In the case of the market paintings, there is no way I can set up an easel on site and paint. Everything moves too fast and it is too bustling.
As for the impressionist masters, they were mostly landscape painters and thus could find a subject that was reasonably cooperative.
However, I was just yesterday looking at the painting of the matador lighting the ciggie, by Mary Cassatt and wondering how on earth she did it. Did she have a friend who would pose with a matador costume? Of course many of her models were commissions, and in those days people expected to sit long hours to be painted, unlike today. It really is a problem.
|