public. 1t is that while the
columns supporting the roof of that most
severely perfect and serenely beautiful of
temples are apparently shaped with
fidelity to geometric proportion, they have
a recession on their outward faces that
amounts to an inward lean, though the
inner faces are vertical.
The result of this is to make the col
umns appear to diminish from effect of
distance than from loss of mass, and
through the creation of this subtle false
perspective the temple is made to appear
higher than it is. An arrangement of
lines that repeat themselves but also
diminish as they ascend, thereby intensi-
flying the effect of distance, are seen in
: the tower OF Trinity church in Boston,
while some of the grandeur of the new
! law courts in Brussels is due to the re-
ceding lines of the dome.
UNAVOIDABLE CRITICISMS.
That artists are occasionally jealous of
each others attainments and success is
unhappily the case; but the picture deal
er whose remarks anent this matter
started in San Francisco paper and are
going the rounds of the exchanges, UNI
doubtedly made an over-statement. He
says that artists go into his picture shop
. and make sly but injurious remarks about
i the pictures of rival painters, with view
to lodging busy little flea in the ear OF
any chance purchaser that will effect his
= opinion regarding those other works in
] an unfavorable manner.
One case is instanced where an artist
a acting as mentor to rich but uncul.
n tured Californian who dstrusted his own
: taste, praised the landscape of an artist
q who was his superior. in this manner
r 1T is very fine picture. 1t is well con-
q ceived; drawing first rate; admirable
/ color. | like the trees, the sky, the
: water Still, if you want my opinion, ri
. tell you something. You see that small
figure in the distance-the figure of S
man fishing? Ii you will take the trouble
to take the scale OF measurement you will
discover that the mans fishing pole il
over fifteen feet long"
LOST A SALE.
# The rich man was on the point of buy
ing the picture until his friend made this
discovery, but that one little brush stroke
u that nobody would have noticed had h,
not been searching for defects, threw tn,
q bargain OIL. The seeming fairness OF tn,
/ criticism made it the more deadly. TIL
=, dealer instanced this as one case anon,
d many, and would have us believe tina
g such occurrences are frequent. They ma,
be in San Francisco, but the unwrittei
a code OF ethics that governs the arts
r. fraternity hereabout prevents their hap
ir pening often in these parts.
. An artist is at liberty to find fault witt
d the pictures OF other painters, and III
generally uses that liberty when he think
L occasion calls for it-as at the academ
\ openings-but there is u difference be
= tween an honest grumble and an under
il hand attempt to take the bread from tn
o mouth OF fellow craftsman. mer
e line carelessly drawn, or spot of colo
is wrongly placed, is easy to correct.
10 A 100-FooT FISHING POLE.
II As to fishing poles, | saw two week
>. ago in gallery a landscape with a seate,
y figure OF man who was fishing with
q pole that was 100 feet long, ii it was
Il foot. This curious effect was produced b,
1 dropping the end OF short fish line int,
! the middle OF pond, that, using tn,
d iigure to measure by, was not less thai
8 zoo feet wide. By drawing his brusl
down hall an inch farther the artist would
have restored the normal perspective an,
= the pole would have shrunk to one of usua
q dimensions.
y Swain Clifford lost the sale of an impor
tant work in an exhibition some years ag,
a Tor no reason except that board in tn,
u picture was to long. A dark line draw
/ across the middle to make two boards o
{ 1t, would have cost him but the labor of /
s second and would have secured an i'm
1 mediate cash return. In this case, as il
4 the San Francisco episode, some "smart
person who discovered the defect tool
: : pains to point it out to every prosperity,
buyer, who directly lost to view the large
truths OF nature in the picture behind !