ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11402, 20 April 1899, Page 6

ART AND ARTISTS.

—M. Munkacsy, the eminent Hungarian painter, was not esteemed a prodigy by his ■ own'countrymen in his. youth.' Over 30 years ' age he applied to the Pesth -Society of Fine Arts for monetary assistance, in . order 'to carry on his studies. The society gave him ■ £b, reporting his case as a " mediocre talent, to whom-.not more than £6 could be.granted." —.A native of Karachi has produced four portraits of the Royal Family in a, medium that has rarely been used for that purpose— namely, fins silk, needlework.. The; stitching B remarkably fine, and the difficulties of shading the complexion and the folds in' the draperies in such a material are evidently, immense ; nevertheless the artist has achieved a considerable measure of success, and tha result is well worth seeing as a, curiosity. The portraits are something in the line ■of this Bayeux tapestry, and appear to he a new form of art in. India. . .■'■''■ "One of the greatest worries :of my life," remarked a well-known painter, to the writer,- ---" is the utter inability of the average Englishman to sit still. It is most extraordinary. I simply can't get some of my models id remain in one attitude for more than a fewminutes, and I'm beginning to think, that there is as much art in sitting quiet as *hevi ia in a good many of the recopnised arts. "The difference between , Italian modolo and the home-bred article in this respect in most marked. You can rely on an Italian, sitting in one position for almost any length, of time. I recollect an old Italian I one« engaged. He had to sit with a handkerchief, on his thigh, and although he came to mn almost every day for a month, the folds of that handkerchief were never once altered. " When the sittinsr'was finished the old fellow used to lift up the handkerchief as carefully as if it had been some precious ornament and place it on a piece of paper in. a rmpboarij. The next clay he would take it down from the cupboard and lay it on his thigh with every fold just as it was at the commencement of the picture. " Mind you, I appreciate English models, hut I am bound to say that they 'would be worth much more if they could teach themselves to sit still."