Drypigment.net: In 1912, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “June 1st, Sosman agreed to pay me what I wanted, $5,200.00 per year besides my dividends, which will make my income not less than $6,500.00 – not quite as good as the New York venture, but I will be satisfied.” $6500 in 1912 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $171,920.31 in 2019. Of that number, $137,526.25 was Moses’ salary without his dividends.
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I found the reasons behind the decline in scenic artist’s pay and salaries going into the 1920s very interesting. I am not surprised that the emergence of the lighting challenged the intricacy of scenic painting. In Scenic Painting I, Beth had us take our brick and marble painted samples to the light lab and it is amazing how much a small change in lighting affects the way a scenic treatment looks, so I can only imagine how the emergence of colors and being able to create the illusion of depth with lighting changed the scenic artist’s work. However, I would think that this new technology and designer would create more for the scenic artist to have to do or accommodate – adjusting painted shading, have the correct paint colors of the drop for the colors the lights might be, any translucency – but perhaps that is not how that evolution played out. I also find it interesting that the existence of a formal scenic designer affected the scenic artist. I had not realized that scenic artist’s had originally been not only the person creating the physical product, but also conceptualizing and effectively, what we consider now to be, designing the product. And while it does not surprise me that there was a drop in pay when more female scenic artists entered the business, but it does make me mad.
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