The Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1893-1901, 1894-03-03
HOCUS POCUS IN ART.
HOW SOME PERSONS WHO THINK
THEY KNOW ARE SWlNOLeO.

0uctf y
q Living with Pencil and Brush-Car-
toonists with More Than One Name-one
Who Made His Ghost Famous
Artists who sign their anne to pic
lures that other men paint are quite
plentiful In this town. In a little store
on Fourth avenue, just around the cor
ner from the American Academy of De-
sign. there are some very pretty exam
piles Of water coloring for sale. The
signature in the corner of each canvas
is that of a woman. The dealer was in
a communicative mood the other day,
and as he was talking with a reporter
he picked up one of the paintings and
held it 10 the light for observation and
discussion.
That woman brings some very good
work in here for me to sell. said he.
There is one popularity about her,
though. She always writes her sigma
ture in my shop" The dealer paused
rs though to.be questioned.
Why does she do that was asked.
Well, | suppose she doesn't like to
put it on at the studios where the pic
lures are painted.
She doesn't paint her own pictures,
them
Not all of them. It's easier to pick
them up here and there and bring them
10 me to sell don't know how much
she paws the artists who paint them, and
1 don't care. It, one of my business.
All | know is that the work is very good
and that | can get good prices for it. |
.ha - Ir--1lf,r ~, n ranlTDf1nn
on the strength Of these canvases. Well,
why shouldn't she: She gives work
70 a lot of people who would probably
starve otherwise. You see, scores of
persons can paint pictures and very few
nave the knack of getting them sold.
Sometimes an artist signs more than
one name TO his own work. This hap
pens every day on some of the illustrat-
ed veeklies published for Broadway
circulation. The publisher doesn't like
TO see one mans name signed to every
cartoon or full page picture. He does
not want il known that his staff Of art
lists is so small. Not long ago one #
the cleverest Of the illustrators used to
sign his own name to the bE two page
picture in the middle uf the periodical
and a nom de plume 20 III" first page
drawing every week. In q 'itt'" while
he began to receive "l,tt..- a.,3. q 4"
the assumed mann sE,iu- orders '.r
work and full II coIrrI'G MS H. Il
built mp a reputation for tn" BY r'#l
artist which he could ut ~ for #lm-
self. His pride Wa, hurt. bat be- swat
lowed the humiliation and proceed
10 increase the fame and the revenue
of his ghost.
a New York artist who draws tar the
pictorial waaklies tells a story Of his
experience III England at q time WI II
all the publishers We're demanding
French illustrators and had no use for
native talent. THIS particular artist
knew that he could cut cOrsages as low
and skirts a. high a. any Frenchman
that ever lived. He had spent several
vacations and lots Of hard earned mon
ey IN seeing the particular side Of Pa
risian life that the publishers were howl
ing tor az that particular time.
He assumed a very Frenchy name,
wrote in that language altogether and
submitted his sketches, which already
out-Frenched the Frenchnen in their
naughtiness. He made a big hit, his
mail orders were numerous, and for
many months he enjoyed a lucrative in
come under his title of De Boulanger
or whatever 1t was. while all the other
English illustrators were drawing for
the religious weeklies, which cannot
afford to pay halt as big prices to their
artists as their more wicked and per-
haps more interesting contemporaries.
= In the window of a picture store in
Harlem there were exposed for sale not
long ago two small canvases with the
magic name of Corot in the corner. The
price of each was $3.50. Now, a genu-
inc Corot is worth anywhere from 81,
900 up. Was it a mistake or an at
tempt at swindling? The pictures were
in Corot's style, and only an expert
could tell whether they were genuine or
not.
, The dealer would give no written
~yuarantee. He said he believed the two
capvases were genuine. and he explain
ed the low price by saying that he
bought the pictures from a man in hard
Inck who was ignorant of their value.
The purchaser took all the risk. Ii the
pictures were not genuine Corots, their
real value was anywhere from % to
$50. That is one of the queer things in
the art business.
There are pawnbrokers in this town
who have been known to go into a pic
ture swindling scheme, as more than
q credulous buyer has learned to his
-. II is not an infrequent occur
renee for an amateur in art to be ap-
srcached with a request to buy a pawn
ticket calling for a lot of pictures pledg.
"a for, say, 800. The pictures, tbs
stranger says, are worth at least $3.50
He will sell the ticket for s25. Ii tn
amateur buys it. he pays not only tbs
AS for the ticket, but the 800 and in
forest to the pawDbroker.
II is a perfectly safe and easy meth
au Naftbar the DaVn