The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-06-05

one who is too feeble and colorless to be
dignifed into being considered an enemy.
when have painted a persons por-
trait" said an artist the other day. II
know that person through and through
This particular artist, says the New
York Sun, is a woman, young, attractive,
successful, though not yet one of those IA
nous portrait painters who seem to confer
a favor upon you in consenting to paint
your picture and accept great many hum
| dreds of your dollars in exchange. She
! hasn't reached that point yet; but perhaps
her remarks may be all the more interest
] ing on that account.
Yes" pursued the young artist, when
I have painted, say, a woman's portrait,
| not only know her as she is, but 1 know
! her as she thinks she Is and as she wants
| TO be. Before she really settles down to
! work she shows off all her little affecta-
! tons. It's like a dog when he wants to be
! petted. He goes through all his tricks to
| Gee bow you like them. OF course, your
! sitter doesn't give her little exhibition
| consciously and deliberately. She doesn' t
| know that she Is showing off. But l do,
and I have to jolly her along past that
stage before l can get at the real woman.
1T isn't always vanity. A good deal of
! It is a sort of nervous self-consciousness.
| Men have it, too, only 1t takes a different
| form. When a man is going to have his
| portrait painted he apparently swallows 4
ramrod and you almost have to take a
! hammer to make him bend his joints
When a woman Is the SITTER she feels as
much like a fool as the man does, but she
| Knows it. She wants to look as if she
hadn't swallowed a ramrod and as if she
was perfectly at ease, so she forthwith
| tries to do the things for which she has
| been complmented.
"She goes to work to show off her good
points, at least, what she thinks, or has
A,lA 81 nfy,te
has been told that she has fine teeth, she
tries to show every tooth in her head
/ Wen, you know, I'm not painting teeth,
so 1 have a dreadful time getting her
mouth shut. If a woman has been told
that her eyes are brilliant and that her
| great charm is in a certain flashing glance,
! she comes in here and flashes like a search
light hunting torpedo boats. Probably that
| is really one of her charms, but unfortu-
J nately 1 cant paint flashes
Another woman has been told that her
| beauty is in the languorous droop of her
| eyelids. Wen, 1 have as much trouble
keeping her eyes open as 1 have getting
the woman with the fine teeth to keep
! her mouth shut. The languorous lady
| gets or an expression which is cross be-
tween squint and the despair of sea-
| sickness, and which is altogether trying to
| the painter. AS for the mouth it is al
most impossible to keep the sitter from
putting on an unnatural smile; and have
| rarely known il to fail that when Wo-
| man finds you are at work on the mouth
she bites her lips to make them redder
"They generally settle down in a little
| while, however when they think the
| whole thing is decided. Then the trou-
BILE is to get them to come on time and
give you sittings of reasonable length. The
| women who have their portraits painted
are generally society women who have
no habits of punctuality and do not real
to- M. 81 Nov H.
an appointment for 1880 O'clock You
are pretty sure your sitter won't be on
| time. SO you don't begin 10 get your coors
ready until that hour. OF course. she
! doesn't come even when you are all pre-
pared so then you fidget around until she
does drop in perhaps fully an hour late.
She always has a luncheon engagement at
l O'Clock, 50 that you really get not more
| than an hours work with her when you
should have had two.
"Of course, when one gets to be a fam
Gus artist and can charge thousands In
stead of hundreds for picture, 1 suppose
the woman are not so careless. Business
men are always prompt. They come ON
time, get right to work in business like
! wayand stick to At until time is up. I must
say, however, that men who are gentle
! men OF leisure and therefore in the same
class with the society woman, have been
| just exactly as unpunctured and hard TO
| manage. 1T is the old ladies who pose
| the best. They have long ago ceased TO
worry about putting their best foot fore
most They just settle down as sweetly
| and quietly as you please and don't give
you bit of trouble. How about children?
| Oh, love to paint them but it is often
| very very hard to manage them. / mad
one small boy who was proof against all
| of my begulements save one. I had that
| big sword YOU see hanging there, and enc
day in despair took &c down and told
! him TO play he was a Roman soldier. Ii
worked like a charm, although l had 10
! make up stories about Roman soldiers
! every time he came,