Fig. 144.—A Girl’s Collection of Pictures.
CHAPTER V
COLLECTIONS
Every girl can have her own gallery of famous artists’ pictures, and the searching for and finding of treasures to form a home art collection are a constant source of interest. When once the supply is started it grows rapidly, for the fascination increases as the work progresses, and the nucleus of a fine assortment is soon gathered. Daily papers furnish valuable material in this line through their reproductions of paintings, and the market is flooded with beautifully illustrated magazines giving the art of our own land and that of foreign countries; then there are unmounted photographs of masterpieces which may be purchased for a very small sum; many can be bought at a penny each.
If new magazines are not to be had, old ones can be found at bookstalls for low prices, which contain reproductions of paintings and excellent accounts of them. Carefully take the magazines apart, removing the wire fastenings by straightening and drawing them out before attempting to separate the leaves; then cut out the chosen pictures, allowing as wide a white margin as possible. Only those prints which represent the work of eminent artists should be selected.
Decide upon some definite line of art, for the field is a large and varied one. Better results can be obtained if you devote your efforts to the paintings of only one nation, such as American, English, French, or Flemish art. Again, the collection might embrace the works of but one artist or school of painting, or be restricted to famous caricaturists or mural decorators. Having made your choice and collected two or three designs, buy low-priced medium-weight card-board for
Mounting the Pictures
Fig. 137.
Select a kind not brittle or liable to tear; get either a soft gray tone or white, the former often harmonizing best with black and white pictures. Your material being ready, turn the pictures on the wrong side and mark the centres. The easiest way of doing this is by laying a ruler diagonally across the back of picture, Fig. 137, and drawing a line on the