The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-12-25
MODELS-NUDE, DRAPED
The Craze For Pictures in
Drinking Saloons.
A SAD STORY OF TWO MODELS.
The EIevating and Refining Chrome
The Wit of Artists-ActOrs as
Artists-GenerRl.

During the past summer, III the later
part, there stopped at the Continental
Hotel, in this city, Mr.. G. H. Chaplin,
the noted New York artist. Mr.. Chaplin
is rather a small man, his stature ap-
pearing less than it is, because of a
slight tendency to stoop about the
shoulders. He has very full forehead,
q bright eye, with heavy eyebrows-a
mark that always seems inseperable
from decision and character-and is an
exceptionally entertaining converse
tionalist. His long residence in New
York City, his early struggles, his init
mate acquaintance with the actors and
men of note of his time, his travels
abroad, all constitute a fund upon
which he can draw at will, and which
expressed in the quiet circle or CONVEX
sation With a friend, and clothed with
the briskness of Mr.. Chaplin, and col
ored by his long experience and deduc-
tons, make an hour with him to pass
on noiseless wings. 1t is impossible to
preserve the charm and odor of Mr..
Chapin's talk, withoHt which a repeti
ton of his sayings is practically favor
less by comparison, but there is left
much of interest, and part of it is given
below, not as he said it, but as the
writer recalls it, and lacking vastly in
every respect:
PICTURE PRICES THEN AND NOW.
twenty-five years ago there were
probably not more than half a dozen
artists of any ability in the United
States who attempted to make a living
in their profe sion, except by portrait
painting.
Of those who tried landscape paint
ing, Thomas Cole, whose great work
perhaps is "rhe Voyage of Life" and
Frederick Church, best known because
of his Heart of the Andes" were the
only notable artists. Cole was the first
to get what was then considered large
sum for a landscape. A few had re-
Up to the time Church got S12 600 for
his Niagara Falls" it was the highest
figure known, and was considered al
most fabulous.
Portrait painters il those days were
fully as good as they are now. And as
to the prices they received, they varied
within a very limited range. Then 800
was a good price, and from $500 TO ST.
900 was considered very high for a
landscape, though sometimes Charley
Elliott would receive $500 for special
painting. 1t is quite different now.
There are a number OF landscape and
figure painters in New YORK who earn
their $40 600 at least year. So far as
portrait painting is concerned, $50 for
8 25x30 bust, is a very usual price. Many
artists charge as high as $1,000 for
such a picture. Edmund Johnson, for
instance, would not, in all proba olity
paint one for less than$1 900, and he may
get as high as S. 600 Tor a full sIz I'd
picture. Such painters as Porter. of
Boston, and Huntington, president of
the acadamy, receive very good prices
for their work, and have most liberal
patronage. Herkimer, the well-known
English painter, spent the winter before
Iastin the city of Boston; and it is said,
earned 10 less than $40 900. He has
received as high as S.. 600 for a single
portrait. No artist of real ability in the
cities of New York and Boston has any
trouble in earning handsome income.
The days when artists of ability had to
live in attics has gone and change has
come as a blessing to the artists of
modern times. They certainly have
reason to rejoice at it.
1t is therefore no longer possible for
artists of genuine ability to be poor.
There are so many persons who admire
art and who are willing to pay for
really coed uictures that they always
sell well. Church has had an income of
something like sac 900 a year, while
there are several frst-olass portrait
painters who earn all the way from
500. 900 to $4,000 a year. James 6.
Brown, the painter OF the "Bootblacks"
and the ARABS" manages to make his
pictures bring him from $40, 900 to $780,,
900 year, and there is also great de-
mand for the work of such landscape
artists as James and William Hart.
THE PRESENT FAD.
The fad among wealthy people now is
to have their portraits painted by
French artists The notion in our
country regarding art seems to be the
same as prevailed some years since as
to musicians and vocallsts-there were
none really artists, AS to musicians
and vocalists, time and acquaintance
have dissipated the opinion, and caused
a recognition of the wonderful ability
and success achieved by some of |
Americas prima donnas and musicians
So the opinion will yet change with re-
gard to American artists. There are |
those of our nationality who have found |
that they were better appreciated away |
from their own land than in tin |
France and Italy, where people in this |
country seem to imagine that arts Is
who are really and truly artists, only |
can be found. Hence, the craze for the |
works of French painters. It is said
that some fabulous sums have been |
paid to them for their pictures, and |
that Muncaksy has no cause to lament
his visit to the United States as un-
profitable.
STUDIOS IN NEW YORK.
Within ten years art has become