Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

300 THE ART AND “MYSTERY” OF SCENE-PAINTING. SCENE - PAINTING is, of course, an art as well as an avocation. The scene - painter, it is true, can aim only at broad effects ; delicacy and subtlety he must not attempt. And to the con- ventions of the ordinary painter he has to add others arising out of the circumstance that his work has to be viewed from a distance, and not only in artificial light, fame, no the actor. Photo : Cassell &• Co., Ltd. A SCENE-PAIXTER’s PALETTE (MR. HEMSLEY’S STUDIO). but often in artificial light that is tinted. This, however, does not make his work less an art; it is one difficulty the more to over- come ; and the best scene-painter, other things being equal, is the one who most successfully adapts his art to all the manager’s exacting requirements. In these pages, however, it is with scene- painting as an avocation rather than as an art that we are primarily concerned. That those who rise to distinction in the pro- fession are not unhandsomely remunerated for their skill and pains may be taken for granted. In these days so much depends upon the “ mounting ” of a piece —audiences have, as a result of long in- dulgence, come to expect so much in the way of scenic beauty—that it would be strange indeed if the men whose function it is to supply the demand had to com- plain of inadequate recompense in current coin. Nor does the work fail to bring some measure of glory to those who are mainly responsible for it. Such names as Hawes Craven, Joseph Harker, Bruce Smith, W. lelbin, R. Caney, W. Harford, Henry Emden, W. T. Hemsley, T. E. Ryan, and Walter Johnston are almost household words among that largest of all “the classes” who frequent the theatres. A fleeting kind of doubt. But so also is that of The greatest of those who tread the boards and nightly move multitudes to ecstasy have no sooner quitted the scenes of their triumphs than they begin to fade into abstractions, and if they remain anything more than mere names it is at least as much because, like David Garrick, they were personalities as on account of their histrionic genius. Although some of the big cities of the provinces, such as Liverpool, Manchester, and Bir- mingham, have their own scene- painters, the great centre of the profession is London ; and it is the scene-painters of the metropolis who for the most part furnish forth the scenery for those touring companies that carry successful plays into the country. Yet even in London and even though during the last few years theatres have been springing up all over the town—the number of scene-painters is not considerable. Painters and assistants together do not, probably, number more than about a hundred. To these must be added the articled pupils; and although many of these have acquired a consider- able degree of proficiency, one still marvels how so small a body of men contrives to get through such an enormous mass of work. In former days each leading theatre had its own staff of scene-painters ; now the rule is for the scenes to be dis- tributed among several artists, regard being had, of course, to the special aptitudes of