The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-20
WHAT MAKES PICTURES SELL.
More Pictures Sell Because People
Think it Fine Thing to Have Them
Than Because of q knowledge of Art.
From the Nelc York Graph

Audu because Oh AnOWleQ&o OF ART.
From the Ne,c York GraDhic.
"What makes pictures sell? What do the
people who buy of you seek in pictures?"
were the questions asked asked of the
affable gentleman who has conducted sales
at the academy and elsewhere for years
'Well, | suppose you know motives vary.
but can tell you that more pictures sell
because people think it is fine thing to
own real paintings-hand-p paintings if you
like-than because they know or care any
thing about art Then they select their
pictures through some sentimental feeling
about the subject. They'll buy ANYTHING
that reminds them of the we'll in the back
yard at home when they we're children
or the cradle they had for their first baby
if it was painted by a sign painter
I'll bet | could sell an old Oaken
Bucket or a Learning to Walk every year
for ten years in succession. All this isn't so
emphatically true now as it once was, but it's
true yet. Then If people like particular
thing, flower or birch trees or Maltese
cat, they'll buy a picture of that in prefer
ence to the finest thing on the walls. That
is when they are Independent and get what
they like. There are old fellows that have
made their own money who come in here to
buy pictures to please themselves and who
don't care a copper about what's good or
what other folks admire, but they want pic
lures because in their own way they
enjoy them, and they get paintings
i'll preference to chromos priuci-
pally because they cost more, and they
are not going to have things cheap when
they can afford as good as anybody else.
They generally like simple infantne sort of
subjects, such as you'd think suitable for
little girls DETERMINATIONS in a basket OF
a baby and dog sleeping on the floor to-
gether, or small boy wading in a creek.
Then title has a great deal, some folks
think almost everything, to do with selhng
a picture. If the baby and the dog were
called Companions in Arms or the small
boy had some of Whittier's verses on the
Barefoot Boy printed on the frame, their
popularity would be greatly augmented
THE SAME KIND FROM THE SAME MAN.
"Another thing still that influences the
buyers to the distress of the artists is that
they always want the same kind of pic
ture from the same man. 1t is Just the
SANE with them as with actors. Nat Good
win wants TO play Richard III, but he'll
never have the chance to do it seriously.
So with the painters; the old-fashioned
| eople want j. G. Brown or William
Hart just like every other j. Il. Brown or
William Hart they over saw in their lives.
something that every body will recognize as
u Brown or Il Hart the instant that he en-
tiers the parlor, and nothing but the usual
bootblaCk or the familiar COW in the woods
viii do them. If a man wants to la versa
tile he must start in doing various sorts Of
things in the beginning, otherwise people
will starve him out when he tries to change
off"
There is one funny point about all this,
and that is the way lots of men tell YOU hat
they could paint better than they do, but
they can't afford to: their pictures wouldn't
sell II is like all the penn "a liners in town
telling you that they would write for the
high class periodicals if they could afford to
take the time to do it,
There is a little more ground for the
painters to talk that way, for the Phiistlne
pictures do frequently sell the best, but
everybody knows the high-class periodicals
pay the best
j. &. Brown is one of the painters who
really could paint better in some ways than
he does There are many good qualities in
his pictures, but he antagoniZes the painters
by always giving his street Arabs such i'm
maculately clean faces and lily and rose
compilations.
DIRTY CHILDREN WOULDN'T 60.
"Why in the world don't you put some
dirt or few freckles on some of them some
timesN demanded a priv eyed acquaint-
ance. And then Mr.. Brown confided the
sad fact that he had tried that and that
these realistic chickens showed fatal ten
dency to come home to roost-not one of
them sold. Then Mr.. Brown. who thinks