The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1893-09-11
1NALONDON GALLERY
WHERE AMBITIOUS ART STUDENTS
THRoNe FOR STUDY.

Copying the Works of Recognized Mas
ters-Fee Days In the National Gallery
of London and the Crowd Attending.
On two days in the week, Thursdays and
Fridays, fee is charged for admission to
the National gallery, Trafalgar square, Lon
don. This does not diminish the attend
ance, but changes its character. Instead
of the usual throng of tourists and home
visitors, most of whom stroll in a bewilder
ed manner from chamber to chamber in the
great building, there is an attendance of
men and women who gather in groups be-
fore the most famous masterpieces. Most
OF the women chatter volubly, and not u
few of the men will join in conversation.
The visitors for. the most part are painters,
students, dealers or connoisseurs.
OF course these painters are at the gallery
to make copies of pictures, but what con-
noisseur or amateur would care to invest
in copies' Well, copying paintings is bread
and butter to a small army of London
painters, but it must not be supposed that
such n metsN of earning a living meets
with the approval or even knowledge of
those in authority at the museum and gal
leries On the contrary, every possible eff
fort is made to discountenance the practice
of using the privileges of the galleries as
an immediate and direct source of pecu-
mary benefit. A painter who was known to
sell his copies as originals would not be
permitted to enter the galleries on student
days
On the other hand, encouragement is
shown to students who desire to copy. Any
one can get immediate permission by pro-
ducing a specimen of work which will
serve as pass, even if it show but little
IL 4
from any known artist or art teacher. I'm
der such circumstances it is no wonder that
clever painters, who are willing to stoop to
fraud are able to pursue their business I'M
disturbed in the great galleries. A painter
of this class usually is a specialist-that is,
he devotes him self to acquiring the style of
some one master, copying his pictures ex-
clusively, and cases are not altogether rare
wherein famous paintings have been so
cleverly reproduced as to deceive connois-
seurs.
The writer knows of one instance in re-
cent years in which the INSCRIPTIONS
painter spent the greater part of his life in
copying the water colors of a recognized
master and had no difficulty in disposing
of every copy as an original The copies
were generally disposed of through dishon-
est dealers, but though purchasers paid
literally for the fakes" the painter him
self profted little by his skill, for he was
always miserably poor and died at last of
starvation and drink. An especially re-
markable feature of this mans work was
the fact that he copied from memory Dur
ing the last years of his life, at least, he
never brought his easel and palette to the
National gallery, but he often went there
and stood for hours at a time before the
picture he had selected, committing to
memory every detail of outline and color
effect. Whether it was his method to re-
turn after having completed his copy to re-
view his work by a second or third study of
the original the writer does not know.
The number of copies made in the great
galleries to be sold under false representa-
tions is small compared to the immense
amount of work done there every year.
Most of the work, if sold, is sold for what it
purports to be, and therein lies the oppor-
tunity for purchasers who want good paint
ings. Not few painters of unmistakable
talent give themselves up to copying be-
cause it assures them living less precari-
GUS than might be earned by creative work
alone. Moreover, to copy on fee days in the
National gallery is in itself an advertise
ment of no mean value, for dealers are
lowering about all the time ready to pick
up all SACtllSlb copy ttt VI, as Is
frequently the case to give a commission
for a new work, real original, from the
brush of any painter whose work strikes
them as having the requisite style and
power.
Besides the dealers there are always pri-
vate buyers ca hand, some of them Ameri-
cans, who happen to know the possibilities
of obtaining good pictures at low prices
and are not slow to take advantage of the
opportunity. That the opportunities may
be excellent, so far as prices go, may be in
ferred from the plight of an Italian who
was patiently copying an old Dutch pic
ture He frankly admitted that he had nc
commission; that he was copying solely in
the hope that he might sell his copy for a
little food. He came from Naples, where
he had run through fortune, and had been
four months in London. During that time
he had sold one small picture of his own
and that for mere trifie. 80 have taken
to copying" he said simply.
Some of the copyists make good incomes
One man who came under the writer's OBJ
servation had lived for several years on one
picture in the Bethnel Green museum. He
had copied it more than 80 times. A fla
vorite among the copyists is Murillos 'St
John the Baptist" One painter alone has
There are more women than men among
the copyists, and critical observers of long
standing say that in recent years the work
of women has undergone remarkable i'm
provement in breadth and strength of treat
ment. Perhaps this has not been unatfect
ed by the better accommodations afforded
to women than men in the National gal
lery. 1t becomes veritable club for WON
en- painters and their friends on fee days
The friends trot along and take their sew
ing and ply their needle industriously while
the artists stick colors on canvas and tax,
part in conversation. Whenever they are
hungry or thirsty, they repair for refresh
ments to room in the basementespecially
prepared for them, where ordinary lunch
cons may be purchased. The men do not
come in for this. Ample room is provided
for the storage of easels and unfinished can
vases for all artists, but those of the male
persuasion must go to the nearest pub
for their mug of ale md veal pie,-New
York Sun.
Trial of the Pyx.
The annual ceremony Of testing the stand
ard fineness of the gold and silver coins o