Virgil, this too is lovely. Your point so well said is a point I raised a month or so ago. I have seen the homes of Rodin, Monet, Bouguereau, Leighton, Sorolla and Waterhouse. The homes of Moran and Church one can still visit. These are mansions. I did the math on several of those artists and found they were making $150,000 per painting (70 x 45") paintings. One can dream of spending 3 or 4 months on one work only if one sees appreciative pay for such work. I can hammer out large impressionistic landscapes to sell in Aspen, Park City and Sante Fe for $15,000 each - these take about one week. But the art is second rate indeed. It's commercial and mediocre.
Ninety five percent of the really rich realists paint just such stuff. Large thick mediocre landscapes. Several of these guys are my friends.
