The Savannah morning news., 1904-11-27

, strive day after 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 rude
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
seems to know. If you ask a reputa-
Bile dealer whether he has any copies
of famous paintings for sale he will
reply in the negative, and add that he
has no call for them. But if you ask
the copyist, you will always get the
proud reply: Il am doing it on a
commission.
Success seldom comes to the copy
list. Indeed, there has only been one
really distinguished American copyist
the late j.. 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 like the Metropolitan Muse
um, is just big waste of time said
a successful and experienced painter.
The way the copyists work makes
They cannot learn anything. They
are always being watched by the pub
lie, and under such circumstances it
is impossible for any artist to do prop
er work. They are much too self
conscious, as they cannot help being
when they are stared at"
The subjects chosen by the average
copyist are most unsuited to his or
her small modicum of artistic knowl-
! edge and talent. With many of the
| best paintings in the world to choose
from, she-for the copyist is usually
woman-will select some. wretched
little still-life picture, a bunch of
grapes or a posy of flowers. II she
does not do this, she will try to copy
one of Velasquez' pictures. Velasquez
is the subtlest of all painters, and the
| beauty of his work lies mainly in his
wonderful handling of light and shade
The best artists would not dare to try
to copy him, but a young girl who has
had a dozen lessons at an art school
| has no qualms.
Rosa Bonheur's Horse Fair has a
strange fascination for copyists. 1t is
no uncommon thing to see a tiny lit
| tie woman who stands about four feet
ten and weighs about 100 pounds copy
ing this huge picture and dashing the
paint on the gigantic canvas very much
as If she were a man with a white
! wash brush while a tall corpulent
lady viii be perched alongside of her
on top of a pair of steps, making a
copy of a tiny picture of a bunch of
flowers. The copyist invariably Sc
lects a picture which is the absolute
antithesis of her personality.
You never see an artist of repute
making copies in the galleries. Some
times you may meet one there who
has been 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 man
usually feels degraded by going to a
public gallery TO make copy. Right
ly or wrongly. he believes that he has
reached the lowest rung in the pro-
fessional ladder.
An artist who Is now successful and
well known once worked for a firm of
picture dealers who brought and sold
paintings literally by the yard He
was a quick worker and would turn
out as many as fourteen or fifteen
landscapes In a day for dollar apiece.
He used to paint on an endless rolf
OF canvas. and then cut the pictures
apart with "a pair of shears.
IL 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 20 go 10 a public
gallery and make some copies. He
thought that was n much lower class
Of work even than that which ne WAS
doing. 10 he threw up his easy en-
ployment and resumed his old strug-
gle 10 become really successful ar
list.
There are several firms in New
York who turn out pictures by the
thousand to be- sold an the small cities
and country towns to people who
know nothing about ara. but can al.