the mind of the artist.rtf

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The Mind of the Artist

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mind of the Artist,by Various This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhereat no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoeer!"ou may co#y it, gie it away or re$use it under theterms of the Project Gutenberg %icense included with thiseBook or online at www!gutenberg!org

Title& The Mind of the Artist Thoughts and 'ayings ofPainters and 'cul#tors on Their Art

Author& Various

(ommentator& George (lausen

)elease *ate& +une , --. /EBook 012.345

%anguage& English

(haracter set encoding& A'(66

777 'TA)T 89 T:6' P)8+E(T G;TE>www!#gd#!net

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driing$force of the artist it informs, controls, andanimates his method of working it goerns the hand andeye! That figures should gie the im#ression of life ands#ontaneity, that the sun should shine, trees moe in the

wind, and nature be felt and re#resented as a liingthing$$this is the firm ground in art and in those whohae this feeling eery effort will, consciously orunconsciously, lead towards its realisation! 6t should bethe starting$#oint of the student! 6t does not absole himfrom the need of taking the utmost #ains, from makingthe most searching study of his model rather it im#elshim, in the eFamination of whateer he feels called on tore#resent, to look for the ital and necessary things& and

the artist will carry his work to the utmost degree ofcom#letion #ossible to him, in the desire to get at theheart of his theme!

DTruth to nature,D like a wide mantle, shelters us all, andcoers not only the outward as#ect of things, but theirinner meanings and the emotions felt through them,differently by each indiidual! And the ineitabledifferences of #oint of iew, which one encounters in this

book, are but small matters com#ared with theagreement one finds on essential things 6 may instance#articularly the stress laid on the obseration of nature!@hether the artist chooses to de#ict the #resent, the#ast, or to eF#ress an abstract ideal, he must, if his workis to lie, found it on his own eF#erience of nature! Buthe must at eery ste# also refer to the #ast! :e mustfind the road that the great ones hae made,remembering that the #roblems they soled were thesame that he has before him, and that now, no less thanin *uererCs time, Dart is hidden in nature& it is for theartist to drag her forth!D

GE8)GE (%A;'E


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(! M! B!

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scul#tor!5

66

Art, like loe, eFcludes all com#etition, and absorbs theman!

F!seli$

666

A good #ainter has two chief objects to #aint, namely,man, and the intention of his soul! The first is easy, thesecond difficult, because he has to re#resent it throughthe attitudes and moements of the limbs! This shouldbe learnt from the dumb, who do it better than any othersort of #erson!

)eonardo da Vinci$

6V

6n my judgment that is the eFcellent and diine #ainting

which is most like and best imitates any work ofimmortal God, whether a human figure, or a wild andstrange animal, or a sim#le and easy fish, or a bird of theair, or any other creature! And this neither with gold norsiler nor with ery fine tints, but drawn only with a #enor a #encil, or with a brush in black and white! To imitate#erfectly each of these things in its s#ecies seems to meto be nothing else but to desire to imitate the work ofimmortal God! And yet that thing will be the most nobleand #erfect in the works of #ainting which in itselfre#roduced the thing which is most noble and of thegreatest delicacy and knowledge!

ichael Angelo$


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V

The art of #ainting is em#loyed in the serice of the(hurch, and by it the sufferings of (hrist and many other

#rofitable eFam#les are set forth! 6t #resereth also thelikeness of men after their death! By aid of delineationsthe measurements of the earth, the waters, and thestars are better to be understood and many thingslikewise become known unto men by them! Theattainment of true, artistic, and loely eFecution in#ainting is hard to come unto it needeth long time and ahand #ractised to almost #erfect freedom! @hosoeer,therefore, falleth short of this cannot attain a right

understanding in matters of #aintingH for it comethalone by ins#iration from aboe! The art of #aintingcannot be truly judged sae by such as are themselesgood #ainters from others erily is it hidden een as astrange tongue! 6t were a noble occu#ation for ingeniousyouths without em#loyment to eFercise themseles inthis art!

D!erer$

A6M' A


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oer the water shalt thou see thine image therein& standerect, and it shall slo#e from thy feet and be lost! =nowthat there is but this means whereby thou mayst sereGod with man!!!! 'et thine hand and thy soul to sere

man with God!!!!

(hiaro, serant of God, take now thine Art unto thee, and#aint me thus, as 6 am, to know me weak, as 6 am, andin the weeds of this time only with eyes which seek outlabour, and with a faith, not learned, yet jealous of#rayer! *o this so shall thy soul stand before theealways, and #er#leF thee no more!

Rossetti$

V66

6 know that this world is a world of imagination andision! 6 see eerything 6 #aint in this world, buteerybody does not see alike! To the eyes of a miser aguinea is far more beautiful than the sun, and a bagworn with the use of money has more beautiful

#ro#ortions than a ine filled with gra#es! The tree whichmoes some to tears of joy, is in the eyes of others onlya green thing which stands in the way!!!! To the eye ofthe man of imagination,


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The #icture 6 s#eak of is a small one, and re#resentsmerely the figure of a woman, clad to the hands and feetwith a green and grey raiment, chaste and early in itsfashion, but eFceedingly sim#le!

'he is standing& her hands are held together lightly, andher eyes set earnestly o#en!

The face and hands in this #icture, though wrought withgreat delicacy, hae the a##earance of being #ainted atonce, in a single sitting& the dra#ery is unfinished! Assoon as 6 saw the figure, it drew an awe u#on me, likewater in shadow! 6 shall not attem#t to describe it more

than 6 hae already done, for the most absorbing wonderof it was its literality! "ou knew that figure, when #ainted,had been seen yet it was not a thing to be seen of men!

Rossetti$

L

A great work of high art is a noble theme treated in a

noble manner, awakening our best and most reerentialfeelings, touching our generosity, our tenderness, ordis#osing us generally to seriousness$$a subject ofhuman endurance, of human justice, of humanas#iration and ho#e, de#icted worthily by the s#ecialmeans art has in her #ower to use! 6n Michael Angeloand )a#hael we hae high art in Titian we hae high artin Turner we hae high art! The first a##eals to ourhighest sensibilities by majesty of line, the second

mainly by dignified serenity, the third by s#lendoures#ecially, the Englishman by a combination of theseualities, but, lacking the directly human a##eal tohuman sym#athies, his work must be #ut on a lowerleel!


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*atts$

L6

T:E '6L (A


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attention, a dulling of his loe for what he is studying,the tediousness of #ainting and the #assion for #ainting,all the shades of his nature, een to the la#ses of hissensibility, all this is told by the #ainterCs work as clearly

as if he were telling it in our ears!

Fromentin$

LV6

The first merit of a #icture is to feast the eyes! 6 donCtmean that the intellectual element is not also necessaryit is as with fine #oetry !!! all the intellect in the world

wonCt #reent it from being bad if it grates harshly onthe ear! @e talk of haing an ear so it is not eery eyewhich is fitted to enjoy the subtleties of #ainting! Many#eo#le hae a false eye or an indolent eye they can seeobjects literally, but the eFuisite is beyond them!

Delacroi.$

LV66

6 would like my work to a##eal to the eye and mind asmusic a##eals to the ear and heart! 6 hae somethingthat 6 want to say which may be useful to and touchmankind, and to say it as well as 6 can in form and colouris my endeaour more than that 6 cannot do!

*atts$

LV666

Gie me leae to say, that to #aint a ery beautiful@oman, 6 ought to hae before me those that are themost so with this (ondition, that your %ordshi# mightassist me in choosing out the greatest Beauty! But as 6am under a double @ant, both of good +udgment and


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fine @omen, 6 am forced to go by a certain 6dea which 6form in my own Mind! @hether this hath any EFcellenceof Art in it, 6 cannot determine but Ctis what 6 labour at!

Raphael$

L6L

6 mean by a #icture a beautiful romantic dream ofsomething that neer was, neer will be$$in a light betterthan any light that eer shone$$in a land no one candefine or remember, only desire$$and the forms diinelybeautiful$$and then 6 wake u# with the waking of

Brynhild!

B!rne%/ones$

LL

6 loe eerything for what it is!

Co!rbet$

LL6

6 look for my tones it is uite sim#le!

Co!rbet$

LL66

Many #eo#le imagine that art is ca#able of an indefinite

#rogress toward #erfection! This is a mistake! There is alimit where it must sto#! And for this reason& theconditions which goern the imitation of nature are fiFed!The object is to #roduce a #icture, that is to say, a #lanesurface either with or without a border, and on thissurface the re#resentation of something #roduced by the


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sole means of different colouring substances! 'ince it isobliged to remain thus circumscribed, it is easy toforesee the limit of #erfectibility! @hen the #icture hassucceeded in satisfying our minds in all the conditions

im#osed on its #roduction, it will cease to interest! 'uchis the fate of eerything which has attained its end& wegrow indifferent and abandon it!

6n the conditions goerning the #roduction of the #icture,eery means has been eF#lored! The most difficult#roblem was that of com#lete relief, de#th of#ers#ectie carried to the #oint of #erfect illusion! Thestereosco#e has soled the #roblem! 6t only remains now

to combine this #erfection with the other kinds of#erfection already found! %et no man imagine that art,bound by these conditions of the #lane surface, can eerfree itself from the circle which limits it! 6t is easy toforesee that its last word will soon hae been said!

*iertz$

LL666

6n his admirable book on 'hakes#eare, Victor :ugo hasshown that there is no #rogress in the arts!


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hero, or #aints some scene of nature, he does not#resent us with a liing man in the character of the herofor this is the business of dramatic artH nor does hemake u# his landsca#e of real rocks, or trees, or water,

but with fictitious resemblances of these! "et in thesefigments he is as truly bound by the laws of thea##earance of those realities, of which they are the co#yand ery much to the same eFtentH, as the musician isby the natural laws and #ro#erties of sound!

6n short, the whole object of #hysical science, or, in otherwords, the whole of sensible nature, is included in thedomain of imitatie art, either as the subjects, the

objects, or the materials of imitation& eery fine art,therefore, has certain #hysical sciences collateral to it,on the abstractions of which it builds, more or less,according to its nature and #ur#ose! But the drift of theart itself is something totally distinct from that of the#hysical science to which it is related and it is not moreabsurd to say that #hysiology or anatomy constitute thescience of #oetry or dramatic art than that acoustics andharmonics are the science of music o#tics, of #ainting

mechanics, or other branches of #hysical science, that ofarchitecture!

D"ce$

LLV

After all 6 hae seen of Art, with nothing am 6 moreim#ressed than with the necessity, in all great work, for

su##ressing the workman and all the mean deFterity of#ractice! The result itself, in uiet dignity, is the onlyworthy attainment! @ood$engraing, of all things mostready for deFterity, reads us a good lesson!

1dward Calvert$


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LLV6

'hall Painting be confined to the sordid drudgery offacsimile re#resentations of merely mortal and #erishing

substances, and not be as #oetry and music are,eleated into its own #ro#er s#here of inention andisionary conce#tionK


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according to the worldCs o#inion, the goal of the arts& if itis the one and only goal, what becomes of men who, like)ubens, )embrandt, and northern natures in general,#refer other ualitiesK *emand of Puget #urity, beauty in

fact, and it is good$bye to his ere! '#eaking generally,men of the


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LLL6

6 send you also some etchings and a D@oman drinkingAbsinthe,D drawn this winter from life in Paris! 6t is a girl

called Marie +oliet, who used eery eening to comedrunk to the Bal Bullier, and who had a look in her eyesof death galanised into life! 6 made her sit to me andtried to render what 6 saw! This is my #rinci#le in the task6 hae set before me! 6 am determined to make no book$illustration but it shall be a means of contributingtowards an e##ect o# li#eand nothing more! A #atch ofcolour and it is sufficient we must leae these childishthoughts behind us! %ife we must try to render life, and

it is hard enough!

Felicien Rops$

LLL66

'o this damned )ealism made an instinctie a##eal tomy #ainterCs anity, and deriding all traditions, criedaloud with the confidence of ignorance, DBack to


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style, not at all Greek, as #eo#le want to call it, but9rench, and iciously 9rench! 6 feel that we must go farbeyond this, that there are far more beautiful things tobe done! "et, 6 re#eat, why was 6 not his #u#ilK @hat a

master he would hae been for us :ow salutary wouldhae been his guidance

*histler$

LLL666

6t has been said, D@ho will delier us from the Greeksand )omansKD 'oon we shall be saying, D@ho will delier

us from realismKD


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range of our efforts! Though art must be founded onnature, art and nature are distinctly different things in acertain class of subjects #robability may, indeed must,be iolated, #roided the iolation is not disagreeable!

Eerything in a work of art must accord! Though gloomand desolation would dee#en the effects of a distressingincident in real life, such accom#animents are notnecessary to make us feel a thrill of horror or awaken thekeenest sym#athy! The most awful circumstances maytake #lace under the #urest sky, and amid the mostloely surroundings! The human sensibilities will be toomuch affected by the human sym#athies to heed the

eFternal conditions but to awaken in a #icture similarim#ressions, certain artificial aids must be used thegeneral as#ect must be troubled or sad!

*atts$

LLLV

The remarks made on my DMan with the :oeD seem

always ery strange to me, and 6 am obliged to you forre#eating them to me, for once more it sets memarelling at the ideas they im#ute to me! 6n what clubhae my critics eer encountered meK A 'ocialist, theycry @ell, really, 6 might answer the charge as thecommissary from Auergne did when he wrote home&DThey hae been saying that 6 am a 'aint$'imonian& itCsnot true 6 donCt know what a 'aint$'imonian is!D

(anCt they then sim#ly admit such ideas as may occur tothe mind in looking at a man doomed to gain his liingby the sweat of his browK There are some who tell methat 6 deny the charm of the country! 6 find in the countrymuch more than charm 6 find infinite s#lendour 6 lookon eerything as they do on the little #owers of which


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(hrist said, D6 say unto you, that 'olomon in all his glorywas not arrayed like one of these!D 6 see and note theaureole on the dandelion, and the sun which, far away,beyond the stretching country, s#ends his glory on the

clouds! 6 see just as much in the flat #lain in the horsessteaming as they toil and then in a stony #lace 6 see aman uite eFhausted, whose gas#s hae been audiblesince morning, who tries to draw himself u# for amoment to take breath! The drama is surrounded bys#lendours! This is no inention of mine and it is longsince that eF#ression Dthe cry of the earthD wasdiscoered! My critics are men of learning and taste, 6imagine but 6 cannot #ut myself into their skins, and

since 6 hae neer in my life seen anything but thefields, 6 try to tell, as best 6 can, what 6 hae seen andeF#erienced as 6 worked!

illet$

LLLV6

8ne of the hardest things in the world is to determine

how much realism is allowable in any #articular #icture!6t is of so many different kinds too! 9or instance, 6 want ashield or a crown or a #air of wings or what not, to lookreal! @ell, 6 make what 6 want, or a model of it, and thenmake studies from that! 'o that what eentually gets onto the canas is a reflection of a reflection of something#urely imaginary! The three Magi neer had crowns likethat, su##osing them to hae had crowns at all, but theeffect is realistic because the crown from which the

studies were made is real$$and so on!

B!rne%/ones$

LLLV66


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*o you understand now that all my intelligence rejects isin immediate relation to all my heart as#ires to, and thatthe s#ectacle of human blunders and human ileness isan eually #owerful motie for action in the eFercise of

art with s#rings of tranuil contem#lation that 6 hae feltwithin me since 6 was a childK

@e hae come far, 6 ho#e, from the shadowy foliagecrowning the humble roof of the #rimitie humandwelling, far from the warbling of the birds that broodamong the branches far from all these tender things!@e left them, notwithstanding, the other day and eenif we had stayed, do you think we should hae continued

to enjoy themK

Beliee me, eerything comes from the uniersal wemust embrace to gie life!

@hateer interest one may get from material offered bya #eriod, religion, manners, history, ?c!, in re#resentinga #articular ty#e, it will aail nothing without anunderstanding of the uniersal agency of atmos#here,

that modelling of infinity it shall come to #ass that astone fence, about which the air seems to moe andbreathe, shall be, in a museum, a grander conce#tionthan any ambitious work which lacks this uniersalelement and eF#resses only something #ersonal! All the#ersonal and #articular majesty of a #ortrait of %ouis L6V!by %ebrun or by )igaud shall be as nothing beside thesim#licity of a tuft of grass shining clear in a gleam ofsunlight!

Ro!ssea!$

LLLV666

8f all the things that is likely to gie us back #o#ular art


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hand, eF#ressing himself in a natural language deriedfrom familiarity with natural objects! Beauty is thelanguage of art, and with this at command thoughts asthey arise take isible form #erha#s almost without

effort, or certain technical difficulties oercomeH withlittle more than is reuired in writing$$this not absolingthe artist or the #oet from earnest thought and seerestudy! 6n many res#ects the #resent age is far moreadanced than #receding times, incom#arably more fullof knowledge but the language of great art is dead, forgeneral, noble beauty, #erades life no more! The artistis obliged to return to eFtinct forms of s#eech if he woulds#eak as the great ones hae s#oken!


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or small, should re#resent bea!ti#!l li#e! Are you able toname any one who has conceied this beauty of the lifeof menK 6 will not com#licate the reuirements of #ainted#oesy by s#eaking of the music of colour with which it

should be clothed black and white were enough! Theery attem#t to eF#ress the confession of loe werefulfilment sufficient!

1dward Calvert$

L%66

'o art has become foolishly confounded with education,

that all should be eually ualified! @hereas, while#olish, refinement, culture, and breeding are in no wayarguments for artistic result, it is also no re#roach to themost finished scholar or greatest gentleman in the landthat he be absolutely without eye for #ainting or ear formusic$$that in his heart he #refer the #o#ular #rint to thescratch of )embrandtCs needle, or the songs of the hallto BeethoenCs D( Minor 'ym#hony!D

%et him hae but the wit to say so, and not let him feelthe admission a #roof of inferiority!

Art ha##ens$$no hoel is safe from it, no #rince mayde#end on it, the astest intelligence cannot bring itabout, and #uny efforts to make it uniersal end inuaint comedy and coarse farce!

This is as it should be and all attem#ts to make it

otherwise are due to the elouence of the ignorant, theNeal of the conceited!

*histler$

L%666


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Art will not grow and flourish, nay it will not long eFist,unless it be shared by all #eo#le and for my #art 6 donCtwish that it should!

*illiam orris$

L%6V


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Art is not a #leasure tri#! 6t is a battle, a mill that grinds!

illet$

'T;*" A


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anything else!

D!erer$

%

The #ainter reuires such knowledge of mathematics asbelongs to #ainting, and seerance from com#anionswho are not in sym#athy with his studies, and his brainshould hae the #ower of ada#ting itself to the tenor ofthe objects which #resent themseles before it, and heshould be freed from all other cares! And if, whileconsidering and eFamining one subject, a second should

interene, as ha##ens when an object occu#ies themind, he ought to decide which of these subjects#resents greater difficulties in inestigation, and followthat until it becomes entirely clear, and afterwards#ursue the inestigation of the other! And aboe all heshould kee# his mind as clear as the surface of a mirror,which becomes changed to as many different colours asare those of the objects within it, and his com#anionsshould resemble him in a taste for these studies and if

he fail to find any such, he should accustom himself tobe alone in his inestigations, for in the end he will findno more #rofitable com#anionshi#!

)eonardo$

%6

6f you are fond of co#ying other MenCs @ork, as being

8riginals more constant to be seen and imitated thanany liing 8bject, 6 should rather adise to co#y anythingmoderately cared than eFcellently #ainted& 9or byimitating a Picture, we only habituate our :and to take amere )esemblance whereas by drawing from a cared8riginal, we learn not only to take this )esemblance, but


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good is, that the bad artist seemsto co#y a great deal,the good one doesco#y a great deal!

Blake$

%6V

6f you de#rie an artist of all he has borrowed from theeF#erience of others the originality left will be but atwentieth #art of him!

8riginality by itself cannot constitute a remarkabletalent!

*iertz$

%V

6 am coninced that to reach the highest degree of#erfection as a #ainter, it is necessary, not only to beacuainted with the ancient statues, but we must beinwardly imbued with a thorough com#rehension ofthem!

R!bens$

%V6

9irst of all co#y drawings by a good master made by hisart from nature and not as eFercises then from a relief,kee#ing by you a drawing done from the same reliefthen from a good model, and of this you ought to make a

#ractice!

)eonardo$

%V66


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6 wish to do something #urely Greek 6 feed my eyes onthe antiue statues, 6 mean een to imitate some ofthem! The Greeks neer scru#led to re#roduce acom#osition, a moement, a ty#e already receied and

used! They #ut all their care, all their art, into #erfectingan idea which had been used by others before them!They thought, and thought rightly, that in the arts themanner of rendering and eF#ressing an idea mattersmore than the idea itself!

/6llustration& R!bensT:E (A'T%E 6< T:E PA)=+an#staengl5

To gie a clothing, a #erfect form to oneCs thought is tobe an artist !!! it is the only way!

@ell, 6 hae done my best and 6 ho#e to attain my object!

)$ David$

%V666

@ho amongst us, if he were to attem#t in reality tore#resent a celebrated work of A#elles or Timanthus,such as Pliny describes them, but would #roducesomething absurd, or #erfectly foreign to the eFaltedgreatness of the ancientsK Each one, relying on his own#owers, would #roduce some wretched, crude,unfermented stuff, instead of an eFuisite old wine,uniting strength and mellowness, outraging those greats#irits whom 6 endeaour reerently to follow, satisfied,

howeer, to honour the marks of their footste#s, insteadof su##osing$$6 acknowledge it candidly$$that 6 can eerattain to their eminence een in mere conce#tion!

R!bens$

%6L


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4ngres$

%L666

The strict co#ying of nature is not art it is only a meansto an end, an element in the whole! Art, while #resentingnature, must manifest itself in its own essence! 6t is not amirror, uncritically reflecting eery image it is the artistwho must mould the image to his will else his work isnot #erformed!

Brac0!emond$

%L6V


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not by imitating any artist!

1!pomp!s$

%LV666

@hen you hae clearly and distinctly learned in whatgood colouring consists, you cannot do better than haerecourse to nature herself, who is always at hand, and incom#arison of whose true s#lendour the best coloured#ictures are but faint and feeble!

:oweer, as the #ractice of co#ying is not entirely to be

eFcluded, since the mechanical #ractice of #ainting islearned in some measure by it, let those choice #artsonly be selected which hae recommended the work tonotice! 6f its eFcellence consists in its general effect, itwould be #ro#er to make slight sketches of themachinery and general management of the #icture!Those sketches should be ke#t always by you for theregulation of your style! 6nstead of co#ying the touchesof those great masters, co#y only their conce#tions!

6nstead of treading in their footste#s, endeaour only tokee# the same road! %abour to inent on their general#rinci#les and way of thinking! Possess yourself withtheir s#irit! (onsider with yourself how a Michael Angeloor a )affaelle would hae treated this subject and workyourself into a belief that your #icture is to be seen andcriticised by them when com#leted! Een an attem#t ofthis kind will rouse your #owers!

Re"nolds$

%L6L

@hat do you mean$$that you hae been working, butwithout successK *o you mean that you cannot get the#rice you askK then sell it for less, till, by #ractice, you


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shall im#roe, and command a better #rice! 8r do youonly mean that you are not satisfied with your workKnobody eer was that 6 know, eFce#t +$$$$ @$$$$! Pegaway @hile youCre at work you must be im#roing! *o

something from


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by #ainters!

5kio+a#anese, eighteenth centuryH!

%LL6

6 remember *uerer the #ainter, who used to say that, asa young man, he loed eFtraordinary and unusualdesigns in #ainting, but that in his old age he took toeFamining


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DVery well, then, 6 will gie you no more!D 6f 6 were to sitin judgment, 6 would #unish the miserable creatures whosuander their natural gifts, and 6 would turn their heartsto work!

Corot$

%LLV66

'ensation is rude and false unless in#ormedbyintellection and, howeer delicate be the touch inobedience to remote gradation, yet knowledge of thegenus necessarily inests the re#resentation with

#ers#icuous and truthful relations that ignorance couldnot #ossibly hae obsered! :ence$$Paint what you seebut know what you see!

5nl" paint what "o! love in what "o! see, and disci#lineyourself to se#arate this essence from its dumbaccom#animents, so that the accents fall u#on the#oints of #assion! %et that which must be eF#ressed ofthe rest be merged, synco#ated in the largeness of the

mod!lation!

Boldly dare to omit the im#ertinent or irreleant, and letthe features of the #assion be modulated in #ewness!


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6 started on Monday, 3th August, for :onfleur, where 6stayed till 3th 'e#tember in the most blessed conditionof s#irit!

There 6 worked with my head, with my eyes, harestingeffects in the mind then, going oer eerything again, 6called u# within myself the figures desired for thecom#letion of the com#osition! 8nce 6 had eoked allthis world from nothingness, and enisaged it, and hadfound where each thing was to be, 6 had to return toParis to ask for natureCs authorisation and make sure ofmy adance!


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%LLL

Eery successful work is ra#idly #erformed uickness isonly eFecrable when it is em#ty$$small!


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%LLL66

To work on the )ad"e! 9ound #art of the dra#ery bad,rubbed it out, heightened the seat she sits on, mended

the heads again did a great deal, but not finished yet!Any one might be sur#rised to read how 6 work wholedays on an old drawing done many years since, andwhich 6 hae twice worked oer since it was rejectedfrom the )oyal Academy in CIJ, and now under #romiseof sale to @hite for %-! But 6 cannot hel# it! @hen 6 seea work going out of my hands, it is but natural, if 6 seesome little defect, that 6 should try to mend it, and whatfollows is out of my #ower to direct& if 6 gie one touch to

a head, 6 gie myself three daysC work, and s#oil it half$a$doNen times oer!

Ford ado. Brown$

%LLL666

6n literature as in art the rough sketches of the mastersare made for connoisseurs, not for the ulgar crowd!

A$ Prea!lt$

%LLL6V

6t is true sketches, or such drawings as #aintersgenerally make for their works, gie this #leasure ofimagination to a high degree! 9rom a slight,undetermined drawing, where the ideas of the

com#osition and character are, as 6 may say, only justtouched u#on, the imagination su##lies more than the#ainter himself, #robably, could #roduce and weaccordingly often find that the finished work disa##ointsthe eF#ectation that was raised from the sketch and this#ower of the imagination is one of the causes of thegreat #leasure we hae in iewing a collection of


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colour with more and more decision!

Ro!ssea!$

%LLLV66

8< P)8T8GE


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Delacroi.$

%LLL6L

A #icture, the effect of which is true, is finished!

'o"a$

L(

"ou #lease me much, by saying that no other fault isfound in your #icture than the roughness of the surfacefor that #art being of use in giing force to the effect at a#ro#er distance, and what a judge of #ainting knows anoriginal from a co#y by$$in short, being the touch of the#encil which is harder to #resere than smoothness, 6 ammuch better #leased that they should s#y out things ofthat kind, than to see an eye half an inch out of its #lace,or a nose out of drawing when iewed at a #ro#erdistance! 6 donCt think it would be more ridiculous for a#erson to #ut his nose close to the canas and say thecolours smelt offensie, than to say how rough the #aint

lies for one is just as material as the other with regardto hurting the effect and drawing of a #icture!

'ainsboro!gh$

L(6

The #icture/5 will be seen to the greatest adantage if itis hung in a strong light, and in such a manner that thes#ectator can stand at some distance from it!

Rembrandt$

/9ootnote & Probably the DBlinding of 'amson!D5

L(66


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*onCt look at a #icture close, it smells bad!

Rembrandt$

L(666

Try to be frank in drawing and in colour gie things theirfull relief make a #ainting which can be seen at adistance this is indis#ensable!

Chasseria!$

L(6V

6f 6 might #oint out to you another defect, ery #realentof late, in our #ictures, and one of the same contractedcharacter with those you so ha##ily illustrate, it wouldbe that of the want o# breadth, and in others a #er#etualdiision and subdiision of #arts, to gie what their#er#etrators call s#ace add to this a constant disturbingand torturing of eerything whether in light or inshadow, by a niggling touch, to #roduce fulness ofsubject! This is the ery reerse of what we see in (uy#or @ilson, and een, with all his high finishing, in (laude!6 hae been warning our friend (ollins against this, andwas also urging young %andseer to beware of it and inwhat 6 hae been doing lately myself hae been studyingmuch from )embrandt and from (uy#, so as to acuirewhat the great masters succeeded so well in, namely,that #ower by which the chief objects, and een theminute finishing of #arts, tell oer eerything that is

meant to be subordinate in their #ictures! 'ir +oshua hadthis remarkably, and could een make the #eat!res o#the #acetell oer eerything, howeer strongly #ainted! 6find that re#ose and breadth in the shadows and half$tints do a great deal towards it! OoffanyCs figures deriegreat conseuence from this and 6 find that those who


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hae studied light and shadow the most neer a##ear tofail in it!

*ilkie$

L(V

The commonest error into which a critic can fall is theremark we so often hear that such$and$such an artistCswork is Dcareless,D and Dwould be better had more labourbeen s#ent u#on it!D As often as not this is wholly untrue!As soon as the s#ectator can seethat Dmore labour hasbeen s#ent u#on it,D he may be sure that the #icture is

to that eFtent incom#lete and unfinished, while the lookof freshness that is inse#arable from a really successful#icture would of necessity be absent! 6f the high finish ofa #icture is so a##arent as immediately to force itselfu#on the s#ectator, he may knowthat it is not as itshould be and from the moment that the artist feels hiswork is becoming a labour, he may de#end u#on it it willbe without freshness, and to that eFtent without themerit of a true work of art! @ork should always look as

though it had been done with ease, howeer elaboratewhat we see should a##ear to hae been done withouteffort, whateer may be the agonies beneath thesurface! M! Meissonier sur#asses all his #redecessors, aswell as all his contem#oraries, in the uality of highfinish, but what you see is eidently done easily andwithout labour! 6 remember Thackeray saying to me,concerning a certain cha#ter in one of his books that thecritics agreed in accusing of carelessness D(arelessK 6f

6Ce written that cha#ter once 6Ce written it a doNentimes$$and each time worse than the lastD a #roof thatlabour did not assist in his case! @hen an artist fails it isnot so much from carelessness& to do his best is not only#rofitable to him, but a joy! But it is not gien to eeryman$$not, indeed, to any$$to succeed wheneer and


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howeer he tries! The best #ainter that eer lied neerentirely succeeded more than four or fie times that isto say, no artist eer #ainted more than four or fiemasterpieces, howeer high his general aerage may

hae been, for such success de#ends on thecoincidence, not only of genius and ins#iration, but ofhealth and mood and a hundred other mysteriouscontingencies! 9or my own #art, 6 hae often beenlaboured, but whateer 6 am 6 am neer careless! 6 mayhonestly say that 6 neer consciously #laced an idletouch u#on canas, and that 6 hae always been earnestand hard$working yet the worst #ictures 6 eer #aintedin my life are those into which 6 threw most trouble and

labour, and 6 confess 6 should not griee were half myworks to go to the bottom of the Atlantic$$if 6 mightchoose the half to go! 'ometimes as 6 #aint 6 may findmy work becoming laborious but as soon as 6 detect anyeidence of that labour 6 #aint the whole thing outwithout more ado!

illais$

/6llustration& illais%8VE B" permission o# F$ *arne 6Co$5

L(V6

6 think that a work of art should not only be careful andsincere, but that the care and sincerity should also beeident!


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*atts$

L(V66

)eal effect is making out the #arts! @hy are we to betold that masters, who could think, had not the judgmentto #erform the inferior #arts of artK as )eynolds artfullycalls themH that we are to learn to thinkfrom greatmasters, and to #erform from underlings$$to learn todesign from )a#hael, and to eFecute from )ubensK

Blake$

L(V666

6f 6 knew that my #ortrait was still at Antwer#, 6 wouldhae it ke#t back for the case to be o#ened, so that onecould see that it had not been hurt by so long a times#ent in a case without being eF#osed to the air, andthat, as often ha##ens to colours freshly #ut on, it hasnot turned rather yellow, thereby losing all its first effect!The remedy, if this has ha##ened, is to eF#ose it

re#eatedly to the sun, the rays of which absorb thesu#erfluity of oil which causes this change and if at anytime it still turns brown, it must be eF#osed afresh to thesun! @armth is the only remedy for this serious mischief!

R!bens$

E99E(T' 89 T6ME 8< PA6


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like when it was newKD The Elgin Marbles are allowed bycommon consent to be the #erfection of art! But howmuch of our feeling of reerence is ins#ired by timeK6magine the Parthenon as it must hae looked with the

frieNe of the mighty Phidias fresh from the chisel! (ouldone behold it in all its #ristine beauty and s#lendour weshould see a white marble building, blinding in thedaNNling brightness of a southern sun, the figures of theeFuisite frieNe in all #robability #ainted$$there is morethan a sus#icion of that$$and the whole standing outagainst the intense blue sky and many of us, 6 entureto think, would cry at once, D:ow eFcessiely crude!D


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6 must further dissent from any o#inion that beauty ofsurface and what is technically called DualityD aremainly due to time! 'ir +ohn himself has uoted the early#ictures of )embrandt as eFam#les of hard and careful

#ainting, deoid of the charm and mystery soremarkable in his later work! The early works ofVelasueN are still more remarkable instances, being, asthey are, singularly tight and disagreeable$$time haingdone little or nothing towards making them moreagreeable!

*atts$

(6

6 am #ainting for thirty years hence!

onticelli$

(66

'ir +ohn Millais is certainly right in his estimate of strongand een bright colour, but it seems to me that he ismistaken in belieing that the colour of the Venetianswas eer crude, or that time will eer turn white intocolour! The colour of the best$#resered #ictures byTitian shows a marked distinction between light fleshtones and white dra#ery! This is most distinctly seen inthe small D


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6 think it is #robable that where Titian has used brown$green he intended it, since in many of the Venetian#ictures we find green dra#eries of a beautiful colour! 'ir+ohn seems to infer that the colours used in the

decoration of the Parthenon no doubt usedH were crude!The eFtraordinary refinements demonstrated in a lectureby Mr! Penrose on the s#ot last year, at which 6 had thegood fortune to be #resent, forbid such a conclusion! Afew graduated inches in the circumference of thecolumns, and deflection from straight line in the#ediment and in the base$line, #roed by measurementand eFamination to be carefully intentional, will not#ermit us for a moment to beliee this could hae been

the case so #recise in line, rhythmical in arrangement,loely in detail, and harmonious in effect, it could neerhae been crude in colour!


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blandishments, showy and #lausible, and which catchthe eye! As manner comes by degrees, and is fosteredby success in the world, flattery, ?c!, all #ainters whowould be really great should be #er#etually on their

guard against it!


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how to render the iolence of ocean, the rush of ra#ids,the tranuillity of still #ools, and among the liing beingsof the earth, their state of weakness or strength! Thereare in nature birds that do not fly high, flowering trees

that neer fruit all these conditions of the life we lieamong are worth studying thoroughly and if 6 eersucceed in conincing artists of this, 6 shall hae beenthe first to show the way!

+ok!sai$

(V66

%et eery man who is here understand this well& design,which by another name is called drawing, and consists ofit, is the fount and body of #ainting and scul#ture andarchitecture and of eery other kind of #ainting, and theroot of all sciences! %et whoeer may hae attained to somuch as to hae the #ower of drawing know that heholds a great treasure he will be able to make figureshigher than any tower, either in colours or cared fromthe block, and he will not be able to find a wall or

enclosure which does not a##ear circumscribed andsmall to his brae imagination! And he will be able to#aint in fresco in the manner of old 6taly, with all themiFtures and arieties of colour usually em#loyed in it!:e will be able to #aint in oils ery suaely with moreknowledge, daring, and #atience than #ainters! Andfinally, on a small #iece of #archment he will be most#erfect and great, as in all other manners of #ainting!Because great, ery great is the #ower of design and

drawing!

ichael Angelo$

*)A@6


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(V666

Pu#ils, 6 gie you the whole art of scul#ture when 6 tellyou$$draw2

Donatello$

(6L

*rawing is the #robity of art!

4ngres$

(L

To draw does not mean only to re#roduce an outline,drawing does not consist only of line drawing is morethan this, it is eF#ression, it is the inner form, thestructure, the modelling! After that what is leftK *rawingincludes seen$eighths of what constitutes #ainting! 6f 6had to #ut a sign aboe my door 6 would write on itD'chool of *rawing,D and 6 am sure that 6 should turn out#ainters!

4ngres$

(L6

*raw with a #ure but am#le line! Purity and breadth, thatis the secret of drawing, of art!

4ngres$

(L66

(ontinue to draw for long before you think of #ainting!@hen one builds on a solid foundation one can slee# atease!


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4ngres$

(L666

The great #ainters like )a#hael and Michael Angeloinsisted on the outline when finishing their work! Theywent oer it with a fine brush, and thus gae newanimation to the contours they im#ressed on theirdesign force and fire!

4ngres$

(L6V

The first thing to seiNe in an object, in order to draw it, isthe contrast of the #rinci#al lines! Before #utting chalk to#a#er, get this well into the mind! 6n GirodetCs work, foreFam#le, one sometimes sees this admirably shown,because through intense #reoccu#ation with his modelhe has caught, willy$nilly, something of its natural gracebut it has been done as if by accident! :e a##lied the#rinci#le without recognising it as such! L$$$$ seems to

me the only man who has understood it and carried itout! That is the whole secret of his drawing! The mostdifficult thing is to a##ly it, like him, to the whole body!6ngres has done it in details like hands, ?c! @ithoutmechanical aids to hel# the eye, it would be im#ossibleto arrie at the #rinci#le aids such as #rolonging a line,?c!, drawing often on a #ane of glass! All the other#ainters, not eFce#ting Michael Angelo and )a#hael,draw by instinct, by ins#iration, and found beauty by

being struck with it in nature but they did not knowL$$$$Cs secret, accuracy of eye! 6t is not at the moment ofcarrying out a design that one ought to tie oneself downto working with measuring$rules, #er#endiculars, ?c!this accuracy of eye must be an acuired habit, which inthe #resence of nature will s#ontaneously assist the


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im#erious need of rendering her as#ect! @ilkie, again,has the secret! 6n #ortraiture it is indis#ensable! @hen,for eFam#le, one has made out the ensembleof adesign, and when one knows the lines by heart, so to

s#eak, one should be able to re#roduce themgeometrically, in a fashion, on the #icture! Aboe all withwomenCs #ortraits the first thing to seiNe is to seiNe thegrace of the ensemble! 6f you begin with the details, youwill be always heay! 9or instance& if you hae to draw athoroughbred horse, if you let yourself go into details,your outline will neer be salient enough!

Delacroi.$

(LV

*rawing is the means em#loyed by art to set down andimitate the light of nature! Eerything in nature ismanifested to us by means of light and itscom#lementaries, reflection and shadow! This it is whichdrawing erifies! *rawing is the counterfeit light of art!

Brac0!emond$

(LV6

6t wonCt do to begin #ainting heads or much detail in this#icture till itCs all settled! 6 do so beliee in getting in thebones of a #icture #ro#erly first, then #utting on theflesh and afterwards the skin, and then another skin lastof all combing its hair and sending it forth to the world! 6f

you begin with the flesh and the skin and trust to gettingthe bones right afterwards, itCs such a sli##ery #rocess!

B!rne%/ones$

(LV66


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The creatie s#irit in descending into a #ictorialconce#tion must take u#on itself organic structure! Thisgreat imaginatie scheme forms the bony system of thework lines take the #lace of neres and arteries, and the

whole is coered with the skin of colour!

+sieh +o(hinese, siFth centuryH!

(LV666

'im#licity in com#osition or distinctness of #arts is eerto be attended to, as it is one #art of beauty, as hasbeen already said& but that what 6 mean by distinctness

of #arts in this #lace may be better understood it will be#ro#er to eF#lain it by an eFam#le!

@hen you would com#ose an object of a great ariety of#arts, let seeral of those #arts be distinguished bythemseles, by their remarkable difference from the neFtadjoining, so as to make each of them, as it were, onewell$sha#ed uantity or #art these are like what theycall #assages in music, and in writing #aragra#hsH by

which means not only the whole, but een eery #art,will be better understood by the eye& for confusion willhereby be aoided when the object is seen near, and thesha#es will seem well aried, though fewer in number, ata distance!

The #arsley$leaf, in like manner, from whence a beautifulfoliage in ornament was originally taken, is diided intothree distinct #assages which are again diided into

other odd numbers and this method is obsered, for thegenerality, in the leaes of all #lants and flowers, themost sim#le of which are the trefoil and cinuefoil!

8bsere the well$com#osed nosegay, how it loses alldistinctness when it dies each leaf and flower then


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shriels and loses its distinct sha#e, and the firm coloursfade into a kind of sameness so that the wholegradually becomes a confused hea#!

6f the general #arts of objects are #resered large atfirst, they will always admit of further enrichments of asmall kind, but then they must be so small as not toconfound the general masses or uantities thus, yousee, ariety is a check u#on itself when oerdone, whichof course begets what is called apetit tasteand aconfusion to the eye!

+ogarth$

(L6L

*rawing includes eerything eFce#t the tinting of the#icture!

4ngres$

(LL

8ne must always be drawing, drawing with the eye whenone cannot draw with the #encil! 6f obseration does notkee# ste# with #ractice you will do nothing really good!

4ngres$

(LL6

As a means of #ractising this #ers#ectie of the ariation

and loss or diminution of the #ro#er essence of colours,take at distances, a hundred braccia a#art, objectsstanding in the landsca#e, such as trees, houses, men,and #laces, and in front of the first tree fiF a #iece ofglass so that it is uite steady, and then let your eye restu#on it and trace out a tree u#on the glass aboe the


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outline of the tree and afterwards remoe the glass sofar to one side that the actual tree seems almost totouch the one that you hae drawn! Then colour yourdrawing in such a way that the two are alike in colour

and form, and that if you close one eye both seem#ainted on the glass and the same distance away! Then#roceed in the same way with a second and a third tree,at distances of a hundred braccia from each other! Andthese will always sere as your standards and teacherswhen you are at work on #ictures where they can bea##lied, and they will cause the work to be successful inits distance! But 6 find it is a rule that the second isreduced to four$fifths the siNe of the first when it is

twenty braccia distant from it!

)eonardo$

(LL66

The great and golden rule of art, as well as of life, is this&That the more distinct, shar#, and wiry the boundingline, the more #erfect the work of art!!!! Great inentors

in all ages knew this& Protogenes and A#elles knew eachother by this line )a#hael and Michael Angelo, andAlbert *uerer, are known by this and this alone! Thewant of this determinate and bounding form eidencesthe idea of want in the artistCs mind!

Blake$

(LL666

My o#inion is that he who knows how to draw well andmerely does a foot or a hand or a neck, can #ainteerything created in the world and yet there are#ainters who #aint eerything there is in the world soim#atiently and so much without worth that it would be


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better not to do it at all! 8ne recognises the knowledgeof a great man in the fear with which he does a thing themore he understands it and, on the contrary, theignorance of others in the foolhardy daring with which

they fill #ictures with what they know nothing about!There may be an eFcellent master who has neer#ainted more than a single figure, and without #aintinganything more deseres more renown and honour thanthose who hae #ainted a thousand #ictures& he knowsbetter how to do what he has not done than the othersknow what they do!

ichael Angelo$

(LL6V

6t is known that bodies in motion always describe someline or other in the air, as the whirling round of afirebrand a##arently makes a circle, the waterfall #art ofa cure, the arrow and bullet, by the swiftness of theirmotions, nearly a straight line waing lines are formedby the #leasing moement of a shi# on the waes!


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+ogarth$

(LLV

*istinguish the arious #lanes of a #icture bycircumscribing them each in turn class them in theorder in which they #resent themseles to the daylightbefore beginning to #aint, settle which hae the samealue! Thus, for eFam#le, in a drawing on tinted #a#ermake the #arts that glitter gleam out with your white,then the lights, rendered also with white, but fainterafterwards those of the half$tones that can be managedby means of the #a#er, then a first half$tone with the

chalk, ?c! @hen at the edge of a #lane which you haeaccurately marked, you hae a little more light than atthe centre of it, you gie so much more definition of itsflatness or #rojection! This is the secret of modelling! 6twill be of no use to add black that will not gie themodelling! 6t follows that one can model with ery slightmaterials!

Delacroi.$

(LLV6

Take a style of siler or brass, or anything else #roidedthe #oint is siler, sufficiently fine shar#H and #olishedand good! Then to acuire command of hand in usingthe style, begin to draw with it from a co#y as freely asyou can, and so lightly that you can scarcely see whatyou hae begun to do, dee#ening your strokes little by

little, and going oer them re#eatedly to make theshadows! @here you would make it darkest go oer itmany times and, on the contrary, make but few toucheson the lights! And you must be guided by the light of thesun, and the light of your eye, and your hand andwithout these three things you can do nothing #ro#erly!


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(ontrie always when you draw that the light issoftened, and that the sun strikes on your left hand andin this manner you should begin to #ractise drawing onlya short time eery day, that you may not become eFed

or weary!

Cennino Cennini$

(LLV66

Charcoal$"ou canCt draw, you #aint with it!

Pencil$6t is always touch and go whether 6 can manage it

een now! 'ometimes knots will come in it, and 6 neercan get them out$$6 mean little black s#ecks! 6f 6 haeonce india$rubbered it, it doesnCt make a good drawing! 6look on a #erfectly successful drawing as one built u#ona groundwork of clear lines till it is finished! 6tCs the samekind of thing with red chalk$$it mustnCt be taken out&rubbing with the finger is all right! 6n fact you donCtsucceed with any #rocess until you find out how you mayknock it about and in what way you must be careful!

'lowly built$u# teFture in oil$#ainting gies you the bestchance of changing without damage when it isnecessary!

B!rne%/ones$

(LLV666

The sim#ler your lines and forms are the stronger and

more beautiful they will be! @heneer you break u#forms you weaken them! 6t is as with eerything elsethat is s#lit and diided!

4ngres$

(LL6L


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The dra#eries with which you dress figures ought to haetheir folds so accommodated as to surround the #artsthey are intended to coer that in the mass of lightthere be not any dark fold, and in the mass of shadows

none receiing too great a light! They must go gentlyoer, describing the #arts but not with lines across,cutting the members with hard notches, dee#er than the#art can #ossibly be at the same time, it must fit thebody, and not a##ear like an em#ty bundle of cloth afault of many #ainters, who, enamoured of the uantityand ariety of folds, hae encumbered their figures,forgetting the intention of clothes, which is to dress andsurround the #arts gracefully whereer they touch and

not to be filled with wind, like bladders #uffed u# wherethe #arts #roject! 6 do not deny that we ought not toneglect introducing some handsome folds among thesedra#eries, but it must be done with great judgment, andsuited to the #arts, where, by the actions of the limbsand #osition of the whole body, they gather together!Aboe all, be careful to ary the uality and uantity ofyour folds in com#ositions of many figures so that, ifsome hae large folds, #roduced by thick woollen cloth,others being dressed in thinner stuff, may hae themnarrower some shar# and straight, others soft andundulating!

)eonardo$

(LLL

*o not s#are yourself in drawing from the liing model,

dra#ed as well as undra#ed in fact, draw dra#erycontinually, for remember that the beauty of your designmust largely de#end on the design of the dra#ery! @hatyou should aim at is to get so familiar with all this thatyou can at last make your design with ease andsomething like certainty, without drawing from models in


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the first draught, though you should make studies fromnature afterwards!

*illiam orris$

(LLL6

A womanCs sha#e is best in re#ose, but the fine thingabout a man is that he is such a s#lendid machine, soyou can #ut him in motion, and make as many knobsand joints and muscles about him as you #lease!

B!rne%/ones$

(LLL66

6 want to draw from the nude this summer as much as 6#ossibly can 6 am sure that it is the only way to kee#oneself u# to the standard of draughtsmanshi# that is soabsolutely necessary to any one who wishes to becomea craftsman in #reference to a glorified amateur!

C$ *$ F!rse$

(LLL666

Always when you draw make u# your mind definitely asto what are the salient characteristics of the object, andeF#ress those as #ersonally as you can, not mindingwhether your iew is or is not shared by your relatiesand friends!


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constantly to fill ga#s which an unincisie ision hascaused, and which will inariably make work dull andmediocre and wooden!

C$ *$ F!rse$

(LLL6V

6n +a#anese #ainting form and colour are re#resentedwithout any attem#t at relief, but in Euro#ean methodsrelief and illusion are sought for!

+ok!sai$

(LLLV

6t is indeed ridiculous that most of our #eo#le aredis#osed to regard @estern #aintings as a kind of ;ki$ye!As 6 hae re#eatedly remarked, a #ainting which is not afaithful co#y of nature has neither beauty nor is worthyof the name! @hat 6 mean to say is this& be the subjectwhat it may, a landsca#e, a bird, a bullock, a tree, astone, or an insect, it should be treated in a way solifelike that it is instinct with life and motion!


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harmonic base, and more than anything else they decideictory or defeat! A method is of little account at thosemoments when the final effect is at hand one uses anymeans, een diabolical inocations, and when the need

comes, when 6 hae eFhausted the resources of #igment,6 use a scra#er, #umice$stone, and if nothing else seres,the handle of my brush!

Ro!ssea!$

(LLLV66

The noblest relieo in #ainting is that which is resultant

from the treatment of the masses, not from the ulgarswelling and rounding of the bodies and the nobleVenetian massing is eFcellent in this uality! Those #artsin which there is necessity for salient uality of reliefmust be eF#ressed with a certain uadrature, a certainaried grace of accent like that which the bony ridgedeelo#s in beautiful wrists and ankles, also in some ofthe tunic$folds that fall behind the arm of the recumbent9ate oer the middle of the figure of the


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:e who desires to be a #ainter must learn to rule theblack, and red, and white!

Titian$

(L%6

There is the black which is old and the black which isfresh, lustrous black and dull black, black in sunlight andblack in shadow! 9or the old black, one must use anadmiFture of red for the fresh black, an admiFture ofblue for the dull black, an admiFture of white forlustrous black, gum must be added black in sunlight

must hae grey reflections!

+ok!sai$

(L%66

@hen you are #ainting #ut a #iece of black eletbetween your eye and nature by this means you willeasily conince yourself that in nature eerything isblond, een the dark trunks of trees relieed against thesky! Black, when it is in shadow, is strong in tone, butceases to be black!

D!tille!.$

(L%666

The Variation of (olour in uneen 'u#erficies, is whatconfounds an unskilful Painter but if he takes (are tomark the 8utlines of his 'u#erficie, and the 'eat of his%ights, he will find the true (olouring no such difficultmatter& 9or first he will alter the 'u#erficies #ro#erly asfar as the %ine of 'e#aration, either with @hite or Blacks#aringly as only with gentle *ew then he will in thesame Manner bedew the other 'ide of the %ine, if 6 may


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be allowed the eF#ression, then this again and so on byturns, till the light 'ide is brightened with moretrans#arent (olour, and the same (olour on the other'ide dies away like 'moak into an easy 'hade! But you

should always remember, that no 'u#erficie should eerbe made so white that you cannot make it still brighter&Een in Painting the whitest (loaths you should abstainfrom coming near the strongest of that (olour becausethe Painter has nothing but @hite wherewith to imitatethe Polish of the most shining 'u#erficie whatsoeer, as 6know of none but Black with which he can re#resent theutmost 'hade and 8bscurity of


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#ossible faults it is clearly im#ossible to teach colour bywords, een eer so little of it, though it can be taught ina worksho#, at least #artially! @ell, 6 should say, berather restrained than oer$luFurious in colour, or you

weary the eye! *o not attem#t oer$refinements incolour, but be frank and sim#le! 6f you look at the #iecesof colouring that most delight you in ornamental work,as, e$g$a Persian car#et, or an illuminated book of theMiddle Ages, and analyse its elements, you will, if youare not used to the work, be sur#rised at the sim#licityof it, the few tints used, the modesty of the tints, andtherewithal the clearness and #recision of all boundarylines! 6n all fine flat colouring there are regular systems

of diiding colour from colour! Aboe all, donCt attem#tiridescent blendings of colour, which look likedecom#osition! They are about as much as #ossible thereerse of useful!

*illiam orris$

(L%V

After seeing all the fine #ictures in 9rance, 6taly, andGermany, one must come to this conclusion$$that colo!r,if not the first, is at least an essential uality in #ainting!


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or misunderstood! 6 saw myself at 9lorence his famousVenus u#on an easel, with =irku# and @allis by me! This#icture, so often co#ied, and eery co#y a fresh mistake,is, what 6 eF#ected it to be, dee# yet brilliant

indescribable in its hues, yet sim#le beyond eFam#le inits eFecution and its colouring! 6ts flesh 8 how ourfriends at home would stareH is a sim#le, sober, miFed$u# tint, and a##arently, like your skies, com#leted whilewet!


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#ure and sim#le! Titian is a colourist but not a luminarist,while (orreggio is a colourist and a luminarist!

The sim#le colourists are those who content themseles

with re#resenting the tones in their alue and colourwithout troubling about the magic of light they also gieto tones all their intensity!

The luminarists, as the word indicates, make light themost im#ortant thing! Three names will make youunderstand )embrandt, (orreggio, and (laude %orraine!

(laude, taking the light of the sun for a starting$#oint,

justifies his method by nature& you know that he startsfrom a luminous #oint, and that #oint is the sun! To makethis brilliant you must make great sacrifices, for youhae no doubt remarked that we #ainters always beginwith a half$tint as our #aintings are not brightened bythe light of the sun, and start with a half$tint, it isnecessary by the magic of tones to make this half$tintshine like a luminous thing! "ou see that it is a difficult#roblem to sole how does (laude do itK :e does not

co#y the eFact tones of nature, since beginning with adull one, he is obliged to make it luminous! :etrans#oses as in music he obseres all thingsconstituting light, remarks that the rays #reent us fromseiNing the outline of a bright object, that then the flameis enelo#ed by a bright halo then by a second one lessiid, and so on until the tones become dull and sombre!6n short, to make myself understood, his #icture seenfrom distance re#resents a flame!

(orreggio also works in this way! Take for eFam#le his#icture of Antio#e!

The woman, enelo#ed in a #anther skin, is as bright asa flame! The soft red tone forms the first halo, then the


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8utline is as ideal and conentional in #ainting as inscul#ture it should result naturally from the goodarrangement of the essential #arts! The combined#re#aration of effect which im#lies #ers#ectie and

colour will a##roach more or less the actual as#ect ofthings, according to the degree of the #ainterCs skill butthis foundation will contain #otentially eerythingincluded in the final result!

Delacroi.$

(%

6 beliee colour to be a uite indis#ensable uality in thehighestart, and that no #icture eer belonged to thehighest order without it while many, by #ossessing it$$asthe works of Titian$$are raised certainly into the highestclass, though not to the ery highest grade of that class,in s#ite of the limited degree of their other greatualities! Perha#s the onl"eFce#tion which 6 should beinclined to admit eFists in the works of :ogarth, to which6 should neer dare to assign any but the ery highest

#lace, though their colour is certainly not a #rominentfeature in them! 6 must add, howeer, that :ogarthCscolour is seldom other than #leasing to myself, and thatfor my own #art 6 should almost call him a colourist,though not aiming at colour! 8n the other hand, thereare men who, merely on account of bad colour, #reentme from thoroughly enjoying their works, though full ofother ualities! 9or instance, @ilkie or *elaroche innearly all his works, though the :emicycle is fine in

colourH! 9rom @ilkie 6 would at any time #refer athoroughly fine engraing$$though of course he is in nores#ect een within hail of :ogarth! (olour is the#hysiognomy of a #icture and, like the sha#e of thehuman forehead, it cannot be #erfectly beautiful without#roing goodness and greatness! 8ther ualities are in


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same as frescoes u#on the flattened wall! 'im#licity oftint and of colour #reails no staining or mottledarieties& the flesh, both in light and shadow, is#roduced by one miFed u# tint so melted that no mark of

the brush is seen! There is here no scratching orscumbling$$no re#etitions all seems #re#ared at once forthe glaNe, which, sim#le as the #ainting is, gies to itwith fearless hand the richness and glow of (orreggio!All imitations of this master are com#licated com#aredto this, and how com#licated and abstruse does it makeall attem#ts of the #resent day to gie similar effects incolouring :ere is one figure in outline u#on the#re#ared board, with een the finger$marks in colour of

the #ainter himself! :ere is the #re#aration of the figures#ainted u# at once, and, strange to say, with solid andeen sunny colours! :ere are the heads of a woman andof a naked child, com#leted with the full Nest and tone of(orreggio, in teFture fine, and in eF#ression rich andluFurious, and as fine an eFam#le of his #owers as any#art to be found in his most celebrated work!

*ilkie$

(%6V

6n a modern eFhibition #ictures lose by tone at firstglance, but in the %oure #ictures gained, and Titian,(orreggio, )ubens, (uy#, and )embrandt combatedeerything by the de#th of their tones and one stillho#es that, when toning is successfully done, it will#reail!

"ou hae now got your eFhibition o#en in Edinburgh& doyou find tone and de#th an adantage there or notKPainting bright and raw, if one can find in his heart tolower and glaNe it afterwards, is always satisfactory butunless strength can be combined with this, it will neer


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be the fashion in our days!

*ilkie$

(%V

6 went into the


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his first im#ulse, and doesnCt think he has wasted his lifein wrong directions!

B!rne%/ones$

(%V6

All #ainting consists of sacrifices andparti%pris!

'o"a$

(%V66

6n nature, colour eFists no more than line,$$there is only

light and shade! Gie me a #iece of charcoal, and 6 will#aint your #ortrait for you!

'o"a$

(%V666

6t reuires much more obseration and study to arrie at#erfection in the shadowing of a #icture than in merely

drawing the lines of it! The #roof of this is, that the linesmay be traced u#on a eil or a flat glass #laced betweenthe eye and the object to be imitated! But that cannot beof any use in shadowing, on account of the infinitegradation of shades, and the blending of them whichdoes not allow of any #recise termination and mostfreuently they are confused, as will be demonstrated inanother #lace!

)eonardo$

%6G:T A


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9orget not therefore that the #rinci#al #art of Painting or*rawing after the life consisteth in the truth of the line,as one sayeth in a #lace that he hath seen the #icture ofher Majesty in four lines ery like, meaning by four lines

but the #lain lines, as he might as well hae said in oneline, but best in #lain lines without shadowing for theline without shadow showeth all to a good +udgement,but the shadow without line showeth nothing, as, foreFam#le, though the shadow of a man against a whitewall sheweth like a man, yet it is not the shadow but theline of the shadow, which is so true that it resembletheFcellently well, as drawn by that line about the shadowwith a coal, and when the shadow is gone it will

resemble better than before, and may, if it be a fair face,hae sweet countenance een in the line for the lineonly gieth the countenance, but both line and colourgieth the liely likeness, and shadows shew theroundness and the effect or *efect of the light whereinthe #icture was drawn! This makes me to remember thewords also and reasoning of her Majesty when first 6came in her highnessC #resence to draw, who aftershewing me how she noted great difference ofshadowing in the works and *iersity of *rawers ofsundry nations, and that the 6talians who had the nameto be cunningest and to *raw best, shadowed not!)euiring of me the reason of it, seeing that best toshew oneself needeth no shadow of #lace but rather theo#en light, to which 6 granted, affirmed that shadows in#ictures were indeed caused by the shadow of the #laceor coming in of the light at only one way into the #lace

at some small or high window, which many workmencoet to work in for ease to their sight, and to gie untothem a grosser line and a more a##arent line to bedesered, and maketh the work imborse well and showery well afar off, which to %imning work needeth not,because it is to be iewed of necessity in hand near untothe Eye! :ere her Majesty conceied the reason, and


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therefore chose her #lace to sit in for that #ur#ose in theo#en alley of a goodly garden, where no tree was nearnor any shadow at all, sae that as the :eaen is lighterthan the earth, so must that little shadow that was from

the earth this her MajestyCs curious *emand hathgreatly bettered my +udgement, besides diers other likeuestions in Art by her most eFcellent Majesty, which tos#eak or write of were fitter for some better clerk! Thismatter only of the light let me #erfect that no wise manlonger remain in Error of #raising much shadows in#ictures which are to be iewed in hand great #ictureshigh or far off )euire hard shadows to become thebetter then nearer in story work better than #ictures of

the life for beauty and good faour is like clear truth,which is not shadowed with the light nor made to beobscured, as a #icture a little shadowed may be bornewithal for the rounding of it, but so greatly smutted or*arkened as some use *isgrace it, and in like truth illtold, if a ery well faoured woman show in a #lacewhere is great shadow, yet showeth she loely notbecause of the shadow but because of her sweet faourconsisting in the line or #ro#ortion, een that little whichthe light scarcely showeth greatly #leaseth, #roing the*esire to see more!

&icholas +illiard$

(%L

The lights cast from small windows also #resent a strongcontrast of light and shadow, more es#ecially if the

chamber lit by them is large and this is not good to usein #ainting!

)eonardo$

(%L6


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@hen you are drawing from nature the light should befrom the north, so that it may not ary and if it is fromthe south kee# the window coered with a curtain sothat though the sun shine u#on it all day long the light

will undergo no change! The eleation of the light shouldbe such that each body casts a shadow on the groundwhich is of the same length as its height!

)eonardo$

(%L66

Aboe all let the figures that you #aint hae sufficient

light and from aboe, that is, all liing #ersons whomyou #aint, for the #eo#le whom you see in the streetsare all lighted from aboe and 6 would hae you knowthat you hae no acuaintance so intimate but that if thelight fell on him from below you would find it difficult torecognise him!

)eonardo$

(%L666

6f by accident it should ha##en, that when drawing orco#ying in cha#els, or colouring in other unfaourable#laces, you cannot hae the light on your left hand, or inyour usual manner, be sure to gie relief to your figuresor design according to the arrangement of the windowswhich you find in these #laces, which hae to gie youlight, and thus accommodating yourself to the light on

which side soeer it may be, gie the #ro#er lights andshadows! 8r if it were to ha##en that the light shouldenter or shine right o##osite or full in your face, makeyour lights and shades accordingly or if the light shouldbe faourable at a window larger than the others in theaboe$mentioned #laces, ado#t always the best light,


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and try to understand and follow it carefully, because,wanting this, your work would be without relief, a foolishthing without mastery!

Cennino Cennini$

(%L6V

"ou hae heard about MerlinCs magic art here in Veniceyou may seethat of Titian, Giorgione, and all the others!6n the PalaNNo Barbarigo we went to the room which issaid to hae been TitianCs studio for some time! Thewindow faces the south, and the sun is shining on the

floor by two oCclock! This made us think, whether youshould not, after all, let the sun be there while you are#ainting! A tem#erate sunlight in the room makes thelights golden, and through the many, crossing, warmreflections the shadows get clearer and moretrans#arent! But the difficulty is to know how to dealwith such a shimmer it is easier to #aint with the lightcoming from the north! 8n the other hand, you see thatthe Venetians neer tried to render in #ainting the

im#ression of real, o#en sunlight! Their delicate sense ofcolour found a greater delight in looking at the fine fusedtones and shades which are seen when the sunlight isonly reflected under the clear blue sky and between thehigh #alaces! Therefore, you often think that you see, forinstance, grou#s of gondoliers on the PiaNNetta in gaysilery notes, as in any #ainting by Paolo Veronese andin the warm daylight in the great, gorgeous halls of thePalaNNo *ucale there are still figures walking about in a

colour as golden and fresh as if they were #aintings byTitian!

1$ )!ndgren$


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P8)T)A6T;)E

(%LV

Painting the face of a #retty young girl is like caring a#ortrait in siler! There may be great elaboration, but nolikeness will be forthcoming! 6t is better to #ut theelaboration into the young ladyCs clothes, and trust to atouch here and a stroke there to bring out her beauty asit really is!

! -ai%Chih(hinese, fourth centuryH!

(%LV6

Portraiture may be great art! There is a sense, indeed, inwhich it is #erha#s the greatest art of any! And#ortraiture inoles eF#ression! uite true, buteF#ression of whatK 8f a #assion, an emotion, a moodK(ertainly not! Paint a man or a woman with the damnedD#leasing eF#ression,D or een the Dcharminglys#ontaneousD so dear to the D#hotogra#hic artist,D and

you see at once that the thing is a mask, as silly as theold tragic and comic mask! The only eF#ressionallowable in great #ortraiture is the eF#ression ofcharacter and moral uality, not of anything tem#orary,fleeting, and accidental! A#art from #ortraiture you donCtwant een so much, or ery seldom& in fact, you onlywant ty#es, symbols, suggestions! The moment you giewhat #eo#le call eF#ression, you destroy the ty#icalcharacter of heads and degrade them into #ortraits

which stand for nothing!

B!rne%/ones$

(%LV66

6t #roduces a magnificent effect to #lace whole figures


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and grou#s, which are in shade, against a light field! Thecontrary, i$e$figures that are in light against a dark field,cannot be so #erfectly eF#ressed, because eeryilluminated figure, with or without a side light, will hae

some shade! The nearest a##roach to this is when theobject so treated ha##en to be ery fair, with otherobjects reflecting into their shades!

'hade against shade is indefinite! %ight and shadeagainst shade are mediate! %ight against shade is#ers#icuous! %ight and shade against light is mediate!%ight against light is indefinite or indistinct!

1dward Calvert$

(%LV666

Most of the masters hae had a way, slaishly imitatedby their schools and following, of eFaggerating thedarkness of the backgrounds which they gie their#ortraits! They thought in this way to make the headsmore interesting, but this darkness of background, in

conjunction with faces lighted as we see them in nature,de#ries these #ortraits of that character of sim#licitywhich should be dominant in them! This darkness #lacesthe objects intended to be thrown into relief in uiteabnormal conditions! 6s it natural that a face seen in lightshould stand out against a really dark background$$thatis to say, one which receies no lightK 8ught not thelight which falls on the figure to fall also on the wall, orthe ta#estry against which the figure standsK ;nless it

should ha##en that the face stands out against dra#eryof an eFtremely dark tone$$but this condition is ery rare,or against the entrance of a caern or cellar entirelyde#ried of daylight$$a circumstance still rarer$$themethod cannot but a##ear factitious!


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The chief charm in a #ortrait is sim#licity! 6 do not countamong true #ortraits those in which the aim has been toidealise the features of a famous man when the #ainterhas to reconstruct the face from traditional likenesses

there, inention rightly #lays a #art! True #ortraits arethose #ainted from contem#oraries! @e like to see themon the canas as we meet them in daily life, eenthough they should be #ersons of eminence and fame!

Delacroi.$

(%L6L

Verestchagin says the old$fashioned way of setting a#ortrait$head against a dark ground is not onlyunnecessary, but being usually untrue when a #erson isseen by daylight, should be eF#loded as false andunreal! But it is certain a light garish background behinda #ainted head will not #ermit that head to hae theim#ortance it should hae in reality, when the actualfacts, solidity, moement, #lay of light and shadow,#ersonal knowledge of the indiidual or his history,

joined to the effects of different #lanes, distances,materials, ?c!, will combine to inest the reality withinterests the most subtle and deFterous artisticcontriances cannot com#ete with, and which certainlythe artist cannot with reason be asked to resign! A senseof the #ower of an autocrat, from whose li#s one mightbe awaiting consignment to a dungeon or death, wouldbe as much felt if he stood in front of the commonestwall$#a#er, in the commonest lodging$house, in the

meanest watering$#lace, but no such im#ressions couldbe coneyed by the #ainter who de#icted suchsurroundings! %astly, 6 must strongly dissent from theo#inion recently eF#ressed by some, that seems to im#lythat a #ortrait$#icture need hae no interest eFce#ting inthe figure, and that the background had better be


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without any! This may be a good #rinci#le for #roducingan effect on the walls of an eFhibition$room, where thesurroundings are incongruous and inharmonious anintellectual or beautiful face should be more interesting

than any accessories the artist could #ut into thebackground!


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whereas in VelasueN 6 find the other thing!

C$ *$ F!rse$

(%LL6

6 hae wished to oblige the beholder, on looking at the#ortrait, to think wholly of the face in front of him, andnothing of the man who #ainted it! And it is my o#inionthat the artist who #aints #ortraits in this way need haeno fear of the #itfall of mannerismeither in treatment ortouch!

*atts$

(%LL66

%et us !!! eFamine modern #ortraits! 6 shut my eyes andthink of those full lengths in the


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of the #ortrait, and only arrested by some dab of #ink ormaue, which will remind you that the artist isdeelo#ing a somewhat irreleant colour scheme!

9or solidity, for the realisation of the great constructie#lanes of things, for that element of scul#ture whicheFists in all good #ainting, you will look in ain! 6 am surethat in an aerage Academy there are not three realattem#ts to get the alues$$that is, the ineitablerelation of objects in light and shade that must eFistunder any circumstances$$and not one attem#t tocontrie an artificial com#osition of light and shadewhich shall concentrate the attention of the s#ectator on

the crucial #oint, and shall introduce these delightfuleffects of dark things against light and light against dark,which lend such richness and ariety of tone and suchitality of construction to Titian, )embrandt, and)eynolds! 6f we turn for a moment to the


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design to a #icture that is not in other res#ects of thehighest interest!

C$ *$ F!rse$

(%LL666

@hy hae 6 not before now finished the miniature 6#romised to Mrs! ButtsK 6 answer 6 hae not till now inany degree #leased myself, and now 6 must entreat youto eFcuse faults, for #ortrait #ainting is the directcontrary to designing and historical #ainting in eeryres#ect! 6f you hae not nature before you for eery

touch, you cannot #aint #ortrait and if you hae naturebefore you at all, you cannot #aint history! 6t was MichaelAngeloCs o#inion and is mine!

Blake$

(%LL6V

6 often find myself wondering why #eo#le are sofreuently dissatisfied with their #ortraits, but 6 think 6hae discoered the #rinci#al reason$$they are not#leased with themseles, and therefore cannot endure afaithful re#resentation! 6 find it is the same with myself! 6cannot bear any #ortraits of myself, eFce#t those of myown #ainting, where 6 hae had the o##ortunity ofcoaFing them, so as to suit my own feelings!

&orthcote$

%6G:T A


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brilliant, nothing more radiant than nature! Paintingtends to become confused and to lose its #ower to strikehard! Make things monumental and yet real set downthe lights and the shadows as in reality! :eads which are

all in a half$tone flushed with colour from a strong sunheads in the light, full of air and freshness these shouldbe a delight to #aint!

Chasseria!$

(%LLV6

The first object of a #ainter is to make a sim#le flat

surface a##ear like a relieo, and some of its #artsdetached from the ground he who eFcels all others inthat #art of the art deseres the greatest #raise! This#erfection of the art de#ends on the correct distributionof lights and shades called Chiaro%sc!ro! 6f the #ainter,then, aoids shadows, he may be said to aoid the gloryof the art, and to render his work des#icable to realconnoisseurs, for the sake of acuiring the esteem ofulgar and ignorant admirers of fine colours, who neer

hae any knowledge of relieo!

)eonardo$

(%LLV66

(hiaroscuro, to use untechnical language and to s#eakof it as it is em#loyed by all the schools, is the art ofmaking atmos#here isible and #ainting objects in an

enelo#e of air! 6ts aim is to create all the #icturesueaccidents of the shadows, of the half$tones and the light,of relief and distance, and to gie in conseuence moreariety, more unity of effect, of ca#rice, and of relatietruth, to forms as to colours! The o##osite conce#tion isone more ingenuous and abstract, a method by which


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hours, or een days, when 6 hae been endeaouring toimagine a scene 6 was about to #aint, and hae neerstirred till 6 had got it clear in my mind then 6 haesketched it as uickly as 6 could, before the im#ression

has left me!

&orthcote$

*E(8)AT6VE A)T

(%LL6L

*ecoration is the actiity, the life of art, its justification,and its social utility!

Brac0!emond$

(%LLL

The true function of #ainting is to animate wall$s#aces!A#art from this, #ictures should neer be larger than

oneCs hand!

P!vis de Chavannes$

(%LLL6

6 want big things to do and ast s#aces, and for common#eo#le to see them and say 8h$$only 8h

B!rne%/ones$

(%LLL66

6 insist u#on mural #ainting for three reasons$$first,because it is an eFercise of art which demands theabsolute knowledge only to be obtained by honest study,


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the alue of which no one can doubt, whateer branch ofart the student might choose to follow afterwardssecondly, because the #ractice would bring out thatgraity and nobility deficient in the English school, but

not in the English char

the mind of the artist.rtf

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