hen I was an art student in London back in the 1970s it was fascinating to watch the occasional artist copying from the Old Masters in the National Gallery. There they were with their easel and canvas and oil paints and a cloth covering the floor. Sometimes their approaches were fairly loose and took the form of a personal interpretation. Others were endeavouring to make copies which were much closer to the originals. The results often seemed miraculous — a new old-master painting appearing before my eyes. The opportunity to do this is a wonderful possibility that the National Gallery still allows. The gallery has some strict rules on copying stating that the copy must not be the same size, differing by at least 1 inch (2.5cm), be different
