Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-11-26

Il
| for many years
| The old man has lost most of his money
| and lives shiftless, homeless life Now
and then his wife revisits him, but she
cannot be persuaded to return and live IN
this country and make a homo for him
again. Yet she has never attained any
success in her art. She makes wretohed
| copies of fine pictures, and contrives sones.
how to sell them to Americans who know
nothing about pictures, but who think that
she must be the real thing because She
works in Paris.
A Typical Case.
do you see that old woman over there7'
asked a well-known artist, as he was walk.
| ing through the galleries OF the museum
with friend. when was q young stu-
dent, twenty years ago, she used to come
here and copy pictures on student days.
AS you see. she is still copying pictures.
and she has never managed to advance a
step In all these twenty years.
Her case is typical. Sometimes as much
as one whole year will be spent by some
day upon one small canvas, and in the
| end will remove what he or she thinks IS
| a perfect copy. but which In reality Is a
| complete failure. And so they will go on,
year after year, with their useless work,
OFTEN wasting an entire lifetime"
Where do the copies go? Nobody seeing
to know: II you ask a reputable dealer
ings for sale he will reply in the negative,
and add that he has no call for them.
But II you ask the oopyist. you will always
commission"
Success seldom comes to the copyist. In.
deed, there has only been one really dis
unguished American copyist-the late ].
Wells Champney. He did some ambitious
work as an original artist, but his fame
rested mainly upon the excellence of his /
copies of famous pictures. Many better !
artists than he, however, have failed when
they tried to cOpy.
Copying, as It is done In public galleries. !
is just big waste of time" said spc-
cessful and experienced painter.
The way the copyists work makes It i'm. 4
possible for them to succeed. They can !
not learn anything. They are always being |
watched by the public. and under such
circumstances 1t is impossible for any
artist to do proper work. They are much
too self-conscious. as they cannot help
being when they are stared at"
Choose Curious Subjects.
The subjects chosen by the average copy
list are most unsuited to his or her small
| modicum of artistic knowledge and talent.
With many of the best paintings in the
world to choose from. she-for the copyist :
Is usually a woman will select some
wretched little still-life picture, a bunch OF
grapes or a posy of flowers If she does
not do this. she will try to copy one Of
Velasquez's pictures. Velasquez is the SUBJ
work lies mainly in his wonderful handling I,
of light and shade. The best artists would
not dare to try to copy him, but a young
girl who has had q dozen lessons at an art !
school has no qualms. II
Rosa Bonheur's Horse Fair has a
strange fascination for copyfsts. 1t Is no I
uncommon thing to see a tiny little woman. /
who stands about feet 10 and weighs !
about 100 pounds, copying this huge pic |
ture, and dashing the paint on the gigantic
n0 4 q "A ms
with a whitewash brush; while TALL cord
pulent lady will be perched alongside OF.
her on top of pair of steps, making (:
copy of tiny picture of a bunch of flow
ers. The copyist invariably selects a pic |
ture which is the absolute antithesis Of her
personality.
You never see an artist of repute making
copies in the galleries. Sometimes you mayi
meet one there who has been a good man
at his craft but who. for various reasons, |
has come down in the world, and is now
glad to make his bread and butter by any
kind of hack work. Such a man usually
feels degraded by going to public galleryt
to make a copy. Rightly or wrongly, he
believes that he has reached the lowest
rung in the professional ladder.
An artist who is now successful and well I
known once worked for a firm of picture
dealers who bought and sold paintings liter
ally by the yard. He was quick worker,
and would turn out as many as fourteen
| or fifteen landscapes in day for dollar
| apiece. He used to paint on an endless
| rolf of canvas, ana then cut the pictures
| apart with a pair of shears.
| If he had applied himself to the business
| he could have made good money, but he had
some remnants of professional pride. He
would work for couple of days and then
take the rest of the week to think over what
he might have been. One day the firm asked
him to go to q public gallery and make some
copies. He thought that was much lower
class of work even than that which he was
doing so he threw up his easy employment
and resumed his old struggle to become Il
really successful artist.
For out-of-Town Buyers.
There are several firms in New York VINO
turn out pictures by the thousand to he sold
in the small cities and country towns to
people who know nothing about art but
can admire gaudy coloring and a massive
gilt frame.
The men who make these pictures work
in cellars by gaslight for pittance of about
$40 q week. Most Of them have been good
painters in their time and they are good
copyists. They copy from anything-old
prints, steel engravings. paintings and even