That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for November 02, 2023

My original post in 2017:

“Should I call 911 or finish the painting?”

Silent but lethal

Not only does he make her appear awake and cheerful, but he takes 5 pounds off as well. That’s why he’s the highest paid portraitist in the city

The artist found that drugging his subjects made it easier to paint them.

/// Painter Frith, as he walked down the street.

asked an “orange-girl” fresh-faced and sweet,

“Be my model; it’s easy.”

But she feared it was sleazy.

“No, you’ll be fully clothed in a seat.”

she got him by the balls, or maybe the oranges…

He had to do his cardio workouts. In those days, Monet had to go a long way.

I suppose Chlorophorm is not the best way to get subjects for posing.

The female model known as “Sleepy Time Gal” worked cheaply. But Alphonse had thought having her hold an apple in each hand would cause her to startle awake when she dozed off and dropped them.

She was the perfect challenge to increase his creativity and artistic eye. He wished he had found his narcoleptic muse much earlier.

Harriet? Harriet, it’s time to wake up and get back into your box until tomorrow.

I wouldn’t be able to keep my head up either, if I was sitting on top of a large turntable spinning at 78 rpm, like she is.

Is the gal behind her his next drugged model?

Why does he have his hat and cane in his left hand??

The painter called William P. Frith/

Was not to be trifled with:/

Ev’ry Pre-Raphaelite/

Viewed the fellow with fright,/

For his paintings were pregnant with pith…///

His cozy domestic scenes/

Were depictions of persons of means/

But he spiced up the stew/

With a pauper or two/

Some “chili” to brighten the beans…///

Herewith is a scene to be loathed/

By those who like models unclothed./

She just wouldn’t undress/

Though he howled with distress/

(It is said that Frith actually frothed !)///

The artist became frustrated when she misunderstood, “I want to paint you like you are in bed holding your potatoes.”

Mabel found Williams’s new “Tilt-A-Wheel” ride a little nauseating.

Frith figured giving her a few slugs of gin would keep her calm, but not that calm!

The cost of stove coal went so high that he was going to have to wait for spring to begin the nude modeling portion of the painting.

“I will title this one ‘Clothed Model Drooling’.”

Inspired by stories of female frogs faking death to avoid unwanted advances from males, Edith and Barbara decide to replicate the tactic.

Margaret will soon join the mouldering body in the background.

Artists painted Mozart without his smallpox scars, Beethoven without his swarthy complexion, and Hulga without her “Taco Bell Neck.”

The Sleeping Model: 

Paste (including the quote marks) 

"Category:1853 oil on canvas paintings" Wikimedia 

(syntax supported by the Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, and Ecosia search engines) in the browser address bar (or search for it using one of those search engines) and choose the first Category: found, and once there find the text string Model, and click its link for info and links that point to more info about this roughly jumbo envelope size painting.

Again, a larger strip image is shown by merely clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s MASTERPIECE #1785 (September 21, 2017) blog entry or (Ctrl- or right-) clicking the image in the THROWBACK THURSDAY: MASTERPIECE #1785 (9/21/17) (November 1, 2023) entry, and using the dropdown menu (even larger, if you trim what’s after .png from the URL), accessible by the Check out the blog! box after the last comment. I have added a comment at at both entries pointing to info about this artist I used to point to here. So far, 10 works by this artist have been used here (11 times total, including this Throwback Thursday repeat), the September 21, 2017, strip being its first use. The October 4, 2019, strip has the prior by him.

Ethel fell asleep which gave artist john a chance to paint her much prettier than real life.

“Madam. I am not that slow.”

/// Only one angle, Susan presented

to the painter. Her sloth he resented.

Since, to move, Susan hated,

his new platform rotated.

“Lazy Susan” was thusly invented.

What in the world is going on in the background?

“The Sleeping Model,” 1853