The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-11-22
us scene painting high art?"

us scene painting high art?"
LAS high art as any. When paint on
a fat plane, 1 am master OF all the
means. l depend on my own hand, and
the difficulties are few, compared with
those 1 have to contend with in produc-
ing a picture with seven or eight or ten
planes which must look to the people in
front like real landscape, so that they
cannot tell whether 1t Is fiat, cut drop,
back drop or set piece any more than
they can in cyclorama tell where the
foreground ends and the painting begins.
Suppose am to reproduce a famous
painting find the conditions entirely
changed. For instance, the perspective Is
different-an arch is noslonger represent
ed by an oval. It must be like an elon-
gated bladder. The technical difficulties
are enormous. Every scene Is new
problem, and there Is no rule for it;
couldn't be a rule. Say. the scene is laid
in Egypt, and there is large arch which
the company comes through. This must
be presented in a very different way from
another arch in another place. There are
very few men who can really be called
scenic artists. They must know much
more than merely how to paint a picture
well. There are not more than dozen
real scenic artists in the United States"
II suppose methods have altered, as
well as materials?"
"Oh, yes. We seek the real and don't
care about the conventional. Each scene
painter impresses his individuality on his
own work. He has his theories and diff
fers more or less from his contempora-
ries. The old scene painters were conven-
tional. They did not take time or pains
to study and present to you the thing
as It really was. For instance, distance
was always the same color, no matter
what land or what time of the year; and
so with an oak tree or an inn, always the
same. The scenery and methods of
twenty-five years ago would seem as abb
surd to us now as the scenery and meth
DDS of 100 years previously would have
seemed then. You know in the olden
time they kept a swab on the stage on
account of the candles, and 1t was one of
the duties of an actor If the candle burnt
low to take the swab and extinguish it.
Imagine Hamlet or the Ghost now stop
ping in the most serious part of their dia-
logue to swab the candlesr'
THE Improvement in scenic effects has
kept up with the progress Of civilization
in other fields, and what we had twenty
five years ago was looked on as wonder
full. Great inventors had busied them
selves with stage effects. Morse, the in
ventor of the telegraph, was a scenic
artist, and so was Daguerre We owe q
great many effects to Daguerre, on whose
methods, Of course, we have improved.
! Inc AhAAO0hCAloN VI tAStNhlIiAy was llIe
thing for scenic art. We had to work
with gas before electricity came. Gas
was better than candles, but Il was very
bad, 1t was so dangerous and dim. When
l was a boy the study was to keep as
far as possible from the lights. Now we
can thrust the electric lights right among
the scenery.
Look at the Improvement in the moon.
The old moon box was hoisted with can
dies behind IL. II was yellow and infiam-
ed and liable TO smoke. Now we use an
electrical disk; a box with an odd num-
Der of lights in lt.tbree or fivef etc. You
can't use an even number, or the people
in front would be able to count them.
The face of the moon is porcelain, and as
II raises they work the rheostadt, DIM
ming or Frightening It. 1t will not be long
before they will be able 10 make the moon
dimish in size after rising.
Then there is the ripple on the water.
The Improvement in that is very great.
We used to have an endless towel work.
ing on rollers behind the water scene with
lights behind that. The towel had holes
In II through which the light shone maxi