The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1909-05-23
AVOCATIONS OF The ARTIST
OTHER THINGS THEY DO WELL
-. BESIDES PAINTING.

Oratsrs. Yacht Designers, Inventors,
Writers and Good Business Meu
Among Them--Instances New York
CsntrSbutes-A vernal Studio Chat
II there IL one time when the atmosphere
Of q studio may be better enjoyed than al
another It Ia now at the end Of the season
when work Is lessaning or over and the
artists are comfortably looking forward
to tho months wherein they can live closer
to nature and get rest and recreation and
inspiration and DO a little work for fun's
sake at tho sams tino.
Every one has time now to visit a little
more without either the fear OF inter-
rupting another's labors or an unquiet
consciousness OF blinking his own. To-
baooo Is the incense Of the studio, Danish
ing the smell of paint. and the decanters
and glasses come to the service OF socia-
bility. A complete painting is on one
easel, a sketch or a painters picture
quite a different thing from some OF the
canvases the public likes-is on another,
rich and ancient hangings give an air OF
afiuence TO the room and color notes or
dslectable forms appear here and there
In metals, porcelains, carvings. Under
the spell Of genial oompanionship In the
agreeable surroundings conversation
takes many an interesting turn.
A.group Of painters wero having such
a spring end chat the other day when the
talk turned upon the ability Of artists in
lines Of endeavor other than their own
art, a fact overlooked by the general
community and not often dwelt upon
among the artists themselves in their
modesty. Part Of the conversation was
too interesting to die In the studio. II Ia
the habit Of artists to Apeak Of n another
by their last names, but for the benefit
Of the uninitiate the first ma mes are here
inserted. The talk started when one OF
the men remarked:
y. Carroll Beck with asked me tho other
day !. I had ever stopped to think how
curious it was that artists could almost al
ways do something else well besides prao-
tise their own art. 1t seems to he true in a
. surprising number Of instances and is
all the more strange when you remember
that business men nearly always know
only their own business sometimes TAX
ing pride in il, sometimes regretting that
they are 20 circumscribed.'
.Yes,- said another. -and that may be
enc reason why they arc SO fond OF telling
artists that artis>s are poor business men.
It's regrettably true to be sure, but the
implication IL that art Is the less impor-
tapt pursuit and that artists can't rise to
the heights OF business.
@Yet when Kenyon Cox made his speech
to tho Economic Club the other evening
at its big dinner at the Aston and told
the diners apd guests that artists were OF
the belief that many Of their own number
might be successful in business il they
gave themselves to it, | noticed that
much interested. as though a new thought
had been given them
.Truel' put in a third speaker. DE
cidedly true and it's been demonstrated
Take a shining example in the founder
of one OF Dur biggest banking houses,
Anthony Drexel raj IN artist and l am
told that not feeling that he was SUCCESS
full, he said to friends hat he believed that
IL he could get some capital together he
could run q successful banking house
Behold. he did so.'
'Take Cox himself said the second
speaker. He can do more than paint.
He 10 an excellent platform speaker-and
fyou look around at most Of your speakers
you'W find that they are lawyers; in other
words. me trained to talk. not business
men. At that Economic dinner Cox made
the best speech. although preceded and
followed by recognized speakers. among
Them the professional orator Bourke
Cochran"
WELL said another, there's a painter
Cox loves. Charles NJ. Shean, who has
always insisted that a great artist was
necessarily. that is. inherently, a great
man-that history has demonstrated it,
and that while the artist devoted him
self to art as his medium of expression
he showed when he turned To other things
that he had real bigness.'
you can go into history or you can
, right up 70 date put in another
man, eand find that painters have been
Pr'at and have been sucCessful--yes,
h. ~ made the world their debtor-in
,ther things than art.
every body knows that Samuel i. H
NJ ,rse was 3 painter before he invented
tie telegraph. Fewer know that Robert
fulton. whose centenary we are about
10 celebrate. was a painter before he IN.
vented the steamboat. It's not withou;
reason that the Metropolitan Museum il
arranging an exhibition OF paintings in
connection with the Fulton MemoriaI
celebration. and IL seems to me il would
DO fitting il our artists took an active
part in the celebration"
The man who had been at the Eco
romic Club dinner had not yet wholly
ttnloaded his mind. He took the worc
lyain.
president Towne OF the Merchants As
ISOLATION and the Yale 6 Towne Compan,
was OF the speakers at that dinner,
he said. DO you know that Yale, who's,
name is on the lips and the lockers o,
the world, was an artist? He had amusee
himself designing a lock, and when hi,
art did not suit or support him he turnee
back to his lock and perfected it apc
you hear Of him now only as a great in
ventor.'
C~erebration being accelerated, instance.
multiplied as one after another of tn,
studio group voiced his thoughts or hi
recollections.
do you remember when Carey Smitl
used to paint9' said one, His nam,
used 10 be signed to marines. Now it,
printed on yacht plans. He was al
artist. Now he's often called the hes