ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2433, 31 October 1900, Page 62

ART AND ARTISTS.

— Sir Edward J. Poynter, the President of the Royal Academy, is not only a most painstaking artist himself, but shows very little patience or sympathy with those*wko do not exercise the utmost care and devotion to their art. A short time ago Sir Edward was visiting the. house of one of his friends, whose son had decided to take to the "brush" as a" profession. "This, Sir Echvard," said the would-be artist, pointing— to one of his just-completed pictures, "is one of my latest attempts. I think myself it is rather good, although, a3 a matter of fact, it only to«k me a week to brush it over the canvas." Sir Edward Poynter looked at the picture critically for a lew moments, and then said very deliberately: "Take my advice, sir, and spend another week in brushing it off the canvas !" — There is, Eaya a writer in a Home paper, a very general impression that artists as a. class earn their money very easily, but except among those at the top of the profession this is very far from being the case. "Fancy," said a friend to me the other day, "Brown has just sold his Academy picture for £500! I wish I could make money like that !" Now, the picture in question was a huge subject one, and, irrespective of the mere cost of paint and canvas, it must have cost at least £100 to paint. The greatest expense,' of course, is that of models, without which no artist who is Worthy 'of the.namje would think of working, and when one adds the hire or purchase of costumes- and the various incidental expenses, the bill easily mounts vi? to the sum I have named Add to this the fact that the picture took the best part of a year to paint, and that the rent of a studio in a good part^of town is at least £70 to £80 a year, and you will find that the amount of net profit is scarcely extravagant for a man who has any sort of claim to be considered a good artist. Again, I have heard people say that it is very ea&y work for the artist's model, who has simply to stand still to earn eighteenpenccan hour. Lafc anyone who thinks this try to keep in the same position for an hour only, and they will soon come to the 'conclusion that it is about the most difficult thing they ever tried. Training, indeed, enables the model to endure much more than the amateur, but there must be at the same time a certain ability for acting the part which has to be represented, and a natural sense of gracefiilneos. An untrained model is as different from a good professional as a Dureh doll is unlike the fighting gladiator, and no one who has not seen it can believe in the colossal awkwardness displayed by the amateur, even in such a simple thing 1 as taking off a hat or making a bow, if once they stop to think of what they are doing. No, the model doesn't have by any means an easy time, and the business is one that takes a good deal of learning, and even then requires a natural aptitude if success is to be obtained.