ART IN SITTING STILL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2355, 13 April 1899, Page 60

ART IN SITTING STILL.

" 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 pome of my models to remain in one attitude for more than a few minutes, and I'm beginning to think that there is as much art in sitting quiet ac there is in a good many of the recognised arts. "The difference between Italian models and the home-bred article in this respect is most marked. You can rely on an Italian sitting in one position for almost any length of time. I recollect an old Italian I once engaged. He had to sit with a handkerchief on his thigh, and although he came to m* almost every daj r for a month, the folds of that handkerchief were never once altered.

" When the sitting 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 cupboard. The next day 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, but I am bound to say that they would be worth much more if they could teach themlelves to sit still."