Part 467: Curtain and Scene Painting
While researching scenic art projects by Thomas C. Noxon and Patrick J. Toomey, I came across an interesting article about curtain and scene painting from 1884. It was published in the “St. Louis Post-Dispatch” (21 Jan. 1884, page 8). Here it is in its entirety as there is a wealth of information about the scenic artists of the time who specialized in drop curtains:
“Curtain and Scene Painting
The Leading Artists of the Country and the Prices Paid for Their Work.
“The return to drapery in drop curtains,” said Mr. Thomas C. Noxon of the art firm of Noxon, Albert and Toomey, employed at the Grand Opera House and Olympic, is a return to the old style. Drapery was very common twenty-five or thirty years ago. Now very few curtains are painting any other way; and while some artists adhere to simple combinations of rich materials, without any suggestion of life in the composition, the most popular and the prettiest curtains are those which present views or figures in which there is a suggestion of animation.
The new curtain at the Grand Opera House which was painted by Messrs. Noxon, Albert & Toomey is an example of the latter work. It is a composition presenting a profusion of rich drapery, warm in color, and minutely perfect in technique, drawn back and looped at the side, so as to reveal a bright Florentine picture with a pair of lovers in the foreground, moving toward the polished marble steps that fill the lower portion of the view. No handsomer curtain hangs in any theater in this country.
“What does a new drop curtain cost?” the Post-Dispatch reporter asked.
“About $500 or $600,” was Mr. Noxon’s reply. [The equivalent purchasing power in 2018 is approximately $12,000-$15,000]
“And how long does it take to paint one?”
“All the way from two to three days to five to six weeks. I painted a drop for Tootle’s Opera House, Sedallia, some years ago, in one-half days and got $500 for it, but an artist now seldom turns out a piece of work of this kind in less than three weeks. He can put that much time on it with a great deal of profit.”
“What will it cost to stock a new theatre with scenery?”
“From $2,000-$3,500.”
“And that will include how many sets?”
“Thirty-five. Enough for putting on any legitimate piece.”
“How long does it take to get up special scenery, say for a play like ‘The Silver King’?”
“That piece could be gotten up in two weeks. A fortnight’s notice is all we require to paint the scenery for any piece requiring sets that the theater has not in stock. In all such cases small models are complete reproductions in miniature of the original scenes.”
“There isn’t much work of this kind required of the artist nowadays?”
“No, not much; because many companies are now carrying their own scenery. Those playing melodrama invariably bring their own scenes with them.”
Mr. Noxon stands in front rank of curtain and scene painters, and for special features like Mardi Gras and Veiled Prophet pageants, is recognized throughout the Mississippi Valley as the most competent man in the profession.
Mr. Ernest Albert is a finished artist in the painting of interiors, and has displayed great originality in designing and executing curtains. He is particularly happy in reproducing draperies with a faultlessness of technique that challenges wonder and admiriation.
The other first-class curtain painters of the country do not number more than half-dozen. All enjoy national reputations, and their services are in demand to the other.
Russell Smith, formerly of the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, makes a specialty of landscapes.
Voegtlin, who went from New York to California where he was recently located, also takes to landscapes, but is an admirable figure painter, and will be at the top of the heap again should there be a revival of this style of curtains.
Phil Goatcher, formerly of Cincinnati, but now in New York, paints very pretty satin drops with medallion centers.
Henry E. Hoyt of Colvill’es, Fourteenth street, New York City, has lately started a boom in the direction of drapery without either figures or landscape views. His last curtain, which was of this character, was painted for the Euclid Avenue Opera House, Cleveland. He finished it is three weeks, and got $600.
Messrs. Noxon, Albert & Toomey painted a beautiful curtain and an entire stock of scenery for the new Park Theatre, in the same city, which was destroyed by fire a few weeks ago.
Last but not least is the prominent curtain and scene painters is Richard H. Halley, who came here at the opening of Pope’s Theater, then went to the Grand, and at the beginning of the present season began work at McKee Rankin’s Third Avenue Theater, New York. His silk curtain at Pope’s obtained instant recognition for its artistic abilities, and his later work, although lacking strength and color, has been marked by unusual merit. The curtain in the new Olympic is from his brush. As a painter of exteriors he holds high rank in the profession, and he is acknowledged to be without a peer in the reproduction of foliage.”
To be continued…
