Show PainterandProvej A Eowt John I Sargent the Greatest t Living Artist Saw Into ljal Womans Soul and Foretold Her Boom Stories ofT of-T the W Worldfamous American and n I I His Eccentricities1 I S This Is l a growing country and its I development Is nowhere more clearly i I demonstrated than in the steady expansion ex-pansion ot its art interests and in the fact that the portrait painters are I growing rich A few years 30 the I American who took to the brush as a 0rofjssian lived under a compulsory vow of poverty simply because there I was no money and mighty little fame to be earned In his business on this side of the water but times have changed the limners art is enjoying a boom oC almost fancy dimensions and as an altogether interesting luxurious and profitable occupation there is none better bet-ter than the painting 5f portraits For it is In portraits that the money is made The Frenchmen who came i 1 A = I r4 I 1 S THE BBOKECR TELLS A STORY I over here to experiment taught that fact to our native talent and one artist with a turn for statistics easily reckoned I reck-oned that last year something over 1000000 was paid out by our rich men and women for their likenesses on canvas can-vas and ivory This winter the brotherhood brother-hood of the brush are looking for even larger profits for tire state of the money market is promptly felt in the studios Some men there are however whose incomes from their art work average about the same whether stocks are flat or rising and J Wells Champney can count on very nearly as many portraits per winter as he can make By all odds he is the finest pastelist we have and his personality wins him as many sitters as his genius with the crayons He is a tall blonde bearded New Englander jovial frank and earnest asa as-a clever boy and works like a beaver From 8 in the morning until the light I fails in the afternoon he is slaving in his gaunt airy studio just off Ffth avenue with sitters arriving one after I the other and his favorites are dazzlingly daz-zlingly fresh dainty American girls I He makes their mothers gown them in the softest toned tulles and chiffons for likea true artist he cant tolerate a bloomy creamy young creature in hard I bright satin and jewels His work Is done with amazing rapidity and this is one reason why the business men come to Champney He is one of the few I artists who will give sittings to an overworked over-worked banker or broker on Sunday r I I 4x f I 17 P 1 tE itW pj f I r S 4 r I l f If 1 ew I THESHOCK OF THE BIG PRICE WEARS OFF I who can tell a capital Story while his brush lays on the pigment ana whose conversation succeeds in disabusing his subject entirely of the Mea that sitting for a pcrtrajt Is either an awkward I awk-ward Or a L tediousbusiness t I Imiller TTrys Vogue l I There was a time t when Benjamfm Porter stood unrivaled ad the painter fashionable womenrano his color S IU JS3 W < JLS4A Jl > S t J < J si i jr < < 11 > effects and drapery brousxJtf him as rich patronage as thJs country flfarded Neat however his popularity Is > stored If not overshsdowied by that of Mailer Uryf who made fitS first fame as a maryelGnsJy ableVpalnter ot satin Ury from the mcst modest beginnings hits J rapidly scownjvlnto a 1J artist with t n Income1 of very nearly 3QOQQ a year and in < consequence ho possesses the most sumptuous studio undoubtedly in this country So sincerely is his talent esteemed by society that his sitters make no demur at the price 5iOOO fie asks fqr an oil portrait and the great picture he made cf Airs Seward Webb gowned ire white saitn ami sables with her bay In a satis court suit beside her won him his I artistic spurs Three spacious High vaulted rooms I humr and furnished with genuine artistic treasures Is Urys studo where > the most brilliant Bohemian receptions t re-ceptions In New York are given every I winter and ono of these rooms has a fame all Its owi because of Its walls of wood sSnined to inky blackness and then overlaid with sixteen coats of coach varnish Sconces full of wax candlE and a few choice pieces of carved Ivory and armor are scattered upon this remarkable background that reflects like the richest French plate mirrors and that displays a pretty woman to the mdSt admirable effect I John Sargent the Prophet Great as Is his fame and desirous as I every man and woman may be to go down to posterity as portrayed by I John Sargent the majority of possible I sitters shrink from his brush Nearly every winter Sargent camas over to fill i a few orders for he will only take a few and he never gives a price on his work until it is completed Then he I estimates the value of a portrait on the strength of his own criticism of Its merits If he likes it himself he will I I put on a staggering price as in the case of the late Calvin Brice if he I feels displeased with the result he will cooly tear up the whole thing or place a most moderate estimate upon it and women fear him because he paints them as his cold calm analytical gaze observes ob-serves them not as vanity or flattery might inspire and with almost nervous r dread his sitter waits to see how he will paint his or her eyes I There is a tale going the rounds of the studios that on one occasion when I Sargent delivered a portrait of a prett woman to her family they at first refused re-fused to accept it on account of the I eYes declaring they were the eyes of a I mad woman not those of their relative Sargent the painter of the soul insisted I insist-ed they were her < eyes as he had seen i them and would make no alteration I and there the discussion came to an end apparently but time proved what I a wizftrd the painter was for before twelve months had passed the poor lady did lose her mind utterly I Paints Diamonds Until They Sparkle I Of the whole galaxy of brilliant foreigners for-eigners who were In the habit of coming I com-ing every wInter to America to reap with their brushes the fine harvest of 11 dollars that home talent now gathers in Carolus Theraud and Chatrain arc among those whq still find they can successfully compete with the able Americans Theraudtls yet able to ask the biggest big-gest prices of any artist for his portraits por-traits He will not so much as take up his brushes under a guarantee of less than 5000 and he asks and gets as high as 8QOtf and 10000 for a full length picture such as the notable portrait por-trait of the Duchess of Marlborough Like a thrifty Gaul he rents a small but plain studio in whatever city he I settles temporarily and elderly man as I he is renders himself so captivating to his sitters that after one interview the I shock of his big price wears off he is asked to the choicest social functions and with the women his chief charm is that he can paint diamonds until they actually sparkle on the canvas and that no woman looks commonplace when Theraud portrays her All his old ladies are stately as duchesses his young women are I nymphs and his velvet is as beautiful as ever Rubens or Van Dyke painted it Americans to the Fore I For all this personal charm and the undoubted ability the foreigners possess I pos-sess their star of popularity has so weaned that only those of commanding I i I I I f I I I I I 1t I I j jtI g I Varnish has its advantages I genius are ani lonptjr so courted by our rich folks that they fthdHt worthwhile worth-while to come over every year It is true BonJet de Monveb the two months he was over last year took away nearly 5tf000 for childrens portraits alone and Chicago gave hint hi richest patronage and it is also tr te that Zero was paid 2000 per halt hour sitting by Mrs Potter Palmer kIlt these exceptions are growing rarer every day and this i winter only two foreigners will comet come-t over to try their lUqk at limning American Amer-ican faces Hiss Kussners Miniature I Meanwhile the home talent enjoys no only financial but social prestige Suchmen as Cry1 Porter etc take a I prqmfnent part l in society and MIKJ KussnerV thtj first among the miniaturists miniatur-ists 1 is sought after for her personal chanps as well as for her remarkable talents Like l Champney she Is nil unusually rapid w rl4r In one week spent with the Atmotirs or Chicago she hIt but completed five minfature anel tiSher1 price is 300 lottc portrait nJ ivory it I is easy to estimate her earnings earn-ings 5 She is I one of the fceryifew Americari I artists whose fame htfexttndedtdtSei t iji A tL i u 55AS 1 r f te t nf Vft w r j other side and there her quick brit i haul work won her the most exalted j pfijrdhage In two sittings she made her portrait of the czar and she bad but one sitting f from the Prince of Ware still her result were none the lesa faithful as likenesses not aa faultfesa Intheir > detail workandLaS a miniatur ise sfis > is entirely i < seliftaughf and trained For a number ot seasons this wonderful lIttle artlsg ie tt tf nan bed tooth as her studio for hex preference i fsj ta paint her subjectsfro theii accus tofu cll environment Her children arc done In their nurseries and she admits that she had far rather paint t man In I his business office than anywhere else being1 surer of there findIng him at his ease than when mounted om the models throne W fdfs women her enormous success is largely t due to the I daring color she Introduces in drapery I about their faces bringing In flashing I gold and crimson agaInst all traditionS t S 5 UI ndfrI fi Fresh dainty Americal girls but to her marvelous enhancement of the beauty of her subject EMILY HOLT A GUTTERTHEN THE MISTAKE A Young Woman Thought the Brass Buttoned Major Was a Bell Boy Washington Post The name of the hero of this story I have sworn by the Seven Stars of the North and the Cat of Egypt never to tell but he is an officer on the staff of a certain governor and came in all official splendor to do honor to the great admiral We will call him mind I dont say major really is his title Major Dash Major Dash arrived in the town several days before the celebration cele-bration and stayed at a downtown hotel ho-tel It was just about dusk one evening that he came downstairs in uniform intending to see some friends The hotel entrance hall not the main entrance by the way was dimly lighted jijor Dash had just reached the door when he saw a lady on the other side of it about to enter Now Major Dash may fairly be said to resemble Admiral Dewey in the trait to which one of the New York addresses of welcome alluded al-luded sq eloquently and so delicately He has always shown great consideration considera-tion for the sex of which his mother was a member He sprang to open the door and stood back to let a radiant vision of selfreliant young womanhood sweep in She did not turn to look at him but the tail of her eye caught the glitter of brass buttons on blue cloth Here she said take my traveling bag please The major gave a faint gas of astonishment as-tonishment My traveling bag she repeated with a touch of impatience Carry It to the elevator for me The major bowed his haughty head I and followed her humbly bag In hand to the elevator At the door she stopped She opened her purse She took therefrom a quarter Then sho turned and for the first time her eyes fell full on him The money dropped from her hand S My goodness gracious she gasped I thought it was the bell boy Perhaps you can imagine what she said next Im sureI cant And the quarter well the bell boy pocketed that |