A DECAYING PROFESSION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 23 September 1909, Page 1

A DECAYING PROFESSION.

THE LOT OF THE MODERN ABTKT. While the prices of pictures by dead artists of accepted worth keep going up and up, the plaint of living painters is swelling into quite distressing chorus. The artist oi to-day complains bitterly that t hemarket is over-crowded, and that the public gives him no encouragement. Few people who take an interest' in art can have imagined that the Hon. J John Collier, painter of many muchdiscussed "problem" pictures, has suffered much from such neglect. However, the painter of the "Cheat" and "Sentence of Death" declares in the "Nineteenth Century" that he belongs to a decaying profession. More pictures are produced n*w, he says, than ever bofore; but every year there soems to be drewer pople to buy them. "The painting of pictures will always persist as a delightful occupation, but no profession can be said to be flourishing which is not on a sound money basis." •How, then, can such a basis be established* Mr Collier has a "pet; scheme" -wihieh he thinks goes to the root of the matter. Briefly, it is that artists should endeavour to paint pictures which the public want to buy. This statement, he admits, •will to recei-vcel -vw-itli a. 3-xo-w-l of - indignation, and he will be accused of wanting artists to pander to the depraved taste of the public. He replies that the taste of the public is uot a whit more depraved than the taste of average modern artists and is much less depraved than that of the average critic. The public wants, firstly, beauty, and especially human beauty. A preference for n picture of a beautiful man or woman over that of an ugly one is eminently sound and wholesome. "Then rlio public likes a certain measure of finish. The natural man cannot understand coarse work; he hates i-jugh blobs of paint and handling so loose that to see its effect ono has to stand away, the whole length of a ; room. He likes to look at picat a comfortable distance — even to look into them at times." Thirdly, the natural man likes detail, nr.i fourthly, he desires a "certain simple realism" — all of which will provoVe the scorn of tho impressionists. But this apart, if Mr Collier is dissatisfied with his lot, the case of some lesser artists must be hard indeed. _ "

ti- ■ s "Bnrglarly is so ridiculously easy that C preferred it to the salary of £1000 a /ear I drew as an official of a New York >ank," was the remarkable confession nade by Ealph Sherman, an elegantlyIressedi man of 27, who for two months last has played the part of a fashiontble thief. "Especially jn summer ,ime," observed the ex-bank official, I *ound that burglarly could be accomplished with so little expenditure .of: inergy that it was a pleasing variation 'o the grind and confinement of office work. It is most remarkable the way oeople leave windows open and doors Unfastened. All I had to do was to walk into houses, gather the trifles ttnat took my <ancy., and make my departure."Sherman, who T obbed the fashionable residences of the popular-seaside re--ort of Fauockaway, of thousands of oounds' worth of valuables informed the magistrate that he used to **«"*_» Profound respect V r v th^ E ]" U h a " Jto mo- of professional burglars, but alter Wf experience of the last fewmontto he concluded that " cra A ckmansh 0 1^ 11 /"t "{ diculously easy. . As he walked out of the dock the prisoner added It «• only by a lucky blunder that -the dun deMed police effected my capture!