=66. Painters.= "Less prejudice exists against artists than teachers in France. They have privileges that teachers have not. Painting is considered the most desirable profession by parents for their daughters. The girl begins early in life to fit herself for her profession. The work is less severe than that of an author. Painting does not require such close application of mind, nor is it necessary to spend so much time in solitude, nor are the expense and anxiety so great as that of authorship. Gratuitous schools of art exist in Paris, where instruction is given principally in perspective. Most students prosecute the art in studios, paying from $4 to $6 a month. Most of them spend the whole day in the studios, from eight in the morning until six in the evening. The artist that instructs them visits the scholars only two or three times a week. The studio is a sort of mutual school, where pupils teach each other; they are of all ages. All conditions of society are represented. Three kinds of painting are done by them--face or portrait, landscape, and flowers. Most of the girls of the higher classes prefer landscape. Female artists compete with men, and wear their hair short. Few women like the physical fatigue of a painter's life. There is not the same play for coquetry in artists, as in singers or actors. It requires great perseverance for a female artist to acquire firmness of execution; she does not possess it to the same extent as man. Some artists are willing merely to copy paintings, paint portraits, and give lessons. The school of landscape painting is one well fitted for young and original talent. Women succeed in painting portraits; also, in painting flowers and fruit; very few have tried historical paintings." Painting is certainly a profitable employment for a lady artist of superior ability, if she can have enough to do. Miss F., New York, established a life school for lady artists. One subject is used at a time; the classes are limited--two classes--eight or ten pupils in each. Those that need instruction will pay $12 for twenty-two lessons; those without instruction, $6. There will be two sittings a week, of from three to four hours. A person of sensitive, nervous type, susceptible to every impression of a pleasant kind, is most likely to succeed as an artist. Mr. R. Peale told me that many ladies in Europe paint portraits. He considered it a higher style than landscape, or still life. He thinks painting itself not injurious to the health. The turpentine used is sanitary, and the white lead is deleterious only when taken into the lungs. What is inhaled in breathing can do no harm. Mr. Peale thought that the principal reason of artists being so poor in health, is because of their long and close confinement indoors. In painting the first coats are often applied by an assistant, employed by the artist; and in some cases, by the students of the artists. Miss Merrifield, of England, has written a work on the art of painting. A number of ladies in England, and in the United States, are winning a reputation as artists. The prospect to lady artists in the United States is very encouraging. Ladies are allowed the privilege, on proper application, to copy paintings in the Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, the Düsseldorf, and the Bryant galleries, New York. According to the census of 1850, there were 2,093 male artists; but there are said to be not more than 600 or 700 superior artists in the United States. The patronage the best receive is such as to keep them well employed. A meagre support and a long life of labor are necessary to establish a reputation as an artist, even to one that has talent. But the way in which most of our first-class artists live, that are prudent and steady in their habits, and possess any business qualifications, contradicts the opinion, quite common, that an artist's life must always be one of self denial and poverty. We think artists fare as well as most people, and we do think it a life very inviting to the young ladies of our country. Those that have the time, the means, and the talents, will find it an absorbing, a fascinating employment. Women succeed best in painting pictures of their own sex, and of children. The more tender and delicate organizations are best suited to their talents. Most of our artists live in the metropolis, New York; the Western country is too new and crude. There are materials enough, but not much appreciation of talent. Besides there is less wealth, and another thing is, that artists must keep themselves where mention will now and then be made of their pictures, to bring them into notice, and where the most ready sale will be found for them. During the last few years a taste has been developed in St. Louis, that promises some golden fruit.