" Few think of the
patient labour and long training involved in the greatest works of
the artist. They seem easy and quickly accomplished, yet with how
great difficulty has this ease been acquired. "You charge me fifty
sequins," said the Venetian nobleman to the sculptor, "for a bust
that cost you only ten days' labour." "You forget," said the
artist, "that I have been thirty years learning to make that bust
in ten days." Once when Domenichino was blamed for his slowness in
finishing a picture which was bespoken, he made answer, "I am
continually painting it within myself." It was eminently
characteristic of the industry of the late Sir Augustus Callcott,
that he made not fewer than forty separate sketches in the
composition of his famous picture of "Rochester." This constant
repetition is one of the main conditions of success in art, as in
life itself.
No matter how generous nature has been in bestowing the gift of
genius, the pursuit of art is nevertheless a long and continuous
labour. Many artists have been precocious, but without diligence
their precocity would have come to nothing. The anecdote related
of West is well known. When only seven years old, struck with the
beauty of the sleeping infant of his eldest sister whilst watching
by its cradle, he ran to seek some paper and forthwith drew its
portrait in red and black ink.
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