The daily journal. (Salem, Or.) 1899-1903, 1903-09-23
FAMOUS
ARTISTS
MISTAKE
One Gave a Roman
Soldier a Regular
GermanPipe
Another Put a Petticoat on
Eve. AMI Arm,1 the
IsraelitS with
Gers

Il is surely one of the eccentricities
of genius that a great artist, in paint
ing a picture which has perhaps been
celebrating in his mind for months
or years, will occasionally make
slip which II scarcely requires the
discernment Of an uncritical school
boy to detect It is not long since
well-known artist lowered the hand
of figure in one of his pictures with
Eve fingers in addition to thumb;
and there is a story that an academy
exhibitor once painted a frisky lob
ster the beautiful red color which is
usually considered a post-mortem ac-
qulsition.
Even a painter so careful as Mr..
Goodall. X. A., narrowly escaped a PAL
pable blunder in one of his Egyptian
canvases. He was engaged on pic
ture portraying a number of men
dragging a huge monolith across the
desert. when famous man of science
friend of his. entered the studio.
After looking intently at the canvas
for afew moments, he said: Il say,
Goodell, II you want those fellows to
pull that stone you must double their
number. Il would take just twice as
many to move It." The academician |
took the hint, added as many men |
again and the picture was unimpeach-
able from a scientific point of view
But our modern painters, even when
they make the most grotesque mis-
takes, as they rarely do. can plead that
they err In good company Did not
Albert Durer. in one OF his immortal
pictures. that OF Peter Denying Christ,
represent one of the Roman soldiers |
in the act of enjoying a pipe, an indul' |
gence which was, to say the least, |
premature: and in the canvas portray |
ing Adam and Ewes expulsion from
their paradise he deoked Eve in a pet
ticoat with aounces.
Two years ago there was exhibited
in London a beautiful picture by an A.
r. A OF an eighteenth century interior
perfect in every detail but one. for on \
a wall OF the interior was a small pic
ture OF very up-to-date locomotive;
and in the same year the writer saw
among the acaoemy pictures pre-
sentiment of a cavalier. evidently wait.
ing impatiently for his lady to keep
the tryst, consulting a watch which
would have done credit 10 a twentieth
century Matchmaker; while on an.
other canvas peninsular veteran,
who was lighting his battles over again
for the benefit of admiring rustics at
the village inn, was wearing an un.
mistakable Victoria cross about 40
years before this badge OF valor came
into existence
The late Mr.. Frank Holl was as
as he was clever in his
art, but on one occasion he put his
foot in Il previously, when in a por.
trait of a naval officer he introduced
the Union Jack painted upside down,
TO the amazement and horror of ser.
vice men.
Even the great Turner made some
ludicrous mistakes. as when he made
a rainbow rub shoulders with the sun.
instead Of taking up respectful posi-.
tion opposite TO that luminary, and in
other pictures he has painted his call
black and has gone woafuny wrong
over his rigging.
In his magnificent picture of the
Royal Exchange Of scared Londoners
escaping in boats from the horrors OF
the great fire of 1866, Mr. Stanhope
Forbes has introduced vessels of a
type which, II is said, the Thames
has never known; and another artist
Of repute armed the children of Israel
with gum presumably for selfprotec.
tion. while they We're occupied in gath.
cring mama.
Continental artists are no less prona
TO slips OF this Kind than our own
weiledrs OF the brush. In the Louvre
there is famous painting by Gros.
which represents Napoleon amid The
Artic SHOWS and fros;s OF Russia.
clothed in a light pelissc. open at the
front' which would certainly have ter.
minated his career within a week
from pneumonia; and in a recent sa.
Ion picture Louis Seize is equipped
with revolver modern enough TO
have seen service in the Boer war