Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1886-07-23
MAKING BIG PICTURES.
Process Of Painting PaDorAmAs Of Battle
Scenes, Now So Popular.

Process Of Painting Pssoramas Of Battle
Scenes, Now So Popular.
The question Is q natural one as to
how these great panoramas are made.
This is about the process:
A hexagonal building OF brick Is con-
structed with dimensions generally
about $50 feet in diameter and walls say
SO feet in length. A conical roof, with
skylight and cupola, surmounts the
walls.
A canvas OF cotton cloth is then
stretched inside the rough walls from
ground to roof. but protected from
touching the wallis by 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
$50 yards in length, by so in height, and
containing $500 cubic yar,s 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 director-in-chief on the work of
Shiloh, Second Bull Run and the fight
between the Monitor and the Merrimac,
was an emil ent artist OF Paris. He brought
with him as co-laborers thirteen skilled
artists, each of whom was an expert.
They were engaged fourteen months IN
producing the panoramas already named.
Their habit is to visit the battlefield
selected for painting. and to spend five
or six weeks in studying and sketching
it. The field is divided off into two Sec
lions, and each artist takes section.
He makes a sketch Of the surface OF
the ground, the trees, the fences, the
buildings, and the camera Of the photo
grapher plays no Insignificant part in
this preliminary. work. These sketches
by sections are then ready for the cam
vas.
First of AL the sky is painted in dur
able colors, then the landscape, then
trees, foliage, buildings, etc. Then come
the artillery wagons, dismounted can
mons, broken muskets, and all the wreck
which a great battle m lkeS OF the lnanl-
mate machinery of war.
Then are painted the war horses in all
colors and sizes and attitudes, living and
dead. 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 the
human warriors. For this purpose the
artists themselves pose as models for
each other-in a bayonet charge, in de-
tense, in 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 in form and express
sion must differ from every other face.
To enable all these artists to work on
the canvas at one time, railway track
is constructed upon which are placed
movable stagings Of different heights, SO
that all sections Of the work can be
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 little
more red in such spot, little less
j brown in another, too much blue here,
not enough OF green there.
He fights his battle on canvas very
much as the commandant Of the real
fought his. viz. through orders to his
subordinates.
AICeT Cu0 CdIlFdS mas OcOu COI1pl0tcO,
then comes the foreground-the blend
| ing of real earth and grass, and trees and
rocks, and straw-stacks and rail-fences
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 separ-
alton.
All the arrangement of these material
objects are just as much the work Of
artists as the strokes Of the brush upon
the canvas. The foundation of that
steep hill upon which is living tree and
understanding branches. is platform of
hemlock boards with about two inches of
earth scattered on top. The roots of
that tree are in a wash tub underneath a
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 sue
cumts from lack of sunlight and
fresh air. as it will. sprays Of aniline
dye are showered upon the leaves, to
make death look like life.