Thank you! I never would have thought a public museum would allow me to trudge in and copy one of their works, until I read this thread. I mean, museums are for hushed contemplation, right? But after reading this I called the Toledo Museum of Art and asked if they had a copyist program. A What? After getting bounced around from person to person, I got the Registrar's Assistant who said, yes, long ago she had heard of such a thing, but nobody had ever asked. Then yesterday I got the application!
Oh my gosh I don't know where to start. They have a reknowned collection of El Greco, several Dutch, several Rossini, things like that. A new exhibition of Henrick Goltzius is coming up that looks pretty exciting! They also have Sargent's Princess Demidoff, but it's very tall, and I'm not. I don't think I could copy it without a step stool.
The rules seem quite liberal:
Work areas must be a minimum of 5 feet away from any work of art. Copyists must not approach any work of art with pencils or paint brush in hand.
Fabric or plastic floor covering not exceeding 1 yd sq must be used.
Copies must vary in size from the museum original in both dimensions by at least 3 inches. Copies must be checked in and out of the museum by the Chief Guard, and must enter and leave by the same door.
Upon finishing their work, visitors copying works of art are requested to make certain that the area in which they have been working is completely clean.
Not bad, I think? I have to say which work I want to copy, and intended days, but there is not restriction on hours apparently, and the application is renewable.
www.toledomuseum.com
Thank you for the tip!