I think that a difference needs to be made between copyright
concerns in the museum and the nuisance factor of art student
copyists. Something like this topic came up on the VRA list some years
ago, and aside from the rather tiresome protestations that copying equals
copyright it was, I recall, generally agreed that the real problem was
dealing with the presence of the supposed artists themselves.
        By the way, unless the copyist is working in a modern art museum
or gallery, he or she would most likely not be violating copyright per se
for works in the public domain. Presumably the problem might be that the
copyist could be infringing on the right of the owner of the work of art
to reproduce it, but I would think that that would be almost impossible to
prove, considering that public domain copies exist for almost all such works.
I think that it is still true that there are no court cases for such
copyright claims.

        Adrienne DeAngelis, Editor
        Resources in Art History for Graduate Students
        (http://www.efn.org/~acd/resources.html)
        [log in to unmask]

On Thu, 26 Sep 2002, Anna Fariello wrote:

> This entry really peaked my interest...how times have changed.  Museums
> have traditionally been a safe haven for artists with copy drawing a part
> of many course requirements.  when the Louvre first opened in the 18th
> century, it operted on a ten-day revolving calendar.  Only 3 days were set
> aside for the public, 2 days were saved for cleaning and staff work, and 5
> days were exclusively for artists and copyists.
> We've come a long way from there!  I guess I am showing my age when Ithink
> of my own college years.  both MOMA and the Met were always filled with
> students sitting along the floor with sketchpads.
>

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