Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-05-30
Paintings Seem to Be
Profitable Investments

IF the figures given out by Hor-
ace Townsend, the well-known art
critic, in his article on "Art as
an Asset" in the June Century, can
be credited, investors will de we'll to
put their money in modern American
paintings. Paintings, according to
Mr.. Townsend, who supports his con-
tention with an imposing array of
figures, are speculative risks of the
highest grade, inasmuch as they give
pleasure as long as they are in the
investors possession, and, il they
are well-chosen, will sell in a few
years for many times their purchase
prices.
He quotes Henry Ford's celebrated
remark, "I would not give five cents
for all the art in the world" not
because the remark reveals an ig-
norant prejudice on the part of Mr..
Ford, but because, sit is not likely
that he voiced the unspoken thoughts
of many millions of his fellow-coun-
trymen. The man in the street is
wont to regard the artist as sort
of fifth wheel to the economic
COACH But this point of view, Mr..
Townsend thinks, can be easily al
tered. zone may point out that
here in New York are many young
III Ell WHO, IL lucy ueiu ttbhCh w poSi-
ness would be accounted fortunate
IL they were earning three or four
thousand dollars year. but who, as
illustrators, are easily making three
or four times as much.
"It was in 1910" says Mr.. Town
send, that the Yerkes sale broke all
records in this country. The entire
collection brought $2,155.579, of
which the 1913 pictures accounted
for $1,695,550. To equal this we
have to journey to Paris, where two
years later Jacques Doucet realized
the tremendous sum or $2.11o,SOV'
or an average of Sits for each one.
Large as the total seems, however,
n is not to be wondered at when it
is remembered that pastel portrait
of Duval de i'Epinoy by La Tour,
which M. Doucet bought in 1898 Tor
81 040. brought 100000, wonder
ful nine years investment; that Nine:
Vipee Lebrun's Princess Talleyrand,
bought a few years earlier Tor $ozoV'
sold for $4,000, and that J. H. Fra
ponard's Sacrifice au Minotaure,
which in 1880 brought only $lO6O'
was knocked down for S72,OOO.
"However, these were not the only
high prices brought in London ana
Paris about this time. There was
che Rouart sale in Paris, TOT IN
stance. at which Degas. an old man
hv this time. had the doubtful pleas
ure of seeing a picture, the Dan
seuses a la Barre which he himself
had sold for 500, realize the huge
sum of $4,000. 1t was in 1912 that
Regnault's 'Salome,' sold by the
painter in 1870 for $500, brought
| s96. 900, and now forms one of the
glories of the Metropolitan Museum
| of Art. 1t was in 1912, too, that
Turner's Lake Constance a picture
bought by Ruskin for $400, sold for
s21 $50: that an Hungarian collector
| paid $4,000 for Rembrandts 'Por-
trait of the Artists Father, which
sold in 1911 for $1050, and that at
the Weber sale in Berlin, Mantegna's
Madonna and Child bought for
$4,000 in 1905, brought no less than
$147,500.
"Many collectors play for safety
and buy old masters for huge sums,
but they buy in much the same way
that they would buy city real estate;
that is. after 1t has an assured COM
mercial value. But 1t must De re-
membered that at one time these
ca me- old masters were modern paint
ers and had it not been for. patrons
during their own lifetime, these
works would never have seen the
light of day. The men alive now
will in turn become old masters, and
It is the bounden duty of their
contemporaries to preserve their
work for future generations. Pro-
fessor C. ]. Holmes has given some
useful hints to private collectors:
(11 Collect the very best things or
their class; (2) Be generously sys-
tamatic: go Buy what is strongly
feIt and emphatic, and not what Is
merely clever. (D If you must buy
sentiment, buy it cheap and en-