Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1886-01-20
CHEAP OIL PAINTINGS.
Factories Turn Them Out by the Thousand
at $40 a Dozen.


Factories Turn Them Out by the Thousand
at $40 Dozen.
Every autumn, in anticipation of
holiday times, circulars are sent to
farmers and villagers, offering them
"real oil paintings" ''copies of old
masters and 'scopies of the works of
the most famous of modern artists"
sin elegant gilt frames,'' at prices
which are described as ''defying all
competition" Agents in this city who
send the circulars profess contempt for
chromos and cheap engravings, which,
they declare, disfigure the walls of
mary homes. They claim to have
made contracts with rising young art
lists for the production of celebrated
paintings, which they can sell to ia
vored few for sums which amount to
little more than the cost of the mate
rails. They also have purchased, at a
bankrupt sale, collection of fine gilt
frames, which they wish to sell at
small profit. BY such means they can
dollars, which would cost fifty dollars
Each rustic who receives a circular is
made to understand that he has been
singled out from all the persons of his
neighborhood as the one best able to
appreciate such an advantageous offer
The result is that in many rural homes
are found highly-colored paintings in
imitation gilt frames. The pictures
are usually expressionless landscapes,
marked by dimness of outlines and
haphazard blending of colors. City
people often wonder where such daubs
come from In boarding houses and
in many humble homes in the city the
cheap oil paintings have made their
appearance in recent years through the
medium of mock-auction sales. Many
busy New Yorker has his attention
drawn to more than one of the mock
auction rooms which abound in the
downtown districts. The open door is
close to the sidewalk, and persons
passing can see at the further end of
the room an oil painting on an easel
which is lighted brilliantly by row of
gas-jets from above. Seen at dis
lance and in a new gilt frame, the pic
ture has an attractive appearance to
an Impractical eye. The loud tones
of the auctioneer can be heard plainly
from the street. His words are seduc-
tive to men on the lookout for bar
gains. Several other men inside the
place are his assistants, or "cappers,"
but they play the role of outside buy
ers. When a stranger enters the room
they bid eagerly. Daub after daub is
knocked down to them at ten,
twenty or twenty-five dollars until the
stranger makes modest bid. If he
offers more than two dollars for a
painting and frame the auctioneer lets
him have it. Most buyers thinks they
have secured bargains until their
gaudy paintings have hung in their
houses for few months Then the
imitation gilt begins to crack like the
paint on fire-board, the bright hues
darken on the canvas, and each owner
suspects he has been sold.
''There are dozen factories in New
York and Brooklyn where such daubs
are made" said picture dealer to
reporter. 'Most of the proprietors
are Hebrews. 1t is said that the fac
tories turn out from five hundred to
one thousand oil paintings a day ac-
cording to the condition of the trade.
The bulk of such pictures is shipped
West, but thousands of daubs are sold
in New York and neighboring States
every year. Any one who looks close
ly at the ordinary run of them can
guess how they are made. With big
paint brushes, pots of different colored
paint, and set of stencil plates,
workman who has no knowledge of
art matters can produce one of the
regulation daubS Even the prepara-
ton of the stencil plates does not re-
quire much artistic ability. Can
vas for the pictures is made
of cheap stuff and hastily tackled
on frames. Copies of paintings in
which there is little variety of color are
the favorites. Ordinary paints are
used. First, the prevailing colors, or
groundwork, OF a painting are put
upon q canvas with one stencil plate,
and the canvas is placed in a drying
rack while the same stencil is used for
other copies. By the time the last cam
vas of set has received it's ground
work the first one is ready for the adj
dition of different colors with another
stencil-plate. So the work 90 on until
the workman has completed a set of
one hundred or two hundred pictures,
artistic standpoint. Among picture
dealers such paintings are known as
buckeyes. In most factories the stem
Gil work does not complete the pictures,
and poor artists are hired by the week
to add hasty finishing touches to each
canvas. It is necessary to protect the
cheap pigments by G heavy coat of var
nisb, which also tones down the most
glazing inperfections. The actual cost
of completed oil painting is less than
twenty-five cents. Dealers in the West
buy the buckeyes for ten dollars per
dozen and upward, according to size.
CRANES for the pictures are made
in the same factories. The fronts or
faces of pine frames are covered with
plaster, which is nodded in imitation
of the prevailing styles of gold frames.
Over the plaster is spread thin coating
of Vienna metal. The finished frames
look nearly as well as gold frames
when they are new, but they begin to
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