FIFTY YEARS OF POSING.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12962, 29 May 1935, Page 2

FIFTY YEARS OF POSING.

MODEL. TO FAMOUS ARTISTS. A wliite-haired, fresh-faced man, wearing a workman’s apron, who has ‘'sat” to famous artists for 50 yeans, paused in his work of lifting and carrying at the Royal Academy—where they were selecting works for the summer show—to indulge in reminiscences. He was Mr Nicola Marcanthoni—or, as hundreds oi artists affectionately call him "Old Nick.” One of the best-known of models, he also helps with the preliminary work before the various shows at Burlington House, London. It was “Old Nick” who, many years ago, posed as a boy for “Rove Rocked Out,’ 1 ’ Edna Ree Merritt’s famous picture at the Tate Gallery. “I’ve changed a bit since then,” he said, with a chuckle. “A hard life —but I’ve had a wonderful time.” Sargent, Reighton, Dicksee, Millais, Waterhouse, Watts, Frampton, Thomas, Brock, Thomey croft—these are just a few of the artists for whom “Nick” has sat. Orpen and John, too, painted him in theftstudent days. “It was in the family,” he said. “My father was a model before me. He sat as a young man in Rome for Sir Frederick I-eighton in 1848.” Mr Marcanthoni thinks that, on the whole, women painters are “kinder, more considerate and pleasanter” to sit for than men. “But. then, people vary so,” he added. “Some artists will talk most entertainingly all day ; others will not open their mouths. Some of them will give you the most astonishing confidences. They open their hearts to their models. I’ve been told things you couldn’t imagine.” “Modelling” is very hard work, he contends. You “must not let your mind wander or your eyes dhango their direction. You must concentrate the whole time for the best results.” Mr Marcanthoni has a pleasant story about an exhibition some years ago. “It was an exhibition of what they call diseased (!) masters. I had been helping to hang them, and I- was looking round the rooms when I saw one of the pictures had been .put upside down. ‘That’s upside down,’ I said. ‘No, it’s not,’ said a member of the Hanjpng Committee. ‘Pardon me, but it is,’ T said. ‘But how do you know ?’ he asked. ‘Because,’ I said, ‘it happens to be a picture of me. I sat for it—and I’m upside down.* ”