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PRECEPTS AND OBSERVATIONS'^ 
 
 ON 
 
 -v r / % 
 
 THE ART OF COLOURING 
 
 #£4* 
 
 IN 
 
 THE LATE WILLIAM ORAM, ESQ 
 
 his majesty’s board of works. 
 
 Quid si Naturae fas explorare sagaci 
 
 Mente vias. Vanier. Freed. Rust. I . xi 
 
 Arranged from the Author’s original MS. and published 
 by Charles Clarke, Esq. F. S.A. 
 
 Hontrou : 
 
 PRINTED FOR WHITE AND COCHRANE, HORACE’S HEAD, FLEET STREET; 
 BY RICHARD TAYLOR AND CO. SHOE LANE, 
 
 M.DCCC.X, 
 

TO 
 
 Sir Andrew Snape Hammond, Bart. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 Allow me the honour of presenting 
 to you a work on the art of Painting; which from 
 the superior merit of its author, as an artist , may 
 he esteemed not unworthy your regard and pro - 
 tection : at the same time, I request you will 
 grant me the satisfaction of thus publicly acknow- 
 ledging the real sense of gratitude I shall ever 
 entertain towards you, on account of the many and 
 singular instances conferred upon me, of your at- 
 tention and goodness. 
 
 1 remain, with true respect. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 Your most obedient 
 and most humble Servant, 
 
 CHARLES CLARKE. 
 
 London, 
 
 5th April, 1810 . 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 
 
 https://archive.org/details/preceptsobservat00oram_0 
 
PI. I. pa. 18. 
 
 MJEMOlRA'KIDTtJM OF A. SET. 
 

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 Il€HOLA§ POUSSIl, 
 
 Sold by Auction etTi'j 56 . 
 Publish'dAi/yii, 1810, by 'White & Cochrane, Fleet Street , 
 
PL. 6. j) cl. 96 . 
 
 Publish'd Shuyhj.810, by White & Cochrane, Fleet Street . 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Although Painting, in common with the 
 other arts, has found several able professors, who 
 •have given to the world its theory, and many of the 
 rules founded upon it ; yet it must be observed, 
 that, with very little exception, the advantage 
 arising from those labours has been confined to 
 the historical painter alone. The second branch, 
 and that from which some of the greatest plea- 
 sures of the art are derived, has hitherto been 
 little more than incidentally touched upon; at 
 the same time it is to be acknowledged that 
 there may be found, in several authors, much 
 that is conducive to the advancement of land- 
 scape painting: besides, there is a little trea- 
 
Vllt 
 
 enjoyed a great share of the public estimation* 
 about the middle of the last century, as a painter 
 of very great ability ; which gaining him an inti- 
 mate friendship with the late Sir Edward Wal- 
 pole, he obtained under his patronage a seat at 
 the Board of Works, for which he was on several 
 accounts perfectly qualified. In his practice as 
 an artist, he was wholly employed on landscape 
 and architecture ; for in architecture* he had 
 an extensive and critical information, aided by 
 an exact theory and practice of perspective j 
 such, it may be said, as, together, fall to few 
 pursuers of the arts, or can he found in the 
 merely geometrical professor. His manner of 
 
 * In architecture, however, his remaining works are but few. The 
 triumphal arch for the coronation of His present Majesty King 
 George III. (a plate of which was engraved by Walker) ; and the great 
 staircase at the Queen’s Palace, Buckingham House, were designed 
 and painted by Mr. Oram, who also repaired the painting of that at 
 Hampton Court ; and he was at that time in such favour, as to be ap- 
 pointed to direct in the removal of the Cartoons from Hampton Court 
 to Kensington. A single building of his only is remembered, a house 
 in Lancashire, at the instance of his friend, counsellor Lucas. 
 
painting was in conformity to the taste of the 
 time in which he flourished, formed upon the 
 model of Gaspar Poussin, and of the superior 
 masters of the Italian school. With this he fre- 
 quently united in his compositions the style of our 
 English views, and many of the beauties of the 
 Flemish and Dutch painters ; a compass within 
 which lies all that is great and impressive in the 
 vast theatre of Nature, as well as a judicious close- 
 ness and precision in minute imitation. How well 
 he comprehended and made his own the perfec- 
 tions of those originals, may be learnt from his re- 
 maining works, and the remarks he has left be- 
 hind, developing their methods of colouring, and 
 of producing harmony and effect. Nor can it be 
 deemed but eminently useful to the profession 
 of landscape painting, that his practice and re- 
 sources are given to the public, since they were 
 acquired through his preceptors, in descent from 
 those masters who then held possession of the 
 public esteem, and may be accepted as little less 
 than their own. 
 
 b 
 
To offer something on the work itself : — The 
 first four chapters comprehend such general prin- 
 ciples as were most detached from practical infor- 
 mation ; and as the intention of the author seems to 
 have been to note down but precepts of that 
 nature, it was to be expected that these should be 
 found less carefully expressed than such as relate 
 to the other parts of his subject, which may ac- 
 count for a slight degree of obscurity among 
 many lucid precepts : besides, the work wants 
 the usual exordium* so requisite for conciliating, 
 at the outset, a good understanding with the 
 reader. On colouring we commence fully at the 
 fifth chapter; the manner of painting skies is de- 
 tailed, not merely as to preserving character and 
 effect, but the colours are named and com- 
 pounded into tints, and the method of applica- 
 tion pointed out, with a specimen given of his 
 
 * Among the author’s MSS. one was found, fairly written, on the 
 Idea of Painting, Truth, and Invention ; which appearing to be ex- 
 tracted from De Piles, has been given as a note to the eighth chapter, 
 although it might have been arranged as a commencement for his 
 intended work. One or two notes by the Editor are also added. 
 
XI 
 
 own practice in one of his best performances. 
 On the paper forming the sixth chapter is in- 
 dorsed a lesson to be read and observed in the 
 process of every picture. In it is contained much 
 to be attended to at the outset of a picture, in pre- 
 paring it for finishing, breaking tlje local colour- 
 ing, as demanded by distance from the eye, and 
 secession from the light, with other points which 
 are taken up and pursued in the following, by de- 
 tails of his own processes, particularly those em- 
 ployed in a large work of acknowledged labour 
 and merit in Chap. X. Observations aided by 
 views of the country ; and on performances of 
 eminent masters, are found in Chapters XI. 
 and XII. which comprehend a mass of informa- 
 tion, wholly new and important, on every thing 
 concerned in colouring, an extensive variety and 
 delicacy of tints, and their subservience to the 
 various purposes of the painter : the mode of di- 
 recting the judgement in gradations, from a com- 
 parison of the lights with the shadows of groups 
 
 b 2 
 
XIV 
 
 family and conversation; and he may add, that 
 such is the respect and sense of obligation he 
 has constantly entertained towards him while 
 living, and to his memory since his decease, that 
 he trusts that he has not considerably failed in this 
 task, in the performance of which, he has but 
 sought, with the arrangement to leave the lan- 
 guage of the author generally as it was written, 
 well knowing how easily his intentions might be 
 lost, as well as of how little consequence can be, 
 in a work on painting, what is usually termed 
 fine writing, which may be said to be almost 
 excluded by treating of the minutiae of the art 
 
 to which the author has descended. Five 
 
 sketches are also engraved with the respective 
 colours noted down, by which their result or 
 general effect becomes as from a map instantly 
 evident. This method of study is recommended 
 in the Art of Painting by Lairesse ; a circum- 
 stance unknown to the author, who died the 
 year preceding the publication of that work. 
 
XV 
 
 Two letters to the author from a well known 
 artist of considerable merit, then on his studies 
 in Italy, and found among his MSS., having an 
 evident relation to the subject of this work, to- 
 gether with one or two articles in explanation 
 of preceding principles, are given in an Appendix. 
 
 C. C. 
 
XVI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Chap. Page 
 
 I. On aerial perspective - 1 
 
 II. Observations on different appearances of the 
 
 sky - - - - 5 
 
 III. Further observations on the appearances of 
 
 nature, at different times 3 
 
 IY. On the principal light - - - 14 
 
 V. On painting skies - « 15 
 
 VI. Useful remarks on the beginning and finishing 
 
 of a picture - - - 20 
 
 VII. On trees, leafing, colouring, the sea, &c. - 26 
 
 VIII. Method of painting with dispatch - 34 
 
 IX. Scale of gradation of several of the colours 
 
 employed in landscape painting - - 36 
 
 X. Processes employed in several pictures - 38 
 
 XI. On’ various appearances in nature, and the 
 
 means of imitation - - - 46 
 
 XII. Observations on the colouring of several emi- 
 
 nent masters - - - 62 
 
 XIII. A palette of colours for painting skies and 
 
 buildings - 74 
 
 APPENDIX - 79 
 
PRECEPTS AND OBSERVATIONS 
 
 ON 
 
 THE ART OF COLOURING 
 
 I N 
 
 LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ON AERIAL PERSPECTIVE. 
 
 We are more or less deprived of the strength or true 
 appearance of colours, as they are seen under different 
 degrees of privation of light. 
 
 Of privation of light there are two kinds : the one from 
 the heavens*, the other arising from the recession of ob- 
 
 * By privation of light from the heavens must be meant the withdrawing 
 of the sun, the effects of haziness, and the diminution of light as the day 
 closes, with other obvious circumstances in the weather. 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 jects from the light, by which is to be understood that 
 variation in the intensities of lights and shadows caused by 
 an object, or parts of the same object, being exposed to 
 the direct incidence of its rays, or being posited, with re- 
 gard to the direction of those rays, under different degrees 
 of inclination, or receding wholly from them : both these 
 kinds of privation produce the same effect, and the extreme 
 shades of every colour will, in consequence, approach to- 
 wards one and the same kind of hue, according as it is 
 placed under a like degree of obscurity or privation of 
 light ; till at length all distinction of colour w r ould vanish, 
 and give place to darkness, or blackness, were it not for the 
 effects of reflection. 
 
 There is also another cause of indistinctness in colouring. 
 This arises from variation in the distance of objects from 
 the eye, the density of the medium through which they 
 are seen under the strongest lights, and the quality of this 
 medium in other respects ; since it may also vary in degrees 
 of clearness as well as in its colour, w hich it does not fail 
 to communicate to the appearances of objects, whenever 
 it is interposed between them and the eye : hence it is 
 that those objects which by their situations are with- 
 drawn almost wholly from the light, and although coloured 
 with the greatest diversity, approach towards black 
 when the spectator is near them, will become tinged 
 
s 
 
 with the colour of the medium through which they 
 are seen, according to the distance he may afterwards 
 remove from them. But it must be observed that, 
 although the medium may change this blackness into 
 a more tender hue, it cannot recover the least di- 
 stinction in colours : hence, if colours become the nearer 
 to one and the same hue, in proportion as the quan- 
 tity of light they are seen under decreases, and if to 
 their appearance at any time the effect of the medium 
 is considered as interposed between the object and 
 the eye, they must the sooner, according to the nature of 
 that medium, approach towards one and the same hue : 
 therefore all objects, situated at an equal distance from the 
 eye, and that are seen under a like privation of light, must 
 have a correspondent tendency to become of the same co- 
 lour; and consequently the difference in strength between 
 the lights and shades of any object must be weakened more 
 or less, according to its distance, and the medium it is 
 seen through ; hence it appears that privation of light, the 
 distance from the eye , and the species of medium , are the 
 sole governors in colouring ; and it may be observed, that 
 whatever hues some painters have given to objects under 
 their own chosen skies, such could never take place under 
 them, since it has been seen that any one sort of light can 
 have no power or disposition to cause such objects to ap- 
 
 B 2 
 
pear, for instance, redder or bluer at one time than at 
 another, there being but one law for their appearances 
 under any one particular light. 
 
 Now, as nearly as possible to ascertain what those hues 
 are, we may consider thus, with respect particularly to 
 distance and medium : first, we see an object in a close 
 day, which is remote from the eye, suppose one hundred 
 yards, very distinctly ; yet observe the same object at the 
 same distance in a foggy day, and a difference in colour 
 will not be all its alteration : for let its profile appear be- 
 tween the eye and the sky ; and though the distance is the 
 same from whence it was viewed before, yet we shall find 
 it lose, even in profile, its particularities in form, as much 
 perhaps as in a fine day it would at ten times its distance. 
 This shows the loss of shape in proportion to the density 
 of the medium as well as the distance. 
 
5 
 
 / 
 
 CHAPTER II. v 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON DIFFERENT APPEARANCES OF 
 
 THE SKY. 
 
 Since the sun is never vertical or perpendicular to the 
 plane of the horizon in this country, (viz. to the plane on 
 which the spectator is placed, and in the centre of which 
 he appears to be,) it follows that at any one time the 
 colouring of the horizon cannot in its whole circuit be 
 equal ; and must be the less so, as the place of the sun, 
 either in the morning or afternoon, is more distant from 
 the south, at which time it makes its nearest approach 
 each day towards being vertical. Hence, with regard to 
 the effect of the situations of the sun, — when in the morn- 
 ing it is south-east, as its angular distance from the centre 
 of the plane to the east is much less, and it is consequently 
 nearer to the seat of light than from the same centre or 
 place of the spectator to the west (that being diametrically 
 opposite), it will be clearer in its colour, that is, more in- 
 clined to blue, and the contrary in the opposite point; 
 also in the evening, if the sun was quite west or Bonn- 
 
6 
 
 % 
 
 west, then the horizon towards the south or south-east 
 would be the most dark part of the whole aether, and of 
 the duller colour, that is, recede the most from blue, be- 
 cause the brightest colouring will always go with the sun ; 
 and in the evening, shining through a thick atmosphere, 
 it gilds every thing about it, from the greater quantity of 
 matter to absorb its rays, than when more elevated ; conse- 
 quently, for some space from the seat of light, the clear 
 blue colour which is generally in the transition from the 
 bright golden tint, is entered into by a bright greenish 
 colour, very light, the effect of a so much thicker atmo- 
 sphere between the eye and the light at that time ; conse- 
 quently at the same time the opposite point of the hori- 
 zon must appear of the lightest blue colour, and which 
 will be the more blue as it is perpendicular above the 
 spectator, and hence be more and more degraded into the 
 colour at the horizon ; for as the aether over head is gene- 
 rally seen through the least atmosphere, its blue colour is 
 the darkest, and as it approaches the horizon the more it 
 is degraded from this blueness, on account of its becoming 
 the more gross from the greater density of the medium it 
 is seen through ; and thus it will be lighter than in the 
 part which appears above the spectator, till, arriving to- 
 wards the horizon, the blue colour insensibly falls into 
 the duller and darker colour at the horizon, though that 
 
7 
 
 is not so dark (though very near it) as the blue over he 
 Thus, — at the latter end of May, or beginning of June, 
 looking south, when the sun is full west, in the evening, — 
 if a light tender blue is made up to represent that part of 
 the aether at some height above the horizon, and if this is 
 broken with a little vermilion for a second tint, next below 
 it, towards the horizon, and so more and more, taking care 
 to correct it, that it shall not appear reddish or purple till it 
 come quite down to the horizon, it will have the effect de- 
 scribed, and will be darker than the blue above. Again,— 
 looking full east when the sun is west,— it must be more 
 and more broken in the same manner, and not got into the 
 blueish tender light colour so quickly as before. Now in 
 the morning of the same time of the year, somewhat be- 
 fore three o'clock, the first advances of day-light are of a 
 very clear light-blue colour long before any kind of yellow 
 or reddish tints appear ; which being the first approaches 
 of the sun's light seen through our atmosphere, it conse- 
 quently must appear blueish, and in clear weather the 
 colour is of the most agreeable transparency, as it has the 
 advantage of being seen with the tints of night about it. 
 
8 
 
 / 
 
 w 
 
 M 
 
 CHAPTER III, 
 
 FURTHER OBSERVATIONS ON THE APPEARANCE OF 
 NATURE AT DIFFERENT TIMES. 
 
 When the observation 
 is made from the centre 
 O, the sun S being ob- 
 liquely in the middle of 
 the point of view (that is, 
 when looking at the sun 
 there is the same distance 
 of country from it on the 
 left as upon the right), 
 then about noon, at the 
 highest elevation of the 
 sun in the month of June, 
 the aether being clear, the 
 
 appearances of all objects of the same kind will, when seen 
 at equal distances from the spectator, be of the same colour, 
 - — very clear and bright, the local colours presiding more at 
 this than any other time : for the atoms or particles of air 
 being under the same degree of light on both sides the 
 
 *7] 
 
 ^ % 
 
 . 
 
 — i 
 
 .JP./ 
 
 ^ /v 1 
 
 
9 
 
 spectator, and so situated with regard to the eye and the 
 sun, that they reflect none of its light to the eye, and thus 
 not becoming luminous, they transmit the rays from the 
 surrounding objects, which arriving unblended to the eye, 
 such objects are presented to it in their clearest colours ; as 
 also under the greatest strength of appearance, on account 
 of the high and equal situation of the sun with respect to 
 the right and left, his rays having to pass through the least 
 space of the atmosphere, in their way to the objects thus 
 viewed. 
 
 The sun being nearly in S o, and the spectator in E O, 
 the horizon colour will be cool and nearly equal. When in 
 the morning, about six or seven o'clock, the sun may be 
 at S or S, the objects, when seen from the spectator in 
 E 0, will hive very different appearances, from the following 
 reasons : If we look from E © towards D, because the 
 sun has inthat position more atmosphere or atoms to pass 
 through than in the former, and those too being more be- 
 tween the >ye and the sun, when any object is viewed, 
 than befort, the sun shining on the side of these atoms or 
 particles o* air, opposite the spectator, they appear lu- 
 minous fron reflecting a portion of the sun's light, and are 
 thus more capable of obscuring, by giving a hazy appear- 
 ance to su<h objects, than in the former situation, (par- 
 ticularly to hose which are prominent or rising, as hills and 
 
 c 
 
buildings,) because, the sun shining on the opposite side of 
 them, the atoms, which would in the other case weaken their 
 colour (though they remain bright and fresh), do in this 
 not only weaken their colour from their quantity between 
 the eye and the object, but also give those objects the co- 
 lour of their own warm and luminous appearance, render- 
 ing them in this case very faint, more of the horizon co- 
 lour, and somewhat confused* Again, if the view is taken 
 from E O towards F, it has quite another appearance, 
 perhaps the most clear, fresh, and beautiful nature puts 
 
 on; the whole of the local colours becoming (darker and 
 darker, by slight gradations, as they recede from the eye, 
 except that the great quantity of atoms* between the 
 
 * These atoms are noticed by Da Vinci and Mengs, and alp in the 19th 
 chapter of Varenius’s Geography, a work, from its long celebrity likely to be 
 the usual resort ; they are supposed of various qualities, and together with the air 
 to constitute the atmosphere; the lower part of which is also said, y Dr. Vince, 
 to be charged with exhalations which are in greater abundance i the evening 
 than in the morning, on account of those raised by the heat of th: day. These 
 vapours, from their being too minute at their first ascent for causihg reflection, 
 do not destroy the transparency of the air ; but when they hav^ by uniting, 
 become of such magnitudes, that colours may be reflected by soije and trans- 
 mitted by others, clouds are formed, varying in their hues according to the 
 various magnitudes of the globules of which they are composed. k-Sir I, New - 
 ion’s Optics , lib. ii. prop. v. 
 
 This ascent of vapours is also likely to be the cause of the pculiar colours 
 of the morning and evening sky, which commencing near thelhorizon with 
 the less refrangible rays, red, orange, or yellow, as the sun’s cfetance from it 
 is the less, and varying as they proceed upwards, agreeably to tfe rule in those 
 
It 
 
 eye and the remoter parts, which, by their nature, have 
 a tendency to perfect blueness, as we evidently perceive 
 by the aether above our heads, which tendency weakens 
 and somewhat lightens the colours as they go off, and is 
 the reason, in such case, why the nearest trees look darker 
 than those which are further, because the light side of 
 those atoms, when the spectator is between the objects 
 and the sun, being opposed to the eye, their clear and 
 crystalline quality admits of no luminous appearance, and 
 only by their density assuming a brilliant blueness, they 
 freshly weaken the colours ; and but for this property of 
 the atmosphere, there is reason to suppose that, in this 
 position, trees would become darker and darker as they 
 recede from the eye, while the sun is out : it is clear 
 from their nature, when the sun does not shine, that every 
 object receding must appear weaker and weaker, and 
 lighter, regularly, and when the sun does shine, it will 
 yet, with some difference, be the same. Buildings will 
 
 of a ray of light decomposed by the prism, are at a height of about thirty de- 
 grees lost in the blue colour of the air named aether, having previously taken 
 a slight tinge of green : and this property of the vapours collected near the 
 earth, to which their upper surface may be taken as parallel, arises from the 
 sun’s rays falling upon them more obliquely, and being the more refracted as 
 the ascent above the horizon is the greater. The property also of transmitting 
 rays of light, but of one colour, is the cause of the air being blue, and, from 
 being slightly charged with exhalations, not unfrequently taking a gray tinge, 
 and of the yellow appearance of certain fogs, or other colours of the medium 
 through which objects become visible to the eye. 
 
 C 2 
 
n 
 
 always be lighter and lighter as they are nearer the eye, 
 because they are nearer the sun, which is the centre of 
 light, and every thing grows darker as it is further from 
 him, which is in this respect a general rule*; but, in a 
 tree which is near, the sun's rays have but so few atoms to 
 pass through between it and the eye, the lights of the tree 
 absorbing its rays, and the shades appearing verdant, that 
 it must, upon the whole, be darker and stronger than a tree 
 more distant. In like manner also, fields of the same kind 
 seem to become under this appearance rather lighter, 
 from the blueness of the intervening air, though not so 
 from the quantity of light received, for the horizon will be 
 of a darker colour than the whole atmosphere. Thus trees 
 will be darker, and the buildings lighter, as they are nearer 
 the eye, and a field, suppose of barley or oats, near the 
 eye in this case, wall be very much lighter than the hori- 
 
 * Nothing further can be meant in this place, by nearness to the sun, than 
 the diminution of the quantity of the air interposed between the spectator and 
 the object, by which the second species of gradation in tint is caused on the 
 principles noticed in chap. l. and in this case they become the stronger or 
 more local as this becomes the less ; for by locality in colours nothing more 
 can be understood, than the representation of the natural colours of ob- 
 jects, when seen under a bright but clear and common light, and at no 
 further distance from the eye than requisite for distinct vision ; and the great 
 problem in colouring is to find from those given colours the various effects of 
 the complex privation arising from the given distance and position of the ob- 
 ject to the spectator, and the direction of the rays of light, according to the 
 nature of the medium, which may be also considered as given. 
 
13 
 
 zon, or very bright indeed ; and should the middle di- 
 stances be made somewhat lighter than the foregrounds, 
 in consequence of the local colouring of the lights, and 
 the depth of the shadows of the foregrounds, they will 
 seem lighter than those middle distances, when upon trial 
 in nature they are found to be darker. The colouring of the 
 morning is cooler than that of the evening, which may be 
 caused by the sun's rays passing through an atmosphere 
 less dense with humid exhalations from the earth, than 
 towards his setting, on account of the absence of his 
 heat during the night, and which decreasing with the 
 advance of day, are at length wholly dispersed, which 
 produces one of the most distinct and brilliant ap- 
 pearances to be found in nature; while in the evening, 
 the very beautiful and warmer colouring arises from the 
 sun's heat decreasing, and the like exhalations again com- 
 ing up to a certain height, when from the declining rays 
 the evening tints begin to appear ; and these causes in- 
 creasing by the greater obliquity of the rays of light, and 
 greater quantity of exhalations, till the sun withdraws far 
 beyond the sensible horizon, his rays being so refracted and 
 reflected as to produce that glowing appearance then dif- 
 fused throughout nature, which, by its lustre, causes the 
 hills to take a very red, purple, or yellowish hue, and trees 
 frequently to lose their greenness and freshness of colouring, 
 unless close to the eye. 
 
14 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ON THE PRINCIPAL LIGHT. 
 
 In every composition, care is to be particularly taken 
 that some object be placed under the principal light that 
 is in nature of a light colour in itself, and so of all other 
 lights. 
 
 For example : choose figures, stony or gravelly earth or 
 clay, water, or buildings ; observing at the same time, with 
 the utmost accuracy, the local colouring of those objects 
 as found in nature.* 
 
 * What is given by the author in this chapter being but an application of 
 a principle of the clare-obscure to landscape-painting, it may not be improper 
 to notice to the student, that he will find this subject treated with great 
 perspicuity by De Piles, in his Course of Painting, in which he explains 
 Titian’s comparison of the bunch of grapes, and deduces rules for the unity 
 of the subject. See him also on the accidents and on skies in the same 
 work, and his observations on verses 283, 286, 2QO, 329, of Du Fresnoy’s Art 
 of Painting. — Mason’s translation of Du Fresnoy, with the notes of Sir 
 J. Reynolds. Also Sir Joshua’s Discourses, dis. iv. pages 89> 102, second 
 edit. v. 123. vii. 209. viii. 230. 270. 272, 273, 274, &c. xi. 50. 58, 59. xiv. 
 171 — 173. Mengs has also a chapter on grace in clare-obscure, vol. iii. J54, 
 of the English edition. 
 
15 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ON PAINTING SKIES. 
 
 To colour a sky as it sometimes appears about six 
 o'clock in a fine evening in May, or the beginning of 
 June : — 
 
 First, for the aether colours make the lowest (except the 
 warmest sunny colour) a cool tint of blue, white, and a lit- 
 tle fine vermilion, but do not put so much vermilion as 
 to make it appear of a flesh colour, or at all red, and 
 take care to make it dark enough for the sunny lights to 
 glance upon it. 
 
 The next colour upwards, towards the blue, is made up 
 in the same manner as the first, only bluer and darker, 
 taking care not to put too much vermilion into it. 
 
 The next again upwards in the same manner, only more 
 blue and darker, and with a little lake added, taking care 
 it does not become reddish or purple. 
 
 The next in the same way, but bluer and darker, with 
 a little more lake and less vermilion than the others, also 
 taking care that it does not look reddish or purple. 
 
 The next may be wholly of blue and white. 
 
16 
 
 And here it may be proper to observe, that it is not 
 the best way for a master to compound the intermediate 
 tints out of the extreme, viz. out of the horizon, and quite 
 blue tint in the present instance, neither out of any four 
 of them, because, in that case, they would be too red or 
 heavy ; whereas white itself, by being added to each tint 
 downwards, would give them warmth ; and therefore, as 
 it would in this case look more airy and less red, it will 
 have a more light and tender appearance than could be 
 given from compounding the tints. 
 
 The sunny colour for the extreme lights of the horizon, 
 is made with white, and Roman light red, so light that it 
 may have a sunny warmth, and yet to be much lighter 
 than the brightest cool aether colour, so that terra di sienna 
 burnt, mixed with white, but particularly white and 
 light ochre, or a little ochre w r ith white and terra di sienna, 
 may touch upon it where the sun or its effects are to 
 be represented. 
 
 TOR THE CLOUDS. 
 
 The colour of those which are low in the sky, is made 
 with blue, white lake, and a little Indian red for their 
 shadows, their lights with white, terra di sienna, and Ro- 
 man light red. 
 
17 
 
 The shades of those which are higher in the picture are 
 made with blue, white, Indian red, and a little lake; their 
 lights with white and Roman light red. 
 
 Those which are uppermost towards the edge of the 
 picture are made up in their shades with blue, white, and 
 Indian red only ; in their lights, with English light red and 
 white, with perhaps a touch of burnt terra di sienna* 
 
 But in preparing a ground for these colours for finishing 
 the clouds, first scumble a colour respectively under every 
 cloud upon the aether colours, much bluer and much 
 lighter than the shades of the clouds which are to come 
 upon it, though very little darker than the aether, and it is 
 to be every where very thinly laid on : let this be made up 
 with blue, white, and a little lake, which, when judiciously 
 scumbled according to the design, is broken upon into all 
 the shapes of the clouds, with the colours above de- 
 scribed in their respective gradations of distance, leaving 
 this tint to appear in proper places, according to the va,- 
 rious dispositions of the clouds. 
 
 These rules, discreetly applied, will not fail to produce 
 a clear, warm evening sky, without any kind of heaviness, 
 or of a hue approaching towards the colour of brickdust. 
 
 Observe that there be laid a cool tint to touch a warm 
 one upon, and that a warm tint be touched upon a cool 
 one*. 
 
 p 
 
15 
 
 Observe also, that sometimes in the evening, particu- 
 larly in the height of summer, the aether above the light 
 horizon colours will be of a greenish hue. 
 
 The above rules and observations are not, upon the 
 whole, to be followed in other skies : for example, in the 
 last case, the putting more lake into the shades of the 
 clouds as they fall lower in the picture, would not be true 
 in the representation of a warm sky, not so near the even- 
 ing as in the great picture painted for Sir Edward Wal- 
 pole, where the aether is made up with blue, white, and 
 English light red, and the clouds, which are lowest, are 
 made up with blue, white, and Indian red, in their shades ; 
 because, as the horizon colour was less red, and made 
 with terra di sienna and light ochre, the lower clouds re- 
 ceded further from the eye, and distinctness in tints is, 
 in that case, lost in the more distant clouds. 
 
 Those clouds in the same picture, which are near the 
 upper part, are made with blue, white, and lake, coming 
 stronger in their lights than those below : 
 
 While those which are quite uppermost on its edge are 
 coloured more opaquely or earthily, as being supposed 
 much nearer the eye than the others ; and brown-red is 
 mixed in some places : but a reddish hue is avoided, as 
 noticed in the case of an evening before. 
 
FURTHER RULES FOR COLOURING SKIES* 
 
 For a cool sky which does not represent the rising or 
 setting of the sun : — -Let the aether, about the horizon be 
 made of a pale blue and white, with lake only, and a very 
 small touch of light ochre in it at the lowest part, and 
 yet less and less ochre as the colour proceeds upwards into 
 the blue. Clouds upon the horizon are made in their 
 shades with blue* white, and Indian red, and white and 
 light red in the lights. In higher clouds lake will have a 
 good effect in their shades, as there is less lake in the blue 
 beneath them ; and, for the lights, a little ochre or terra 
 di sienna may be added to the light red and white. 
 
 Again, for a sky with a warmer horizon, representing 
 a time nearer the evening than the former : — Let the hori- 
 zon be made with light red and white, and so growing 
 into a blueish colour, with a small mixture of Indian red 
 in that tint between the light red horizon and the bluest 
 part of the sky. The clouds upon the horizon should be 
 made up with blue and white, with lake only in their 
 shades, and terra di sienna and white with a little light 
 ochre in their lights. 
 
 These two sorts of skies, well managed, will always 
 have an aerial and good effect, and, with some alterations^ 
 will answer the purpose of sun-risings and settings. 
 
 d £ 
 
20 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 USEJUL REMARKS UPON THE BEGINNING AND 
 FINISHING OF A PICTURE. 
 
 First after the design, the composition is to be made 
 complete by the most beautiful invention, assisted by 
 nature and art*. 
 
 * 
 
 Two ideas. 
 
 The general idea in- 
 cludes 
 
 The idea peculiar to 
 . 
 
 painters. 
 
 * IDEA OP PAINTING. 
 
 General idea common to all 
 men, and a particular idea pe- ( 
 cuhar to painters. 
 
 The imitation of visible ob- 
 jects, by means of forms andj 
 colours. 
 
 This strikes every one, 
 even painters them- 
 selves. 
 
 The particular idea concerns' 
 the whole theory of painting ; 
 
 and this should be so much at ^ com prehen - 
 
 . , , . . /"sion oi which should 
 
 the painter s command, that he be always present< 
 
 may be quite ready in correct 
 
 t design and fine colouring. 
 
 THE TRUTH IN PAINTING. 
 
 Three kinds of truth S ]? e 
 
 in painting. 
 
 The simple is called 
 the primary. 
 
 The simple truth 
 
 The ideal. 
 
 The compound or perfect 
 
 Is a faithful imitation of ob-1 This discovers the way 
 jects as they appear to the eye V for the painter to ob 
 at first sight. 
 
 tain his end. 
 
21 
 
 In painting trees, let care be taken that the colours are 
 so laid, that the tree may appear round and swelling in 
 
 Ideal truth consists of 
 various perfections, &c. 
 
 This comprehends a richness ! 
 
 of invention, propriety of atti- 
 tude, elegance of outline, and 
 whatever can, without devi- 
 ating from the simple truth, 
 make it more agreeable ; but 
 this subsisting in idea, it 
 must have a proper subject to 
 preserve and set it off ; and this 
 subject is the simple truth. 
 
 It demands great learn- 
 j ing, and judgement, 
 [both in art and science, 
 'to differ from nature 
 with probability and 
 correctness. 
 
 The perfect truth is 
 a compound of the< 
 other two. 
 
 This truth gives the last hand 
 to art, is the perfect imitation 
 of beautiful nature, and often 
 appears more true than truth 
 itself, being supported by the f 
 simple truth, while the eye is 
 ravished with the skilful appli- 
 cation of the ideal. 
 
 It cannot be supposed 
 that, when nature is 
 perfect, she can re- 
 ceive any advantage 
 from art; but as perfec- 
 tion, if the painter 
 may be the judge, 
 does not often, if at 
 all, present itself, he is 
 to obtain and use that 
 which is nearest to it 
 in his power. 
 
 INVENTION. 
 
 Invention is a part of<j 
 composition. 
 
 'A choice of the objects which 1 
 
 enter into the composition of It is one thing to in- 
 
 the subject the painter desires vent objects, and an- 
 
 to treat, and may be considered t0 ^m 
 
 3 J rightly, which is rather 
 
 simply historical, allegorical, j t h e part of disposition. 
 L mystical, &c. j 
 
 . f Simply historical is such choice) j n thj 3 case invention 
 
 is is representing | objects, as simply of them- ' doesnothing more than 
 facts w.thout embeM ge ,J form the subject of a produce attitude, con- 
 
 trast, shape, &c. &c* 
 
 [picture, j 5 F 
 
 lishments. 
 
the middle, generally making that part the lightest, 
 and paying attention that the local colouring be strictly 
 observed, as also the changes it may undergo with re- 
 spect to its situation, under some degree of transpa- 
 rency, when opposed to strong lights of the sky, or from 
 their position in the extreme lights of the tree, where 
 sometimes, from an oblique view, the leaves absorb 
 the sun's rays, and appear in small touches, extremely 
 bright, and somewhat of a stone colour ; which, while the 
 rain and dew are upon them, spangle with great beauty. 
 Care is also to be taken that the lighter parts of the tree 
 do lie on a warm and more beautiful colour than most of 
 the others. The shadow sides, where the light from the 
 sky breaks through the leaves, is in this respect to be 
 treated on the reverse, for there the lighter parts are of 
 the most beautiful warm green; but above all it must 
 be strictly observed, that care be taken that the degrada- 
 tion of the colours occasioned by privation of light be in 
 proportion as such parts recede, and, by proper degrees, 
 to break the colour more and more from its locality 
 into the black, ochre, and reds, or with lake, till at last, 
 in its furthest removal from the light, it may approach as 
 near as possible to that state which, like darkness, may 
 be called no colour at all, or such as it would be difficult 
 to name : but this kind of tint cannot take place till after 
 
23 
 
 reflected rays, in all their gradations, as well as direct rays, 
 are fully considered. 
 
 Care should be taken, in full trees, to cover the stems 
 well with leaves, and to lay them in with thick and 
 opaque colours on a sky as thick, working very broad and 
 neatly close, but not working much in the middle either 
 of a dark or a light bough, only something on the edges 
 of the light ones, and rather more upon the edges of such 
 as are upon the sky, particularly on the dark side ; keep- 
 ing all the parts of the whole tree, not only the boughs, 
 very broad in the light and shadow, and working most 
 upon the sides of such boughs as part the great light side 
 of the tree from the great shadow side, although they are 
 placed in that part of the tree where the great transition 
 of the whole body of the light boughs is blended into 
 the shade ; besides blending the tints well together, with 
 great tenderness, as demanded by each particular transi- 
 tion before noticed, and taking care that no hard colour as 
 to its own hue is admitted, or any fierce or ill-worked op- 
 position. Care must also be taken that the distinction of 
 objects in the shade be much less perceptible than in the 
 lights, and this too in proportion as they recede from the 
 light, both direct and reflective : therefore, if two co- 
 lours, distinguishing any object, be put on in a shadow, 
 those colours, however differing in appearance when 
 
viewed under a strong light, will lose not only some of the 
 great difference there is between them with respect to hue 
 and locality, but also, if one was considerably lighter 
 than the other, they must, in the shade, be but little 
 differing ; and thus as they recede from the light breaking 
 them, till at length all distinction both in shape and 
 colour is lost. After this is performed with thick and 
 opaque paint, some parts, either wet or dry* should be 
 heightened, others made deeper, and the whole loosened 
 and strengthened according to its wants when compared 
 with nature, by thin and transparent painting, laid with 
 tender and light pencilling. But it must be particularly 
 observed, there are other gradations than those appertain- 
 ing to one object, as a tree ; such are those which come 
 under the denomination of aerial perspective, which is one 
 of the great essentials in painting, particularly in land- 
 scape, for upon this depends the most valuable part of 
 the picture* which is its keeping. 
 
 But the degradation to be observed in respect to this 
 kind of keeping, is not as that last described, which not 
 only alters the natural colour, but renders it more broken 
 into a dull and less beautiful tint in its approximations 
 towards darkness ; whereas the local colour, in keeping 
 distance, depends for its alteration upon the medium of 
 air between the eye and the object, and not alone upon 
 
25 
 
 privation of light, as does the other gradation. Though 
 broken by degrees as it approaches towards the horizon, 
 yet it always admits of beautiful and pleasant tints ; and 
 even in the shades of an object thus removed, where the 
 first law of gradation must be regarded. But this is un- 
 der such restrictions, on account of the interposed me- 
 dium, according to the distance, that as objects recede 
 from the spectator, the gradations in the shades become 
 more and more beautiful, till at length, contrary to- the 
 law observed by nature in the shadows of near objects when 
 degrading them from their beauty, or reducing them to 
 darkness, they now become almost of all the various co- 
 lours of the sky, as it advances towards the horizon, and are 
 lost in it when the view is of sufficient extent. 
 
 It is worthy remark also, that even in near objects re- 
 ceding from the light, browns may be occasionally em- 
 ployed among the dark tints, in order to afford them a 
 certain support to the eye, in consideration of the great 
 extent of reflection arising from the blaze of a fine sunny 
 day. 
 
 
26 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ON TREES LEAFING, COLOURING THE SEA, &C. 
 
 Great care must be taken that nearly all distinction is 
 lost in the leaves of a tree, which are in a soft shade round 
 about those leaves of the lightest boughs : this general^ 
 occurs near the middle of the tree. 
 
 For the manner of touch or pencilling of leafing in 
 trees When not more than about fifteen yards off, they run 
 in breadth the one into the other, agreeably to the general 
 shape and contour of the respective character of the tree 
 to be represented, and are very little open on their upper 
 parts, where there are only small flowing risings and sink- 
 ings, and in the lower part the outline is somewhat more 
 pointed. 
 
 The colouring should be, even in projections of the 
 light side of the tree, upon the sky, of a full dark and 
 strong green, and very closely worked, except about the 
 middle of such outer branches, where the stalks are some- 
 what more open than they appear to be in the light boughs 
 about the nearer parts of the tree, by reason that those upon 
 the sky in the profile appear so, because they are loosened 
 
27 
 
 with light touches, and are by that means rather more di- 
 stinct ; besides that the thickness of boughs behind each 
 other, near the light middle boughs, admits of many soft 
 and changeable colours, that render the openings noticed 
 about their twigs more faint and imperceptible. 
 
 For colouring leaves A pale light-green, upon a co- 
 lour a little yellower and darker than that which heightens 
 upon it, but both so close together, or near in point of 
 light, that the shadows about a bough, or under it, may 
 be considerably darker. This is in the mezzotinto shade : 
 but where the sun shines on the bough, the extreme 
 heightenings are much yellower and lighter than the 
 mezzotinto lights, and here and there a little very bright 
 touching, somewhat pale, is found in the extreme lights : 
 but all this should be done with great softness : — and 
 for the first-mentioned two colours in mezzotinto shade, 
 it seems as if the whole shape of the bough should be laid 
 in flat, of the darkish yellow kind of colour : and for the 
 paler light, it seems also as if being only laid as it were 
 in specks, close about upon the other colour, produced 
 the just effect ; and in the part where the sun shines, 
 that very light and warm colour may be laid in flat, and 
 of the proper shapes of the bough receiving the light, 
 and then closely here and there touched upon, with paler 
 and lighter colour. 
 
 E 2 
 
28 
 
 For the lightest boughs Light, stony, warm, and cool 
 colours upon a very beautiful warm green, a little darker 
 than either; and sometimes between these two colours is 
 found one a little greener and rather darker than the 
 warm one, but cool, and inclining towards the colour of 
 slate ; and when these come together, the warm full green 
 may be placed on all sides the light colours, and is, with 
 the others, often opposed to the darkest colours in profile 
 of a leaf or leaves : this darker colour is made of black 
 ochre and lake, and has not any green in it. The lights of 
 the boughs in soft shade are of a slatish cool colour, very 
 little green, worked off or interspersed with a darker 
 colour, rather more green and something blacker ; and 
 thus proceeding till it come into the darkest colours of all, 
 in which there is not the least appearance of green. 
 
 Sometimes there are masses of leaves in the middle tint, 
 very gray and strong, in opposition, both in colour and 
 light, to the blacker colour, which last has a reddish or 
 brownish hue when compared to them. All the colours 
 must have a strong opposition, and be well blended to- 
 gether. 
 
 On examination concerning a readiness of colouring of 
 objects, particularly trees and grass, and especially of 
 the variation of the colours upon a single tree, &c. in any 
 part of the landscape, whether distant or near, being led 
 
29 
 
 to this from deliberating upon the general practice of 
 many able painters, of touching with a brownish shade 
 upon a cool middle tint in their trees, ground, and other 
 parts, seemingly as a rule to produce a verdant and plea- 
 sant effect; and to prevent an improper use of this method, 
 as well as to facilitate readiness and dispatch It appears 
 therefore only to have obtained from the observation in 
 nature, that trees appear greener and greener, and gene- 
 rally darker, at least from the furthest distance till within 
 about a quarter of a mile from the eye, and very strik- 
 ingly so in cloudy weather, when the sun is obscured ; 
 nature in the distances of prospects where objects 
 are very numerous, in every different ground observing 
 the law above described : and this, with their dif- 
 ference in diminution, detaches such objects more from 
 each other in great distances, than their peculiarity of form ; 
 and produces, by means of the repeated appearance of 
 the more distant blueish and less green colour between 
 and promiscuously about such objects as advance some- 
 thing nearer, the effect of touching rather yellower or 
 browner upon a gray cool tint, as does the colour of 
 grounds and buildings the touching lighter with warmth. 
 But it does not appear, from reason and observation upon 
 each object, particularly on trees, that the whole tree, 
 
30 
 
 whenever it is a quarter of a mile, or any distance, be- 
 fore another, is altogether greener, consequently yellower 
 than that behind it, because yellow is a great part in the 
 composition of green ; although the shades of each tree 
 will be less green than their lights, and, as they recede, 
 are more or less broken with purple or red. 
 
 For example Viewing Hampstead from St. John's 
 Wood, the hill and woods about Bellsize House appear to 
 be coloured with blue and Indian red or lake, very blue and 
 purple : the trees about a quarter of a mile from the eye, 
 before that distance, seem made with a colour of black 
 and ochre in their lights, which, broken darker with In- 
 dian red, makes the shades ; so that in proportion to their 
 distances as they come forward the colouring becomes 
 the darker. 
 
 The colouring of trees thus broken from green in their 
 shades, although it must not put on a foxy hue, yet must 
 have some appearance of brownness or redness, fine purple 
 not there taking place, because, in proportion to distance 
 and recession from the light, distinctness and colour are 
 diffused and lost ; and as trees are less green in their sha- 
 dows as they recede, so should they be more broken to- 
 wards the purple, which in the lights should have a ten- 
 dency to blue. 
 
31 
 
 When the greenest grass comes about a tree thus broken 
 in its colouring, such tree will not appear less verdant, on 
 account of its being darker. 
 
 The great difference in the colours of trees on the fore- 
 ground should be noticed, and imitated by the painter. 
 
 A house at about a quarter of a mile distance may be 
 coloured with Indian red, black and white, darker than 
 the sky. 
 
 It must be observed, that the reds employed in the tints 
 of black and ochre, for the shadows on trees, serve only 
 to remove them from greenness, and should not produce a 
 red or unpleasant appearance. 
 
 In painting trees, blue should not be admitted, except 
 in those which are quite close ; but as much as possible 
 should be done with black and the ochres. 
 
 The sea next the horizon should be laid in of a blueish 
 purple, made with a little blue, black, and white, a very 
 small matter darker than the horizon, and not above the 
 breadth suited to the size of the picture, suppose half an 
 inch deep of this colour, if so much ; near about the 
 edge of this should be given a narrow soft stroke of blue, 
 or at least a bluer colour than the breadth of purple, and 
 softened tenderly into it. 
 
 Next to this last-mentioned breadth of half an inch, 
 the colour should be a little lighter, with a small quantify 
 
of lake in it more than in the last breadth, looking very 
 purple, and warmer from the lake, and softened into the 
 last-mentioned breadth: but the whole of these two 
 must be nearly equal, and have a blueish purple and 
 very distant appearance. The next colour should be more 
 upon the greenish cast, and a little darker than either of 
 the former tints. This must be made of black, a very little 
 blue and white, and perhaps a small matter of brown 
 red : it must not be green, and must be blended into 
 the last tint, and somewhat broader : next to this last, 
 may a tint a little darker be blended into it, of the same 
 kind, but rather more towards black and white, with a 
 little touch of brown ochre in it : after this, should a 
 white line be wanted, it may be given with only 
 black and white ; and if a shadowy streak in the next 
 place, it may be made with black, white, and Indian 
 and light red. For the extreme breadth of light, as in an 
 arm of the sea, See. it may be made with white, a small 
 touch of black and brown ochre ; and for the land and 
 buildings which may lie upon the further side, their 
 general hue should be made with black, a little blue, and 
 Indian red ; and for any part supposed a little beyond 
 these objects first mentioned, which may be taken at a 
 distance from the spectator equal to thrice the breadth of 
 the Thames, a little more blue and a little lake may be 
 
S3 
 
 mixed; also for a hill that is quite in the horizon, blue, 
 white, black, and lake, may be mixed for the darker parts ; 
 and for the lighter, a little of the warm horizon colour 
 may be put into the first *tint, — but the whole of such hill 
 must be lighter than the sea ; the blue separating line of 
 which, already noticed, must run directly much bluer and 
 darker than the hill in a horizontal direction at its foot. 
 
 The lights of the grass of such distances as are just 
 across the arm of the sea above described, must be of a 
 paler colour, made with black, white, and a very small 
 quantity of blue and brown red or ochre, than that it is 
 laid upon, although the hue is to be of black, a little 
 blue, and Indian red, and this may be prepared of some of 
 the genera] hue colour, with white and brown red. 
 
 The buildings in the shade may be made with some of 
 the colour of the general hue, mixed with Indian and light 
 red, and in several places a more tender gray next to it. 
 The lights to be made with black, white, and this tender 
 gray, and a good deal of light red, very light, and some- 
 times a touch of brown ochre in it. 
 
 Reflections in the water should be rather warmer than 
 the broad colour laid in for reflecting upon, that is, in 
 the shadows, in the lights not quite so warm as their 
 natural colours. 
 
 ¥ 
 
34 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 METHOD OF PAINTING WITH DISPATCH. 
 
 After some time bestowed in settling the design, all its 
 constituent parts, that is, the whole composition, should 
 remain with respect to their forms, and light and shadow, 
 just or exactly as they were first thought upon. 
 
 With respect to the colouring or painting : — After laying 
 in the objects with a good body of paint, of such hue as 
 immediately occurred upon the first conception of the 
 design, and painting up to it as much as possible at 
 once, from such rules as every man must have deduced 
 in proportion to his observations, that is, whatever he 
 takes to be the imitation of nature ; let it be at once so 
 put in, without any subsequent alteration, working up in 
 the very first colouring the edges neat and close, of the 
 full strength demanded, if possible, being sure to make 
 no sort of deviation from the first conception of the piece ; 
 but if further time must be employed, let it be in work- 
 ing up these first thoughts upon the plan on which they 
 were originally laid in, by scumbling or feathering on 
 the thick colour, till a disposition is obtained proper for 
 receiving the last touches, which may be laid on very fast, 
 
35 
 
 taking care to alter none of them, only softening them 
 and let them pass. He that works away his time in quest 
 of effects he does not comprehend, may paint in and 
 out, without producing any thing equal to his first 
 thoughts ; he will be always mistaken till he comes 
 to some mode of conducting his picture, which he must 
 discover at last, after vainly bestowing his labour; for let 
 the effect aimed at be what it may, whether it be an 
 easy transition from a lint of one nature to that of another, 
 or from light into shadow ; it must be performed on the 
 representation of some determined object, as at length 
 determined, and must have the appearance of some distinct 
 form in nature, which is not to be effected by any chance 
 manner of operation : therefore, let the first thoughts 
 be recollected, let them be fully laid in of their proper 
 shapes, with a good body of colour both in their lights 
 and shadows, softening the extremes of all the tints into 
 each other, as well those of two different objects meeting, 
 which are of different hues, though one should be re- 
 mote, and the other near, as the like tints in the same 
 object, making a strict resolution not to alter any thing 
 in shape or disposition ; and thus a picture may be pro- 
 duced in as little time as a drawing of moderate accuracy, 
 and perhaps sooner, from the advantage of laying in the 
 lights and the different colours in painting. 
 
 r 2 
 
56 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SCALE OF GRADATION OF SEVERAL OF THE COLOURS 
 EMPLOYED IN LANDSCAPE PAINTING. 
 
 Shadows of Objects 
 from the Distance to the 
 
 Lights of Objects 
 from the Distance to the 
 
 nearest Grounds. 
 
 nearest Grounds. 
 
 Greatest distance — Lake. 
 
 Greatest distance— | 
 
 Next nearer— Indian red. 
 
 . f Venetian red 
 
 Next nearer j or vermilion 
 
 Next nearer — Venetian red. 
 Next nearer — Light red. 
 
 Next nearer— Light red. 
 Next nearer — Brown red. 
 
 Next nearer — Brown red. 
 
 -y-r . f Terra di si- 
 
 l enna burnt. 
 
 1 ' \ 
 
 Next nearer- f Terra , di f 
 l enna burnt. 
 
 f Terra di si- 
 
 XT . J enna raw. 
 
 Next nearer Italian light 
 
 [ochre burnt. 
 
 Next nearer- j® u r rat um * 
 
 % 
 
 f Raw umber. 
 Next nearer — i Terra di si- 
 |^enna raw. 
 
37 
 
 NearestorFore 
 Ground — 
 
 "Burnt um- 
 
 
 ber. 
 
 
 j Brown pink 
 I Cologn earth 
 
 NearestorFore^ 
 Ground— < 
 
 J Terra di si- 
 ben n a burnt. 
 
 
 Naples yel- 
 low. 
 
 Brown pink. 
 Raw light o** 
 chre. 
 
 Blue, &c* 
 
 * In the table of colours exhibited above, it may be remarked, that white 
 and black are not mentioned, and that blue occurs but among those assigned 
 to the lights in the fore ground. That the first of these colours is not ex- 
 cluded from practice by the author, must be evident, from the whole tenor of 
 his work, while the use of blue in several distances is noticed, as w'ell as of neces- 
 sity in ihe sky; and it is perfectly agreeable with the theory of colours treated as 
 an optical science, that white and black should be considered in their use, as 
 common with each, since they are not deemed colours in themselves ; however 
 they may, as materials, be in certain respects so considered when on the palette. 
 White and black are with the painter representatives of light and darkness ; 
 and thus we see them in this treatise employed in degrading every colour to 
 its proper place : on this also, it seems, keeping distance must depend : and 
 hence, in another part of the work, the colours to be used with them adapted 
 to the remoter distances are termed the keeping reds, while the remaining are 
 placed almost wholly in the first. It must however be intended that a latitude 
 in the application of the general rules resulting from the above scale should 
 be left with the discretion of the painter, while it becomes of value to the 
 young artist, by putting him in possession of a system of breaking his tints, 
 on which he will improve as knowledge advances. It has also been frequently 
 noticed, that the ancients employed but four colours, and four have been 
 supposed sufficient for the production of every tint demanded by the painter. 
 In fact, if white and black are withdrawn, nature has bestowed on him but 
 three; viz. red, yellow, and blue, which arise by the decomposition of a 
 ray of light, the intermediate being but mixtures of these taken as extremes : 
 but these may be considered as colours only in the abstract, reserved for indefi- 
 nite modification, while those on the palette are, to speak the language of 
 chemistry, on the like occasion, united to some substance as a base, by which 
 they become suited as materials to the uses of painting. Hence seem to arise 
 their different intensities and variation in hue, as the coloured substance has 
 
38 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PROCESSES EMPLOYED IN SEVERAL PICTURES. 
 
 I. The distance in Mr. Wagg's picture, as well as 
 the tree on the ground before it, are gray in the 
 middle colour, the darkest parts or touches are of a 
 warmer tint, and the lights of one still warmer than 
 the shadows, particularly, as throughout the distance 
 this tree differs but in this circumstance, that the very 
 extreme lights are touched with a colour a little cool, 
 upon the warmer masses of light, so that, in first putting 
 on the tints for forming the tree, the masses were laid 
 of the above colours ; viz. the gray for the shadows, the 
 warm colour for the lights ; and in finishing, the warm 
 
 the property of reflecting in a greater or less degree a particular ray, or as it 
 may reflect with it those of another colour. The further properties of opacity, 
 transmission of light, and difference in texture, are the probable causes of the 
 variations in colours of the same class which, in terms of art, are said to be 
 either earthy, or aerial, or fine, or glazing colours, so well adapted to all the 
 wants of the profession, and which it is but unlikely would be obtained by 
 any four. Although it may be possible to conceive that every tint and degree 
 of intensity might be formed from the mixture of those produced by the 
 prism. On this the sublime author of the theory of light and colours has given 
 rules in the sixth proposition of the first book of his Optics. — See De Piles on 
 Colouring in his Course of Painting ; also the same author’s remarks on 
 ver. 330 , 332 , of Du Fresnoy, and letter 2d in the Appendix. 
 
 / 
 
39 
 
 parts to be heightened with the cool tints, and the gray 
 to be deepened with the warmer, particularizing the parts 
 in this manner agreeably to their various dispositions, and 
 taking care that two colours of a like nature should never 
 be worked alone together. 
 
 II. The trees near Mr. York's house, in the picture of 
 Richmond, were painted in the following manner: — A 
 colour was made up with a good deal of blue-black, some 
 lake, and a little burnt umber ; then, with a cool greenish 
 colour of blue-black and light ochre, the light breadths 
 were first put in ; and as these breadths recede from the 
 light, this colour was broken a little at first with the 
 darker, and so increasing as the parts of the trees are 
 placed more and more towards the deepest shades all 
 this was performed with tender blendings, and will have 
 a good effect, if, in the more recessed places of the sha- 
 dows, some touches rather darker and warmer be given, 
 such as of Cologn earth with a little burnt umber; and 
 in the lights, some judicious touches of a colour warmer 
 than the tender ground ; as also a tender, faint, more 
 green and rather darker colour, scumbled tenderly about 
 near those lights, between the first light colour of the 
 ground and the next tender shade, and a little near the 
 last lights, which will produce a good effect. 
 
 i 
 
 III. The shades in the middle group of elm trees (in 
 

 40 
 
 the great picture painted for Sir Edward Walpole), which 
 are on a hill of broken earth and stones, were laid in 
 with a purple-like colour, quite off from green, which 
 was shaped and disposed into the contours and drawing 
 of the trees very faintly and tenderly, as indicated by 
 their lights and shadows, either as the masses of foliage 
 appear above or beyond each other, or lie upon the sky> 
 and in those parts at the extremities of the profiles, 
 but very little darker ; and in thus disposing the purple 
 colour in the shades of the trees, there must be very 
 little difference in its darkest tints. Again, this 
 purplish colour was touched and leaved with a warm 
 darker colour made of terra di sienna, raw umber, &c. 
 inclining to green, to which was added brown pink 
 when the tree was supposed to be dead. In the dead 
 tree this purple colour was made with black, white, 
 and Indian red, but of a rather brighter purple toward 
 and upon the sky, by mixing a little lake, in other parts 
 a little brown red. In the lights the same tree was 
 warmer, and here and there somewhat greener in the 
 under colour than the purple-like shades, and heightened 
 with a cooler or a warmer colour than the under, though 
 made up of the warmer reds than the purple colour of 
 the shades was produced from, and there was sometimes 
 a little ochre in those lights. But the most beautiful 
 
41 
 
 colour with respect to warm and strong greens, is re- 
 served for the touches round about the extreme lights be- 
 tween the under colours, which is promiscuously touched 
 and scumbled about, making a great variety of tints, as 
 in nature, though under the appearance of accident; for 
 the strong warm green is always seen, when the boughs, 
 or particularly when their leaves are placed between the 
 eye and the light: so in the shades, even in the extreme 
 shades, where distinction of tint is almost lost, the in- 
 troducing some touches of colours among the blackish 
 kind of gray or purple ones, made with a somewhat more 
 reddish brown, have a good effect, similar to the former, 
 as much so as can be admitted in the shades for the like 
 reason. 
 
 The green tree, with or near this brown one, is treated 
 under the same law, but differs in the colouring : for ex- 
 ample, — the purple, soft, under colour of the shades is 
 more clear than the like colour in the brown one, and 
 made with lake and blue, and in some places with a 
 little yellow. In the lights, after they are disposed into 
 the shapes and masses of the boughs, with colours of the 
 same kind as the shades, only that the more yellow red 
 must be employed with the black and blue in these 
 than in the shadow. A very beautiful warm green is in- 
 terspersed about the smaller groups of leaves on the 
 
 Q 
 
42 
 
 twigs, resembling the soft shady colour produced by the 
 leaves being placed between the eye and the light, the 
 leaves in the extreme lights touched about them, are 
 cooler and very little green, of a colour made with black, 
 white, and ochre ; and as the under side of the light 
 boughs may often be made darker in parts than the recessed 
 shades of the tree, that colour will do well of brown pink, 
 mixed with Cologn earth, raw umber, &c. and where, 
 in the light masses of boughs, the heightenings are yellow, 
 Coloured upon a bluer ground, it is supposed they ap- 
 pear before other leaves which are recessed so deeply as 
 to lose the appearance of that fine green which the 
 light ones have by being situated between the eye and 
 the light ; and therefore those yellow lights are often of 
 that fine green produced by the leaf being so situated, 
 and have sometimes about them an extreme light yel- 
 lowish appearance, when compared with the shady foliage 
 behind them, but are less beautiful than the transparent 
 groups they are upon, and made with only black, white, 
 and ochre. 
 
 Grounds about trees, & c. are kept always of a purple 
 hue, only composed of those reds that are more or less 
 purple as they recede or come near the eye. 
 
 It has been observed (in some cases of fore grounds) 
 that the middle tint every where be made of a red, that 
 
43 
 
 is more inclined to yellow than the red which has part 
 in the shades, in order that it may be more beautiful, 
 and express the natural sweetness of colouring in the ob- 
 jects, the extreme lights may be made up of brown red, 
 &c. 
 
 But in general, in the great picture, the reverse of this 
 is applied, and is the most like nature, especially on 
 middle grounds and distances, that are supposed of chalk 
 or stone, or rocks ; the middle tint of rocks is made of 
 the purple reds, the lights of the reds more inclined to 
 yellow, and the shades also of the reds more inclined to 
 yellow, observing to use those thus inclined which are of 
 the darkest sort. 
 
 For example : — In this picture, the long and high rock 
 on the middle ground on the other side of the river, 
 in the middle tint, is composed of black, white, and 
 Indian red ; the lights of black, white, and light red, 
 and the shades of black, white, and brown red. The 
 highest rock behind this, over which is the waterfall, is 
 composed of black, white, and lake, for its middle tint ; 
 for its lights, with black, white, vermilion, and Roman 
 light red ; and for its shades, with black, white, and In- 
 dian red. 
 
 The most distant great rocks in the horizon are com- 
 posed of black, blue, and lake, in their middle tints 
 
 f 2 
 
44 
 
 under extreme lights. In their lights of terra di sienna 
 and white ; in the returns of the shady faces, with blue, 
 white, and vermilion, and in the middle tints of their ex- 
 treme lights with blue, white and vermilion ; and in their 
 extreme shade touches with blue and vermilion, continu- 
 ally observing these laws. It is proper also to interpose 
 among these tints, every where, a cool, soft colour, which 
 shall neither be purple nor green, made with colours of 
 their respective classes, but clear, and more inclined to- 
 wards a greenish hue. 
 
 In the trees upon the middle ground, just before and 
 under the rock, a blueish colour, something inclined to 
 the purple, but not so much so as the middle cool colours 
 of the rock, but much more of the blue soft tint than 
 employed in the rock, neither green nor purple ; for the 
 sides in shadowy the lights somewhat green and rather 
 warm in the under colour, and cooler and less green in 
 the extreme lights. In the shades, the blueish colour 
 described above must be worked upon, in order to give 
 the full resemblance of boughs, &c. with a darker colour, 
 warmer, and inclined to green ; such colour might be 
 produced, by mixing raw umber with the bluest tint 
 here and there ; also may be judiciously interspersed a 
 colour somewhat more purple than the blueish colours, 
 very little darker and less beautiful. The whole of these 
 
45 
 
 colours should be within the compass of black, the ochres, 
 umber, and red or lake, except a little blue might be 
 ventured in the tender blueish shades just noticed. 
 
 In the trees on (before) the distance under the rocks, 
 upon the water's edge, and about the towers, to give them 
 a fresh bloom, or tender verdant and cool appearance ; 
 first, they were laid in and disposed into great breadths 
 upon the purple-like stone colour of the rocks, (in the 
 distance), with a warmish greenish colour, made up only 
 with black, white, and light ochre ; in their shades, with 
 a colour made with black, white, and a little blue and 
 lake, to give them a fresh and less green appearance than 
 their lights : next, in the finishing, they were broadly 
 leaved in several places of their lights, with a colour in 
 some parts less beautiful than the under light broad co- 
 lour, and much cooler or more gray or blueish, touched 
 here and there about the lights with a more beautiful 
 greener colour, darker than the broad under colour, and 
 in some places more of a blueish, and in others more of 
 a yellowish greener colour than the broad colour touched 
 upon : these are by much the most beautiful greenish co- 
 lour in the tree. The shades of those trees which are of 
 a blueish gray are in finishing touched here and there 
 in leafing, or making them a little more out with a colour 
 made up with black and red ochre, only much warmer 
 
46 
 
 and greener than the gray shades : these touches are but 
 very little darker ; the branches or stalks are touched with 
 a colour more purple, made with black, white, Indian 
 red, &c. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 ✓ 
 
 ON VARIOUS APPEARANCES IN NATURE, AND THE 
 MEANS OF IMITATION IN A PICTURE. 
 
 I. The water of the Thames viewed from Somerset House, 
 19th November, about two o'clock in the afternoon, un- 
 der a smart breeze of wind, was of a strong blueish colour 
 on the whole of the flat surface ; but where it was ruffled, 
 as it seemed, by two columns of wind, the shady sides 
 of the small waves were of a warmer colour, much more 
 so than the surface, and the light sides of the same waves 
 were still much warmer, with here and there on the 
 extreme projections, nearest the column of light, a 
 warm, very light, spangling colour, in small touches re- 
 sembling the lustre of diamonds. The sun being to the 
 right hand pretty low toward the west, the sky very clear 
 and very blue in the aether, quite down to the horizon in 
 
the south. The shades of the waves seemed to be made 
 with some of the surface colour, mixed with Cologn 
 earth and a small touch of lake. The lights in their 
 broadest parts to be made with some of the surface co- 
 lour, mixed with white vermilion and yellow, so that the 
 whole of the ruffled parts appeared of another hue quite 
 than the surface. 
 
 II. In the prospects seen from Knightsbridge towards 
 Battersea ; viz. from a second-floor front window' in High 
 Bow, on a fine sunny afternoon ; the horizon very warm, 
 and coloured v r ith softness, but not hot, neither reddish, 
 purple, nor greenish ; the woods, next the horizon, are of 
 a blue grayish soft colour, very faint, not very purple nor 
 reddish, mixed a little with the horizon colour, in the 
 lights something warmer, and but very little lighter than 
 the shades, so that the difference may be but perceptible ; 
 the fields of a light colour, very near as much so as the 
 horizon, and some of them warmer, neither red, purple, 
 greenish, nor yellow ; the v r oods rather nearer appear some- 
 what more particularized (though very little so), of the 
 colour of the furthest woods, with a little Indian red in 
 their shades, and darker; generally, or in most places, the 
 strongest lights of this must be darker than the shades 
 of the first, and warmer than its lights ; but all this must 
 be obtained by means of the reds, that greenness may be 
 
48 
 
 w 
 
 avoided. The woods next before the last, must in the 
 same manner be darker, by means of black, blue, and 
 the reds, growing warmer in their lights and shadows 
 also than the last ; but these must be so nicely observed, 
 that green must not appear even in the third wood 
 coming forwards ; the fields here are not quite so light as 
 those which are more distant : woods nearer than those 
 appear yet as it were a little warmer, and are much so in 
 their lights, and, as before, grow darker very much in 
 their shades, and something so in their lights : green here 
 and yellow must not be admitted, only the lights may be 
 warmed with brown, red, &c. Great care must be taken 
 to avoid the appearance of red, blue, green, yellow, or 
 purple ; they should be of a rather soft blue, grayish 
 colour, very tender, by mixing less blue as they come 
 nearer, and more black, with the reds. It may, likely, be 
 to get this softness of hue, that, as they come forwards, 
 the least tinge of yellow should be added in the lights, 
 but the reds, with black, will complete the whole of the 
 shadows. The lights in this progression of woods, as they 
 come more and more forwards, become much warmer in 
 proportion than the shadows. Woods yet nearer than 
 those already noticed, appear still darker considerably, 
 and seem, in their shades, to be made with a fine blueish 
 green, mixed with a good deal of lake and Indian red, 
 
49 
 
 so as to take off all the greenness, and be brought to a 
 colour, as if black with red was mixt into the shades of 
 the last woods, which, although a blueish gray purple- 
 like colour, must be warmer than the woods immediately 
 behind. The lights now begin to grow greenish, but 
 are yet darker than the shades behind, and very warm. 
 Buildings here and upon the last grounds appear very 
 bright, more so than when further off, and also very 
 warm. Woods and trees still nearer are of all kinds of 
 warm strong greens, for we are now upon the fore-ground ; 
 the distance of wood from wood may be supposed one, 
 two, or three miles. That very fine effect which is seen 
 in nature, in the colouring of such woods and tall tim- 
 ber hedge-rows, is produced by the darker and warm ap- 
 pearances every where as they come forward, of the 
 lights of the nearer trees upon those of the more distant^ 
 which will bear finely out upon following exactly the 
 hints and directions given before ; for, in greater di- 
 stances, as of two, three, and four miles, the lights are 
 certainly darker than the shadows of trees much more 
 remote, and seldom more light in nearer, except on the 
 fore-grounds : but a fine effect ensues even there, by 
 making the lights warmer and darker than those removed 
 half a mile beyond them. But particularly with regard 
 to what is said above, the warm darker tints of those 
 
 n 
 
50 
 
 trees next about a mile or half that distance upon those 
 behind, and the warm darker tints of the first upon the 
 next nearer ground, rising as it were between both the 
 others, and so on progressively to the fore-ground, will 
 produce that exquisitely soft, fresh, and tender enamel- 
 led effect, under which nature appears, and is so fre- 
 quently what has been the aim of the great masters, and 
 which they arrived at in all their objects , by warm heighten - 
 mgs and shadows upon a soft , cool middle tint • 
 
 III. From Knightsbridge, the trees are coloured in the 
 following manner, in such hazy weather as generally brings 
 on a gentle rain towards autumn. 
 
 Those on the other side of the Serpentine river are in 
 the shades of a colour made up with black, white, and a 
 little lake, kept from being very purple with a little 
 Indian red, or sometimes with Indian red only, in the 
 lights a little greener, with black and ochre. Their shapes 
 are boughs grouped together in masses, quickly rounded 
 and softened at the edges ; that is, their roundings are 
 performed in a very small part of their breadths, height- 
 ened for some length, and rounding a little off at the pro- 
 jections or shoots, almost insensibly, except in some few 
 placed and apparently short, though in reality they are 
 very long, projecting branches ; so that, if any are touched, 
 they are to be expressed with one small stroke thicker at 
 
51 
 
 the bottom next the mass of boughs than at the top, 
 which must end in a point ; for nothing of the leaves can 
 be seen at that distance more than the great masses of 
 boughs, in square, triangular, or oblong shapes, variously 
 intermixed and joined one to the other. Those trees which 
 are a little nearer on this side the river are coloured with 
 black and white, with a little Indian red without lake, 
 relieved on both sides by darker colours than in those on 
 the other, so that the lights of the trees on this side are 
 much darker than the shadows of those on the further side 
 the Serpentine, being even in their colouring, or nearly 
 so, and in their lights somewhat greener than those be- 
 hind ; and in their shapes they here begin to appear in 
 projecting single branches, when in the further trees those 
 parts are noticed as being represented by a single stroke 
 of the pencil ; certain touches at the sides, on account of 
 their nearer approach to the eye, are requisite, because 
 they appear wider than those behind and longer ; and the 
 spaces between the boughs are also more extended ; which 
 is the reason that the sides of these strokes should be 
 broken by a few touches to represent some of the twigs 
 upon them ; and this will obtain, as the trees still ap- 
 proach the eye, till their real shapes are distinctly visible. 
 Thus, in the grove on the left, the masses are of the same 
 
 h 2 
 
 t 
 
52 
 
 size as they are in the distant trees, with this difference, 
 that in leafing a larger touch is demanded, and their forms 
 can be more clearly made out; for what is represented in 
 the more distant trees, under the form of one square or 
 triangular mass, does here contain many like subdivisions, 
 and consequently cannot be treated under one stroke, as 
 in the former ; for as in these such stroke will nearly de- 
 scribe a whole mass of boughs, so here it may describe but 
 a single bough, and in trees yet nearer, but a single twig. 
 In the grove the shade is made with black and white, and 
 brown red, being somewhat greener than in the trees next 
 in distance. 
 
 When the sun shines immediately out, or in the after- 
 noon of the same hazy day, then the shades appear more 
 purple than if seen through the haze when the sun did 
 not shine : the reason is, that the lights appear more green 
 upon the sun being out than before, and the shades 
 hardly altered. It also occurs among trees of the same 
 kind standing together, that some among them are of a 
 lighter yellowish green than the rest ; but this is found 
 usually towards the latter end of August. 
 
 IV. Diminution is the consequence of distance, and 
 from diminution distinctness is lost, which is the cause 
 that those interstices of sky or light in distant trees disap- 
 
53 
 
 pear, which are visible in those which are near : conse- 
 quently boughs lose their smaller parts, or twigs, and 
 whole branches appear as a single mass. 
 
 V. For the trees on this side the Serpentine river, both 
 in the grove which is near, and those somewhat more 
 distant, when opposed to the sun : — The first are made 
 up in their shades with the last tint but one of the four, 
 ochre, and black, with a pretty strong light yellowish 
 tint surrounding, like the last but two, with a little brown 
 and light ochre mixed ; and this is leafed upon with a colour 
 somewhat lighter, made up of the last tint but two, and 
 a little Naples yellow mixed together; and the very 
 darkest colour of all in those trees seems to be leafed 
 upon with a colour rather lighter than the darkest, pale 
 and inclined towards green. 
 
 The trees which are something further in the same 
 position with regard to the sun : — -The masses of leaves 
 are broader than in those of the first grove, somewhat 
 grayer in the shades, and less yellow in the lights ; 
 in the middle of these breadths, as well in the lights 
 as the shadows, there are few if any distinctions of 
 the parts. They are worked most at the light extremi- 
 ties, as far as leafing is proper, and those more blended 
 that go off into the shades, only in certain places 
 of the mezzotinto shades some appearance of leafing is 
 
54 
 
 requisite ; going into the deeper shadows ; but this must 
 be done with a sparing hand, and is to be effected by one 
 rough sliding stroke. 
 
 And as these trees recede, they become the more gray, 
 and tinged with lake in their shadows. 
 
 VI. Trees about the distance of the Serpentine river 
 from High Row, Knightsbridge. 
 
 Those on the opposite side near the Conduit appear in 
 their broadest shades, made up of the darkest tint but 
 one of the four placed on the palette, of black ochre, 
 and a little lake ; the greatest breadths of their lights 
 seem to have their under colour warm and brownish, 
 leafed upon with a light greenish colour, and somewhat 
 gray, in all the positions of their great breadths pretty 
 nearly alike, and in some of the extremities of their lights 
 rather warmer where the edges are most opposed to the 
 sun ; but all this tending towards green, and over a 
 brownish colour interspersed between them. The sun 
 being to the left, the greatest appearance of leafing is 
 where the lights go off into the great masses of shade, or 
 where the trees have a roundness of appearance. The 
 lights and particularizings, in whatever shape may be 
 taken for them, are in great variety, and worked very 
 close; and in order to maintain their breadths with re- 
 
55 
 
 gard to light, are very near each other, as also in the 
 shades rounding off into the great shadows by middle 
 tints, which seem to have less of the green, and are more 
 brown till they are artfully let into the cool principal sha- 
 dow, and kept in all their transitions wholly to the tints 
 of black, with the ochres and some lake in the shades, 
 but shining and glossy. 
 
 VII. Trees on the side of the Serpentine river in Hyde 
 Park, fronting Knightsbridge, about the beginning of 
 November (1753), in the lights are coloured with brown 
 ochre, black and white, in the shades with black, white, 
 and Indian red mixed, between the lights and the shades 
 with black, white, and brown red : these tints are laid 
 very broad and warm, without particularizing ; only the 
 great shapes were observed very clear and brilliant, 
 rounded clearly off. The greater boughs are separated 
 from the great masses in almost half the tree at once, 
 with a very small breadth of shadow ; and frequently 
 the light, when it comes on them in front, covers almost 
 the whole tree, so that these masses come forward 
 rounding off each way, nobly standing forward like a 
 column* 
 
 VIII. Further remarks on the colouring of the last 
 noticed trees on the other side the Serpentine river in 
 
Hyde Park, viewed from High Row, Knights bridge, in 
 November. 
 
 The extreme lights seem to be made with brown ochre, 
 black and w r hite, very warm, softened into a tender tint 
 made with Cologn earth, white and brown red, of a mar- 
 ble-coloured dull purple, and this last tint into the ex- 
 treme shade, which is made with Cologn earth, a little 
 black, white, and Indian red, of a much grayer purple 
 than the other, not appearing to have so much red in it. 
 
 The hue of the lights viewed altogether has, when 
 the sun shines on them, a very warm appearance ; but 
 when compared with a tint made up with black and 
 white, although they are very considerably warmer, yet 
 have a purplish reddish cast, as if broken with brown red ; 
 and the black and white tint, with respect to them, ap- 
 pears of a greenish pewtery cast, and so of the hue of the 
 whole of the trees, lights and shades together. 
 
 The stalks and branches are sometimes more dark than 
 the above purples, and are made up with black Cologn 
 earth, lake and Indian red, very gray, or of a blueish dull 
 purple very distant from green. 
 
 The hill at Highgate sometimes appears lighter than the 
 lights of those trees, but darker always, or generally so, 
 
57 
 
 than the horizon, unless in stormy weather, when the 
 horizon is covered with strong black clouds. The colour 
 of it seems to be made with black, blue, and Indian red. 
 The buildings, when the sun shines on them, are often 
 lighter than the horizon, made with white, and light red, at 
 the time the hill is darker than the horizon. This is about 
 noon. 
 
 In the evening the buildings appear very warm, in the 
 lights of a colour made with white vermilion, and a little 
 ochre ; in the shade of a very tender lightish purple, made 
 with black, blue, and Indian red. The hill very tender, 
 the whole having a soft, blueish and purple hue. 
 
 Sometimes, in blowing or dark and rainy weather, the 
 view of the park and hill possesses a peculiar degree 
 of grandeur. In this state the hill, with its buildings, is 
 very imperceptible or indistinct, of a darkish blueish 
 colour, inclined to purple. The walnut trees which ap- 
 pear beneath it are of a darker brown. The trees on this 
 side the river are in the shades darker than the hill, and 
 also of a brownish gray purple colour; the lights are 
 warm, and brighter than the hill and sky, but the trees 
 on this side the river are very magnificent in their appear- 
 ance ; their lights are large and broad, much lighter than 
 the sky, and very warm. The shades are very tender, and 
 broken into brown or Indian red, of a purple-like colour* 
 
 i 
 
58 
 
 IX. The colouring of trees in a foggy morning appears 
 as follows ; observed from High Row, Knightsbridge. 
 
 First, The sky, towards or at the horizon, is of a colour 
 composed as it were with white, mixed with a little 
 black, and made very warm with light red, but so as 
 neither to look purple nor greenish, nor yet partake of a 
 red appearance. The further trees on the other side of 
 the river are extremely faint, of a colour made up of the 
 horizon tint, with a little black, just tinged with Indian 
 red. The trees placed before them, on the other side of 
 the river, seem also of the colour of the first just men- 
 tioned, mixed with a little black and Indian red, some- 
 what tinged with light red, if any of the lights are seen ; 
 though, upon the whole, they are generally all flat and 
 broad, without particularizing, except on the profiles. 
 Those trees on this side the river appear darker, of a co- 
 lour made up of the last-mentioned colours, mixed with a 
 little black rather more than the last, and a little Indian 
 red and brown red. The groups of trees that are yet 
 a little nearer on the right hand, are of the colour of 
 the last, with more black and brown red, but without the 
 leafing being particularized in the interior of the trees ; 
 and for the shapes of the profiles, they are to be touched 
 with a broad pencil or tool, making the whole of a small 
 bough with a stroke. Those just on this side the river. 
 
59 
 
 which are before the last noticed, run more into lengths 
 in their profiles, being elms of a different kind ; but in 
 general the colouring appears to consist altogether of the 
 horizon tint, mixed more and more with black and the 
 reds, till at the distance only of the last-mentioned trees, 
 which will appear in the darkest and grayest colour ; and 
 from these, as they approach, they become greener, as far 
 as the fore-grounds, which are quite green. 
 
 X. Lengths of boughs may as well be taken vertically as 
 horizontally or in directions that may be so classed ; and the 
 lengths of light are as much maintained in one direction as 
 the other. So every kind of form that may be taken with re- 
 spect to the mass intended, the particular mode of filling 
 up with the lesser branches, may follow shapes like the 
 great mass, or otherwise the twigs of those lesser branches 
 may, in any shape, contrast the general shape of the lesser 
 branches, and the leaves of those twigs, whatever dispo- 
 sition such twigs may have, contrast each side of it; some- 
 times with lesser, containing three leaves, sometimes five, 
 to each ; and when this happens, those trees are not in the 
 leafing of their profiles so long and full of twigs as those 
 which have them leafed for their whole lengths with single 
 leaves regularly on each side ; which first state is to be 
 
 i 2 
 
60 
 
 found in the nearest trees ; with this difference, that the 
 great branches put forth the lesser almost every way about 
 them, and these lesser branches long and leading twigs, 
 and these again put out in every variety of direction 
 smaller, with three, five, and seven leaves to each ; and 
 consequents the appearances of the profiles of this kind 
 of trees will be more grouped in tufts, and appear thicker 
 with leaves than the others do, though their external out- 
 line will not be round, nor so long as in the others; yet 
 the great contour or form of the upper part may not be 
 without a certain degree of curvature. The tree which 
 groupes with these has something more to be remarked, 
 although like those it is an elm. The great branches of the 
 boughs, nor the great arms, for considerable lengths do 
 not put out branches on their lower sides, or scarcely any, 
 unless on their upper ones, and very near their ends, and 
 those again none, but on their upper parts, from which 
 the small twigs that put out sometimes smaller, throw 
 their leaves over like the upper part of a plume of fea- 
 thers, admitting a very great light and shade, with a very 
 graceful appearance. 
 
 XL Trees which when near appear green in the lights, 
 and have their shadows broken less so, will, when removed 
 
6*1 
 
 but one hundred and fifty yards from the eye, take a red- 
 dish brown ochre-like warmth in the lights, and a brown 
 red kind of purple in the shades. 
 
 'Frees which are about five or six times as far, particu- 
 larly in autumn, appear of a warm brown reddish colour 
 in their lights, and of an Indian red purplish colour in 
 their shades. 
 
 XII. From what has been mentioned, it does not seem 
 remarkable that the leafing of the trees about the di- 
 stance last noticed should appear, as it were, but speckled 
 spaces, very closely wrought, and sometimes a little 
 waved, into the shapes of the great masses of the light 
 boughs, and that the shadows will appear less speckled, 
 or not at all, but only very closely wrought in their pro- 
 files, in the shape of the diminished masses of the boughs : 
 and the same may, with this difference, be observed of 
 the profiles of their light sides ; that they appear rather 
 less loose or more close, which, with the greatest proba- 
 bility, proceeds from a particular property of the rays 
 of light which may expand and fill the interstices of shade 
 in some measure, or even the interstices open to the sky ; 
 particularly in distant objects, where the smaller parts, 
 being minute and close, are, by an expansion of the light/ 
 though but in a slight degree, immediately lost; and this, 
 
6 % 
 
 i 
 
 perhaps, is the reason why it is only possible, in such 
 distant trees, to see but the obscured outline of the great 
 
 masses. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON THE COLOURING OF SEVERAL 
 EMINENT MASTERS. 
 
 1. Nicholas Poussin. — The great rock about the 
 middle of the picture, is in the shades made of a colour 
 with black, white, and lake, somewhat purple, but may 
 have a very little blue, so as to take off the raw iron 
 purple appearance. In the lights it is somewhat lighter 
 than the sky, of white light red, and a very small touch 
 likely of blue black and lake in their under tint ; but in the 
 lightest tints of all, there is only light red, terra di Sienna, 
 with a touch of yellow in it, and where palest, the least 
 touch of blue possible: a hill very blue, and quite di- 
 stant, joins the side of the rock, which is in shadow. The 
 woods at the sides and foot of the same rock have a little 
 
63 
 
 
 more blue lake and yellow in them, looking more verdant 
 than the rock, but extremely tender, so as to be neither 
 purple green nor stony ; and the darker colour of the 
 whole is warmer than the under colour, such as would 
 arise from putting a small quantity of the brown burnt 
 terra di Sienna into their under colours, both in the shades 
 of the rock as well as of the woods. The trees which are 
 on the fore-ground over those, have a great, verdancy of 
 appearance, with only ochre and black, and very little 
 blue on their edges, but all darker than the objects be- 
 hind them. The sky about the rock on the light side is very 
 blue, on the darker side there is a light cloud, very warm, 
 with some ochre in it, and very light, but of a fainter 
 warmth than the lights of the rock, that are not so earthy 
 in effect. The hill on the shadow side of the rock is of a 
 darker blue than the aether in the sky. 
 
 2. Domenichino,- — Has a very blue sky, but tender, by 
 the opposition of the clouds, &c. a very light palish cloud 
 on the upper part where requisite, and towards the ho- 
 rizon some clouds of an extremely warm light colour, 
 made with red terra di Sienna and a little ochre, between 
 a purple cloud or two, much lighter than the rest of the 
 horizon, and something lighter than the palish cloud above. 
 
 This colour looks surprisingly striking, yet not hard. 
 
64 
 
 although it has nothing about and over it but purple and 
 blue, because it is placed near the horizon, and rather 
 worked as a cloud than the colour of the aether at the 
 horizon, and appears very fresh. The most distant hills are 
 a lightish blue: a hill in the middle ground under them, of 
 a colour made in the hue of the whole of the black and 
 ochre greenish tints, with lake, &c. very warm, yet has 
 sufficient of the purple for keeping its distance. The 
 grounds come on all dark and strong, though made well 
 out; in their lights they are all, in point of strength, 
 kept under, but are fully brought out with regard to 
 colour. 
 
 3. Swanevelt. — The shadows of the sides of his near 
 trees seem to be made of a cool dark stone colour, with lake 
 in it. The lights of the greenish tints of black and light 
 ochre, and blue appears to have been admitted into very 
 few places. Trees somewhat further are in the same 
 colouring, but rather more purple; yet the redness of the 
 purple is kept down, as is the green, in the lights. Further 
 still, a more beautiful soft and tender rnezzotinto pur- 
 ple, free from redness, with soft and tender keeping lights. 
 The sides of shady rocks are of a stone colour, lighter 
 than the greens, made up with the keeping reds. The 
 fore-ground is generally of a light yellow. 
 
65 
 
 I V, G A s PE r Po u s s i n . —The sky for a considerable depth 
 '(the picture being an upright landscape) was of a tender 
 dark blue, the clouds of a slate-coloured purple. The ho- 
 rizon laid in parallels, as it were, with that fine light but not 
 very warm colour, as usual with this master, though not 
 to any great distance, before he generally commences his 
 clouds. The hill or hills of a gray slate tender blue colour, 
 with faint tender lights in breaks about them. The flat 
 land under these hills quite on the light side of the pic- 
 ture, and extending to the horizon, is darker than the 
 hills above or beyond it, which gives them an appear- 
 ance of being further removed. This flat ground is a 
 little inclined towards green in its tints, with a kind of 
 streak, as it were, of an earthy-coloured distant ground ; 
 the lights are of the flat coloured greenish tints, of the 
 common or flat land, with a little white and Indian red, or 
 light red in them, also streaked, or laid as it were parallel 
 to the horizon. The rock immediately under this ground, 
 which is brought down into a darker colour as it comes 
 just to touch the rock, is in its lights of a pale, rather in- 
 clined to a purplish coloured, clay-like tint, lighter than 
 the first, and in greater breadths, but in point of light all 
 much under the horizon. The middle tint is of a soft blueish 
 colour, somewhat but very little inclined to a purple ; next 
 to this coming more into the shades, the colours are more 
 
 & 
 
66 
 
 of the earthy purples, such as are made with black, white, 
 and Indian red, mixed with some of the greenish tints in 
 certain places, and pretty strong, though very tender. The 
 next darker is of a more brown purple, and at last the 
 darkest is of an earthy gray purple colour, sometimes of a 
 pleasant gray greenish tint, dark and inclined to blue, at 
 once passed over a great part of the shade, very sweet and 
 tender, always upon or next among the brown or purple 
 kind of earthy colours. Of the trees in the fore-ground, the 
 largest is in the shades of black and the ochres, in the lights 
 a little more green ; the next nearer tree is in the shades 
 of black and raw umber, with brown ochre, and the tint of 
 a somewhat warm greener colour in the lights, but not 
 much heightening with green. The nearest ground is in the 
 lights of a cool stony colour, and browner in the shades. 
 
 V. Horisonti* — The large buildings in the distance are 
 of a clay-like kind of colour, touched with light red in 
 the lights, more purple in the shades, and in the extreme 
 shades touched with the earthy purples made with black, 
 white, and Indian red, or brown red, by laying always a 
 cool upon a warm colour, and a warm upon one that is 
 cool ; and taking care that warmth or coolness does not 
 depend upon the being made so by black and white 
 being mixed in further quantities ; but that if the cool 
 one is made with Indian red, the warm one may be made 
 
67 
 
 with brown red, &c. and among these the mixture of a 
 little slate colour of a greenish hue produces a sweetness 
 and effect like nature. These buildings are faint, and ge- 
 nerally on the purple. The fore-ground trees upon the 
 sky, as well in their deepest breadths as in those parts 
 that are leafed over the sky, are soft and faint, though 
 not quite so light at the edges upon the sky. As they come 
 down into those of any breadth, the colour becomes 
 darker of black and ochre, with a brown tint left in places 
 about them very little lighter than the greenish one. The 
 grounds are of cool earthy stone colours in the lights, in 
 the shadows of more coarse brown colours, and earthy, and 
 going into the extreme shades very much so, being strong, 
 like Cologn earth : and among the coarse earthy brown 
 colours noticed above, there is, in certain spots, inter- 
 spersed a grayish tint. 
 
 The plants are darker than the light grounds they are 
 on, and not very green. The skies are kept down to great 
 tenderness ; and from not being very light, produce in the 
 whole a beautiful effect : they are sometimes not strong in 
 the lights of the horizon, but cool and quiet every where. 
 These observations were made on two small pictures of the 
 master in possession of the author. 
 
 k 2 
 
68 
 
 VI. Vanderisteer. — A picture representing the morning 
 rather before the appearance of the sun. 
 
 The sky had no very clear blue in it; a striking light of 
 pale light ochre where the sun is about rising ; and next to 
 this, on the left, generally a darker tint of some breadth, 
 of a yellowish colour, inclined to red, as if made with 
 terra di Sienna burnt, and white : next to this was laid a 
 clear blueish tint nearly of the same degree of light as this 
 warm tint ; and thus passing round the great light among 
 the clouds, which are variously coloured, some receiving 
 light of a reddish copper colour; at some distance from the 
 great light, there are many clouds very neatly painted and 
 arranged on the left, hut their lights, though clear, are 
 but just lighter than the aether.. Towards the upper part 
 the clouds become larger, straighter, and very dark, yet 
 thin and tender, and inclined to a brownish hue. The 
 distance consists of small objects upon a large space of 
 water, and are of a gray a little inclined to purple. In 
 the next nearest distance are trees, supposed to be large 
 and full grown, of a broad hue, made up with black, 
 white, and light ochre, with a little more light ochre and 
 white in their lights ; but the whole of these are in mezzo- 
 tin to shade. Just under the right-hand side of the above?- 
 noticed great light in the sky, beneath those trees, and 
 
69 
 
 near the edge of the river, is a long dark stroke, broke on 
 the upper edge or part, in the manner of objects at this 
 early time of the morning, nearly imperceptible, yet sup- 
 posed rather nearer the eye than the trees ; and this line 
 of objects is much browner than the trees, yet so as not 
 to appear red, purple, or brown; but of a colour com- 
 posed of the soft shade of the trees above it, with a little 
 Cologn earth, and a small touch of lake in it : it appears 
 perfectly sweet and harmonious, and, as it seems, not less 
 verdant; but with the other colours of the trees above it, and 
 the cool gray water close under it, a fine brilliant keeping 
 is produced, and worthy of observation as a method just 
 and natural, and in consequence beautiful. In front is a? 
 river intermixed with broken grounds, which are, in point 
 of light, kept under, except that the water is only rather 
 kept down with respect to the sky, of which, it observes 
 the rule. The ground is in the lights of a brown ochre-like 
 colour, a cooler coming between this and a dark warmer 
 colour, though not foxy or hot. 
 
 VIL Gasper Poussin. — The distances even in the 
 buildings were of a very blue tint, inclined a little to the 
 purple, but airy, light, and tender: the touches of the 
 same tint in the shadows also inclined to a purple, made, 
 as it seemed, with the blueish flat tint of the buildings, 
 and a little of the browner reds, and in the pretty far 
 
70 
 
 distant buildings Indian red, when the flatter parts just 
 noticed are a little tinged with lake. In nearer buildings, 
 when the red of the flat parts is Indian red, then the 
 touches that are darker are to be made with brown red : 
 the lights in both cases are to consist of a colour made 
 warm by the next more ochrey red ; after that the flat 
 colour is made in the same kind of principle which is to 
 govern the colouring of the hills and trees about those 
 objects, where the middle and light tints are always the 
 most beautiful, and the hills and objects behind are ge- 
 nerally very blue, but best when broke of a tender colour. 
 
 The large trees on the fore-ground have in their shades 
 a very rich and warm brown, such as, for the extreme of 
 the colour, is made with terra di Sienna burnt, brown pink, 
 with a little Cologn earth mixed together, worked off to- 
 wards and under the light leaves, with more terra di Sienna 
 and brown pink, while the light leaves consist of a warm 
 yellowish tint, made with black, white, or Naples-yellow, 
 ochre, and brown pink ; sometimes there should be a beau- 
 tiful cool greenish tint under this, worked and interspersed 
 among the aforesaid brown tints. The grounds were ma- 
 naged under the same principles. 
 
 VIII. Both. — In the distances, this painter has managed 
 much in the same manner as described from Poussin, only 
 rather more strong and visible in the differences of his 
 
71 
 
 tints ; yet observing very gradually the same laws from the 
 greatest distances to the foremost grounds, having every 
 where a very tender blueish cool colour between two warm 
 ones, and in the distances, generally, one hill or ground 
 rising above another, lighter and more blue than the next 
 under it, where the same management in breaking the 
 tints is always preserved, with no other difference than the 
 being rather less to be distinguished as the objects are 
 more and more remote. The gradations are always the 
 most delicate, both in the breaking of the lights and sha- 
 dows, as also with equal nicety in respect to the killing 
 the true tint from the privation of light into the shadows : 
 the aerial alterations are well observed ; the distances very 
 sunny and beautiful, and his fore-ground shades are very 
 much on the brown red, and of considerable depth. 
 
 IX. Vandeuneer. — The managements or laws de- 
 scribed in the last two masters, are nearlv found in the work 
 of the one now under notice. In his trees, the under colour 
 is of a very cool blueish green, over worked with a more 
 purple kind of dark brownish colour, very laky in his 
 buildings, but not so blue in his flat colours as the other 
 masters ; that is, there seems more red in his tints, but 
 equally changeable into the warm lights and brown shady 
 touches ; and in his skies and water he is very beautiful : 
 the aether is always warm and sweetly tender, and the 
 
72 
 
 lights in the blue parts and clouds exquisitely fine. In 
 the flat or under colours next to the aether, of a purplish 
 blue, with flying clouds worked over them of a more laky 
 or red-coloured purple, finely warmed and gilded in their 
 lights; the water changing colour with the sky, which 
 is often made more brown and strong above it. 
 
 X. Wovermans.— This master produces a very fine 
 and verdant effect in his middle grounds and distances, by 
 first laying his flat or middle tint, which governs the tone , 
 faint and purple in the distances : the shades or tender 
 darker parts are touched about it with a greener sort of 
 tint, as of black and ochre mixed with the flat blueish 
 tint, and of a sort of stony light tint, very soft and tender 
 for the lightest parts. Thus trees upon the middle ground 
 have a very fine and verdant effect, managed under the 
 same principles. Rocks also upon a middle ground have 
 an excellent effect seen under a serene light sky, when 
 the middle tint is made with black, white, and lake only, 
 and the lights with more white added to light red or terra 
 di Sienna burnt. The shades, with Indian red and brown 
 red, upon or under which colours trees painted with black 
 and ochre only, and touched with a warmer and less 
 green in the shades, and cooler pleasant lights, upon a 
 warmish soft greenish tint, have altogether a very fresh 
 and verdant appearance, as in the picture belonging to 
 
73 
 
 colonel Gray. Black and lake mixt together, and black 
 and Indian red mixt, are good and ready for making or 
 breaking proper tints either in trees or ground, to pre- 
 vent the appearance of greenness in the shades, or in the 
 stony or earthy parts of ground: next to the shades of 
 this sort, the burnt reds mixt do very well, being wholly 
 free from green ; yet often masters, as Both, in the middle 
 tints of the lights of ground, do make the gray colour in- 
 cline towards a pearly greenish hue, although it is still not 
 green. 
 
 The last four pictures on which these observations are 
 made, were seen at Mr. Prestage's, by the author, 25 th 
 February, 1758. 
 
 10. Sw anevelt. — Shade of the great tree is exactly 
 of the colour so frequently noticed, made of black and 
 light ochre, very dark, the edges towards the lights upon 
 the sky much greener, yet darkish and tenderly worked into 
 the sky. The buildings, though fronting the light, and 
 under a brilliant light clouded sky, are darker in the 
 lights than the hills behind, or than the road before, which 
 road is of a light yellow clay-like or ochre colour; and 
 throughout this picture, great regard was had to observ- 
 ing the local colouring of nature. 
 
 £ 
 
Colour Extreme 
 
 made with madewith 
 
 74 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 A PALETTE OF COLOURS FOR PAINTING SKIES AND 
 
 BUILDINGS. 
 
 
 Original or Proper Colours . 
 
 // f 
 
 Sky or JEther Colours . 
 
 Prussian Blue 
 and White. 
 
 / 
 
 Brown 
 
 Red. 
 
 Indian 
 
 Red. 
 
 Light 
 
 Red. 
 
 Brown 
 
 Ochre. 
 
 Light 
 
 Ochre. 
 
 White. 
 
 
 Ivory 
 
 Black. 
 
 Cologn 
 
 Earth. 
 
 Blue 
 
 Black. 
 
 Brown 
 
 Pink., 
 
 Prussian 
 
 Blue. 
 
 Lake. 
 
 5 Others compounded of the two Extremes. 
 
 ! I I 
 
 White and 
 light Red. 
 
 M-1 Jm ^ 
 
 c £‘3 3 g 
 ■so « 
 
 Cloud Colours . 
 
 Lake, Indian 
 
 Blue, White 
 
 Brown, Red 
 and White. 
 
 Brown Ochre, 
 
 Red, Blue 
 
 and Indian 
 
 a little Brown, 
 
 and White. 
 
 Red. 
 
 Red and White- 
 
 These Stone Colours to represent the Appearances of Objects 
 from the Horizon to the Fore-ground, when opposed to the Sun . 
 
 Blue, Black, 
 White, and 
 Indian Red. 
 
 5 intermediate Colours compounded of the 
 
 1 i 1 
 
 £xtremes. 
 
 Ivory Black, 
 BrownOchre, 
 Brown Red, 
 and White. 
 
 li 
 
 2 3 4 5 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
75 
 
 These following five colours are respectively to represent 
 those parts of objects that are parallel to the plane of the 
 picture quite from the horizon to the fore-ground, when 
 the seat of the sun, or light, is a little before the plane of 
 the picture, and upon a plane parallel to the horizontal 
 plane between the spectator's eye and the picture ; and 
 these colours must always be but a little darker than those 
 of the lights above, and always cooler, because this plane 
 has but little less of the sun upon it. 
 
 Middle Tints * 
 
 Horizon 
 Colour as 
 before. 
 
 5 intermediate Colours compounded of their Extremes. 
 
 Ivor/ Black, 
 White, Brown, 
 Red and Brown 
 Ochre. 
 
 The following five colours are to represent those parts 
 of objects very remote from the light, or the sides of such 
 planes as are at right angles with the plane of the pic- 
 ture, and are to be made warmer, and five times darker 
 than the lightest than the last colours are. 
 
 Horizon 
 Colour as 
 before. 
 
 5 intermediate Colours compounded of their Extremes. 
 
 Ivor/ Black, 
 Brown Red, 
 Brown Ochre, 
 and a little 
 White. 
 
 L 2 
 
7 6 
 
 The five following colours are respectively to represent 
 the darkest recesses, or parts, as hollows or ornaments 
 upon the shades last mentioned, or the nearest part to the 
 shadow side of the plane upon its shadow on the ground, 
 and must be cool, and but one degree or shade darker 
 than the last, that is, about as much darker than the last 
 colours as the second row is than the first. 
 
 Horizon 
 Colour as 
 before. 
 
 ! 1 ! ! 
 
 5 intermediate Colours compounded of their Extremes. 
 
 I II ! 
 
 Made with 
 Ivory Black, 
 &c. 
 
 1 
 
 2 3 4 5 6 
 
 7 
 
 These gradations of colours are made upon a supposition 
 that the whole space between the ground line and the hori- 
 zontal line is divided into seven equal parts, and upon each 
 of the nearest six parts is erected an object as a cube pillar, 
 &c. for the seventh must be lost in the horizon, as having 
 no kind of magnitude, consequently no colour, or such 
 as of those four colours marked 1, which represent the 
 most distant part of the horizon, or an infinity of lost ob- 
 jects absorbed in that extensive space. Those marked 2, 
 are to represent the objects standing upon the sixth di- 
 stance : those marked 3, those on the fifth division : those 
 with 4, such as are on the fourth division. The colours 
 noted 5, the objects on the third division with 6 : those 
 on the second space, and such as are marked 7? the oh- 
 
77 
 
 jects placed on the first or fore-ground. And thus had the 
 distance between the ground line and the horizontal line 
 been divided into fourteen, &c. parts; just so many co- 
 lours must have been made up between the extreme of 
 the horizon and fore-ground* 
 

n 
 
 APPENDIX, No. L 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 Rome, May 6, 17621 
 
 Sir, 
 
 Your kind and most friendly favour of the 15th 
 July last, I had the pleasure of receiving a short time be- 
 fore I left Dublin ; and it has grieved me not a tittle that 
 a most tedious and dangerous voyage obliged me to be 
 thus long before I could, with many thanks, return an 
 answer to a letter composed of so many sentiments of 
 friendship and esteem, that I shall ever preserve it as a 
 token of your goodness, and a spur to me in my studies,, 
 by endeavouring to attain a sufficiency of merit to be 
 worthy of the least part of those commendations with 
 which you have done me so much honour. I am but a 
 month in Rome, though I left Dublin last August, having 
 been two months at sea between that place and Cadiz, 
 beating about in the midst of the equinoctial storms, on 
 
80 
 
 board a little one-masted Dutch dogger, and was after- 
 wards obliged to remain three months at Gibraltar before 
 I had the opportunity of a man of war for Leghorn ; but 
 I now hope for some improving studies in this much-talked- 
 of city of Rome, which is dwindled from the once truly 
 great metropolis of the world, to a town inhabited by 
 Italians more effeminate than Frenchmen. What surprised 
 me much when I first came, w r as to find the rank of a 
 painter in no higher esteem than of any common trades- 
 man, and an apparent general stupefaction throughout 
 the nobility. In England we think them endowed with 
 an uncommon degree of taste ; but they have palaces 
 with the front and back covered with admirable antique 
 basso relievos, exposed to wind and weather, and moulder- 
 ing to decay, while a spacious ornamented gallery is filled 
 with the smooth polished works of modern masters : even 
 many of their most famous statues, which deserve to have 
 each a temple to itself, are set up only as garden orna- 
 ments : his true, they won’t let them go out of the king- 
 dom, as they find their advantage, by foreigners coming 
 among them ; but otherwise they as heedlessly pass by a 
 noble antique, as a Turk in Greece does the remaining 
 fragments of Phidias or Praxiteles, We see up and down 
 the remains of the old Roman grandeur and magnificence : 
 their heathen temples are now Christian churches, of 
 
81 
 
 which number the famous Pantheon is quite perfect, and 
 really a most elegant dome. The Coliseo, or amphi- 
 theatre, is much ruined ; much however is still preserved 
 by the care of the late Pope, who, to prevent the people 
 from taking away the stones, &c., of which some houses 
 \vere built, had it consecrated, and it is now dedicated to 
 Clement. The triumphal arches are yet standing; but 
 (if I may be allowed the expression) the ground has grown 
 about them so much that you may touch many of the 
 cornices. A painting of one of them you have in that 
 excellent picture of architecture which I had the pleasure 
 of copying, wherein is represented a Jewish procession, 
 in basso relievo, erected in honour to a general on his 
 return from a conquest over the Jews. These remains of 
 antiquity, as I mentioned before, are very little esteemed 
 by the degenerate natives, who only relish smooth polish- 
 ing and a laboured nothingness. I have often, since I 
 came into this country, thought of what the descendant of 
 the great Hampden mentioned to you once, on seeing a 
 sunset of your painting, about the Neapolitan sun, and 
 could wish it were in my power to tell you I had seen it ; 
 but I have only seen the Roman one, which by the by is 
 much the same; and don't know which to wonder at most, 
 the stupidity of many of our people, who think being in Italy 
 makes a better portrait- or landscape-painter, or their pre- 
 
 M 
 
82 
 
 possession in favour of a person who has been here, pre- 
 ferable to one, of perhaps much greater merit, who has 
 not. it is true, in regard to the country, there is more 
 fair weather here than in England ; the air is certainly 
 much purer; you see objects more distinctly at a distance, 
 and the distant mountains are tinged with a clearer azure. 
 But then has the best colourist here, who is thought to be 
 Claude de Lorrain, made a more transparent glow of co- 
 lours than we see on a fme evening from Hampstead heath 
 or the terrace at Windsor? or is it possible for colours to 
 make such? If not, why do we leave so great a field 
 of science to follow chimaeras, dancing about like be* 
 wildered travellers after a jack-and-the-lantern ? To 
 this it is answered : That it is plain there is something in 
 the country, by having produced so many fine things : but 
 it is not considered, these things were not produced by 
 the country, but by the encouragement of the people 
 who then lived. If not, why do not they do as well now as 
 Raphael or Poussin ? No ; the former Italian sense of great- 
 ness is diminished into the pusillanimous operations of an 
 eunuch, or the capers of a rope-dancer. The merit of the 
 painter has fallen with the decay of the respect and love 
 which is due to the arts, and seems to have finished its 
 career in this country. The spirit of them is now rising in 
 England ; so that I hope, ere long, to see the genius of 
 
83 
 
 Britain uniting the pencil with the sword, while Liberty 
 conducts both in triumph to the temple of Fame. 
 
 The Italians have many good opportunities of study, 
 which we as yet want at home. At the Pope's academy, 
 where I attend, the human figure is every day in the 
 week, holidays excepted, free for any person to draw after, 
 without any expense; — in the summer at half an hour after 
 five in the morning, and in the winter after nightfall,- — two 
 hours each time: near which are very large galleries 
 erected for pictures and statues, where people may at any 
 time study ; but it has this disadvantage, that the pictures 
 are not allowed to be taken down, nor scaffolds to be 
 made. The light, however, is very good, and as well 
 contrived as possible for the benefit of study. But I 
 found Florence so very charming when I passed through 
 it, by being allowed to have any picture in the gallery 
 removed into a convenient room for me, and many other 
 conveniences tending to the advancement of the art, that 
 I intend to put in practice at Florence the principles I 
 may learn in Rome. I am under the direction of Pompeo 
 Battone, from whom I hope to get some furtherance in 
 drawing; but shall look after the old masters for those 
 things which require most study. 
 
 My father, in his last letter, after desiring me to make 
 bis and my mother's best compliments to you, gave me an 
 
 m 2 
 
84 
 
 extract from a London paper, wherein jour works at West- 
 minster-hall, at the Coronation, were taken notice of with re- 
 spect; which I must beg to assure you gave me uncommon 
 pleasure, as I hope they may be the forerunners of some 
 of your performances, which, years hence, I shall con- 
 template with a glowing heart, as being produced by my 
 honoured friend, and for their own intrinsic merit will be 
 so perused by others when we shall be no more. I fear 
 I tire you with my tedious epistle, but beg you will ex- 
 cuse it, as I find it almost impossible to take my hand 
 from the paper when I begin to write to you ; and believe 
 me, the many happy evenings I spent with you have 
 left such an impression on me, that I dare say Italy never 
 before seemed so insipid to any student as it has to me, 
 who wish nothing so much as the period that may permit 
 me to return to England, to enjoy once more your most 
 improving company and conversation, and breathe again 
 the air of liberty and happiness in that paradise of a spot, 
 where honour and honesty sway their sceptre o’er the heads 
 of thousands of souls, not less noble than those once famed 
 inhabitants of Rome, who were drawn as it were by in- 
 stinct to contend with the Britons, (envied by the world) — 
 as one man of true courage looks out for the most formidable 
 antagonist, that if conqueror the more glory should be gained 
 —if conquered, the less be lost — I must beg your kindness, 
 
85 
 
 sir, in making my respects acceptable to Mr. Slaughter 
 and his sisters, who I hope are all well, with the same 
 to Mrs. Oram, and compliments to Mr. William Oram and 
 your family, whose prosperity and welfare are ever the 
 ardent wish and hope of, 
 
 Sir, 
 
 Your much obliged and sincerely 
 
 Humble and obedient servant, 
 
 Matthew William P — 
 
 Addressed 
 
 To William Oram, Esq. to the care of 
 Stephen Slaughter, Esq. near the 
 Bedford Tavern* Covent Garden* 
 
 London* 
 
86 
 
 APPENDIX, No. 11. 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 i : ■■ S 
 
 Florence, September 6, 1763. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I was infinitely happy in receiving your most 
 friendly letter of the 11th of June, 1762, which coming 
 from you, renders it needless to expatiate on the most 
 particular pleasure I enjoyed at its receipt, and finding 
 you and yours well and in health. It may be thought 
 necessary I should apologize for so long a silence, and 
 indeed I ought so ; but as I had nothing worth troubling 
 you with, and being thoroughly sensible of the partiality 
 wherewith you, sir, always distinguished me in your esteem, 
 by expressing a pleasure at the respect which first my duty, 
 and afterwards a true friendship caused by your intrinsic 
 goodness and condescension, always inspired me with, I hoped 
 would not by this delay be any ways abated. These, with 
 some family troubles, have till now deterred me from re- 
 
87 
 
 I 
 
 pea ting the felicity I am daily possessed of, in remem berirrg; 
 you, or any tiling that can conduce to add to your satis- 
 faction and happiness. — I am most sincerely obliged to 
 you for the honour you do me in your kind remembrance 
 of me, and do assure you, that, could I with words suffi- 
 ciently express the unfeigned affectionate respect I have 
 for you, I should attempt it : but, as I there fall short, must 
 make use of a somewhat similar expedient which a bro- 
 ther of the brush long since used in a picture; — who, 
 being unable to arrive at the extremity of grief in a par- 
 ticular figure of his subject, drew him covering his face 
 with the tail of his garment; which silent expression gave 
 a higher idea of what he suffered than the painter's ca- 
 pacity could have shown in his- most perfect arrangement: 
 of tints and lines. 
 
 I am retired these few months from Rome, where I re- 
 sided about a year, principally under Pompeo Battone : 
 but as the practice of a portrait-painter requires a dif- 
 ferent study from that of history, I was recommended 
 to pass my principal time in Tuscany and Lombardy, 
 which I have found to be most to my purpose ; as I have 
 more agreeable studies, and not interrupted with those 
 dissensions, which, I am sorry to observe, seem more uni- 
 versally to prevail among the artists of our country than 
 with those of any other, Our students in Rome are 
 
88 
 
 initiated into that manner of life which they afterwards 
 lead in London, the ill effects of which we have often 
 lamented together, and hope, as the reputation of Bri- 
 tain is rising in the arts, that we may proportionably 
 strengthen its esteem by disinterested love to our brethren, 
 and general candid behaviour to others, which cannot 
 fail of a suitable regard in return.— I have examined much 
 ‘nto the Italian colours you mentioned, and find, that that 
 transparency which we see in the works of the great masters 
 is principally owing to the manner of their painting. It is 
 true the Italian ochres are of a transparent nature, the best 
 of which is the light yellow (some of which you got from 
 sir Edward Walpole) that comes from Sienna, as does also 
 the dark brown, which is called at home terra di Sienna. 
 These are the only ones I know, that differ from ours ; and 
 our brown pink is far superior to any colour of that nature 
 I have met with, should it not be found to change for the 
 worse, which the Italians don't seem any way afraid of, 
 and only lament that they cannot make it equal to ours. 
 Were it not owing to the management of colours that the 
 old masters produced those rich transparent effects which 
 we see in their works, Pompeo and the Roman masters, 
 who have the same colours on their palettes, would do 
 just the same ; whereas, by their using no principle, but 
 laying on indiscriminately opake and transparent ones, 
 
89 
 
 the consequence falls out, that one destroys the other, and 
 leaves a dry and often muddy effect. I had a good lesson 
 of the force of glazing in the picture of Lady Digby I 
 copied at Windsor, where a red drapery was first painted 
 with only black and white, and when dry scumbled over 
 with lake, which had so much clearness and force, that 
 I, who did not then understand that way of working, and 
 laid it in with reds from the beginning, could scarce 
 arrive at its height with carmine and vermilion at the 
 finishing. You know, sir, how difficult it is in discourse, 
 to explain any of those hidden appearances in painting, 
 much more so when confined to the small compass of a 
 letter, as the language of the tongue and hand are very 
 different. But the Italians (as does De Piles) deliver 
 down to us, that, as in colours there are aerial and terrestrial 
 ones, it might be requisite to keep them separate, that is, 
 the aerial or bright ones, such as white, fine yellow, blue, 
 green, lake, and such like, on the brighter part of the 
 picture ; by which means they will have their proper 
 value, in being opposed to the heavy or earthy, which 
 form the grounds and shades, and Which, if used in- 
 discriminately with the bright, give that raw wheyish ap- 
 pearance, that looks, as the French term it, as if they had 
 been rubb’d with meal. They likewise tell you, that on 
 an experiment of the value of colours, laid in a thin body 
 
 N 
 
90 
 
 one over the other, it will be found that lakish tints, laid 
 over earthy or brown grounds, produce the aforesaid 
 disagreeable effect; whereas, on the other hand, trans- 
 parent yellows laid on lakish grounds bring out a rich 
 brightness, not to be composed by any body of colours. 
 Painting in that way, they say, has the advantage of being 
 clearly coloured, and most easy in flesh to make out the 
 pearly tint, as one can with the greatest ease either let 
 it remain purplish, or give it a warmer tinge, by means of 
 the yellow glazing. — How far this principle may be 
 thought of use in landscape I cannot pretend to say, but 
 do believe it to be of consequence in figures ; and those 
 painters whom we imagine to have practised in that way 
 are those which stand foremost in colouring and its 
 dependencies : for a transparent black they used asphaltum 
 or Jews pitch dissolved; the balsam of the mummies is of 
 much the same nature, little known among painters and 
 more easy in the practice. I can't attempt to say another 
 word on this subject, as there are as many different ways 
 of painting as there are practitioners, and many succeed 
 through different channels; which shows us that it is im- 
 possible to give any other receipt for painting a good 
 picture than to study hard and copy Nature closely. But 
 I have not yet done my search after those materials, and 
 when I return shall bring a sample with me, which we 
 
91 
 
 may further discourse about. I am very unhappy I can- 
 not give you a satisfactory account about the frontispiece 
 of Nero, as I could neither learn from the architects or 
 antiquaries of such a building now standing : what they 
 call the ruins of Nero's frontispiece consist only of some 
 fragments of broken cornices, but no columns, lying in the 
 garden of the Colonna palace. If the family that this place 
 belongs to had the whole formerly in their possession, I 
 should be apt to conjecture they made use of it in building 
 two large galleries; one mostmagnificently finished, theother 
 finishing. 1 am the more inclinable to think this may be the 
 case, as it is the custom for the modern Romans to erect their 
 buildings with the remaining materials of the ancient. — 
 But should I be mistaken, if you would be so good as 
 to inquire, from any who have been here, where it may be 
 found, I shall with the greatest pleasure write to a friend 
 at Rome to obtain any information that might be accept- 
 able to you. I am extremely obliged to you for your 
 pleasing account of the present state of vertu now in Eng- 
 land : I am happy in finding it begin to flourish, which 
 nothing can prevent but our own divisions and envious 
 quarrels. I most humbly thank you for your kind offer 
 of some impressions of your designs for the coronation, as 
 my father would thankfully acknowledge the favour ; but 
 as he is retired from business a small distance from Dublin, 
 
 n 2 
 
92 
 
 and as I hope to have the pleasure of seeing him in Lon- 
 don when I return back, and the honour of introducing 
 him to you, — it may be then more agreeable for us 
 altogether to discourse over and prize them as we 
 ought. — As to me, as I mentioned before, I am endeavour- 
 
 O 
 
 ing to get what I can from the best pictures here, and to 
 apply it to get practice from Nature. I have just finished 
 a large copy from a celebrated picture of Rubens, for sir 
 Lawrence Dundas, whose son lately passed through Italy ; 
 but as there is no painter here of any great note, I must 
 wait for its sentence from England. Since I came abroad, 
 the Dublin Society, a body on the same principles as the 
 Society for encouraging Arts in London, settled a pension 
 on me for four years, which makes my residence in this 
 country more pleasing, but not so much as to prevent my 
 endeavouring to return to London in about two years, as 
 I don't intend to engage in any work that may detain me 
 longer than that time. I hope then to be inquiring after 
 some convenient apartments, I suppose near Covent 
 Garden ; and believe me the extension of my present idea 
 of happiness consists in the enjoying the company of a 
 truly good father and a few friends, among whom I pride 
 myself in your being the chief; but accidents in life often 
 fall out so very different from what we could wish or 
 propose, that there is no flattering oneself with the stability 
 
93 
 
 of circumstances for two weeks, much less for two years : 
 but thoughts are pleasing, and we can't help indulging the 
 fancy, when it roves on agreeable objects. I intend to 
 reside here during my stay in Italy, as I find every thing 
 that is requisite either for my study or agreeableness of 
 living. The people are very obliging, particularly to the 
 English; and as I am known in a good acquaintance* 
 I spend my time with much satisfaction. Had the men a 
 little of the English generous spirit and sincerity, and the 
 women a little more virtue, it would be a most desirable 
 country; but these wants serve to make us esteem the more 
 our home, and set a higher value on those blessings we 
 enjoy, which indeed we cannot relish as we ought till we 
 are deprived of the use of them. 
 
 I am, with the greatest respect, dear sir, 
 
 Your most obliged and most truly affectionate 
 
 Humble servant, 
 Matthew William P — t— s. 
 
 To William Oram, Esq. His 
 Majesty’s Office of Works, 
 
 Whitehall, London. 
 
94 
 
 APPENDIX, No. III. 
 
 There is a peculiarity attending the appearance of an 
 enlightened object, an explantion of which may conduce 
 towards the understanding of several parts of the foregoing 
 treatise. It may be considered as a condensation of light, 
 arising from the obliquity of the point of view, on which 
 depends the theory of what is intended by the professional 
 term heightening. 
 
 Let A B be any surface, 
 as of a wall, &c. receiving 
 the rays of light in a per- 
 pendicular direction, or 
 parallel to EF, and in 
 consequence, more fully 
 illumined by such rays 
 than it could be in any 
 other position. If this 
 be viewed by an eye at E, 
 because A B is at right 
 
 o 
 
 angles to EF, the prin- 
 cipal ray, and the light is so diffused over it, that equal 
 spaces are possessed by equal quantities, its intensities may 
 be considered as A B, or as the breadth of the wall ; but if 
 
95 
 
 the eye be removed to E and the lines EF, E A, EB 
 drawn, and BA at right angles to ~EF, it is evident that 
 the breadth of the wall or surface A.B is projected into 
 AB according to the constant practice of placing the 
 picture at right angles to the principal ray. Now, because 
 AB, the intensity of the light remaining the same, is con- 
 tracted into A B, this intensity is consequently increased in 
 its effect on the eye at E just as much as A B is di- 
 minished, or in the inverted ratio of AB to AB. Again, 
 let the eye be removed to E and lines corresponding with 
 the former be drawn ; then will A B be projected into, or 
 become A B, and the intensity of the appearance of the 
 light being still inversely as A B to AB. This appearance 
 on A B will be represented by A B on the picture, when 
 viewed very obliquely, or from E, and should be as much 
 condensed or increased as the length of AB exceeds that 
 of A B. This is intended to account for that light ap- 
 pearance on the edges of objects* when viewed very ob- 
 liquely, which is usually imitated in very bright height- 
 enings by lines or suitable touches, for the sake of giving 
 force, and not unfrequently abused. This explanation 
 has been attempted on the principles of perspective, so 
 familiar to the artist, and the facility of its application to 
 curved and mixed surfaces must be obvious. 
 
 c. a 
 
96 
 
 APPENDIX, No. IV. 
 
 In order to explain more fully the authors reasoning in 
 Chap.i. and the causes of the gradations in tints, in Chap.xiii. 
 let A represent the plan of an object on the fore-ground 
 of a picture, or but at a few yards from the spectator at O 
 and B C, &c. the direction of the rays of light, then will 
 the side G F be strongly illumined from the nearly direct 
 incidence of those rays, while E F and H G will be less 
 so, and D E but scarcely receive the light, while D 4 will 
 be in a first degree of shade, and 4 M in the deepest 
 shadow; and the two remaining sides also, but not quite so 
 deep, since |4 M is directly opposite to the light, while 
 the others have some inclination towards its direction. 
 This state of the body, with respect to light and shadow, 
 constitutes what is named by the late author the first 
 privation, which produces a correspondent breaking or 
 gradation of the colours from the local, on the side F G, 
 through the middle tints to the deepest shadow at 4 M. 
 First, it is evident, that the quantity of light diffused on 
 
 vl 
 
 T A 
 / — # / 
 
 1 
 
97 
 
 each of these faces will be in the ratios of e d, d c, e b, b a, 
 in the line a e at right angles to the direction of the light, 
 on account of the parallelism attributed to the sun’s rays, 
 at distances indefinitely small with respect to his distance 
 from the earth : and with regard to the sides in shade, as, 
 they receive no light but by reflection, so the side L M 
 must be the darkest, as the angles of reflection are always 
 made in the same plane as those of incidence ; and from the 
 horizontal plane on which the body is seated, which is only 
 in this place to be considered, the rays of light must be car- 
 ried wholly from that side, while upon the others certain rays 
 reflected from that plane may impinge, as they are the less 
 inclined from the direction of those rays. Let now another 
 similar body be placed under the like circumstances at A', 
 twice the distance of A from O, also a third &c. at A", 
 three times that distance ; then, because they are similarly 
 posited with respect to the direction of the rays of light, 
 each will have the like parts exactly under the same de- 
 grees of light and shade at any given instant ; and it must 
 also be evident, that, as there are three spaces or distances 
 of the interposed medium, of which the second O A' is equal 
 to twice the first or O A, and O A" is three times O A ; and 
 the medium taken at an uniform density, these spaces will 
 be as, or expressed by, the numbers 1,2,3; and hence, 
 whatever is the quantity of diminution or gradation of light 
 
 o 
 
98 
 
 and shadow or colouring of A, those of A will be twice as 
 
 ii 
 
 much, and of A &c. three times as much, &c. which is the 
 authors second state of privation ; and by the composition 
 of those two conditions, the degree of privation will be on 
 any part directly as its inclination to the light and its 
 distance conjointly : but, as this inclination to the di- 
 rection of the light is as the lines ab, be, cd, de, it 
 will be as these lines conjointly with the distance, which 
 may enable the artist to determine somewhat more pre- 
 cisely than by their inclinations alone; and he will readily 
 perceive the application of this principle to every spe- 
 cies of object r but, the medium having other affections 
 in addition to that of density alone, some of which have 
 been already hinted ; he will also allow for those ano- 
 malies which would but tend to embarrass the question, 
 if now taken into consideration. This mode of explana- 
 tion applies immediately to the rationale of the palette, 
 given in Chap. XIII. in which the colours of the like ob- 
 jects on the fore-ground and horizon being assumed from 
 experience, the intermediate are divided directly as the 
 distances from the spectator, while the light, middle 
 shade and extreme shade tints, in each of these spaces or 
 grounds, are also taken as their inclinations to the light, 
 and each, particularly in the ratio resulting from conjoining 
 those two circumstances : and as this also comprehends 
 
99 
 
 the local colouring, and the gradations immediately de- 
 rived from it, supposed in a clear atmosphere, the further 
 consideration resulting from its varieties, and what the 
 author seems to mean by privation from the heavens, be- 
 comes very obvious. 
 
 This manner of treating stone objects is not less appli- 
 cable to trees, or any others entering the composition of a 
 picture ; and the result may not only be an exactness in the 
 double species of gradation, but also the production of 
 harmony in colouring, which seems to be obtained by a 
 certain distribution of tints, nearly of the same class, al- 
 ways tending towards, though never arriving at, mono- 
 tony ; and, upon the whole, forms a method of study not 
 altogether unworthy the attention of the early applicant 
 to the art of painting. 
 
 o 2 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Aerial perspective, 1. 
 
 » — * some particularities 
 
 in, 24. 
 
 Atmosphere, its effects in a still even- 
 ing, 6. 
 
 - — — in the point opposite the 
 
 sun, 7. 
 
 towards the sun, 8. 
 various, 9. 
 alterations in, 71. 
 
 Buildings lighter and lighter as they 
 come nearer, 12. 
 
 appearances of, 49, 57. 
 
 * * as painted by Horisonti, 67. 
 
 — — by G. Poussin, 69. 
 
 palette of colours for, 74. 
 
 Branches or boughs of trees how sepa- 
 rated, 55. 
 
 — masses of, ibid. 
 
 » — profiles, 58. 
 
 ■ lengths of, effects of light 
 
 on, ibid. 
 
 — — — forms and contrasts of, ibid. 
 
 Clouds, see Skies, 16, 17. 
 
 Closeness in working, 34. 
 
 Colours, black, ochres, reds, and lake, 
 use of in trees, 22, 45. 
 
 — brown, how to employ in fore- 
 
 grounds, 25. 
 
 black, ochre, and lake, a dark 
 
 colour for trees, 28. 
 
 — — — of slate, its use, ibid. 
 
 — blue, Indian red, or lake, very 
 
 blue or purple in trees two or three 
 miles distance, 30. 
 
 - — — - black, and ochre in the lights, 
 how broken into the shades, for trees 
 about a quarter of a mile off, ibid. 
 
 Colours, Indian red, black, and white, 
 for a house about a quarter of a mile 
 off, 31. 
 
 — reds, the use of, in breaking 
 
 into the shadows of trees, ibid. 
 
 for the sea, 32. 
 
 — - — black, blue, and Indian red, 
 for the general hue of buildings, ibid. 
 for the same more distant, 33. 
 
 — — for hills quite in the horizon, 
 in lights and shades, ibid. 
 
 grass rather distant, ibid. 
 
 — — for buildings in lights and 
 shades, 33. 
 
 reflections in water, ibid. 
 
 - — for lights, middle tints, and 
 
 shades in distances, 38. 
 
 — two of a like nature not to be 
 
 worked together, 39. 
 
 shades and lights of trees, ibid. 
 
 terra di Sienna and raw umber, 
 
 its use, 40. 
 
 for dead trees, ibid. 
 
 - — warm and strong greens for 
 
 the extreme lights, 41. 
 
 — darker tints to be introduced 
 
 among the extreme shades, ibid. 
 
 — ■ -- brown pink with raw umber, 
 Cologn earth, 8cc., its use, 42. 
 
 raw umber with a blueish 
 
 tint, 44. 
 
 — within what compass to be 
 
 kept, 45. 
 
 ■■■■ breaking in trees, ibid. 
 
 — « fine blueish green, with lake 
 
 and Indian red, in shades of woods, 48. 
 
 four tints of ochre, black, and 
 
 lake, for gradations &c. in trees, 
 53, 54. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Colours, brownish warm leafed upon 
 with a greenish gray, 54. 
 
 — Cologn earth , white, and brown 
 
 red for trees towards winter, 56. 
 
 - — Cologn earth, black, and lake 
 
 for stalks of trees, ibid. 
 
 brown burnt terra di Sienna, 63. 
 
 - — under, 62. 
 
 — — earthy purples, 66, 6 7. 
 
 mixture of with green tints, 
 
 ibid. 
 
 — brown purples, ibid. 
 
 — g ra y ditto, ibid. 
 
 black and umber with brown 
 
 ochre, ibid. 
 
 • a cool upon a warm and the 
 
 contrary, ibid. 
 
 — observed by HorisontL, ibid. 
 
 — by Both, and how managed, 71. 
 
 — greenish slate in buildings, 67. 
 
 — terra di Sienna burnt, brown 
 
 pink, and Cologn earth for extreme 
 shades of trees, from G. Poussin, 70- 
 — — higher middle tints and shades 
 of trees from G. Poussin, 70. 
 
 . — flat and tender in skies, 72. 
 
 — — — governing the tone n the mid- 
 dle grounds, purplish, and faint green- 
 ish tint mixt with it tor the shades, 
 as practised by Wovermans, 72. 
 
 — — ~ set of tints for rocks, ibid. 
 
 useful for breaking tints, 73. 
 
 for skies, 74. 
 
 — building, ibid. 
 
 Colouring, distinction in, grows less 
 according to distance and the nature 
 of the medium, 2. 
 
 — — bv what governed, 3. 
 
 — - of the horizon not equal 
 throughout. 5. 
 
 , . — ■ brightness in, always goes 
 
 with the sun, 6. 
 
 — — - transition from the bright 
 blue to golden yellow, entered upon 
 by a bright greenish tint, ibid. 
 
 — of the horizon opposite the 
 
 sun, ibid. 
 
 ~ over the head of the spec- 
 tator, ibid.. 
 
 10 1 
 
 Colouring, how effected in an even- 
 ing, 7. 
 
 of first advances of day, ibid. 
 
 local, presiding most under 
 
 the fullest and clearest light, 8. 
 
 becomes darker and darker, 
 
 when, 10. 
 
 — 11 local, in trees to be strictly 
 observed, as also its changes when 
 opposed to the light, 22. 
 
 — how to break, in trees re- 
 
 ceding from the light, ibid. 
 
 — — - of trees with thick and 
 
 opaque colour, 23. 
 
 — ° distinctness in shadow, ibid.. 
 — of leaves of trees, 26, 27. 
 
 — readiness in, 28. 
 
 — — — - with a cool tint upon a 
 warmer, 39. 
 
 — — in the several objects in a 
 
 picture, how to lay in, proceed on, 
 and finish, 40. 
 
 fresh and verdant in trees, 41. 
 
 — — — fore-grounds, 42. 
 
 greenness in shades of trees 
 
 opposed to the sun, 54. 
 
 breadths of light and sha- 
 dow, ibid. 
 
 in trees towards winter, 55* 
 
 56, 
 
 — — ■ — of buildings at noon and 
 
 evening, 57. 
 
 — ■ — in stormy weather, ibid. 
 
 — in foggy weather, 58. 
 
 — — - of trees at small distances, 61. 
 
 — — memorandums of, in loose 
 
 sketches from nature and N. Pous- 
 sin, 18, 26, 46, 56, 62. 
 
 — — of rocks under a great va- 
 
 riety of tints, 62. 
 
 — — — - woods near rocks, 63. 
 
 grounds, by G. Poussin, ibid; 
 
 - roeks, by ditto, ibid. 
 
 • — — — purple faint middle tint, how 
 
 touched upon in the distances, &c., 
 72. 
 
 harmonious between rocks, 
 
 ibid. 
 
 Contrasts in branches of trees, and the. 
 
i02 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 forms of masses of leaves, particular 
 notices of, 59. 
 
 Distance, its effects, 4. 
 
 — causes diminution, 47- 
 
 — appearance of in stormy 
 
 weather, 57- 
 
 hills, by G. Poussin, 65. 
 
 — - ■ ■ — — see Colours, Colouring, and 
 Gradation. 
 
 Diminution, 52. 
 
 Effects of nature, how imitated, 49. 
 
 - — - — — aimed at by the great 
 masters, 50. 
 
 Fields in the fore- ground lighter than 
 the horizon, 12. 
 
 — ■ — distant, 47. 
 
 Foxiness of hue to be avoided, 30. 
 
 Gradations from the distance regulated 
 by the lights of the further being 
 darker than the shades of the next 
 succeeding, also warmer, 47, 49, 51. 
 
 — howtobreakthecoloursin,47. 
 
 • of branches and leafing, 51, 
 
 52. 
 
 — — — — of trees in a first and second 
 
 distance, 53. 
 
 — of trees in foggy weather, 58. 
 
 — — — — in trees, by Swanevelt, 64. 
 
 * in buildings, by G. Poussin, 
 
 70. 
 
 — in breaking the lights, sha- 
 
 dows, &c., very delicate, by Both, 7 1 . 
 — — — — method of, observed by 
 Swanevelt, 74. 
 
 — how managed by compound- 
 ing the extreme tints in skies and 
 buildings, —a rule for other objects, 
 74, 75, 76. 
 
 Grass, 31. 
 
 Grounds n^ar trees, how kept, 42. 
 <— middle, 43. 
 
 dark and strong, 64. 
 
 — flat, by G. Poussin, 65. 
 
 — — how coloured by Horisonti, 67. 
 
 — by Vanderneer, 69. 
 
 Harmdny, general hue of buildings 
 on the sea-side, 32. 
 
 • — — — — > extremes of tints to be soft- 
 ened the one into the other, 35. 
 
 — — — — colours of distances used in 
 trees before them, 38. 
 
 general among rocks, 44. 
 
 — in trees before rocks, union 
 
 of colouring, ibid. 
 
 — in trees, arising from tints of 
 
 the like hue, 54. 
 
 — general hue of, lights, 56. 
 
 - — — bv gradations of like tints, 58. 
 
 between rocks and woods, 
 
 62 . 
 
 — in a sky with hills, 64. 
 
 in rocks, G. Poussin, 66. 
 
 ■ — hue in distant trees, and line 
 
 of shadow, how subservient to, 68. 
 
 — in gradations of buildings, 
 
 69 . 
 
 — — between near buildings, hills, 
 
 and trees, by a common governing 
 colour, 70. 
 
 in fore-grounds, by the mid- 
 dle tint, how managed, 73. 
 
 — between rocks and trees, ibid. 
 
 Herbage lighter than the grounds, and 
 not very green, 67. 
 
 Hills distant, by G. Poussin, 64. 
 Horizon, appearance of, in a sunny 
 afternoon, 47. 
 
 Keeping lights, 64. 
 
 ■ reds for breaking colours, ibid. 
 
 — fine and brilliant, how pro- 
 duced by Vanderneer, worthy atten- 
 tion, 68, 69. 
 
 Killing the true tint from privation of 
 light into the shadow, well per- 
 formed by Both, 7 1 . 
 
 Laying in, 34, 35. 
 
 — trees, 38, 39. 
 
 Leaves, in extreme light, how to ma- 
 nage, 41, 42. 
 
 — — forms of masses of, 51. 
 Leafing, manner of, with different 
 
 tints, 53. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 ] 03 
 
 Leafing, with the sun on one side, 54. 
 — - — — in foggy weather, 58. 
 
 — particulars with respect to, 60, 
 
 61 . 
 
 ^Light, privation of, of two kinds, 1 . 
 •- diminishes the vigour of co- 
 lours, 3. 
 
 — — principal, 14. 
 
 Lights in a succession of woods become 
 warmer than the shades, 48. 
 
 — — on boughs of trees, 59. 
 
 — tenderly touched into the sky, 
 
 74. 
 
 Middle tint touched upon with a 
 brownish shade, 28. 
 
 • in trees, how managed, 55. 
 
 < ■ - ■ governing the tone, 72. 
 
 — — ■ — —of Both, &c., 73. 
 Mezzotinto lights, shades, 27, 53. 
 Medium for shade, colouring, light, di- 
 stance, &c., 4. 
 
 Objects of the same hue will have the 
 same colouring at equal distances, 8. 
 
 — - distinction, colouring, and 
 
 form of, decrease till quite lost in 
 shade, 23. 
 
 ■ — - more detached in certain parts 
 
 by keeping distance, than particu- 
 larity of form, 29. 
 
 — various, by Vanderneer, 68. 
 
 Observations on several masters, viz. 
 
 N. Poussin, 62. 
 
 Both, 70. 
 
 Domenichino, 63. 
 
 Horisonti, 66. 
 
 Gaspar Poussin, 64, 69. 
 
 Swanevelt, 64, 73. 
 
 Vanderneer, 68, 7L 
 Wovermans, 72. 
 
 Profiles of boughs, how touched, 58. 
 Palette of colours, 74. 
 
 Rays of light to be considered in ma- 
 naging trees, 23. 
 
 — effects of, among distant trees, 61 . 
 Rocks, various tints for, in several 
 
 distances, 43, 45. 
 
 Rocks, a common tint interspersed 
 among, 44. 
 
 in the middle of the picture, 
 
 tints for, 62. 
 
 great delicacy in the colouring 
 
 of, by G. Poussin, 65. 
 
 effect of, on a middle ground, 
 
 how managed by Wovermans, 72. 
 
 Sea, 31. 
 
 Shadows of all kinds of objects of one 
 and the same hue when darkest, 2. 
 
 • — effects of the medium upon, ib. 
 
 of distance, ibid. 
 
 distinction of objects in, when 
 
 the least perceptible, 23. 
 
 — — distinction nearly lost in the 
 breadths or masses of leaves in, when 
 opposed to the sun, 53. 
 
 Sketches, loose, with the colouring 
 noted down, 18, 26, 46, 56, 62. 
 Skies, to colour, 15. 
 
 ° — — evening, ibid_ 
 
 — — - midday, 18. 
 
 — — observations on, 17. 
 
 — in Sir Edward Walpole’s pic- 
 ture, 16, 17. 
 
 ■ seen through distant trees, 52. 
 
 — in foggy weather, 58. 
 
 — — tender, from opposition of clouds, 
 by Domenichino, 63. 
 
 ■ by G. Poussin, 65. 
 
 kept down as managed by Hori- 
 
 sonti, 67. 
 
 ■ particulars of a morning sky, by 
 
 Vanderneer, 67, 68, 72. 
 
 — — palette for, 74. 
 
 Sun, its effect in different situations 
 with respect to the spectator, and 
 times of the day, 5. 
 
 — with regard to the relative situa- 
 
 tions of objects, 8, 9, 10. 
 
 Trees, how to appear, 21. 
 
 — where generally the lightest, 22. 
 lightest parts of, to lie on a 
 
 warmer colour, ibid. 
 
 — degradations in, how managed, ib., 
 
 ■ what colours to be used 111 re- 
 ceding from the local into shade, ibid* 
 
104 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Trees, rays of light to be considered in 
 their shades, 23. 
 
 stems when covered with leaves, 
 
 how worked, ibid. 
 
 distinction in leafing, when lost, 
 
 26 . 
 
 — in masses of leaves, the middle 
 
 tint very gray and strong, 28. 
 
 — — verdant and pleasant effect in, 29 . 
 
 - — - when to be broken towards the 
 purple, 30. 
 
 — — painted with colours forming 
 their extreme light and shade, 39. 
 
 how finished, ibid. 
 
 how to lay in, 35. 
 
 - — — verdant, how to paint, 41. 
 
 before rocks, how laid in and 
 
 proceeded upon, 44. 
 
 — — to give a fresh and cool appear- 
 ance, 45. 
 
 in hazy weather, how coloured, 
 
 50. 
 
 forms of, and how pencilled, ibid. 
 
 on breaking out of the sun in 
 
 hazy weather, 52. 
 
 — opposed to the sun, how to 
 paint, 53. 
 
 ■ breadths of light and shade in, 54. 
 
 * transitions from light to shade, 
 
 how managed in, 55. 
 
 towards winter, 55, 56. 
 
 Trees, in foggy weather, 58. 
 
 different appearances of, at diffe- 
 rent distances, 61. 
 
 verdancy of appearance in, with 
 
 what colours produced, 63. 
 
 — shadow sides of, how made, by 
 
 Swanevelt, 64. 
 
 how coloured, by G. Poussin, 66. 
 
 . . by Horisonti, 67 . 
 
 by Vanderneer, 68. 
 
 Vanderneer’s under colour, a 
 
 cool blue green, 71 . 
 
 ■ on the middle ground, how ma- 
 
 naged, by Wovermans, 73 . 
 
 Verdant effects in fore-grounds, 43. 
 
 Water, 46, 69 . 
 
 — — changes with the sky, 72 . 
 Weather, stormy appearance of, 57 . 
 — — foggy* 58. 
 
 Woods, distant, how appear in a 
 sunny afternoon, 47. 
 
 • — — nearer, how coloured, ibid. 
 
 — — — become warmer as they ap- 
 proach, ibid. 
 
 - — — what hue to be avoided in 
 painting, 48. 
 
 - — — — how to break the colours for 
 this purpose, ibid. 
 
 • — near rocks, 65. 
 
 
 THE END. 
 
 PRINTED BY RICHARD TAYLOR AND CO., 
 SHOE LANE, LONDON. 
 
 1 .