The Savannah morning news., 1904-11-27
doubt whether she has copied a single
picture"

doubt whether she has copied a single
picture"
A year or so ago there was a copy
list at the museum who caused a good
deal of interest and amusement to his
fellow workers. He was a little old
man of the conventional artistic type,
SO Ear as appearances went but he
was an undertaken by profession.
He had made money in that grim
line of business, but all his thoughts
We're centered upon art. AS soon as
he could afford to do so. he retired
from business and devoted his leisure
TO painting-or rather, to dreaming
about painting.
Month after month he visited the
museum on every copying day and sat
before a famous religious picture. Yet
nc made but little progress as the days
passed. He always seemed to be mix
ing his paints or sitting in a rapt at
titude, gazing in alteration at the
beautiful picture upon the wall.
Other artists, as time went on, would
want to copy the same picture. The
museum authorities only allow one
copy to be made at a time.
when do you think YOU will get
your copy finished?" one of them would
ask him, growing impatient.
aren't you tired of your task?" an
other, more sympathetic than the first,
might say.
them with look of pity, and with
that melancholy smile which had
earned for him his reputation and
money as an undertaken.
Don't you know that the great
masters never hurried with their
worlS?" he would reply. did not
Leonardo da Vinci take twelve years
to paint his masterpiece"
During last winter two copyists who
were quite out of the usual run work.
ed at the Museum. They were sweet
faced nuns from a Western convent.
The elder, about thirty-five years of
age, chose for her subject Gabriel
Max's Last Token of a Christian
Martyr" which represents young
girl in a den of tigers. This is, of all
pictures, the one that a nun might be
expected to copy and take back to her
Western convent to hang upon the
walls there i'm order to teach the les
] son of resignation.
The younger nun, a girl of about
twenty, with a Madonna-like face and
J ture one on the wall directly opposite
! TO the Last acknowledgement s
Brother and Sister"
These nuns attracted considerable
attention from the copyists and visit
ors because they applied themselves
with diligence to their task. which the
average copyist seldom does. The
way those calm, intelligent women
copied the pictures in six weeks time
was marvel to all who observed
their work. Their drawings were alb
solutely correct and their colorings
clear. Those two copies are conceded
to be about the best ever made in the
| Museum.
An American woman now copying
pictures in Paris has a curious life
story. Her husband was formerly a
| wealthy American business man. They
sent their son to study art in Paris,
and he developed talent and speedily
| became successful.
His mother was fired by his exam
pie. She was forty-five years old but
nothing would suit her except to go to
Paris and become an artist herself.
So she left her husband and family,
ana has lived away from them for
many years.
The old man has lost most of his
money and lives a shiftless homeless
life. Now and then his wife revisits
him, but she cannot be persuaded to
return and live in this country and
make home for him again. Yet she
nus ntNfl aAltiltu any SUCCESS IN nef
art. She makes wretched copies OF
fine pictures, and contrives somehow
to sell them 20 Americans who know
nothing about pictures. but who think
that she must be the real thing be-
cause she works IN Paris.
do you see that old woman over
therc2" asked well-known artist. as
he was walking through the galleries
Of the Museum with a friend. when
] was young student. twenty years
ago. she used 10 come here and copy
pictures on student days. A. you
she has never mana ed 10 advance "a
step in al these twenty years.
Her case ls TYPICAL Sometimes na
much az one whole year VIII b. spent
~ some Incapable copyist, who VIII