The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-08-12

Americans have an instructive distrust
OF American art until some European of
acknowledged taste sets the seal Of approval
on his work. There is William Gidney
Bunce: when he was at Biarritz last spring.
the Queen of England bought some Of his
water colors. He was Immediately inuu-
dated by orders and golden future awaited
him in L ndon.
viii not go to London he said, and
he did not 60. Because the queen had fan
| cied his work did not make il any the more
valuable in his eyes and ell the
gold of England would not have made him
paint what he did not love and where he
did not love to live. Take George InneSs
now. The world does not know a bstter
outdoor painter, yet he is not rich When
Benjamin Constant, the French painter
came here year ago, he saw some of In
ness pictures.
Great Heavensr he exclaimed, Where
have You kept that man so 10 z? We have
not in Europe a better landscape painter
When InnesS exhibits his collections in Par
is this fall pred ct that he will open the
eyes # the art world with wonder. With
this approval, high prices are certain to fol
low
The best paying art work in his coun-
try is decorative painting. La Forge and
Tiffany can make many times as much by
that work as by painting pictures. Next to
that comes portrait painting when the ar
fist has made name Porter Of Boston.
gets $4,000, s., 600 and sometimes IS, 900 or
$4,000 for a full length portrait"
How long does it take an artist to paint
a great picturep
That depends upon the size of the paint
ing and its style. Historical PAL tings and
large canvases require more time than out
door paintings. | often think the coming
landscape painter will be an outdoor painter
He will Ue a realistic impressi1nisC. He
will be between the extremes. HIS main
purpose will be truth and his work will be
finished in one sitting. By one sit
ting l mean four hours. This is all
the time any man has to paint sunlight.
and he must DO clear-sighted and quick If
hand to get that. He can take these four
hours either at morning, noon or after
noon, but he cannot record truthfully dur
ing any longer time, SIMPLY because the
SUI moves and the shadows constantly
grow longer and shorter. He cannot finish
or continue it until the next day. There
has been rain, and the half begun yester-
day is dry and sunny. He can Wait for an-
other sunny day or finish the other half
cloudy or wet, connecting the .glaring in
cOnsistenceS, or worse still, leave it to be-
finished in the studies from pencil memo
randum or memory. The first plan is full
Of lies, and the second full of himself
Neither mas anything IN common with ma
ture. But he waits perhaps for another day
of similar sunlight effect But how about
himself the next day? During the itervaI
he has had bad ne Ns from home, an uudi-
gested morsel disturbs him, or his eve is
filed with some new and interest ne sub
ject. So he stumbles along, the esprit quite
gone, until, as in the parable the last state
of that sketch is worse than the first.
That is the work" continued Mir. Smith.
"but. there are exceptions. Verestchagin
worked twenty-seven days painting his
original sketch of his wonderful White
Mosque How did he do it! He told me
how. In India one day is precisely like
another at a certain season of the year. He
took his seat before the mosque every
moraing at 10 and finished at noju. At 10
the shadows We're precisely where they
were the day before The sunlight was I'M
dimmed. The atmosphere was uudamped
Each day he took up his work exactly
where he had left off.
Have you ever noticed" asked Mr.
Smith, ''the similarity bet cen artists pic5-
ures and their writings? No? Well, they
use their pens as they do their brushes |
wrote to Verestchagin when he was here
inviting him to tea with me in my studio
one Sunday evening to meet some friends
The next day l got a note from him:
Ives, | will take tea with you Sun Law
evening at $50 O'Clock.
NERESTCHAGIN'
"a few hours later another letter came:
"'I have made mistake. | have at )
o'clock to take beef tea. May | come at 8
O'Clock! NERESTCHAGIN.' !"