ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2811, 26 August 1908, Page 80

ART AND ARTISTS.

IS PAINTING LUCRATIVE? — The Opinions of Celebrated Artists.--Tli© Hon. John Collier.— Of couree *t f« well known that the artistic profession is immensely overstocked I.*1 .*- There-are far too many artists, and: -from our point of view not nearly enough buyers. I should not' advise anybody to take 'up the^ profession ' untassr-he has an independent- income: ' » Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadenia s It. A.— l" beg to say. that the fashion, for old master&faixi the clever exploitation of their pictures have " obtained such a, hold- on -the public everywhere that living artiste have but litfio chance of. placing- their work..* -'—--•-";" Briton Riviere, R.A.— I will content my* self with the remarks of a- great, a-rtief, tho late G. F. "Watts, who, during the last; years of his life, often repeated to m& this - diction upon the young artist of to-day and his prpspeots-T-viz. : "That aiiyone who chose ant for his profession must mak<a up hie mind to a life of self-detnieJ," andl look for his only reward in the fact of being able to practise his art, .and 1 , in short, must, in his own words, almost lead thc< life of a monk." Ido not see any signs of Any change in the worldly prospects ofi arfiate having taken place since wo lost this great painter and thinker in art;, iff any change has taken ' place it 'is rather towards the bad than- the good from a purely worldly point of view. . • John H. Bacon, A.R.A.— To obtain sue--cess the first essential is marked ability, but this must be accompanied, -by earnest" application and perseverance. If a etudont has these and a small private income, which! ' I think is most necessary nowadays, I should say success is almost assured him;, but with no income whatever, and ordinary, ability only, the^life, I think, must be' extremely precarious. I feel that the quickest! , way to succeed is. for the beginner to place himself under the master he most admires and karn all he poseibjy can from. him. * I am "inclined 'to think that portraiture is the most likely to bring success.' \ Solomon J. Solomon, R.A. — I can only* say that at the present moment the artistic profession is overcrowded 1 . Marcus Stone? R.A. — It is impossible to make a. few remarks on a subject of such! importance. It would require a^vohime to do justice to it. w\ ~ , Miss Lucy Kemp-Welch. — I hayA serious - doubts as to whether the ppe&eniaep^ressioji: in tzhe art world isr to be taken-for granted 1 ! As a matter of fact), ifc has always been, difficult for tho young actiet to make hig way in. tho world. ■- * ' 'Judging by tlio TjaJainee of opinion, lio-wv£. ever, one ie driven to the conclusion fiiatS' ai*c, as a career under existing conditions, t . tmless attended' by exceptionally favouraH}^ circumstances, offers but a remote ohanoe or success from a pecuniary point of view.-«» M.A.P. : ■• ARTISTS' QUARTER IN PARIS. From "A Chronicle of Friendships," by Will H. Low, in Scribner^ we ta£e th« following : — • We dwelt on Mount Parnassus. To the outer vision there was no particular- reaseni why the stretch of boulevard, slose>di'at%«i^f': end by the gilded dorao of th^tomafiof!^ Napoleon,- and arrested at its - intersection x< with the Boulevard St. MicheL bya&hgj Observatory, before it continuedf O un^gir &1 another name into the terra inpognija of the regions around the "Lyons dtatio*ns, should b© known by that name. >r< ':;>. a Nor were we aware of any peculiar signifMv cance of tho name of the street; where £KQlj abode, for wo were a number of healthy> , minded lads, dimly conscious, perhags, that' tho course of art and literature nj J our'time was to be directed by us in new arid better channels, but this was only when we beoarae, as we phrased it, "deadly se-rkme"' ;( and for the most pa-rt poetic aspiration and tho dreams of youth were loudly scornedand openly flouted. Chance-, and' the proximity to 1 the s,fcudfo of the master under whom we etudiod, had? fixed us in the Quar tie*. Mont Parnasee^. Of the- history of the rather uninteresting boulveard of that name I am quite ' ignorant. It h^s still the new look .which, by contrast witlj, the old-ear part of Paris, characterises those portions of the citjj through which th© Baron Hausgmami cut his wide avenues, but in 1873, when I ftreti saw it, tho trees, recently planted to replace those cut down lot firewood in tho terrible winter of the Siege, gave ecanf; • ehade in the> mid-summer glare, aud were tossed and! beait like little whips by the" winter wind 1 . The unpaved walks were dusty in sum-* mer and thick with mud in winter for thet thinly -shod student. A church in coutsoofslow erection was tho only considerable building- on the street, except fche station! of the Western Railway and its neighboiiri. ing- hotel and .restaurant— Lavenue's. "','-_ *' Around and below the station there were numbers of small restaurants, frequented!'by the ccchere of the station hacks, <vn<l in time- of stress by impecunious students. And then, as now, along the boulevard and in adjacent streets ware many studios. . . — So eyo and hand in this country ever! „ supassed 1 Lawrence's for accuracy; Reynolds and Gainsborough were children to_ him: , "This young man," said Reynolds, in his old age, "begins where I leave off." And yet, as artists, how they towered above tha clover Sir Thomas, with all hia efeganti incisiveness, ' cold grace, and pictorial . amenities! How little of a natural co'iouristf iie was; how little real artistic suppleneGg was in his' brush, delicate^ as it was; how> ho lacked variety, how hie paintlng> is all on the surface; and how he trusted to| manner— almost, to trick-— tor his effeote. Ntf one ever drew ey-es better thatn he did, bu.^, few cvei descended to the regular Jod'ga of the brilliant enofc of white in. the pupils to give lifo and vivacity. — M. H. Spiel* mann. "" MOUNTAIN FLAX (' Llnym Catharticum' Trade Mark) PILLS. Aa : agreeable ageiigat. Worth 9. txiali