On the copying of other artists work

Below is the material I do not think you have. It is from an article in "The Art Journal", dated 1888 by R.A.M. Stevenson. It is particularly pertinent to the subject of copying the work of other artists with a view toward self-improvement.

From article:


"Not only by looking, but by copying, he became familiar with the works of the Venetians and other painters before he began his professional training as one of the first pupils who came to the studio of M. Carolus Duran. Here he showed himself American rather than English by a practical common sense and a reasonable docility which led him to put himself in reality, and not in name only, into the position of a pupil. He had none of the obstinacy which leads some Englishmen to think they know more than their professor. These false pupils fear the loss of an originality which they may never have possessed, and which, unless they acquire facility of expression, must remain for ever unrevealed to the world. A vague feeling of originality which cannot be expressed is a very doubtful possession, and may only consist in ignorance of what can be done with paint. People who have never seriously grappled with Art fail to realise how much the strangeness of certain works is involuntary, and arises from the inability of the authors to make them correspond to their intentions. Anyhow it cannot but be good practice to learn to keep to an ensemble of a certain kind, even if it be not of one's own discovery. Thus the artist acquires facility, certainty, and a standard with which to gauge success when he would realise an intention of his own....Mr. Sargent devoted himself to the routine of the studio without seeking to appear original."