The St. Johns herald., 1886-09-30
MAKING BIG PICTURES.
PrOceas of Painting Panoramas of Rattle
 Scenes, Now So Popular.

PrOcess of Painting PanOramas of Rattle
 Scenes, Now So Popular.
 Tho question is a natural one as to how these great panoramas are made. This is about the process:
 hexagonal building of brick is con- structed with dimensions generally abont l50 feet in diameter and walls say 50 feet in length. A conical roof. with skylight aud cupola, surmounts the walls.
 4 canvas of cotton cloth is then stretched inside the rough walls from ground to roof, but protected from touching the walls by a wooden frame work. which is so fitted to the inequali- ties of the building as to leave sym metrical inside surface on which the cloth is stretched.
 When complete there Is & canvas, say 450 yards in length, by 50 ia height, and containing 2500 cubic yaris of cloth. This cloth is heavily sized with heavy coating of glue and whiting, and over this coating of paint. The surface. thus prepared, is then ready for the artists.
 The direetor-in-chief on the work of Shiloh, Second Bull Run and the fight between the Monitor and the Merrimac, was au emi ent tarlist of Paris. He brought with him as co-hlOrers thirteen skilled artists, each of whom WAS an experf. They were engaged fourteen months in producing the Eanoramas already Dained.
 Their habit is tI visit ihv hattle-Geld selected d painting. and to spend five or six weeks Ill studying and sketchinS 1t. Tho field is divided off lnto two seo- tions, and each artist taGe5 Il section.
 He makes sketch If the surface of tue ground, the trees, the fences. the buildings, and inc camera of the photo graphcr plays no insignificant part in this preliminary work. These sketches by sections arc then ready for the can vas.
 First of al the sky Is painted in dur. able colOro, then the iaildScapo, then trees, foliage, buildings, GIG. Then come the artillery wagons, di5mountcd can- nons, broken musk ts. and all the wreck which great battle m kc5 of the inani- mate machinery of war
 ThUm art painted the war horses in all cOlors and SECS and attitudes living and dcad, Some look as large as elephants, and to the spectator out of all proportion to their appropriate size, but this is & necessity tO lay the foundation for the perspective.
 Last of all, the painters create tho human warriors. For this purpose the artists themselves pose as models for each ot erin bayonet charge, in de- fense, ill retreat, at rest, as wounded, as dying, as dead. The models of all these soldiers on the canvas were living bodies, but the faces on the bodies were evolved from the artists inner conscious ness, and each face ill form and express sion must differ from every other face.
 To enable all these artists to work on the canvas at one time. a railway track is constructed upon which are placed movable stagings of different heights, so that all sections of the work can bo reached.
 As each artist Is unable to judge ac- curately, when standing close to the can- vas. of the proper effect of his lights and shades, the superintendent standing on the platform where the spectators will stand, directs the processes--a little more rcd i'll such spot, little iess brown iii another, too much blue here. not enough oi green there.
 He fights his battle on canvas very much as the commandant of the real fought his, viz. through orders to his subordinates,
 After tho canvas has been completed, then comes the foreground-the blenc- ing of real earth and grass, and trees and rocks, and straw-stacks and rail-tences with shadowy ones, and the beginning and ending of each. so artistically done that the beholder can hardly distinguish the real from the imaginary line of sepsr- atiOn.
 All the arrangement of these material objects are just as much the work ot artists as the strokes of tho brush upon the canvas. The foundation of that steep hill upon which is living t-ee and wide-spreading branches, is a platform of hemlock boards with about two inches -of earth scattered on top. The roots of that tree are in a wash tub underneath wooden staging, and the moisture which keeps the tree alive goes into the tub underneath the staging. through water pots. When the foliage at last 5uc- cumbs from lack of sunlight and fresh air. as it will. sprays of aniiine dye are showered upon the leaves, to make death look like life.