Ulrich Middeldorf 
 
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 http://archive.org/details/useofboxofcolourOOwill 
 
It V 
 
PRACTICAL TREATISE 
 
 ON 
 
 COMPOSITION, LIGHT AND SHADE, 
 AND COLOUR. 
 
PRINTED BY WILLIAM WIICOCKSON, ROLLS BUILDJNGS, FETTER LANE. 
 
THE USE 
 
 OF A 
 
 BOX OF COLOURS, 
 
 IN A 
 
 practical Bemonstration on 
 
 COMPOSITION, LIGHT AND SHADE 
 AND COLOUR. 
 
 Illustratelr ^lam antr ©olourclr ^examples. 
 
 BY 
 
 HARRY WILLSON, 
 
 AUTHOR OF FUGITIVE SKETCHES IN ROME, VENICE, ETC. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY TILT AND BOGUE, FLEET STREET, 
 
 FOR THE PROPRIETOR, 
 
 CHARLES SMITH, 34, MARYLEBONE STREET, PICCADILLY. 
 M.DCCC.XLII. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Between those works on Art which are too costly, or too 
 old to be useful now, — those, which are too comprehensive or 
 prolix — and those, which teach nothing, — it was suggested to 
 the Author, that an investigation and simple arrangement of 
 the Principles on which he has hitherto successfully taught, 
 with useful results, would form a Practical Treatise, calculated 
 to abridge the labours and shorten the road of the Student, 
 by its available suggestions. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Prefatory Remarks; — Composition, applied to Painting .... 1 
 
 Op Angular Composition 9 
 
 Op the Circular Form in Composition 12 
 
 Light and Shade — its Application to Painting 15 
 
 On Colour 30 
 
 Of the Three Primitive Colours 33 
 
 On General Nature . . • 39 
 
 On Rules .45 
 
 On Copying 47 
 
 On the Light and Shade of Colour ; and Reflexes .52 
 
 Harmony and Contrast 61 
 
 Effect, Accident, Relief, and Keeping 63 
 
 Dexterity and Affectation 68 
 
 Of Backgrounds 71 
 
 On Water-Colour 73 
 
 Of Tints 75 
 
 Reference to the Plates on Colour 76 
 
 Description of the Plates 78 
 
COMPOSITION. 
 
 ' Genius is the power of making elforts.* 
 
 Erroneous opinions, once formed, seldom fail to aifect the taste of a 
 man's character through his whole life. It is, therefore, of the utmost 
 necessity that his conduct be rightly directed. 
 
 * Art will not descend to us, we must be made to reach and aspire to it.' 
 
 ^ The great art to learn much,' says Locke, ' is to undertake a little at a 
 time.' And Dr. Johnson has very forcibly observed — 'That all the per- 
 formances of human art, at which we look with praise or wonder, are 
 instances of the resistless force of perseverance : it is by this that the 
 quarry becomes a pyramid, and that distant countries are united by canals. 
 If a man were to compare the effect of a single stroke with a pickaxe, or 
 of one impression of a spade, with the general design and last result, he 
 would be overwhelmed with the sense of their disproportion ; yet those 
 petty operations, incessantly continued, in time surmount the greatest diffi- 
 culties; and mountains are levelled, and oceans bounded, by the slender 
 force of human beings. 
 
 *It is, therefore, of the utmost importance, that those who have any 
 intention of deviating from the beaten roads of life, and of acquiring a 
 reputation superior to names hourly swept away by time, among the refuse 
 of fame, should add to their reason and spirit the power of persisting in 
 their purposes ; acquire the art of sapping what they cannot batter ; and 
 the habit of vanquishing obstinate resistance by obstinate attacks.' 
 
 To the many, of different ages, of different pursuits, of different degrees 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 COMPOSITION 
 
 of advancement, who may take up this work, it will be difficult to address 
 myself, as the mind requires instruction adapted to its growth ; but I trust 
 to being enabled to protect industry from being misapplied. 
 
 To such as desire to shorten the path to excellency and to whom rules 
 appear as the ^ fetters of genius,' from mere impatience of labour, if their 
 studies be not well directed, they will, just in proportion to their industry, 
 deviate from that right way, to which, after all their exertions, they will 
 have to return at last. It will be time enough to destroy the bridge when 
 we have attained the shore. To render our efforts effectual, they must be 
 well directed ; and the student will ultimately triumph over those rules 
 which before restrained him. 
 
 Begin wrong, and you are no sooner under sail, than under water ! 
 When a difficulty presents itself, attack it as though you meant to over- 
 come it, and the chances are you succeed. 
 
 Do not fancy that you have, or that you want, that illusion, inspiration ; 
 but remember Art is to be acquired by human means ; that the mind is to 
 be expanded by study ; and that examples of industry abound to show the 
 way to eminence and distinction. ' He must of necessity,' says Sir J oshua 
 Reynolds, *be an imitator of the works of other painters. This appears 
 humiliating, but is equally true ; and no man can be an artist, whatever he 
 may suppose, on any other terms. For, if we. did not make use of the 
 advantages our predecessors afford us, the art would be always to begin, 
 and consequently remain always in an infant state.' And we shall no 
 longer require to use the thoughts of others when we have become able to 
 think for ourselves : ' Genius is the child of Imitation.' 
 
 There are no excellencies out of the reach of the rides of art — nothing 
 that close observation of the leading merits of others, nothing that indefati- 
 gable industry cannot acquire. Refinement in the practice of rules brings 
 all under its dominion ; and, ^ as the art advances, its powers will be still 
 more and more fixed by rules ;' and, * unsubstantial as these rules may 
 seem, and difficult as it may be to convey them in writing, they are still 
 seen and felt in the mind of the artist, and he works from them with as 
 much certainty as if they were embodied upon paper. And that it is by 
 being conversant with the inventions of others that we learn to invent. 
 The mind becomes as powerfully affected as if it had itself produced what 
 
APPLIED TO PAINTING. 
 
 3 
 
 it admires.' An habitual intercourse, to the end of our lives, with good 
 and great examples, will invest our own inventions with their splendid 
 qualities ; and if we do not imitate others, we shall soon be found imitating 
 ourselves, *and repeating what we have before often repeated; while he 
 who has treasured the most materials, has the greatest means of invention.' 
 
 It by no means appears to me impossible to overtake what we admire 
 and imitate — or even to pass it. He *has only had the advantage of 
 starting before you,' while pointing the way has shortened our own labour. 
 Life must henceforth become longer ; because we now, more than ever, 
 gain time by the experience of others : we pass on from that to our own, 
 until every thing in nature, judiciously directed, becomes subservient to the 
 principles and purposes of Art. 
 
 Again, * I very much doubt,' says Sir Joshua, ' whether a habit of draw- 
 ing correctly what we see will not give a proportionable power of drawing 
 correctly what we imagine.' But practice must always be founded on good 
 Theory ; for mere correctness of drawing is, perhaps, nearly alhed to mecha- 
 nical; blending it with the imaginative alone, in composition, constitutes 
 its pretensions to genius; but confidence in the one produces boldness in 
 the other. 
 
 * All rules arise from the passions and affections of the mind, and to 
 which they are all referrible. Art effects its purposes by their means.' 
 
 ' Years,' says a modern author, ' are often spent in acquiring wealth, 
 which eventually cannot be enjoyed for want of those stores of the mind, 
 that should have been laid up in youth, as the best solace of declining age. 
 The most moderate power of making a sketch from nature would have been 
 a valuable attainment, when leisure and opportunity threw them among 
 scenes they could but half enjoy in consequence.' Besides, true Taste does 
 every thing in the best way at the least expense, while the want of it often 
 appears in unmeaning decoration at a vast outlay. 
 
 'A man of polite imagination,' says Addison, 'feels greater satisfaction 
 in the prospect of fields and meadows than another does in the possession 
 of them : it gives him a kind of property in every thing he sees ; so that 
 he looks on the world, as it were, in another light.' 
 
 When a Painter walks out, he receives at every glance impressions that 
 would entirely escape others^ upon sensibilities refined by habits of observa- 
 
 B 2 
 
4 
 
 COMPOSITION 
 
 tion. The art of seeing things as they appear is the art of acquiring a 
 knowledge of drawing them. Indefinite observation and defective memory 
 are improved in the utmost degree by this faculty of seeing things well 
 defined. Besides, most Sciences are capable of receiving great assistance 
 from drawing. 
 
 The road is familiar to the practised painter, whose many stages he has 
 passed through so often, and he seldom thinks of revisiting the earlier 
 tracks of it when he has set up his study at the farther end ; therefore, it 
 behoves us to come back, and lead the pupil through those early stages of 
 it, until we welcome him at the end, and he becomes as familiar with the 
 way as ourselves. The lowest steps of a ladder are as useful as the highest. 
 
 Composition, in drawing, is the art of disposing ideas, either from hints 
 taken from nature, or from our own minds ; of arranging them, with a view 
 to subsequently dividing them into light and shade; and arraying them 
 with judicious colour. It is the art of graphically telling a story, and should 
 be so contrived, that the principal objects we would impress the minds of 
 others with, should hold that just place in a picture, in relation to the minor 
 or auxiliary parts, that may at once impress the mind, and convey our 
 object to the view of the spectator. 
 
 To compose well, it will be necessary for the student to diligently consult 
 the compositions of others ; zealously enquiring where the best are to be 
 found, among the numerous instances that exist both in pictures and prints, 
 that he may carefully avoid those that would mislead him in his research, 
 and attain his object by consulting only those that have merited the 
 approval of the best judges, and have come down to posterity as the best 
 examples for his imitation. By adhering to this plan, it will readily become 
 such matter of habit with him, that a comparatively short interval of time 
 will force upon him the conviction that he is in the right path to future 
 success. It were useless to add how many have began, and how many 
 have failed, for want of this precaution at setting out. A splendid and 
 fascinating effect, or a beautiful display of colour, or something or other 
 that the artist has dexterously contrived to invest his work with, is generally 
 the cause to which this failure is ascribable ; while in the end, our own 
 sympathies with a composition, correct in its management, appeal to the 
 feelings and judgment at once. 
 
APPLIED TO PAINTING. 
 
 5 
 
 In the first place, much knowledge of perspective is not necessary to 
 the student : the leading principles are all that are required, at setting 
 out. As he goes on, it will be time enough to extend his enquiries. 
 
 Secondly, a good manner of drawing the parts, or objects represented in 
 a picture, with accuracy. 
 
 Thirdly, reference to the best compositions of others will enable him 
 to compare and combine them. 
 
 Fourthly, to render some subservient to others, by a skilful distribution 
 of Light and Shade. 
 
 Exercise the memory on various parts of objects, till you draw them 
 well: the means of connecting them will gradually occur, until the whole 
 is united. The constant practice of this method will lessen the difficulty 
 at every step, until it becomes a habit of the mind, and is rendered as 
 easy to grasp a whole scene, as before it was the parts. The fleeting 
 nature of effects of cloud or sunshine passing before us, leave no time 
 to meditate them ; therefore, to impress the memory with them is the 
 only resource left. 
 
 The single glance of an eye has been found sufficient to catch the 
 passing expression of character, and fix it on the memory, when that 
 memory has been strengthened and matured by repeated efforts : so evane- 
 scent are the features of things and forms that pass us by, that observation 
 — discriminative observation — assisted by habits of memory, alone can fix 
 them in our ideas : no single expression of the human countenance remains 
 long enough to paint it by any other means. When the memory has been 
 thus exercised, the slightest hint will be sufficient to fire it. This may 
 account for the expression, * that artists see things where nobody else can 
 find them!' It is an improved perception that catches resemblances from 
 almost ideal forms. 
 
 The most general forms of nature are the most beautiful. An enlarged 
 comprehension sees the whole object at once, without minute attention to 
 details, by which it obtains the ruling characteristics, and imitates it by 
 short and dexterous methods. * Science soon discovers the shortest and 
 surest way to effect its own purpose ; ' — by an exact adequate expression, 
 and no more, adjusts the whole. The laziness of highly finishing the 
 parts, has been justly called the laborious effects of idleness:' excessive 
 
6 
 
 COMPOSITION 
 
 labour in the detail, is always pernicious to the general effect, frittering 
 it away ; and, while you deceive yourself that you are acquiring art, 
 your pursuit will end in mechanics, in default of more extended views — 
 the Art of seeing Nature ! 
 
 To copy well, or even tolerably, is all that most amateurs ever arrive 
 at : to draw from nature, originally, seems placed out of the reach of all, 
 but those who devote a great part of their existence to it ; and yet, to 
 copy nature, is a goal that all would reach if they could ! Try it, and 
 behold the miserable production that is the result! without a previous 
 devotion to its laws. 
 
 Instead of for ever copying, it will be found of more importance to be 
 continually exercising the memory. ^ A 7nere imitator or copyist,' says 
 Dagley, * dare not lose sight of his model, lest he should lose himself!' 
 
 In sketching from nature, always survey the object at every point the 
 nature of the ground will permit, as it prevents the disappointment arising 
 from having completed your work, and afterwards seeing it from a point 
 that would have given you greater advantages. 
 
 Whenever a pencil or pen is at hand, practice continually the perpen- 
 dicular, horizontal, and diagonal lines ; then strike circles out, or any 
 other flowing lines, which practice will eventually give that flow to the 
 hand which is understood by freedom. When power is acquired over 
 these, their combinations form Draicing, in all its picturesque varieties. It 
 is in the power of all to attain these forms and essential parts of drawing, 
 with the same, or more facility, than the forms of writing are acquired. 
 
 ' No object you can place in your picture, can possess its proper value, 
 unless it is in its proper place; — out of that place, it can only create 
 disorder.' 
 
 The size of a figure, or any other object, should denote the distance 
 at which it is situated: so should the colour of it retire in the same 
 proportion. 
 
 The eye should be distant from the picture twice the length of it. 
 
 The most natural point of sight, is the level of a man's eye, standing 
 up; which should be the line of the horizon, or where the sky meets it. 
 All mountains should rise above that line. 
 
 If a figure be placed on the bottom line of the picture, it should be 
 
APPLIED TO PAINTING. 
 
 7 
 
 the natural size, and all others diminish as they recede, in an exact pro- 
 portion to their distance, care being taken that they never have the 
 appearance of going up steps ; all buildings, trees, &c., being governed 
 by the same rule. Thus the second figure or object, being the same 
 distance from the first as the first is from the eye, presuming them both 
 to be of the same size in nature, the second will appear half the size of 
 the first ; and, if the third be removed the same distance from the second, 
 it will appear two-thirds less; and so on they w^ill diminish in equal pro- 
 portion. At twice the distance, it will diminish three-fourths ; and at one- 
 third more, it will lose Jive- sixths ; and so retire progressively, never varying 
 the point of sight. One eye only should be open, in order to reduce all 
 objects to one point of sight; the objects immediately in front, receiving 
 alone the highest finish, that all may appear to have ground to stand on. 
 If you look at nature with both eyes, you will never obtain the same 
 relief upon a flat superfice. 
 
 The horizontal line should never be placed at half the height of the 
 picture, but always above or below it. 
 
 In drawing a room, or the nave of a church, place the centre of it on 
 one side, and never in the middle; and nearer the bottom than the top. 
 Observe the same rule with the figures. One side should be in light, 
 while the other is in shadow. The heads or parts of figures on the 
 shadowed side should catch the light ; while, to balance the mass, the dark 
 groups should be placed on the light side. (See plate 1, Jig. 1.) 
 
 So, in drawing any single object, always place it sufficiently on one 
 side, to procure a greater space above it, than beneath; and more repose 
 on one side than the other. This principle should never be lost sight of, 
 for even in portraits it has a bad effect. 
 
 To produce pictorial effect, in composing landscape, the lines should 
 be of unequal length, forming acute and obtuse angles. Neither should 
 they be vertical or horizontal with the sides or bottom of the square, but 
 always diagonal, the distant horizon and lower streaks of the bases of the 
 clouds excepted, which should be contrasted, by the upper parts of the 
 clouds being round. Broken banks and spreading roots of trees will effect 
 this. An exception, in buildings and architecture, something reverses 
 this rule, from the lines being perpendicular and horizontal, in which case. 
 
8 
 
 COMPOSITION 
 
 the shadows must be diagonal. When a wall, for instance, is straight, a 
 wheel, or circular object is generally placed against it, to reverse the lines 
 by apposition.' 
 
 * Objects, whether they consist of lights, shadows, or figures, must be 
 disposed in large masses and groups, properly varied and contrasted, that, 
 to a certain quantity of action, a proportioned space of plain ground is 
 required; that light is to be supported by sufficient shadow, and that a 
 certain quantity of cold colours is necessary to give value and lustre to 
 the warm.' Observation of the best pictures will convey those proportions 
 to the mind, much better than the most profound demonstration, *that 
 the eye may not be distracted by a multiplicity of objects of equal mag- 
 nitude.' 
 
 Grouping, in composition, involves in its arrangement, a combination 
 of the parts, so that they form an agreeable and well-defined whole, in 
 which it is essential sometimes to employ the strongest contrasts; on the 
 other hand, if the forms be too much scattered, they will distort the har- 
 monious combination that is the greatest beauty of art. All accessories 
 may be included in the principal group, so that they contribute to the 
 general breadth. Opposition to regular forms is essential; this opposition 
 is called Relief. (See art. Light and Shade.) 
 
 We may derive hints in composition from almost every sort of combi- 
 nation. 
 
 Variety and intricacy have many excellencies, when managed with skill, 
 as they exert the imagination of the beholder. 
 
 ' Simplicity,' says Sir Joshua Reynolds, ' when so very inartificial as to 
 seem to evade the difficulties of art, is a very suspicious virtue.' Simplicity 
 might often better deserve the name of penury. ' I do not, however, wish 
 to degrade simplicity from the high estimation in which it has been ever 
 justly held. It is our barrier against that great enemy to truth and nature, 
 affectation I which is ever clinging to the pencil, ,and ready to drop in 
 and poison every thing it touches.' 
 
 Perseverance, in laborious application to acquire correctness, should 
 always be preferred to a splendid negligence of manner. 
 
 The frequent practice of covering down, veiling, or concealing an object 
 or figure, because they cannot draw it, and doing that so inexpertly as 
 
» 
 
Cliullmandel s Patent 
 
APPLIED TO PAINTING. 
 
 9 
 
 not to escape detection, is frequently observable in the works of modern 
 artists ; such as clothes, baskets, &c., thrown across a horse, to conceal 
 its deformity ; unnecessary or aifected drapery over a figure ; a cow, half 
 buried in weeds and dock-leaves, that its shapeless legs may not be seen, 
 &c., with many other artifices to evade difficulties : to such he says, ' If 
 difficulties overcome make a great part of the merit of art, difficulties 
 evaded can deserve but little commendation.' 
 
 It is by no means an object with me, neither has this work pretension 
 to the form of a regular treatise (too often prolix and abstruse in their 
 investigations), but I would endeavour to bring together such useful hints 
 as occur to me in its progress, as practically useful, without confining myself 
 to the regularity or connexion of a lengthened dissertation, and seeking 
 only to accomplish the end by explaining the means of contending with 
 difficulties where they are likely to occur. 
 
 OF ANGULAR COMPOSITION. 
 
 That the angular form is one of the best adapted to composition, at least 
 in landscape, is indisputable ; the diagonal line dividing the whole into 
 two halves, gives the largest space for the distribution of light and shade, 
 as well as extent for the design. 
 
 When the whole composition is placed on one side, a single object — 
 but stronger in colour than the rest — placed at the opposite side, will 
 generally be found sufficient to balance all on the other, however com- 
 plicated or extensive in its details it may be. {Plate ], fig. 1.) 
 
 More re-pose and softness is obtained by uniting the composition with 
 the darker shadows of the clouds, than by opposition. 
 
 On the other hand, an harmonious and agreeable whole is often achieved 
 by bringing the line of the clouds in an opposing angle to the line of the 
 landscape, the principal figures being then mostly placed at the opposite 
 side of the mass of the composition. 
 
 The first plan embraces an advantageous union of the parts with the 
 greatest breadth that can perhaps be obtained, while the other frequently 
 produces a dexterous effect by the opposition of colour. 
 
 A long stretching swamp, a bog, or line of sandy waste, marshes, a 
 
10 
 
 COMPOSITION 
 
 broken heath, the distant sea or sand-bank, with nothing but its straight 
 horizon, are the sweetest morsels to good painters ; for when nature has 
 done nothing, they must do all ; and, with these difficulties to contend with, 
 it is something surprising to see the most broad and beautiful productions 
 result from so ban-en materials by investing them with the all-controlling 
 powers of chiaroscuro, by a careful inspection of their natural colours, the 
 forms of their lights and shadows, and above all, the shapes and masses 
 of the passing clouds ; but variety and simplicity should ever be their 
 leading principle, and grandeur is sure to be the result. Matter, seem- 
 ingly incapable of form; wide extents of pathless and unbroken sterility, 
 of nakedness and desolation, will become beautiful and masterly arrange- 
 ments on these conditions: the torn, and ragged, and scattered fragments 
 of the clouds in their wild and rushing fury over the sea, with its inex- 
 haustible changes and endless variety of colour, are the objects painters 
 often choose, from their very seeming nothingness, to invest with the heau 
 ideal of art. 
 
 The extremes of simplicity in composition, should not be attempted by 
 Tyros; the long-practiced and master hand alone can accomplish that, 
 which in others, would appear affectation. 
 
 The most powerful impressions are produced by the simplest con- 
 struction. The chief interest confined to a very small portion of the work, 
 and the larger space left in so much repose as will give value to, and 
 dignify the subject, that should at once meet the eye and engage our 
 energies ; investing their accessories with their due portion of interest ; 
 taking care that the expression of the principal action of the picture is 
 agreeably supported by their subordinate quality; that the object desired 
 is obtained, to the exclusion of all others, and that its episodes be in 
 character. 
 
 In the arrangement of figures, Mr. Burnet, in his Hints on Composition, 
 says, ' the heads and hands, the seats of action and expression, are often 
 referred to each other for the completion of form or extension of light, 
 beyond which a strong point is required, as a link of communication 
 between the figures and the background. By making this point the 
 strongest of a secondary group of objects, either from its size, lights, or 
 darks, the eye is carried into the most remote circumstances, which become 
 
APPLIED TO PAINTING. 11 
 
 a part of the whole, from the principal group being made to depend upon 
 such point for the completion of its form, the extension of the light, or the 
 repetition of colour,' Thus, in Vandyke we often see the luminous points 
 of his picture referring to each other in the form of a losenge, composed 
 of the heads and hands, the collar, ruffs, the hilt of a sword, &c., while 
 all the other parts are absorbed in dark or half shade, and making the form 
 of his composition complete, but differing something in their force and 
 attraction: strong light and dark coming in cutting contrast at a single 
 point, places the subordinate lights and darks in their proper situations; 
 at the same time, these points should always be characteristic of meaning 
 to the composition. (Plate 1, Ji<js. 5, 6.) 
 
 Nothing will teach you to compose a picture like sketching, however 
 slightly, the different groups you encounter in walking about; never be 
 without a little book for this purpose, as the merest draught will, when 
 you are composing, apply itself to your picture better than any thing that 
 may be suggested. I have invariably found this the best resource. Take 
 first the exact outline, shape, and position of the figure, and afterwards the 
 expression of what he is doing, carefully noticing the shadowed parts, and 
 dividing them boldly from the light; the half-tints may be blended with 
 comparative ease; therefore make as few lines as possible, never encum- 
 bering them. That part of the figure which is foreshortened will have 
 the greater number of folds, while that which is not, will come out plain 
 and bold. Such memoranda will always have a look of reality over every 
 other means of obtaining it. 
 
 It is not unfrequently the case that, in the progress of a work, a number 
 of circumstances, partly the result of thought, partly of accident, may 
 occur; therefore, entire reliance on the first sketch is not always to be 
 depended on; at the same time, the various improvements that suggest 
 themselves, do not always interfere with the carrying out our first con- 
 ceptions, and still securing the same treatment with which we commenced. 
 
 A repetition of forms can only be diverted by opposing lines being 
 brought in somewhat strong contrast against them; and, if possible, between 
 their recurrence (Plate 2, Ji(j, 1.) 
 
 In copying, draw various lines across the original, and the same on the 
 paper the copy is to be made on. Begin with the centre, and draw towards 
 
12 
 
 COMPOSITION 
 
 the sides; the objects represented will be neither too large nor too small 
 by this means. 
 
 I have said, that variety and intricacy have many charms. In passing 
 over our embellished lands, with all the advantages our country affords in 
 landscape objects, we cannot but observe this infinite variety in the English 
 oak, the birch, the ash, the abele ; the magnificent white poplar, with its 
 large and beautiful leaves ; the beech, the elm, the stately horse-chestnut, 
 &c. ; their great diversity of foliage and bark ; their distinct peculiarities of 
 colour and form ; the oriental plane, the hazel, sycamore, the maple ; espe- 
 cially where the landscape-gardener was never heard of, when the universal 
 and monotonous green of summer gives place to the glowing hues of Octo- 
 ber and November, the best months of all, from the large portion of pearly 
 grey that pervades all nature at that time, and from which are brought out, 
 as from a background of the softest neutrals, the umbrageous, rich, bitumen- 
 looking browns, deep crimsons, reds, and golden colours of the leaves, &c. 
 
 OF THE CIRCULAR FORM IN COMPOSITION. 
 
 Circular composition is another of the best forms, and most easily adapted 
 for the arrangement of light and shade ; as it generally possesses receding 
 hollows for the reception of the shadows, and graduated projections for the 
 lights to rest on. (^Plate. \,Jig» 4.) 
 
 Taste is the discriminating power of selecting good from bad ; and this 
 is attainable by enquiry : there is neither instability nor uncertainty in its 
 rules; so long as you have the good sense to place all ' inspiration' out of 
 the question ! Nothing is so pernicious as that illusion of the mind. 
 
 Grace, in my opinion, consists of lines flowing, more or less, into the 
 ellipsis — free of constraint and affectation. Raphael, for instance, was all 
 grace ; Parmegiano degenerated into affectation. 
 
 In pictorial economy, the repetition of the same lines, and often of the 
 same forms, assist and support each other; as necessarily as repetition of 
 colours in painting. This extension of the same thing is frequently indis- 
 pensable, both in preventing the individuality of form, and, when well 
 broken up by opposing lines, adding materially to the seeming negligence 
 and irregularity that carries with it so great a charm. (Plate ^,Jif/. 4.) 
 
APPLIED TO PAINTING. 
 
 13 
 
 The luminous spots or lights in a picture, frequently explain the form of 
 its composition. 
 
 In this repetition of lines and forms, the ground may be made to run one 
 way, the line of buildings another, the figures another, the horizon another, 
 the forms of the trees a different one, and the shapes of the clouds may 
 describe another : all these may have their repeats ; yet will they all seem to 
 form and tend, though apparently all irregularity, to an agreeable arrange- 
 ment we sometimes see in nature, and an harmonious whole, however intri- 
 cate, without confusion. The investigation of the means pursued by Sal- 
 vator Rosa will explain this fascinating system. {Plate \,figs. 2 and 7.) 
 . In contemplating the best regulated works of art, either in pictures or 
 prints, by always being careful to ascertain the forms by which their effects 
 are produced, is one of the best means of arriving at this object ourselves. 
 Even a few memoranda of the ground plans, as an architect would say, or 
 the form of the line on which the bases stand, will be found useful in 
 enabling us to do this. {Plate \ifig. 3.) 
 
 The eye must be all observation, and the mind all reflection ; and it can 
 scarcely fail to become influenced by the advantages to be derived from this 
 practice. 
 
 It is to the almost thinking sensibility, subtleness, and feeling of the 
 beautifully and wonderfully constructed human liand, that every thing done 
 with zV, so far outstrips all mechanical means of imitating it ! It is with this 
 solely and alone, that fine Art is, ever was, and ever will be, identified. 
 
 ' The cleverness and sensibility of the hand,' says a beautiful and mas- 
 terly writer in the Quarterly Review, ^ is quite as essential as inventive 
 genius.' Speaking of our showy and elaborate park-gates at Hyde Park- 
 corner, * what men call the police station — in the language of the gods, the 
 triumphal arch !' and, comparing it with the bronze net-work and foliage of 
 Verrochio, ' which seems to grow and spring like living vegetation,' he says, 
 ' these are capital Brummagem, and nothing more.' ^ Grasped by the man, 
 the tool becomes a part of himself; the hammer is pervaded by the vitality of 
 the hand. But in the work produced by the machinery of the founder there 
 can be nothing of all this life ! What does it give you ? Correct, stiff patterns, 
 all on the surface. Whatever is reproduced in form or colour by mechanical 
 means, is moulded — in short, is perpetually branded by mediocrity — Brum- 
 
14 
 
 COMPOSITION. 
 
 magem art! And, like the music ground by the barrel-organ, you never 
 hear the soul of the performer — the expression and feeling, qualities, with- 
 out which, harmony palls upon the ear.' 
 
 * Even in engraving, the best judges all declare that, so far from bene- 
 fiting art, the harm it has done has been incalculable, substituting a general 
 system of plagiarism in place of invention.'' 
 
 * What will not be the result of the means of multiplying the metallic 
 basis, and fixing the fleeting sunbeam, which are now opening upon us by 
 means of chemical science ? Steam-engine and furnace, the steel plate, the 
 roller, the press, the Daguerreotype, the voltaic battery and the lens, are the 
 antagonist principles of art ; and so long as they are permitted to rule, so 
 long must art be prevented from ever taking root again in the affections of 
 mankind. It may continue to afford enjoyment to those who are severed 
 in spirit from the multitude ; but the masses will be quite easy without it.' 
 * Whilst we triumph in the " results of machinery," we must not repine if 
 one of those results be the paralysis of the imaginative faculties of the 
 human mind.' 
 
 Of all the application of mechanical means to effect the purposes of art, 
 their contrast, with the operations of the hand, is as the stiffness and weight 
 of death, compared with life, freedom, and vitality. 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE. 
 
 
 
 . Shadows, to-night, 
 
 Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard 
 Than can the substance of ten thousand soldiers 
 Armed in proof. 
 
 The inexhaustible and unceasingly varying beauties of art begin to 
 develope themselves most when the study of Light and Shade com- 
 mences; and the student is amply recompensed for the time he has 
 devoted to obtaining a knowledge of correctness in outline. It is now 
 that he sees Nature with other and improved vision — with clearer con- 
 ceptions of her character — in her sunny and joyous re veilings, as in her 
 vast and awful sublimity. 
 
 Drawing gives form ; Colour, its visible quality ; and Light and Shade, 
 its solidity. 
 
 If the necessary form of a figure, or any other object, be not agree- 
 able to the eye, its whole appearance may be so altered by a skilful 
 management of its light and shade, as to become at once the contrary 
 by judicious arrangement. 
 
 In arranging the light and shade of a sketch I intend to paint, I 
 usually take a piece of grey, or neutral paper, place the highest light 
 at some point of sufficient interest (for the high light in a picture 
 always seems to say, *Come and look at me, to see what I am about!') 
 and gradually lead it away, diffusing its rays, as it were, into the half 
 light, or the half shade, and so on, until it is wholly lost in the darkest 
 
16 
 
 APPLICATION OF 
 
 point; then, with white paint, or chalk, proceed to mark all the imma- 
 terial lights, on parts of the figures, or other objects, as they occur in 
 the design, as conductors of the more luminous one, into the shade, as 
 repeats, to prevent its singleness of appearance, gradating until they are 
 carried out of the work ; like light ' collected to a focus by a lens, and 
 emitting rays,' as in plate 2. The judgment being principally exerted 
 in judiciously placing the repeats, one, or more, of these lesser lights 
 must, of necessity, be of the same colour as the principal. 
 
 Sudden transitions, by producing too much effect, the lights being too 
 light, and the darks too dark, produce a hard, dry, a staring, and a 
 vulgar appearance, for want of neutralizing their qualities, and bringing 
 the parts more in union with each other. This overwrought manner is 
 principally the cause of that common look so identified with the modern 
 French school, the effect of too much relief. 
 
 On the other hand, nothing but flatness and insipidity is the result 
 of too softly blending and uniting the light with the shadow, and the 
 parts with one another, without that distinction and solidity constituting 
 the arrangement that should bring the near and the remote together, in 
 the treatment of the intermediate relations. 
 
 Light should be so skilfully woven into the shadow, as not to preju- 
 dice, but assist its depth by its intrusion; this is of most essential con- 
 sequence. 
 
 It is not necessary that the light should come in at one side of the 
 picture, nor pass out at the other, as has been asserted. It is, perhaps, 
 better to attach ourselves to no particular theory: few theorists are 
 good painters; their works, in general, bear a contradictory proportion 
 to the opinions set forth in their speculations. 
 
 Sketching light and shade from nature (with a single colour, or a 
 stump), teaches us to profit by every circumstance, natural or accidental. 
 And these sketches, studied at home, teach us, in turn, at once to com- 
 pose, and to extend the sphere of our observation; — it carries us to the 
 doctrine of probable possibilities; and invests the meanest subject with 
 attraction; the most infinite variety becomes simplicity upon these terms. 
 
 The light and shade of a picture should never bear the same propor- 
 tions ; it should, in all instances, differ materially in quantity ; a repeti- 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE TO PAINTING. 
 
 17 
 
 tion of forms should always bear a different proportion in size, the one 
 having a decided superiority over the other, or, the inevitable conse- 
 quences will be, confusion. 
 
 Unconnected lights and shadows, that are too much defined, will have 
 a hald, a chequered, or draught-board appearance. 
 
 In sketching from nature, I usually commence by rubbing in the 
 effect first, and adding the details, or features of the scene, afterwards], 
 mostly beginning with the centre, or else the point of sight, and work- 
 ing outwards, and upwards, and downwards, to the sides of the picture. 
 But this can only come of extensive practice, or, at least, a power of 
 grasping the wJwle at once. 
 
 I have said that the first and principal part of art is Composition, 
 or placing things together appropriately; the situation, motion, and 
 expression of the figures; their shapes, and lights, and shadows, accord- 
 ing. A perfect outline is of most consequence, and can only be 
 acquired by study. Next to this, the situation, colour, and quantity of 
 shadows; these being infinite, may be variously managed. At the same 
 time, it requires much more observation and study to shade a picture, 
 than to merely draw the lines of it. No fixed rule can be given for 
 this; but, after having got the outline free and flowing, endeavour, by 
 various trials, on other bits of paper, to leave the masses of shadow and 
 light broad, so as to convey an appearance of space and extent. In the 
 infinite gradations of shade, and the blending of them, nature has no 
 determined law. 
 
 Objects out of doors, which receive the general light of the sky, and 
 where the surrounding air gives light on all sides, will look altogether 
 different from the same objects drawn and shaded in a room, which 
 would give dark shadows where in nature there are none. {Plate 3, 
 fff- 2.) 
 
 Without shadows, the forms of things would be unrevealed. 
 
 At different times of the day, objects will give shadows quite different 
 in size and form, corresponding wdth the course of the sun. The dif- 
 ference of your own shadow exemplifies this, as well as the variation of 
 the shadow^s in your room. 
 
 Direct your attention to the difference of the shadows thrown by 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 APPLICATION OF 
 
 candle-light ; this himi*nary being smaller than the object placed against 
 it, would make a figure, cut from a card, two or three inches high, 
 give a shadow on the wall the size of life. 
 
 Place any object in the sun, and turn it round to the north, south, 
 east, and west, at different periods; and, observing the difference of 
 shapes in the shadows, will be found excellent practice. 
 
 Placed in certain directions, the form of every thing may be inferred 
 from its shadow. 
 
 The shadow of a person arriving, on an open door, will, if the sun 
 is behind him, distinguish to the inmate the comer's identity. 
 
 Shadow is most articulate and defined when the light is brightest, by 
 reason of the contrast formed by the light; and will always, under these 
 circumstances, appear much stronger than it is ; though it is not so 
 strong, in reality, as shadow in cloudy weather, from its being more 
 equalized with the light. Shadow is only, more or less, by comparison 
 with the brightness of the light. This is best explained by making a 
 room dark by degrees^ and holding up some object against the light as 
 it diminishes, until it is quite dark. 
 
 The light of the sun always reflects a shadow equal to the object 
 which it projects on a parallel plane. The sun being larger than the 
 body illumined, throws a shadow less than that body. On the con- 
 trary, the light of a candle, being less than the object reflected, pro- 
 duces the contrary effect, the shadow increasing as it retires, not in 
 parallels, but in rays, thrown by the light. 
 
 The figure* and shape of a shadow is strictly defined by the form of 
 the object producing it ; as light occasions the existence of shadow. An 
 excellent and well-turned remark is made by some writer on the sub- 
 ject, who says, * It must be observed, that there are two points to be made 
 use of: one of them, the foot of the light, which is always taken on 
 the plane the object is placed upon ; the other, the luminous body, the 
 rule being common to the sun, torch, &c. with this difference, that the 
 sun's shadow is projected in parallels, and that of the torch in rays, 
 from the centre, as before mentioned. But as all objects on earth are 
 so small in comparison of the sun, the diminution of their shadows is 
 imperceptible to the eye, which sees them all equal, neither broader nor 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE TO PAINTING. 
 
 19 
 
 narrower than the object that forms them. Oh this account, all the 
 shadows made by the sun are made in parallels.' 
 
 ' To find the shadow of any object whatever opposed to the sun, a 
 line must be drawn from the top of the luminary, perpendicular to the 
 plane where the foot of the luminary is to be taken ; and from this, an 
 occult line, to be drawn through one of the angles of the plane of the 
 object ; and another, from the sun to the same angle. The intersection 
 of the two lines will express how far the shadow is to go. All the 
 other lines must be drawn parallel hereto.' 
 
 The next thing to be considered is, an appropriate effect of light or 
 shadow, to be given to the scene, or object, treated. 
 
 Calmness and serenity are the result of horizontal lights, or shadows ; 
 while the contrary is the effect of oblique, or abrupt and irregular; 
 such as are seen in the stormy effects of Salvator Rosa, &c. 
 
 The sky and clouds are often resorted to for effect, when the land- 
 scape does not admit of sufficient. Again, less imposition thrown into 
 the sky, will repose the landscape, when it happens to be invested 
 with sufficient interest of itself 
 
 Extending the repose of a work, — by throwing into the general mass 
 of shadow a number of objects that may appear of the least consequence 
 to the development of its story, and bringing those which should be most 
 prominent boldly forth into the light, by projecting their forms from the 
 hollows of the shadows, that may appear to teem with a multitude of 
 mysterious forms, while the cutting edges and sharp lights of those pro- 
 jections come out in sunshine, depending solely on their vigorous division, 
 — is one of the greatest difficulties in composition, and is principally 
 rendered so by the necessity of adapting its sympathies to the subject 
 we would place before the beholder — by its agreeable disposition and 
 management ; at the same time preserving the utmost singleness of 
 intention and simplicity, by avoiding confusion, and supporting its breadth 
 by the shapes of the masses of one and of the other. A very small 
 portion of the light, striking some object placed in the shadow, will 
 carry the light into it; while some point or figure, enveloped in shade 
 or dark local colour, will be sufficient to convey the obscure parts into 
 the luminous, and preserve the balance of the whole. {Plate 3, fig, 2.) 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 APPLICATION OF 
 
 The most complicated outline may by this means be reduced to the 
 broadest effect of light and shade. And simple and palpable as this prin- 
 ciple may seem, it may be pursued until the artist is enabled to conceal 
 entirely the art by which it is effected ; until he feels that which he could 
 not perhaps explain, but may paint in a language that all may read. 
 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds speaks of 'That breadth of light and shadow, — that 
 art and management of uniting light to light, and shadow to shadow, so as 
 to make the object rise out of the ground in the plenitude of effect.' 
 
 Outline is cold and determined in its appearance, and would seem so 
 though drawn with vermilion ; and, from its being defined, carries away all 
 idea of space and extent with it. The greater the absence of outline, the 
 greater will be the breadth. Where there is a necessity for much outline, 
 large masses of it must be collected into broad portions of the shadows and 
 lights, which should be well diversified in their forms. {Plate 5.) 
 
 Where light joins darkness, the light and dark are most intense at their 
 junction, arising from affinity of contrast. It is not necessary to enter into 
 the phenomena of vision to prove the existence of any thing that will be 
 found in this work, its details being drawn from every-day observation. 
 
 Light and Shade should always, I think, partake of the character of the 
 subject : a fete champetre should not be enveloped in the gloom of shadowy 
 obscurity, any more than a storm piece should be clothed in the glories 
 of sunshine. 
 
 When the composition consists of a number of objects, the best way is to 
 single out those that should most attract, by giving them the highest quality 
 of the light ; while whole portions may be disposed of by connecting them 
 in broad masses of the secondary light, and further uniting them with the 
 trees, buildings, or any other objects that occur, to extend its quantity ; 
 while the masses of shadow are formed by the union of other several parts, 
 the light mingling with and intersecting the shade, until the whole 
 present an harmonious breadth. But to achieve this, so that the parts take 
 agreeable forms — sustaining and supporting, and giving value to each 
 other — is perhaps the chef-d'oeuvre of the arduous arrangement of light and 
 shade. {Plate 2, fig . 5.) 
 
 If we require a large space for repose, by getting the light at one or other 
 side of the picture, the light should of necessity possess some striking 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE TO PAINTING. 
 
 21 
 
 quality, to compensate so great a sacrifice of space; while a multitude of 
 less important objects may find a mysterious locality in the reposing mass. 
 {Plate 1, figs, 1, 2.) 
 
 In some of Rembrandt's etchings, a very small but brilliant point of light 
 is carried through the composition, by the softest gradations, into the 
 intense depth of shadow, by striking the tops only of the figures, parts of 
 architecture, &c., until completely lost. The principal light must never be 
 placed in the centre, but either on one side or other. 
 
 A single mass of light will have the greatest force when brought in 
 immediate contact with a dark background : so will a dark object tell with 
 equal power when opposed to the strongest light. So a figure, clothed in 
 black and white, and placed on one side of the foreground, will focus all 
 the other lights and shadows, which will immediately keep their places in 
 the picture — so they be less in strength. In proportion to the number of 
 forms in the composition, this rule may be equally applied to a group, if it 
 agree in its outline, and does not disturb the masses on which it depends 
 for repose. 
 
 If the picture be generally light, or the greater part in half tint, a single 
 object or point of dark will be often found sufficient to key the whole, — 
 placed at the opposing angle on the side opposite the darkest part. 
 
 The outline of an object we would bring most forward should come out 
 cutting and strong from its surrounding shadow, while the other masses will 
 retire in proportion to the absence of the opposition of density employed in 
 preventing their approach. It may not be impossible that these few words 
 convey the impression of what we mostly intend. 
 
 The small and immaterial lights, catching the edges of objects carried 
 into the shadow, are of the greatest usefulness in giving depth and intensity 
 to it, while they assist the work by carrying the communicating medium 
 through it. 
 
 Carrying the shadow across the middle of the subject is attended with 
 many adviuitages ; among which are, bringing the foreground into extreme 
 vigour ; furnishing ourselves with greater facilities in getting away the 
 background ; and more readily obtaining distance and repose by blending 
 the horizon with the clouds; while the figures are brought up in cutting 
 relief against it. {Plate 3.) 
 
2-2 
 
 APPLICATION OF 
 
 A mass of landscape in middle tint — such as a broken common, fields, 
 clumps of foliage, &c. — sweeping across the picture at a third, or little 
 more, its height from the bottom, with a bold tree or group printing its 
 dark form on the lightest part of the sky, and lifting itself from a bright 
 sunny bank laid on the bottom edge of the design, carried on by a dark 
 object or two, with cutting lights and intense shadows in the weeds, stones, 
 &c., of the foreground to support it, the clouds graduating upwards from 
 the horizon and mingling with the middle space at the opposite side of the 
 principal group, seems to have been a favourite arrangement with Gaspar 
 Poussan, Cuyp, and many of the Dutch, as at present it is with Turner, 
 and many of the modern, — oifering great advantages from the numerous 
 scenes in nature for ever opening to our view through the broad masses of 
 shadow, flung from the passing clouds across the country, and possessing 
 every variety of tint, sobered and covered down by the extent and transpa- 
 rency of the shadows, while the brilliant hghts come out with all the 
 vigorous warmth the sun invests them with. 
 
 A walk into the fields, or across a heath, can scarcely be taken, when the 
 clouds are floating along, without an effect corresponding with this being 
 seen. A part of the principal group will sometimes be in light while the 
 rest is in deep shadow, or may appear so from the different colours of the 
 trees; in which case, it will blend more gently with the sky, and more 
 intensely focus the depth of shadow, if the lighter colour be interposed 
 between it and the sky, losing a little of its force, but gaining harmony and 
 union, together with the advantage of carrying the warm colour of the 
 foreground up into the foliage, and extending it more gradually through 
 the clouds. 
 
 Three lights, differing in strength — the centre one the strongest — and 
 placed at different angles, has universally been found an agreeable arrange- 
 ment. This mode may be always pursued with a certain degree of success. 
 The etchings and drawings after this manner are very numerous, — perhaps 
 firom its easy management. 
 
 As our senses are carried through the varieties of a tale, so the eye must 
 be diverted fi:om any particular object in a picture, by judiciously absorbing 
 or bringing into notice the accessories necessary to complete the compo- 
 sition, without disturbing it, or prejudicing the principal. An harmonious 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE TO PAINTING. 
 
 23 
 
 intimacy with all the parts, and the means of that intimacy rendered as 
 imperceptible as possible, will absorb hardness in the masses, and give 
 distinctness and articulation to that which should predominate in acute 
 solidity, all disjointed and unconnected appearances being carefully guarded 
 against. Different arrangements of the same subject will be found the best 
 means of exemplifying this. 
 
 The shadow of a cloud may accidentally be thrown over the greatest 
 distance, while a sunbeam may suddenly illumine the middle space or 
 foreground; the distance then would be the darkest part of the picture. 
 Or a gleam of light may rest upon the distant mountains, while the middle 
 space and foreground may be in shadow ; then the case would be reversed, 
 the greatest spread of light occupying the farthest distance. Even this 
 arrangement has succeeded with some. 
 
 The highest defined light will be that which comes boldest off the darkest 
 part of the ground. All others will decrease in proportion, as they mingle 
 with the ground. And, as the aforesaid light is pure, so the darks will 
 appear darker than they are. {Plates 5, 6. ) 
 
 That part of a body in light will be the brightest that is nearest to the 
 luminary. In the theory of light, it often happens there are double and 
 treble reflexes, which must be stronger than single ones, and the shadows 
 of course proportionally faint. {Plate 4.) 
 
 In proportion as reflected lights are thrown upon a darker or lighter 
 ground, will their appearance be more or less brilliant. We deduce from 
 this, that all those reflexes, that brighten up and play so harmoniously 
 among the obscurity of shadows, must be in proportion to the strength of 
 the light that occasions them. {Plate 4.) 
 
 The light made to graduate too softly, by means of the half-tint, into the 
 shadow, unless some part be boldly and cuttingly opposed to the other, will 
 have a tame and insipid appearance, however sharp and forcible other 
 portions of the work may be. {Plates 8, 4.) 
 
 ' Fulness of effect is produced by melting and losing the shadows in a 
 ground still darker than those shadows : whereas relief is produced by 
 opposing and separating the ground from the figure ; either by light, or 
 shadow, or colour.' {Plate S,Jig, 2.) 
 
24 
 
 APPLICATION OF 
 
 Any thing intercepting the line of light upon an object, will render its 
 shadows soft, and its lights beautifully blended. 
 
 Accidental shadows are those occasioned by objects interposed between 
 the light and the surface reflected on. Natural shadows, those which the 
 light connects with every opaque body. {Plate 4, consists of natural and 
 accidental shadows.) 
 
 The outline of the shadow should partake of the forms, at its edges, of the 
 character of the surface receiving, as well as the one giving it. 
 
 In many, otherwise, excellent pictures of Claude's, the sun is placed at, or 
 near the point of sight : so that all the shadows, running from that point, 
 almost mechanically carry the eye into the picture. Whatever of good may 
 proceed from this arrangement, its purpose is too easily detected; and it 
 has an artificial effect. 
 
 Da Vinci says, * The appearance of motion is lessened, according to the 
 distance, in the same proportion as objects diminish in size.' 
 
 Open the side of a book against the light, and observe the gradations of 
 shadow on the leaf. 
 
 If you turn half a sheet of paper up against the light (in the manner of 
 the book), it will explain, by its shadows on the parallel part, the phenomena 
 of half or demi-tint. 
 
 In any body that has many indentures, there will be many shadows and 
 their grades : that body will have a greenish hue over its superfice, where 
 the light falls on it. To keep the colour of that light pure, in this instance, 
 requires great management ; as the markings of the masses of foliage, &;c., 
 receiving the light. And yet, without these markings, or as it were carry- 
 ing the shadow into the light, it would look hald. As this is done cleverly, 
 so it will have the effect of subduing the harshness of the lights ; which not 
 being in compact masses, lose their force. 
 
 I often rumple a piece of paper, to observe the infinite variety of its sha- 
 dows. And place a ball against the light, on a white surface, and observe 
 its gradations. So, if you roll up a sheet of white paper, and lay it on a 
 white surface, against the light, or make it stand up, it will describe the 
 gradations of a column. 
 
 It is a very excellent method to keep a solid square, a solid sphere, a 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE TO PAINTING. '25 
 
 cylinder or tube, a cone (make a paper one), a cup, &c., by you, and 
 place them in various directions in the light, making various memoranda of 
 their lights, shadows, and reflexes, in one colour. By this means, light 
 and shade will soon become familiar, and the task get easier at every trial. 
 
 A piece of white ^2C^eY folded several ways, and laid on a table against the 
 light, will reveal all the different degrees of shade. Then, observe the 
 highest light and the deepest shade, with their gradations. 
 
 Obsei*ve, in a room with one window, having chairs, tables, sofas, &c. in 
 it, where and how their shadows fall. This will assuredly lead the mind 
 into the mysteries of light and shade, which must end in knowledge. At 
 the very least, the power to see things as they are ! 
 
 To render bodies in sunshine, the shadows must be dark, and marked 
 strongly and distinctly, and the lights extended and broad. So, in-door 
 objects have equally strong shadows, with the lights and shades distinctly 
 divided and precise. All should, as a peremptory rule, receive the light 
 from above. The light should come in from a sufficient height to give 
 a shadow on the ground the same length as the object is high. 
 
 If any projection occurs on a plain on which a shadow is thrown, the 
 shadow takes the form of the projection, as it passes it ; but, if it ends upon 
 it, the shadow will be shaped by the object that flung it, still qualified by 
 the section of the projection. The rough surfaces of many things would 
 describe the same in a lesser degree. 
 
 Light objects, as they retire, become darker ; and dark ones, lighter ; but 
 light ones are seen at a greater distance than dark. 
 
 The darkest opposing object brought up against the most retiring, should 
 not extend itself to the edges of the picture, but let the half tints creep in, 
 to bring the light down with more effect — diffiising it more extensively. 
 
 The shadow on the ground on which it is thrown, should be darker than 
 the object projecting it ; and, if the object be round, a reflected light will 
 be found on the edge where it joins the shadow, as in a column. 
 
 I placed a chair in the shade, and the sun's reflection threw a shadow 
 from it ! 
 
 The light of every body is qualified by the ground that surrounds it. 
 Breadth is acquired by blending the light parts of the figures with the 
 light of the ground ; and the same rule will apply to the shadows. 
 
26 
 
 APPLICATION OF 
 
 When the ground of the picture is mostly dark, the Ughts, in my opinion, 
 should take some one or other good decided firm in composition, in their 
 developement, as their meaning is only to be explained by themselves. 
 {Plate 4.) 
 
 If a single light or luminous mass be surrounded on all sides by a dark 
 ground, one or more of its edges should be strong and cutting ; and if a 
 dark centre be placed on a light ground, if the same management be not 
 observed, it will look like a hole. 
 
 Leonardo says ' The ground which surrounds the figures in any painting, 
 ought to be darker than the light part of those figures, and lighter than the 
 shadowed part.' 
 
 Great beauty is obtained by laying the shadowed part of an object 
 against a darker ground ; the light receiving increased brightness from this 
 arrangement, and the softness of the shadow on the light side being 
 nearly imperceptible, gives great relief and beauty. This mode is much 
 resorted to in the management of portraits, while it equally applies to 
 landscape. 
 
 Most repose is obtained by placing a light group or object on the light 
 side of the picture, and dark objects on the dark side, as no interference of 
 the one or the other then occurs to disturb the masses ; but the effect will 
 be less than when carried the one into the other, and the difficulty of 
 uniting the two parts become greater. 
 
 In some of the best works of Ostade, and many of the Dutch school, a 
 dark figure or group is brought out from a darker background, with great 
 brilliance, and even force, when the colour of the one is cold, and the 
 other warm. 
 
 Corregio's management of light and shade placed him in the highest 
 sphere of this department of the art. 
 
 An object or figure, having a dark and a light side, the dark side being 
 opposed to the light part of the ground, and the light side coming off the 
 darker part, will have great effect. 
 
 When a dark body terminates on a light ground, it will detach itself. 
 If a round object, it will not carry its light to the extremity of its outline, 
 but finish in a half shade, darker than the ground. 
 
 A large mass of light in the middle of the picture, surrounded by 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE TO PAINTING. 
 
 27 
 
 shadow, is a rule ; and, when reversed, has an equally imposing effect. 
 {Plate % fig. b.) 
 
 The largest division of the light and the dark parts of a picture, so they 
 differ in quantity, will of necessity produce the greatest breadth ; but the 
 extent and magnitude of that breadth will be entirely qualified by the 
 judicious management employed in producing a union between them. 
 
 One greatly approved method of producing this effect is, by bringing the 
 light up to a brilliant focus, and absorbing the shadows into the darkest 
 obscurity; while the larger portion of the work is pervaded by the half 
 light and the half dark, as well as their shadows by strong local colour ; 
 while those in the shadow should come out sharp and distinct. The vigour 
 of the light will dissolve all chance of influence in the half tints ; while the 
 extreme depth of the shadow, carried perhaps to a little excess, will gather 
 up and absorb all the subordinate shadows. {Plate l^figs. 5 and 6.) 
 
 Marking, with a stump and bit of black lead, when we are abroad, 
 the principal points, in sketching from nature ; and noticing in what 
 manner those points refer to, and assist each other; tracing their effects, 
 and ascertaining the laws that bring them harmoniously, or by contrast, 
 together, is the best method to be pursued for the arrangement of our 
 own ideas in composing. Sketches so obtained, should be preserved as 
 models to exercise the invention by. 
 
 A more distinct idea of light and shade is best obtained by the use 
 of one colour only, as many only tend to perplex the eye, and divert 
 the attention from the great object that should be distinctly kept in 
 view. 
 
 In laying on the tints (of one colour only), the method to be pur- 
 sued is as follows: — Mix the separate shades in separate saucers, three, 
 four, or five, as may be required; keep the board you have previously 
 strained the paper on inclined at moderate elevation, that the colour 
 may flow freely ; lay in the sky first ; the farthest distance next ; then 
 all those masses of shadow which principally influence the division and 
 interest of the picture ; working downwards to the foreground fi:om the 
 middle distance, using a large brush, filled with colour, to produce 
 clearness and transparency. Then proceed to delicately touch upon 
 the lights, in order to blend them with the shadows, that they may not 
 
28 
 
 APPLICATION OF 
 
 appear too abrupt, as well as to break down their asperity, and prevent 
 the work looking bald. Now a darker shade than any should be mixed 
 up, to put in the markings of the foliage and foreground, rocks, or 
 whatever the composition may consist of Lay the whole on with free- 
 dom and boldness; and, if any parts require strength, they may be 
 lightly floated over again, when quite dry. 
 
 Do not disturb the surface of the paper more than can be avoided ; 
 and endeavour to keep all the tints even, or flat, in the first instance, 
 without attention to the details. Always mind to take up enough of the 
 colour at once to cover down the space intended, without sweeping it 
 contrary ways. Thick rough paper is the best. 
 
 The power of making large masses of flat tints, commonly comes of 
 great practice ; it is, therefore, necessary that this difficulty is conquered, 
 before attempting to blend them. 
 
 The use of that important thing, in the hands of an artist, the 
 sponge, must be taught and seen to be understood. 
 
 The most forcible arrangement in the composition of light and shade 
 is, where it is spread and diffused, until reaching the strongest point; 
 which point, opposed immediately to the most retiring part, and clothed 
 in strong colour, will have the effect of balancing and combining the 
 most complicated forms, that, but for this method, had been all con- 
 fusion. 
 
 If a sketch be too outliny, it will want solidity ; if too much filled 
 in, it will be heavy. 
 
 Do not let the lights be too scattered, or too equal, lest the struggle 
 for precedence be observed. 
 
 When clouds are interposed between the sun and the object, the 
 shadows will be soft, and their terminations almost imperceptible. 
 
 In conclusion, the concentration, the diffusion, or the contrast of 
 light and shade, is best understood from a few blots made from the 
 pictures of those great masters, who strike us as having excelled most 
 in this department of the art, carefully preserving their arrangements, 
 and applying them to our own compositions, until we feel and think 
 like them. And a very little practice, in pursuing this method, will 
 place the student in as quick a habit of effecting it, as of writing down 
 
I ii,^r^iit ?i!ui ohadf- 
 
1 
 
 
 
 « 
 
 4 
 
* 
 
: % 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE TO PAINTING. 
 
 29 
 
 his thoughts, together with the immeasurable advantage of snatching 
 from Nature her faultless effects of chiaroscuro — let them be as fleeting 
 as they may — and the lights and shades of our own minds will influ- 
 ence the effect they have on the minds of others. 
 
 Is there not practical wisdom in commencing every day with the 
 steady effort to make as much of it as if it were to be our whole exist- 
 ence? If we have duties to perform, in themselves severe and laborious, 
 we may enquire if there be not some way by which to invest them 
 with pleasant associations? How many men find their pleasure in 
 what would be the positive horror and torment of the indolent, whose 
 inefficient and shrinking spirit recoils from these tasks as insupportable 
 burdens ? 
 
 In exact proportion as you have cultivated your taste and education 
 in this, as in all other things, will be your happiness and enjoyment in 
 your productions. 
 
 In a work of this nature, tautology is not altogether unavoidable, as 
 that which occurs in one division of it, equally applies to another. 
 
 I shall revert to the subject of light and shade again, under the head 
 of its application to Colour. 
 
ON COLOUR. 
 
 Colour, perhaps, is one of the most expressive languages we possess — the 
 easiest understood by all. 
 
 ' Style in painting,' says Sir Joshua Reynolds, * is, the same as in 
 writing, a power over materials, whether words or colours, by which con- 
 ceptions or sentiments are conveyed. 
 
 ' When an opportunity offers, paint your studies, instead of drawing 
 them. This will give you such a facility in using colours, that in time they 
 will arrange themselves under the pencil. 
 
 ' If painting comprises both drawing and colouring, and if, by a short 
 struggle of resolute industry, the same expedition is attainable in painting 
 as in drawing on paper, I cannot see what objection can justly be made to 
 the practice, or why that should be done in parts which may be done 
 altogether. 
 
 * Of all branches of the Art, Colouring is the least mechanical.' We 
 cannot measure colour by lines as we can drawing. 
 
 Art is not a thing merely to be admired, and with which the spectator 
 has nothing to do, however much he may suppose it: he has perhaps, 
 unconsciously, as much to do with it as it may have to do with him. A 
 man, wholly regardless of art, will remember having seen a picture twenty 
 years ago, when shown him again : its influence on his memory, his taste, 
 or his passions, could alone effect this. 
 
 ' Colouring,' says Mr. Burnet, * must either add to, or diminish the effect 
 of any work upon the imagination ; it must add to it by increasing, or 
 
ON COLOUR. 
 
 31 
 
 diminish it by destroying the deception.' And he farther quotes this 
 passage from Addison : ' We cannot, indeed, have a single image in the 
 fancy that did not make its first entrance through the sight ; but we have 
 the power of retaining, altering, and compounding those images, which we 
 have once received, into all the varieties of picture and vision that are most 
 agreeable to the imagination.' 
 
 * We can form no idea of colouring beyond what has an existence in 
 nature. From this source all our materials must be drawn.' And again : — 
 ' The artist must never forget that the mind is composed of ideas received 
 from early impressions, from perceptions frequently occurring, and from 
 reflections founded on such perceptions. Painting can reach the mind only 
 through the medium of the eye, which must be gratified sufficiently to 
 interest it in the communication.' 
 
 There should always exist a corresponding feeling between the subject 
 and the manner of treating it. 
 
 The student should at least make himself acquainted with the leading 
 principles of every variety of art ; because, ' that which would be applicable 
 to one style, would, in some measure, be destructive to another.' It matters 
 nothing how loio the branch or particular walk he has chosen ; for it will 
 acquire quite another accent from his acquaintance with the higher, whose 
 powers of fascination wiU in time imperceptibly infuse something of their 
 own dignity into his works. 
 
 Something of this infusion has come down from the greatness, the 
 grandeur, and severity of the Roman and Florentine schools, through all 
 varieties they have passed, to the modern. To reach this, however, the 
 mind must habituate itself to become quite ^ disdainful of vulgar criticism,' 
 before it can well feel a congenial sympathy with these high latitudes, as 
 well as having to unlearn much it has acquired. 
 
 There are many excellencies in painting not at all compatible with each 
 other, and that should never occur together — not even to gratify that 
 fastidious disposition that is dissatisfied with every thing short of perfection : 
 lightness would seem to want solidity, while precision will have dryness and 
 hardness. The excellencies of others fi-equently corrupt ourselves : just as 
 one coat, however well made, wiU not adapt itself to two persons, any more 
 than their talents will blend with and lessen our defects. 
 
32 
 
 ON COLOUR. 
 
 There is no particular style or branch of art, that the student may be 
 in pursuit of, that does not possess some excellence or other — that is not 
 alone, or at all, perhaps, to be found in the great manner of the Roman 
 or Florentine schools of colour : in composition, breadth and arrangement 
 (particularly of light and shade), and masterly treatment of colour, the 
 Flemish and Dutch, as will our own school, furnish sufficient instances. 
 
 Light and shade, colour, novelty, variety, contrast, and even simplicity, 
 all become defects in their excess ! — the spirit of the rules by which they 
 are regulated is to be more observed than their literal sense. It will 
 generally be found sufficient to preserve this spirit of their laws alone, to 
 which our ideas may be proportioned and accommodated. 
 
 Colour, in my opinion, is as useful in composition as lines : a few colours, 
 scientifically woven together, will form agreeable composition of themselves. 
 
 Warm and cold colours, with their gradations and contrasts, lights and 
 shadows with theirs, agreeing with and opposing each other, all struggling 
 together (but that struggle unseen — the art concealed!) to the accomplish- 
 ment of one object — the sweetness of harmony and union of the whole 
 to one end. 
 
OF THE THREE PRIMITIVE COLOURS. 
 
 The Three Primitive Colours are the basis of a perfect system, and may be 
 reduced, in order of degradation, into perfect black. Their communion 
 comprehends all other colours ; and their effects, under the influence of 
 light and shade, make pictures. 
 
 Yellow is the light; Red, the medium; and Blue, darkness; — colours 
 of themselves, that cannot be produced by the mixture of any other. 
 
 Hayter says, in his Compendium : ' Secondly — Yellow, red, and blue 
 contain the sole properties of producing all other colours v/hatsoever, as 
 to colour, by mixtures arising entirely among themselves, without the aid 
 of a fourth. 
 
 * Thirdly — Because, by mixing proper portions of the Three Primitives 
 together, black is obtained, providing for every possible degree of shadow. 
 
 ' Fourthly — And every practical degree of light is obtained by diluting 
 any of the colours, as above producible ; or, in oil painting, by the mixture 
 of white paint. 
 
 ' Fifthly — All transient or prismatic effects can be imitated with such 
 coloured materials as are of the Three Primitive Colours, but only in the 
 same degree of comparison as white bears to light. 
 
 ' Sixthly — There are no other materials, in which colour is found, that 
 are possessed of any of the foregoing perfections. 
 
 YELLOW. 
 Yellow and Red make Orange, 
 
 ORANGE. 
 Orange and Green make Olive, 
 OLIVE. 
 
 RED. 
 
 Yellow and Blue make Green, 
 
 GREEN. 
 Orange and Purple make Brown, 
 
 BROWN. 
 
 BLUE. 
 
 Red and Blue make Purple, 
 
 PURPLE. 
 Green and Purple make Slate, 
 SLATE. 
 
34 
 
 ON colour: 
 
 * These nine colours are all that are distinguished by integral names. 
 
 * Thus it will be seen, that Yellow, Red, and Blue produce — first, Orange, 
 Green, and Purple; and these produce Olive, Brown, and Slate, making 
 nine. 
 
 * Yellow, Red, and Blue, make Black. 
 
 ' And this is the compendium and whole of the system of the degrada- 
 tion of colours into Black, or perfect darkness. 
 
 * Warm Effect is produced by 
 
 * White, Yellow, Orange, Red, Purple, Indigo, Black. 
 
 * Cold Effect is produced by 
 
 ' Black, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Pale Yellow, White.' 
 
 The Three Primitive Colours, by the endless varieties of their solvents, 
 regulate, more or less, the whole economy of a picture ; and the abundant 
 stores of nature are faithfully imitated by their agency. Thus, the Primi- 
 tives being red, blue, and yellow, the colours produced by their combination 
 are purple, orange, and green ; these, in their turn, may be extended to 
 every tint that exists. The junction of the Three Primitives absorb «//, 
 and form neutral tint, which, by the addition of quantity, produces black. 
 
 All the contrasts are rendered from the same. 
 
 And here it may not be out of place to remark how men will devote 
 themselves to many idle pursuits that return them nothing, while a little 
 study of the noble theory of colour would enable them, without pushing 
 the matter far, to bring to their firesides reminiscences of their travels, or, 
 otherwise, spots endeared by circumstances, together with a thousand other 
 agreeable associations. They would learn in time to look at nature through 
 the medium of art, and find a delightful interest in it they never antici- 
 pated ; while every hour so spent would more and more exercise and 
 mature the judgment. 
 
 A knowledge of the natural chalks, or colours of black, white, and red, 
 is indispensably necessary. So, a perfect acquaintance with the Three 
 Primitives, blue, red, and yellow, is of equal consequence ; that blue and 
 yellow are brought together by red ; and that all mixtures are the scientific 
 result of the union of these three, no two of which will produce the third. 
 The r<5sult of the mixture of any two gives the contrast to the absent one : — 
 
OF THE THREE PRIMITIVE COLOURS. 
 
 35 
 
 as red and blue, producing purple, is the opposite to yellow ; blue and 
 yellow make green, the contrast to red ; red and yellow, producing orange, 
 contrasts blue ; the three, blended together, gives us black : neutral tint is 
 the result of the same mixture. A perfect knowledge of mixing tints, from 
 this scale, will produce all the compounds necessary to art, and their admix- 
 tures may be varied ad infinitum. 
 
 The neutral tint mentioned may be so varied, as to act in perfect union 
 as the shadow to any one of the colours composing it. 
 
 The modes or systems of obtaining these results of colour, as practised by 
 the greatest schools, are exceedingly different. Sir Joshua Reynolds says : 
 *They may be reduced to three. The first may be called the Roman 
 manner, where the colours are of a full and strong body, such as are found 
 in the Transfiguration. The next is that harmony which is produced by 
 what the ancients called the corruption of colours, by mixing and breaking 
 them till there is a general union in the whole : this may be called the 
 Bolognian style. The last manner belongs properly to the ornamental style, 
 which we call the Venetian, being first practised at Venice ; but it is perhaps 
 better learned from Rubens. Here the brightest colours possible are admitted 
 with the two extremes of warm and cold, and those reconciled by being 
 dispersed over the picture, till the whole appears like a bunch of flowers. 
 
 * As it is from the Dutch school the art of breaking colour may be 
 learned, so we may recommend here an attention to the works of Watteau, 
 for excellence in the florid style of painting. 
 
 * To all these manners there are some general rules, that never must be 
 neglected. First, that the same colour which makes the largest mass be 
 diffused, and appear to revive in different parts of the picture ; for a single 
 colour will make a spot or blot. Even the dispersed flesh-colour, which the 
 faces and hands occasion, requires a principal mass, which is best produced 
 by a naked figure. But where the subject will not allow of this, a drapery, 
 approaching to flesh colour, will answer the purpose ; as in the Transfigu- 
 ration, where a woman is clothed in drapery of this colour, which makes a 
 principal to all the heads and hands of the picture. And for the sake of 
 harmony, the colours, however distinguished in their light, should be nearly 
 of the same simple unity in their shadows; and to give the utmost force, 
 strength, and solidity to the work, some part of the picture should be as 
 light , and some as dark as possible. These two extremes are, then, to be 
 
36 
 
 ON colour: 
 
 harmonized and reconciled to each other. Pure black, in these instances, is 
 opposed to the contrary extreme of brightness. 
 
 * If to these different manners we add one more, that in which a silvery 
 grey, or pearly tint, is predominant, I believe every kind of harmony that 
 can be produced by colours will be comprehended. To see this style in 
 perfection we must again have recourse to the Dutch school, particularly to 
 the works of the younger Vandervelde, and the younger Teniers, whose 
 pictures are valued by connoisseurs in proportion as they possess this 
 excellence of a silver tint. 
 
 ' Which of these different styles ought to be preferred, so as to meet 
 every man's ideas, would be difficult to determine, from the predilection 
 which every man has to the mode which is practised by the school in 
 which he has been educated ; but, if any pre-eminence is to be given, it 
 must be to that manner which stands in the highest estimation with man- 
 kind in general, and that is the Venetian style, or rather the manner of 
 Titian, which simply considered as producing an effect of colours, will 
 certainly eclipse, with its splendour, whatever is brought in competition 
 with it.' 
 
 In landscape painting, the routine of placing one colour by the side of 
 another according to any known or understood systems, is not so impe- 
 rative as when applied to historical painting, and where the manner and 
 effect of any particular school is to be produced. 
 
 To institute a comparison between all who have excelled in colouring, 
 would be useless here, differing so entirely. But of Tone : — The rich, and 
 the mellow, and the silvery grey, are cared most for, as regards this expres- 
 sion. It involves all colours in its meaning, as well as the depth and power 
 of the light and shade, when divested of colour. It is frequently produced 
 after the picture is painted, by glazing or toning over it until the required 
 depth and expression of colour is obtained, and mostly adding richness, 
 splendour and variety. In water colour it is highly and essentially prized. 
 
 A beautiful quality of tone is obtained from drawing on grey or coloured 
 paper, with black, white, and red chalks, the colour of the paper supplying 
 the middle tint, (which should always pervade the largest space). It is 
 likewise an admirable principle to adopt in water colour, as it qualifies the 
 whole appearance of the work, and the student will proceed with greater 
 certainty. 
 
OF THE THREE PRIMITIVE COLOURS. 
 
 37 
 
 Of the situations in which a colour appears most beautiful, Leonardo 
 says, ' Black is the most so in the shade ; white, in the strongest light ; 
 blue and green in the half tint; yellow and red in the principal light; 
 gold in the reflexes, and lake in the half tint and ' the lighter a colour 
 is in its nature, the more so it will appear when removed to some distance ; 
 but with dark colours it is quite the reverse.' 
 
 Some colours are rather unsociable, and, not mixing well with others, are 
 best used by themselves, producing the required tint by glazing one over 
 the other. 
 
 When any transparent colour is laid over an opaque one, or another of 
 its own quality, it produces a mixture different to either of those that 
 compose it ; as lake over blue gives purple ; yellow on blue produces green, 
 and so on. In many cases this is a superior method to that of mixing them 
 at once to the colour desired. 
 
 White is the receiver of all colours ; black of none. 
 
 Any single colour appears most beautiful and brilliant when near the 
 same colour, but not having so much density in it. Observe how colours are 
 blended or contrasted in the plumage of birds, the wings of butterflies, &c. 
 
 The shifting, blending, and comparing a number of coloured cards, has 
 always been found a useful and amusing way of instructing children in a 
 knowledge of colours. 
 
 Diffierent coloured pieces of glass held up against a landscape, will serve 
 to show, through their medium, the varieties of hot and cold eff'ects. 
 
 Certain colours impart value to others, principally by contrast ; thus, the 
 brilliant and rich glow of an autumnal evening is rendered most intense 
 when the dark brown and neutral masses of foliage are brought up against 
 it : it is only to their relative situations that they owe their power. 
 
 That part of a white object which is nearest to a dark one, will appear 
 the whitest, and the less so as it is removed from it. The same occurs by a 
 dark one. 
 
 All colours will appear most perfect in themselves when contrasted with their 
 opposites — a green against red ; blue against yellow ; black against white, &c. 
 
 Where one colour terminates on another, that is its contrast, there will be 
 greater strength exhibited at the junction than in the middle. 
 
 Great darkness is only obtained by the opposition of bright light, and 
 bright light by contrasting it with density of shadow. 
 
38 
 
 ON COLOUR. 
 
 Colours should recede iu proportion to the size of objects, as they retire 
 from the eye. 
 
 Too frequent a repetition of the same colour will produce monotony ; so 
 will too much contrast. 
 
 Contrasts in colouring must be used with great caution, or the absence 
 of all keeping will be the result. At the same time, the beauty of a colour 
 is only fully developed by being placed by the side of its opposite, or the 
 one from which it is farthest removed. 
 
 If the blacks in a picture are kept firm and decided, they clear up the 
 general effect, and give lightness and buoyancy to the whole work. 
 
 A colour is often left single, and standing by itself, in some principal 
 object; in which case, it is so contrived, by its density, or some other 
 quality, to bring together and harmonize all the rest. 
 
 If colours are not placed in harmony with each other, they must be in 
 contact with such as give them value ; as red against a cold, or green against 
 a warm colour. In short, the grand principle, in all its constituent parts, 
 simply amounts to this. 
 
 The strongest darks, brought in contact with the strongest lights, increase 
 their brilliance, by giving to the lights the utmost force and clearness they 
 can receive. 
 
 Richness of colouring can only be adopted when the general tone of the 
 picture is sufficiently dark to support it. 
 
 All colours retire in proportion to their negative or neutral character; 
 and as they develope themselves, gradually approaching to their brightest 
 point, so they reach the prominent parts of the foreground. 
 
 Rich, warm, and deep shadows, will support the strongest colours ; and if 
 the browns are kept cool, the greys and cold colours retain their purity 
 better. The colours that unite the hot and cold parts of a picture require 
 the nicest judgment : thus, white and black may be brought together by 
 grey, (grey being made of white and black); blue and red, by the inter- 
 position of purple, (purple being formed of blue and red.) 
 
 The larger the mass employed of neutral and obscure colours, the greater 
 will be the force and illumination in the clear ones, which, being in their 
 natures most attractive, should always be employed in parts intended to 
 create the greatest sensation. 
 
ON GENERAL NATURE. 
 
 4" 
 
 The magic of art does not consist in an exact resemblance of an object: 
 — ' An exact resemblance,' says Sir J oshua, ^ may be even disagreeable. 
 The effect of figures in wax-work, for instance, is disgusting to the eye 
 accomplished to judge of Fine Art, yet it approaches reality. We are 
 pleased, on the contrary, by seeing ends accomplished by seemingly inade- 
 quate means ; but to express distances on a plain surface, softness by hard 
 bodies, and particular colouring by materials which are not singly of that 
 colour, produces that magic which is the prize and triumph of Art. The 
 power of a few well-chosen strokes, which supersede labour by judgment 
 and direction, produce a complete impression of all that the mind demands 
 in an object ; we are charmed with such an unexpected happiness of exe- 
 cution, and begin to be tired with superfluous diligence, which, in vain 
 solicits an appetite already satiated.' 
 
 We do not desire those who look on our pictures to suppose them real 
 men and women, or that they are real landscapes; but to admire the art 
 through the means by which it is performed. 
 
 I have always observed the most exact imitations of nature to be pecu- 
 liarly within the sphere of the illiterate and uninformed; and the more 
 debased and vulgar the mind, the more will it admire such productions. 
 On the other hand. Fine Art has its own peculiar modes of imitating Nature 
 and of deviating from it, for the attainment of its own purpose — ' Nature 
 to advantage dressed : ' the great end of Art is to make an impression on 
 the imagination and the feelings. The imitation of nature frequently does 
 this ; sometimes it fails, and sometimes else succeeds. ' I think, therefore. 
 
40 
 
 ON GENERAL NATURE. 
 
 says Sir Joshua, ' the true test of all Art is not solely whether the production 
 is a true copy of Nature, but whether it answers the end of Art, which is to 
 produce a pleasing effect upon the mind.' 
 
 Of the contracted ideas of high-finishers, I think excessive labour is 
 excessive weakness, and vigour can never come from such a source : making 
 every brick of a house appear, has nothing to do with the harmony of the 
 architecture ; nothing is so monotonous as these detail and ' bit painters ; ' 
 their works, taken collectively, are universally effectless and good for 
 nothing ; it is, at best, overwrought ingenuity — not Art. The combinations 
 must be generalized ; some object in the foreground may partake of this 
 quality of finish, but if other parts of the composition be not proportion ably 
 slighted, there will be a want of general harmony. No separate part should 
 possess any preponderance sufficient to absorb the interest of the rest. An 
 analogous combination will alone invest the whole with the charm it conveys 
 collectively, and infinite labour is saved. The high excellencies of painting 
 belong invariably to harmonious combinations. 
 
 We frequently observe in the best works, the great effect produced by 
 slightness, which, by a sort of magic, at a distance, assumes complete forms : 
 this is scarcely ever the effect of chance or accident, however it may be 
 made to appear so, but the result of deep and matured study, and a steady 
 attention to the general effect, produced, perhaps, by a few happy scratches, 
 and is ^ more laborious to the mind than the highest finishing would be,' 
 accomplishing the purpose intended by a seemingly intuitive perception of 
 what was required, and communicating a lively and vigorous impression to 
 the minds of others by the energies of their own. Extreme labour seldom 
 fails to produce heaviness, while that fascinating lightness of effect is 
 universally occasioned by the absence of it. The slightest and most unde- 
 termined manner of treatment often succeeds in producing the best general 
 effect, which effect is as often wholly defeated in the attempt at finishing 
 and blending the colours and details. Some morsel or other is beautifully 
 preserved, but the whole is lost. 
 
 The general effect of the stars is all order — ^all repose ; but the means by 
 which this effect is produced is nowhere to be traced ! 
 
 ^ The highest style has the least common nature in it : ' ' Good sense is 
 not always common sense.' 
 
ON GENERAL NATURE. 
 
 41 
 
 « We may depart from Nature for a greater advantage. Nature is fre- 
 quently narrow and confined in her principles, and must as frequently be 
 departed from. Pictures should be painted to give pleasure, and every 
 object which stands in the way of that pleasure must be removed !' 
 
 Rubens thought the eye should be satisfied above all other considerations ; 
 he, therefore, painted his reflects stronger than Nature would warrant ; 
 thereby producing harmony from contrast and variety. 
 
 Reynolds, speaking of Claude Lorraine, says, * Claude Lorraine was 
 convinced that taking nature as he found it seldom produced beauty : his 
 pictures are a composition of the various draughts which he had previously 
 made from various beautiful scenes and prospects.' 
 
 The harmony proceeding from contrast and variety of colour is more 
 conspicuous in the landscapes of Rubens, and the gorgeous colouring of the 
 landscapes of Titian, than in Claude — ' departing from Nature for a greater 
 advantage ! ' As in the moonlights of Vanderneer, the pictures of Cuyp 
 and Both, and our own glorious Wilson, Gainsborough, &c. In choosing 
 from among these great manners, we must lean on the observation of 
 Reynolds, when he says, * An artist is obliged for ever to hold the balance 
 in his hand, by which he must decide the value of different qualities; that 
 when some fault must be committed, he may choose the least.' 
 
 There is, beyond all doubt, a grandeur in general ideas, that the narrow 
 conceptions individual nature can never attain to. 
 
 Any subject, however mean or degraded in itself, but painted on a great 
 principle, will acquire splendour and dignity from association. 
 
 ' Look at Nature ! Nature is the true school of Art ! ' is the universal 
 cry of the vulgar and uneducated. But before their perception is capable 
 of even seeing Nature, as it is spread out before them, they will have much 
 to acquire of Art : for although Nature is before their eyes, to them it is a 
 closed book ! This is no new position, for, says Sir Joshua, ' If our 
 judgment is to be directed by narrow, vulgar, untaught, or rather ill-taught 
 reason, we must prefer a portrait by Denner, or any other high finisher, to 
 those of Titian or Vandyck ; and a landscape by Vanderheyden to those of 
 Titian or Rubens ; for they are certainly more exact representations of Nature. 
 If we suppose a view of nature represented with all the truth of the camera 
 
42 
 
 ON GENERAL NATURE. 
 
 obscura, and the same scene represented by a great artist, how little and 
 mem will the one appear in comparison of the other, when no superiority 
 is supposed from the choice of the subject.' 
 
 And again, — ' Amongst the painters, and writers on painting, there is 
 one maxim universally admitted and continually inculcated. Imitate 
 Nature is the invariable rule; but I know none who have explained in 
 whit manner this rule is to be understood; the consequence of which is, 
 that every one takes it in the most obvious sense, that objects are repre- 
 sented naturally when they have such relief that they seem i^eaL It may 
 appear strange perhaps to hear this rule disputed ; but it must be considered 
 that, if the excellence of a painter consisted only in this kind of imitation, 
 painting must lose its rank, and be no longer considered as a liberal art, 
 and sister to poetry — this imitation being merely mechanical, in which the 
 slowest intellect is always sure to succeed best ! for the painter of genius 
 cannot stoop to drudgery, in which the understanding has no part; — and 
 what pretence has the art. to claim kindred with poetry, but its powers 
 over the imagination ? To this power the painter of genius directs his 
 aim ; in this sense he studies Nature, and often arrives at the end, even by 
 being unnatural, in the confined sense of the word. The grand style of 
 painting requires this minute attention to be carefully avoided, and must 
 be kept as separate from it as the style of poetry from that of history. 
 Poetical ornaments destroy that air of truth and plainness which ought to 
 characterize history; but the very being of poetry consists in departing 
 from this plain narration, and adopting every ornament that will warm the 
 imagination. 
 
 * The Italian attends only to the invariable — the great and general ideas 
 which are fixed and inherent in universal Nature ; the Dutch, on the 
 contrary, to literal truth, and a minute exactness in the detail, as I may 
 say, of Nature modified by accident. The attention to these petty pecu- 
 liarities is the very cause of this naturalness, so much admired in the Dutch 
 pictures, which, if we suppose to be a beauty, is certainly of a lower order, 
 that ought to give place to a beauty of a superior kind, since one cannot be 
 obtained but by departing from the other.' 
 
 With the most practised hands, in painting from Nature on the spot, the 
 
ON GENERAL NATURE. 
 
 43 
 
 hue and character of the artist will frequently pervade all his efforts to 
 paint nothing but what he sees spread out before him; and his system, 
 prevailing even to this extent, has this advantage, that accustomed as he is 
 to consider Nature generally, his performance may resemble Nature more at 
 another time than that one he painted it at! as Nature seldom looks the 
 same two hours together. 
 
 The simple music of a bird may as well be compared to the most refined 
 compositions of the Italian school, that requires the most industrious efforts 
 to reach : both originate in Nature, but the latter is ' Nature to advantage 
 dressed.' 
 
 Nature, the best source we can go to for instruction, is ' always at 
 hand ! ' — ' but Nature herself is not to be too closely copied. There are 
 excellencies in the art of painting beyond what is commonly called the 
 imitation of Nature. A mere copyer of Nature can never produce any 
 thing great ; for the works of Nature are full of disproportion.' It is the 
 beau ideal of the mind alone that reaches this great end. It is comparing 
 our observations on Nature, that enables us to acquire this ideal perfection. 
 It is to skill in selection, and the separating her beauties from her defects, 
 that qualifies us to reach this grand acquisition, which cannot be reduced 
 to practical principles ; but, by being enabled to discover those defects, we 
 learn the art of supplying her wants. ' Correcting Nature by herself — her 
 imperfect state by her more perfect,' — ^ and Nature denies her instructions 
 to none who desire to become her pupils.' 
 
 Young people, and even men and women, who make respectable, and 
 often very excellent copies from the works of others, frequently shew me 
 their ^ sketches from Nature ;' — Oh, if Nature could see them — for, to say 
 they are in general perfectly frightful, is to use the gentlest expression. 
 I invariably trace, in these productions, their individuality is the cause of 
 their unsuccess ; and the incapacity to even see Nature generally, which 
 must be necessary before they can paint her so. 
 
 Thus to abstract as it were her beauties, and to form one general idea of 
 them, in that abstract, is to enlarge the sphere of our understandings, and 
 invest our works with that intellectual grandeur which alone lifts them above 
 the efforts of common minds, by the nobleness of conception, and a higher 
 
44 
 
 ON GENERAL NATURE, 
 
 degree of excellence : while the student may be assured that his reputation 
 will become permanent and universal, from this system of contemplating 
 Nature in the abstract, and ennoble all he undertakes. His picture will 
 have a mental effect over all that is mechanical. 
 
 Dr. Johnson has most ably explained the hypothesis, so much urged by 
 his friend, of the necessity of generalizing our ideas of Nature, when he 
 says, ' It is not to examine the individual, but the species ; to remark 
 general properties and large appearances : he does not number the streaks 
 of the tulip, nor describe the different shades of the forest; he is to 
 exhibit in his portraits of nature such permanent and striking features, as 
 recall the original to every mind ; and must neglect the minuter discrimina- 
 tions, which are alike obvious to vigilance and carelessness.' 
 
 The idleness of laborious finish, opposed to the overwhelming majesty 
 of breadth, cannot be better explained. 
 
ON RULES. 
 
 Rules are not principles : Polite learning is only a more specious igno- 
 rance : it may do something to make a connoisseur, but will never make a 
 practical painter; while a little knowledge of principles will go farther to 
 make a connoisseur ! 
 
 A foreign philosopher says, ' A thinking man is a depraved animal.' Both 
 rules and principles are the healthy results of thought, notwithstanding. 
 — Condensation and simplification — shorter methods, and conclusive 
 deductions, are among the results obtained from them. 
 
 ' There are rules for the conduct of the artist, which are fixed and 
 invariable. The arts would lie open for ever to caprice and casualty, if 
 those who are to judge of their excellencies had no settled principles by 
 which they are to regulate their decisions, and their merits or defects 
 were to be determined by unguided fancy;' which, in the end, would 
 deprive art of its existence. 
 
 Reynolds says, ' Whatever is done well is done by some certain rule, 
 otherwise it could not be repeated.' 
 
 Rules, pursued beyond their intention, become the fetters of the mind : 
 among architects for instance — whose very profession should be a matter 
 of light and shade — I have never known, nor heard of one in my life, 
 who ever obtained even the veriest mediocrity in painting, however 
 otherwise talented. This can only be attributable to their adherence 
 
46 
 
 ON RULES. 
 
 to the rigidity of their rules in their details, beyond their general 
 intention. 
 
 Much should oftentimes be conceded to the suggestions of strong 
 inclination in an ingenious and intelligent mind, whose impulses are 
 irresistible, and which any peculiar method would only clog and fetter, 
 by thwarting its particular turn — which, after all succeeds best its own 
 way ; and arrives at the same end by its own impulses. Rules apply more 
 properly to such as are not invested with these powers : or, with the same 
 incentives, have not the strength. 
 
ON COPYING 
 
 A SYSTEM of copying, or rather borrowing from the works of others, some 
 point, ' from which the imagination may rise and take flight,' is a manner 
 commonly pursued by our best painters. This method is that of really 
 making it our own, by judicious efforts, without the risk of the imputation 
 of plagiarism, which I shall endeavour to make appear. 
 
 By the contemplation of what is good in others, ^ a sense of the higher 
 excellencies of art will by degrees dawn on the imagination; at every 
 review that sense will become more and more assured, and the artist 
 will then find no difficulty in fixing in his own mind the principles by 
 which the impression is produced; which he will feel and practice, 
 though they are perhaps too delicate and refined to be conveyed to the 
 mind by any other means.' 
 
 Sir Joshua, speaking of the great examples of Art, says, * These are the 
 materials on which Genius is to work, and without which the strongest 
 intellect may be fruitlessly or deviously employed. By studying these 
 authentic models, that idea of excellence which is the result of the accu- 
 mulated experience of past ages, may be at once acquired ; and the tardy 
 and obstructed progress of our predecessors may teach us a shorter and 
 easier way. The student perceives at one glance the principles which 
 many artists have spent their whole lives in ascertaining; and, satisfied 
 with their effect, is spared the painful investigation by which they came to 
 be known and fixed.' 
 
48 
 
 ON COPYING. 
 
 The greatest painters are continually making such memoranda as may 
 be called copying, either from the works of antiquity, or those of their 
 cotemporaries. 
 
 Beginning with nothing, we must borrow until we can pay the debt. 
 
 ' The sagacious imitator does not content himself with merely remarking 
 what distinguishes the different manner or genius of each master ; he enters 
 into the contrivance in the composition, how the masses of lights are 
 disposed, the means by which the effect is produced, how artfully some 
 parts are lost in the ground, others boldly relieved, and how all these are 
 mutually altered and interchanged, according to the reason and scheme of 
 the work. He admires not the harmony of colouring alone, but examines 
 by what artifice one colour is a foil to its neighbour ; he looks close into 
 the tints, examines of what colours they are composed, till he has formed 
 clear and distinct ideas, and has learnt to see in what harmony and good 
 colouring consists. What is learned in this manner from the works of 
 others becomes really our own, sinks deep, and is never forgotten. 
 
 ' If the excellence of a picture consists in its general effect, it would 
 be proper to make slight sketches of the machinery and general manage- 
 ment of the work. Those sketches should be kept always by you for the 
 regulation of your style. Instead of copying the touches of those great 
 masters, copy only their conceptions. Instead of treading in their foot- 
 steps, endeavour only to keep the same road. Labour to invent on their 
 general principles and way of thinking. Possess yourself with their spirit : 
 and work yourself into a belief that your picture is to be seen and criti- 
 cised by them, when completed. Even an attempt of this kind will rouse 
 your powers.' Again — ' But as mere enthusiasm will carry you but a 
 little way, what I propose is, that you should enter into a kind of com- 
 petition, by painting a similar subject, and making a companion to any 
 picture that you consider as a model; place them together and compare 
 them carefully, and you will detect the deficiencies in your own more 
 sensibly than by any other means of instruction. The true principles of 
 painting will mingle with your thoughts, which will be certain and 
 definitive, and sink deep into the mind. This method of comparing your 
 own efforts with those of some great master, is indeed a severe and morti- 
 fying task ; to go voluntarily to a tribunal where he knows his vanity must 
 
ON COPYING. 49 
 
 be humbled, and all self-approbation must vanish, requires not only great 
 resolution, but great humility ! but it is attended with this alleviating 
 circumstance, which abundantly compensates for the mortification of 
 present disappointment, every discovery he makes, every acquisition to 
 knowledge he attains, seems to proceed from his own sagacity, and thus 
 he acquires confidence in himself, sufficient to keep up the resolution of 
 perseverance. And we prefer those instructions which we have given to 
 ourselves, from our affection to the instructor.' 
 
 The perception of errors shortens the road to truth. ' Cease to follow 
 any master when he ceases to excel.' Avoid that narrowness and poverty 
 of conception which attends a bigoted admiration of a single master! 
 We will suppose ^ those perfections which lie scattered among various 
 masters, are now united in one general idea, which is henceforth to regu- 
 late his taste and enlarge his imagination, extending his capacity to more 
 general instructions, he must now consider the art itself as his master. At 
 all times, and in all places, he should be employed in laying up materials 
 for the exercise of his art, to be combined and varied as occasion may 
 require ; seeking only to know and combine excellence, wherever it is to be 
 found, into one idea of perfection ; and employing the most subtle disqui- 
 sition to discriminate perfections that are incompatible with each other. 
 The habitual dignity which long converse with the greatest minds has 
 imparted to him, will display itself in all his attempts, and he will stand 
 among his instructors, not as an imitator, but a rival. The more extensive 
 your acquaintance is with the works of those who have excelled, the more 
 extensive will be your powers of invention ; and, what will appear still 
 more like a paradox, the more original will be your conceptions.' 
 
 Again : — ^ By the devotion with which many study a particular master, 
 they acquire a habit of thinking the same way; therefore, let his faults 
 always be your best instructors.' 
 
 The firm, correct and determined pencil of many of the Dutch masters, 
 cannot be too strongly recommended for imitation. I speak of the 
 mechanism of painting : the expression, force and energy they gave to their 
 works, from the decision of touch and handling, which enabled them to 
 give that look of nature and freshness of reality to their studies, that forms 
 so great an excellence in their performances. The study of Ostade, 
 
 E 
 
50 ON COPYING. 
 
 Teniers, and many others of that school, cannot fail to enrich our own 
 works with variety of invention, and ' those who have not looked out for 
 themselves in this manner from time to time, have not only ceased to 
 advance and improve, but have invariably gone backward, from being 
 left without resources;' and having gathered nothing, have nothing to 
 work upon — from an inability to infuse into their own works what they 
 have neglected to learn from the contemplation of the works of others. It 
 places you under the guidance of your own judgment and discretion 
 by comparison with the best efforts of others ; it enables you ' to criticise, 
 compare, and rank their works in your own estimation, as they approach to, 
 or recede from, the standard of perfection which you have formed in your 
 own mind — but which those masters themselves have taught you to make^ 
 and which you will cease to make with correctness when you cease to study 
 them. It is their excellencies which have taught you their defects, and you 
 will, henceforth, be your own teacher.' Be cautious against the ^ imaginary 
 powers of native genius, and sufficiency in yourself, which seldom fails to 
 produce either a vain confidence or a sluggish despair, both equally fatal to 
 all proficiency. 
 
 * Study, therefore, the great masters for ever : study nature attentively, but 
 always with those masters in your company; consider them as models 
 which you are to imitate, and, at the same time, as rivals with whom you 
 are to contend ;' and you will insensibly come to feel and reason like 
 them, and find taste imperceptibly formed in your oxen mind. 
 
 By the industry of the hand you will acquire good manner, but it is to 
 the industry of the mind you will be indebted for any sohd reputation. 
 
 ' He who does not know others, knows himself very imperfectly.' 
 
 Wronghj directed industry is a dangerous delusion. Too much copying 
 will, on the other hand, greatly tend to impair our mental exertions, render 
 them servile and mechanical, and confine, at the most, our aspirings to 
 a very limited sphere, while it is utterly at variance in establishing any 
 claim of our own to originality or distinction. Studying the genius of a fine 
 work of art, its general forms, its combinations, its chiaroscuro, its colour 
 and effect ; and with all these on our minds, going home and making a 
 companion to it, is a noble and lofty aim, frequently attended with entire 
 success. This excellent practice, diligently persevered in, at length brings 
 
ON COPYING. 
 
 51 
 
 our sympathies into a corresponding train of ideas with those we would 
 emulate ; and if we cannot reach them in their various excellencies, so we 
 succeed in lighting our torch at those glorious beams of old, our advances 
 are at least entitled to that respect they universally meet with. An abject 
 imitation is of all things that I should avoid. But that reading of, and 
 conversing with a picture, that almost places us under a delusion, during 
 the time we are under its influence ; that associating our feelings and 
 ideas — that blending of our aspirations with the master mind that thought 
 and wrought so well, is the surest hemisphere in which we can hope to 
 think and paint like them. The student's perceptions become annealed 
 by the influence of the charm that invests him: he aspires to a higher 
 latitude of excellence : he beholds before him the ripest fruit on the top- 
 most palm, and he knows the principles and the laws by which he can 
 reach it, and does reach it, by the agency of, and the gradual develope- 
 ment of the simple rules he commenced with. 
 
 It often happens, and it is my opinion, that a careless scribbler, who 
 dashes at everything, stands quite as good a chance of becoming original, 
 as the most careful copyist ever will ; after the very first attempts, too 
 much precision stands sadly in the way of boldness, freedom and dexterity. 
 After being enabled to draw with some degree of accuracy, mannerism will 
 invariably be the result of the extreme care so universally recommended 
 by most writers on the subject; and hence that excess of it we daily 
 observe ; for it requires but a very common-place observer, on entering 
 an exhibition, to point to a picture and name the painter at the same 
 moment : presuming he had ever seen a work by the same artist before. 
 
 Reynolds says of copying, ' I consider general copying as a delusive 
 kind of industry ; the student falls into the dangerous habit of imitating, 
 without selecting, and of labouring without any determinate object ; as it 
 requires no effort of the mind, he sleeps over his work, and those powers 
 of invention and composition which ought particularly to be called out, 
 and put in action, lie torpid and lose their energy for want of exercise. 
 How incapable those are of producing anything of their own who have 
 spent much of their time in making finished copies, is well known to all 
 who are conversant with our art.' 
 
ON THE LIGHT AND SHADE OF COLOUR: 
 AND REFLEXES. 
 
 Colour is called in aid of Light and Shade, to dress and ornament it ; 
 but not to distort and disfigure it. 
 
 Extending either the light or shadow by means of colour, is perhaps 
 one of the best ways of combining both. 
 
 Breadth of light and shade may invole many colours in its arrangement, 
 so they are divided into imposing masses; variety of colour is often 
 necessary to explain the localities of a work ; and, that they may not 
 appear confused, light colours should be sociable with light colours; and 
 dark ones with others of equal density: their repetitions invading each 
 other throughout the chain. 
 
 Great intimacy of union, in the colour of the lights, will likewise produce 
 breadth; so as to make a large and connected mass appear, at a little 
 distance, as one graduated light. 
 
 Colours may stand either for colours or shadows ; so that they be of 
 sufficient density, and sufficiently opposed to light ones. 
 
 But, if you do not depend on the colour of the picture for effect of 
 light and shade, much less intensity of colours will be sufficient. 
 
 The strongest colours are sometimes most successfully employed in 
 uniting the light with the shade. 
 
 In the conduct of light, I conceive the objects which receive its influ- 
 ence, should, of all things, as much as possible, partake of the colour of 
 that light, as seeming more like an extension of it, and looking more 
 
ON THE LIGHT AND SHADE OF COLOUR, ECT. 
 
 53 
 
 natural: — thus, in a church, all the parts receiving the light from a 
 painted glass window, would partake of its varieties of colour. The 
 rising and setting of the sun turns all to gold, by the same alchymy, 
 while it acts as an uniting link in carrying the colour through the 
 picture : these, in their turn, throw their radiating reflects in a thousand 
 other directions, keeping up and sustaining the communicative principle 
 of the whole — imparted by the primitive cause and its agency. 
 
 The colouring of a picture should always be in harmony with its light 
 and shade. 
 
 The lights will require to be overcharged with colour, if the shadows are 
 too heavy and loaded; on their transparency depends the beauty of both. 
 
 The shadows must be darker than the shadowed sides of the objects 
 which project them ; for the reason explained in the article on Light 
 and Shade. 
 
 The masses of light should be of warm colours, yellow or red, supported 
 by blue or grey in the shadows; a very small proportion of which will 
 generally be found sufficient. 
 
 The real colour of an object is only seen in the light. All shadows 
 should partake, more or less, of the colour of the light. That shadow 
 will appear the darkest that is surrounded by the brightest light. 
 
 The nearer a colour is to the eye, the purer it will appear; arraying 
 itself as it retires, with the colour of the air interposed between it ; conse- 
 quently, the purest colours should only occur in foregrounds, — where the 
 shadows, for the same reason, would likewise be darkest. 
 
 The colour of a light will be stopped at the part where any reflex reaches 
 it. We see mountains covered with snow, at sunset, from the eff'ulgence 
 of its rays, make the horizon appear all on fire. 
 
 Distant mountains appear more deeply blue, according to the extent of 
 the azure of the air interposed between them and the eye. All masses in 
 the distance partake, more or less, of this quality. 
 
 ' The vapours mixing with the air, in the lower region near the earth, 
 render it thick, and apt to reflect the sun's rays on all sides, while the air 
 above remains dark ; and because light (white) and darkness (black) mixed 
 together, compose the azure that becomes the colour of the sky — which 
 
54 
 
 ON THE LIGHT AND SHADE OF COLOUR I 
 
 is lighter or darker, in proportion as the air is more or less mixed with 
 damp vapours.' 
 
 Shadows produced by the redness of the setting sun, will be blue ; 
 from the reflexes of that part of the air not illumined by its rays. 
 
 If the sun is overcast, the lights will be general ; so will the shadows. 
 If the sunbeams burst out, and strike the objects in a landscape, the 
 shadows will then be dark in proportion to the lights. The brilliant edges 
 of the clouds all assist the general illumination; and all objects in the 
 light, will participate of their colour from reflexion. On the contrary, 
 those parts not included in the range of rays, remain the colour of 
 the air. 
 
 The air partakes less of the azure of the sky as it approaches the 
 horizon, being more remote from the sun than that part of it above our 
 heads, which receives a larger portion of its rays. The horizon will be 
 light, while, in ascending to the meridian, it becomes, from this cause, 
 deeper and bluer. So the nature of all colours diminish in proportion 
 as density of air is interposed between them and the eye. 
 
 Reflected colours, thrown from, and upon, equal angles, will be the 
 strongest : the most distinct, being produced by the shortest ray. 
 
 No reflected colour will have the brilliance of a direct one. For, if 
 a reflected light from a blue object be thrown on a yellow one, the result 
 would be green : — green being composed of blue and yellow. This cir- 
 cumstance refers to most mixtures. 
 
 It only happens to those colours which are on a level with the eye, that 
 their gradation is in proportion to their distance. As to those of eleva- 
 tion, they are influenced by the quality of the air they are seen through. 
 
 Colours, whose nearest approach is to black, as they retire into distance, 
 partake most of the azure of the air : — and those colours most dissimilar 
 to black, preserve their proper colour as they recede. The golden lights 
 on distant mountains or fields will best explain this. * The green, there- 
 fore, of the fields will change sooner into blue, than yellow or white, 
 which will preserve their natural colour at a greater distance than that, 
 or even red.' 
 
 ' It may happen that a colour does not alter, though placed at different 
 
AND REFLEXES. 
 
 55 
 
 distances, when the thickness of the air and the distance are in the same 
 inverse proportion.' 
 
 Masses of shadow carry the strongest part of their colour to the greatest 
 distance; as when trees appear thick together, accumulating the shadow 
 on each other, they become darker by multiplying those shadows. 
 
 'The darker a mountain is in itself,' says Leonardo, 'the bluer it will 
 appear at a great distance. The highest part will be the darkest, being 
 more woody ; because woods cover a great many shrubs and other plants, 
 which never receive the light. Near the tops of those mountains, where 
 the air is thinner and purer, the darkness of the woods will make it appear 
 of a deeper azure than at the bottom, where the air is thicker.' 
 
 ' In general, all objects that are darker or lighter than the air are dis- 
 coloured by distance, which changes their quality, so that the lighter 
 appears darker, and the darker lighter.' 
 
 Colours are more or less entirely lost at a great distance from the eye, 
 according to the purity or density of the air through which they are 
 revealed, or as they are more or less elevated from the earth, merging as 
 they retire into a general grey, occasioned by the quantity of the inter- 
 vening air. In countries where the air is thin, colours are discernible 
 at great distances, but still tinged with the colour of that air. 
 
 The darkest colours, in distance, will be most of all impregnated with the 
 colour of the air. So will the strongest real or accidental shadows. 
 
 Colours and outline are best defined on objects placed out of the strong 
 light of the sun, and its reflexes. In sunshine, both are operated on by 
 refraction, which occasions that chaotic indistinctness so painful for the eye 
 to dwell on long together. 
 
 Every body, on which light falls, reflects a part of it back again. Any 
 thing red, held before a looking-glass, gives back a portion of its own 
 colour with great vividness; as a glass would throw the sun's ray on a wall. 
 
 The real colour of polished surfaces are lost in the colour of the light 
 that falls on them. This likewise applies to all metals. 
 
 All smooth or shining [surfaces repel the light they receive, throwing 
 their reflexes on any thing opposed to them. 
 
 Polished surfaces, as in plate or armour, do not show their real colours. 
 
56 
 
 ON THE LIGHT AND SHADE OF COLOUR: 
 
 The reflected colours of the sun or air that shines on them confuse 
 their own. Rough surfaces, on the contrary, retain their natural colours 
 most. 
 
 Suppose the sun to equally illumine two sides of a street, as it 
 passes its centre, and on one side is a red house, and opposite to it a 
 white one, the white one would be impinged with the reflection from 
 the action of the light on the red one : thus, all proximity of colours 
 affect each other, in the light, in the manner of reflexes, declining as 
 they recede. The reflected lights in folds of silk draperies illustrate 
 this phenomenon best. 
 
 Compare the shadows thrown on different colours with each other, by 
 placing a number of coloured materials in a dark place, the colours of 
 shadows being regulated by the objects giving and receiving them. 
 
 Examine well the colours in the shadows of flowers ; they present the 
 most excellent combinations. 
 
 All colours, as at night, may be lost in that of the general shadow, 
 presuming it dark enough to destroy all reflexes. 
 
 Colours reflected on by their opposites will become neutralized ; as green 
 against red, purple against yellow, &c. 
 
 The shadows on all objects partake of the colour of the light, or are 
 qualified by other lights throwing their reflects into them. 
 
 The lightness or darkness of shadows are entirely regulated by the 
 colour of the objects on which they fall. 
 
 An object painted in a light colour will be more or less light, accord- 
 ing to the strength of its shadow, from the consequences attending 
 opposition. 
 
 So a light figure, laid upon a light background, but differing in colour — 
 as a warm object on a grey sky — assists, in the greatest degree, the pre- 
 servation of the breadth. Opposition of colour is, perhaps, of most use 
 under these circumstances. 
 
 Colours on the figures or parts brought into notice by opposition may be 
 sometimes applied with sufficient depth and intensity as to advantageously 
 take the place of shadows or darks. 
 
 Light and shade may be produced by the influence of colours alone. 
 
AND REFLEXES. 
 
 57 
 
 judiciously applied ; the reds and yellows supporting the lights, while 
 the blues, greys, and cold colours form the retiring portions, or such as 
 would otherwise be in shadow. 
 
 Suppose a picture, composed of one part shade and the other light — the 
 light being warm, and the shadow composed of cold colours — a red or 
 warm-coloured figure laid against the shadowed side, and a blue one 
 brought out from the light, would, in addition to possessing the greatest 
 force of colour, have a spirited and imposing effect. But the contrary 
 treatment would possess the greatest breadth and repose ; — a dark figure 
 laid on the mass of shadow (a point of which, being darker than the rest, 
 would gather it together), and a light one on the light, having a point still 
 higher in colour than the ground. 
 
 Rich, deep, and warm shadows are required to support strong coloured 
 lights. So, strong colours are equally useful in focussing the shadows, or 
 in giving them variety. 
 
 That beautiful diffusion of CBriel and fluctuating ^pearly reflections, that 
 play equally over the surfaces of the strongest colours, shadows, and 
 lights, in the tenderest hues and forms, and with which all nature 
 appears invested, should engage our deepest attention and enquiry, as 
 their properties so softly blend and break down the harshness and 
 influence of positive colour, and the asperity of opposing tints, by tem- 
 pering them with their airy and luminous sweetness. 
 
 If the general harmony or hue of a picture is warm, the deepest 
 shadows should be warm also ; while the strongest colour, being brought 
 into the middle space, will serve to connect both the light and the 
 shadow. Indian red, in most instances, should be the mixing medium, 
 using cold colours sparingly, and only where they are wanted as a foil; 
 as the greens of trees are set off from the rich brown shadows, producing 
 a splendid effect, and bringing the hot and cold colours into harmony. 
 
 Colours, forming the middle tint and shadows, should always be warm ; 
 though the light may be cold, the effect will be beautiful. 
 
 Warm shadows will support the strongest colours. 
 
 I generally observe that Titian, Rubens, and the best colourists, use 
 their reds in the shadows, at once to support and give them brilliance ; 
 — for when it happens that the shadows of a picture are wholly made 
 
58 
 
 ON THE LIGHT AND SHADE OF COLOUR I 
 
 up of warm colours, the effect is sure to be splendid, though the lights 
 are cold ; — considering red, perhaps, too strong a colour to interfere 
 with the lic/ht, at the risk of destroying its breadth. Their manner was 
 often that of deepening the colour as it lost or absorbed itself in the 
 background. 
 
 Every object receiving the light of the sun, receives likewise the 
 general light, producing two shadows, the darkest one being occasioned 
 by the sun. 
 
 When the horizon is tinged with red by the rays of the setting sun, 
 the distant shadows, being blue or azure, mingling with the red, pro- 
 duces purple. 
 
 The air between the earth and the sun, when it rises or sets, invests 
 all objects with a degree of obscurity, which is whiter on the earth 
 than towards the zenith. 
 
 When the vapours descend to the earth at sunset, all objects that 
 the sun's rays do not reach become confused and dark; but those that 
 are tinged with its light will appear of the colour of that light, and 
 distinctly marked in their outlines, though surrounded by obscurity. 
 
 The magnificence of the setting sun, gilding with its rays the slopes 
 of mountains and tops of forests, towns, villages, and waters, while all 
 below is lost in deep brown, grey, and purple masses, has ever been 
 a favourite subject with painters of all schools. 
 
 The inferior or lower parts of all objects, when the air is thickest on 
 the earth, will appear farther fi:om the eye than the tops. 
 
 In looking down from an eminence on a street or town when the 
 air is thick, the tops of the buildings will be darker, more distinct and 
 articulate than the objects placed at the bottom, which, being filled 
 with air, the tops come off it (as a ground) with more decision. 
 
 When the sun is veiled by clouds, in a landscape, the trees receiving 
 a general light, the darkest parts will be the lowest. 
 
 Although the trees and fields may be of the same colour, the trees 
 will always seem darker than the fields, from their quantity of shadow, 
 notwithstanding every blade of grass has its shadow. 
 
 The tops of all mountains will be more clearly defined than their 
 bases, becoming more and more so as they rise into the thinner and 
 
AND REFLEXES. 
 
 59 
 
 purer regions of the air; and, as they still rise to their highest summits, 
 the more they develope their form and colours. 
 
 All buildings will appear darker at the top than the bottom, from 
 the lower parts being surrounded with thicker air of a lighter colour. 
 
 Buildings, or other objects, seen through a fog, only develope those 
 sides which are reflected on by the sun ; the other parts remain the 
 colour of the fog. Beautiful combinations of silvery grey and golden 
 reflections, on foliage, windows, boats, water, &c. may be made under 
 these circumstances. As the outline becomes confused or lost, so the 
 objects seen through it acquire magnitude. The fog and the object 
 being both near the eye, its density will occasion the object to appear 
 at a great distance. 
 
 Objects of all sorts, seen through rain, have an indistinct and unde- 
 termined outline, sometimes becoming greatly confused. 
 
 If the observer is placed between the sun and a cloud of dust or smoke, 
 they will appear dark. If they are seen between the sun and the eye, 
 they will be light and transparent. This equally applies to the effects 
 produced by fog. 
 
 Some artists represent water very dark or very light. It can neither 
 be darker nor lighter than the surrounding objects which occasion its 
 shadows. 
 
 If water is muddy or thick, the shadows of a bridge or boat would 
 be projected on it, as it would be on the ground. But if, on the 
 contrary, the water is clear and transparent, all reflections are formed 
 in it, as they would be in a looking-glass, and no lateral shadows occur. 
 
 How much bluer the sea appears from on board ship than it does 
 from the shore ; because, at sea, the blue of the waves is reflected on 
 the eye. 
 
 All objects in the distance, which are near a river or water, will 
 appear less distinct than those that are remote from it. 
 
 All distances should have their outhnes confused and unfinished, 
 while foreground objects should be bold and determined. 
 
 Objects appear most remote that are divested of their outline, as in 
 Turner's pictures — giving the idea of space and largeness. 
 
60 
 
 ON THE LIGHT AND SHADE OF COLOUR, ETC. 
 
 Of the beauty of reflexes, Da Vinci says : ^ If you mean the proximity 
 of one colour should give beauty to another that terminates near it, 
 observe the rays of the sun in the composition of the rainbow, the 
 colours of which are generated by the falling rain, when each drop in 
 its descent takes every colour of the bow.' 
 
 Displaying the various colours that compose either the light or the 
 shade, or lights and darks, that are to stand as such, into large and 
 subtly interwoven portions, — the blending and the opposition of hot 
 and cold colours, and of light with dark, together with strict attention 
 to their strength and relations (for the most discordant and opposite 
 properties will produce harmony, under certain circumstances and arrange- 
 ment), so that the masses of light and shade, and the breadth of the 
 whole, are not disturbed, — are the leading circumstances that should 
 engage the anxious attention. 
 
HARMONY AND CONTRAST. 
 
 -4 
 
 Harmony, as in Nature, is the agreeable accordance of the various 
 colours that form the parts of a scene into a whole; divested, in their 
 dispersion, of their harshness by the everywhere surrounding atmos- 
 phere: this may be tested by holding a piece of silk, the exact colour 
 of the grass at our feet, up against a field, v^hen the field will become 
 grey in comparison. 
 
 The exact degree of strength, or of tone, greatly tend to reconcile 
 the harmony of a picture. 
 
 Harmony consists more in the power of bringing colours together, 
 than in the mere arrangement of the colours themselves. 
 
 Burnet, in his excellent Treatise, says — ' When a picture is composed 
 of the two extremes of hot and cold, we are certain of having employed 
 the whole strength of the palette ; and, if judiciously used to assist the 
 chiaroscuro, an harmonious union will be kept up between these opposite 
 qualities, more forcible and splendid than by the intervention of middle 
 tint ;^ but immediately after he adds — ^ In producing variety and con- 
 trast, we ought never to lose sight of that imperceptible harmony arising 
 from the union of two colours in producing a third, composed of both. 
 Whether this be founded on any law existing in optics, or is merely 
 the result of that sympathy which one colour has to another in producing 
 harmony, we know not.' 
 
 Any colour too often repeated, will destroy its value in proportion to 
 its repetition; but a continuation of the same colour carried with tact 
 
62 
 
 HARMONY AND CONTRAST. 
 
 through the picture, from the highest light to the deepest shade, and 
 strongly relieved by some colour of a different nature, produces the 
 beautiful effect so admired in the Dutch and Flemish sketches of 
 Vandyke and others ; arising from the rich brown gradations, brought 
 up to a ^ high pitch' of red or yellow, or yellowish white, and subdued 
 by a little cool grey, merging into blue or green. 
 
 Strong colours are generally more usefully applied in supporting the 
 general whole, than by being employed on the more prominent parts 
 of it. They are equally useful in focussing the shadows, or in giving 
 them variety. 
 
 If the mixture of many colours be unharmonious and disturbed, per- 
 plexity and confusion will be the result. 
 
 When the general character of a picture is of a cool grey, its influence 
 upon the eye is of a very agreeable description, from its tender and 
 soft transitions ; but its spirit is roused into energy at once by the intro- 
 duction of a warm colour ; increasing, by its opposition of character, 
 the harmony of the whole. A red cloak on a figure crossing a field 
 will explain this. 
 
 In Du Fresney I find w^e ' are not to let two hostile colours meet 
 without a medium to unite them.' Notwithstanding which, we see the 
 contrary practised with the greatest success; — ^blue brought against red, 
 for instance, the value of each increasing as they antipathize. 
 
 The hot and cold colours — the balancing power produced by their 
 combinations— the arrangement that gives to every object its place and 
 value, are the principal circumstances that should engage the attention, 
 when contemplating the works of the best colourists, or on gazing at a 
 scene in Nature. 
 
 If the colouring of a picture is too harmonious, it will want solidity. 
 
EFFECT, ACCIDENT, RELIEF, AND 
 KEEPING. 
 
 In Effect, the means are widely different indeed which lead to the 
 same result ! Rembrandt, with his concentrated light and wide diffusion 
 of shade — Rubens, and his school, with his splendid extension of light 
 and of colour — Vandyke, with the Dutch and Flemish painters — 
 Titian— all arrive at the same end, although by the most opposite means. 
 Some aim at a particular effect; others at a general one, proceeding 
 from different combinations, and different views and ideas. All effects 
 should be consistent with the subject treated. The effect will be more 
 or less bad as the parts which are to constitute it are more or less 
 scattered or diffused. Masses of light, supported and brought out by 
 masses of shadow, are the surest means of producing it. Effect is pro- 
 cured by the strongest opposition, and sometimes by the reverse. 
 Arrangement and Expression is, in historical composition, much the 
 same thing that Effect is in landscape-painting. On the other hand, 
 particular effects mostly arise from circumstance. Sudden and startling 
 effects are not unfrequently produced by a piece of charcoal on brown 
 or grey paper ; beautiful ones by the simple operation of the black lead 
 pencil or stump, until we trace it up to the whole range of the palette, 
 in the most splendid and magnificent efforts of colour. 
 
 Every part of a picture should occasion pleasure in detail! If we 
 are fascinated with the colour of the highest or prevailing light, the 
 most anxious care should be exercised that its influence does not destroy 
 our admiration of the others: to avoid this prejudice, the principal 
 
64 
 
 EFFECT, ACCIDENT, RELIEF, AND KEEPING. 
 
 light, or colour of it, should not be so influential as to prevent the eye 
 being gently led away from it, by the repetition of a softer grade of its 
 own, to others of a less imposing quality: that must of necessity be 
 there, to give value to, and influence the importance of the principal. 
 
 Effect consists in either lights and shadows, or colours, so massed and 
 blended in their arrangement, as to produce breadth. 
 
 The greatest power of Effect is often produced from the most simple 
 materials. All the force of the palette, and all the strength of the 
 master, is not unfrequently called into action by no other materials than 
 a straight horizon meeting the sky, supported by an undulating line or 
 two ; and exemplifying the most scientific manoeuvres in the manage- 
 ment of breadth, and in diversity of colour, on which the eye loves to 
 dwell, and repose from the fatigue occasioned by a repetition of forms. 
 
 A dark object, placed against the most retiring or lightest part of 
 the picture, while it acquires all the startling effect to be derived from 
 great force, and is a resource so much adopted by the greatest land- 
 scape-painters, often, in my opinion, destroys the whole keeping of the 
 work. Bringing such strong objects up against the sun, was the great 
 vice of Claude; Cuyp and Both managed it better, but certainly not 
 always with success. 
 
 Keeping is a term in art which implies that every object and colour 
 should be in its place ; — the object, its exact space to stand on, and the 
 colours in strict harmony and accordance; each possessing the exact 
 strength which belongs to its situation in the picture. 
 
 Relief, and occasionally Chiaro-Scuro, which, by its arrangement 
 of light and shade, describes the necessary forms that are to be 
 revealed: this may likewise be effected by light and dark colours alone, 
 or by opposition of colours and sharp contrasts. 
 
 The highest point or mass of the light, from which the gradations 
 radiate, should be kept very pure, allowing as little of the shade tint 
 to insinuate itself as possible. 
 
 If the lights of a picture are few, it will mainly contribute to its 
 breadth and repose : — if many, or scattered, the result will be confusion. 
 I say, to keep the leading mass of light pure and clean, should employ 
 our deepest attention. 
 
EFFECT, ACCIDENT, RELIEF, AND KEEPING. 
 
 65 
 
 When the attention is to be fixed to a particular object, the degree 
 of power given to the accessories will alone establish its degree of 
 consequence: but it must not be wholly insulated; those accessories, 
 being the medium of its own importance, must contribute all to assist 
 it to its place, without weakening its force or imparing its character; 
 as the middle tints find their value and clearness only by the strength 
 of the lights, and the depths of the darks. 
 
 Pictures, painted in a ' light key,' possess many advantages : — 
 
 Great breadth of Effect is produced by placing the principal mass of 
 shadow on, or rather immediately under, the horizon; graduating up- 
 wards into the clouds, and downwards, in a long angle, to a broad light 
 on the base line; on which a figure or any other object, however small, 
 but darker than the rest, being placed, will produce an effect that has 
 become extremely popular of late. This is equally applicable to landscape 
 or sea pieces; and was a favourite arrangement of A. Vandervelde. 
 When the picture is mostly made up of half tint, his manner was to 
 throw all the power of the palette into his figures; bringing them out 
 strong, dark, and cutting on the foreground ; and, in the retiring groups, 
 diminishing the force as little as possible ; keeping the shadows flat, 
 and a little weaker in colour. This management produces one of the 
 most powerful daylight effects, though not so aerial; but the sacrifice 
 of the last is as nothing to the want of the former. Atmospheric effect 
 is scarcely missed when the whole is on so light a key, as the quantity 
 of half tint employed renders it. 
 
 Most of the Dutch landscape painters seem universally agreed on 
 this arrangement, as having that beautiful contrast of force and softness 
 we so often see in coast scenes, and leaving so large a space as two- 
 thirds of the picture for the luminous forms of the clouds. 
 
 Broken heaths, road scenes, corn-fields, boats on the water, with 
 their forcible and deep shadows, fishermen on the sands, all readily 
 adapt themselves to this manner ; which, likewise, from the light tone 
 that pervades the whole, requires the strongest opposition and contrast 
 of colour — so that the colours be carried well through the picture; that 
 is, if the ground be warm, a figure in blue placed in the foreground 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 EFFECT, ACCIDENT, RELIEF, AND KEEPING. 
 
 may be carried out b}^ being repeated in the blue of the water, and so 
 into parts of the sky, 8zc. And, on the other hand, if the ground be 
 cool grey, as in a river scene, the boats may be yellow, and the figures 
 red, carried up and diffused into the warm lights of the sky, or striking 
 on the sandy shore and distant buildings, and even reaching the birds 
 in the air — all will help to convey the colours through the work. 
 
 In working out this system, let the lights be bright, and their shadows 
 strong and forcible, keeping the middle tints tender, airy, and delicate. 
 A few trials on this plan will soon convince the student of the beauty 
 and real look of daylight it has over many others. 
 
 In examining the works of Cuyp, when the picture is painted on a 
 light key, he is sure to make use of very strong colour, to clear up 
 and give vigour to the whole, in his figures ; serving, at the same time, 
 to invest the general mass with air, breadth, and extent. 
 
 Rembrandt thought it of more consequence to paint light, than the 
 objects seen by it. 
 
 ' Titian's great care was to express the general colour, to preserve 
 the masses of light and shade, and to give, by opposition, the idea of 
 that solidity which is inseparable from natural objects. When these 
 are preserved, though the work should possess no other merit, it will 
 have, in a proper place, its complete effect; but where any of these 
 are wanting, however minutely laboured the picture may be in detail, 
 the whole will have a false, and even an unfinished appearance, at 
 whatever distance, or in whatever light it can be shown. It is in vain 
 to attend to the variations of tints, if in that attention, the general 
 hue is lost, or to finish ever so minutely the parts, if the masses are 
 not observed, or the whole not well put together. And those who will 
 examine into the artifice, will find it to consist in the power of gene- 
 ralizing, and the shortness and simplicity of the means employed;' and 
 in fixed principles, our general ideas predominating over our individual. 
 
 Rubens, in his splendid manner, involved all the schools — Roman, 
 Dutch, and Venetian! yet, with all this magnificence and variety, pos- 
 sessed repose. 
 
 Accident. — Accident often comes in aid of invention. In nature. 
 
EFFECT, ACCIDENT, RELIEF, AND KEEPING. 
 
 67 
 
 all objects by daylight are equally illumined ; the painter has, there- 
 fore, always found it necessary to avail himself of accident, whenever 
 it may occur : shadows, in particular, reflected upon one object by 
 another; large floating masses of light or shade thrown across a moun- 
 tain, a flat country, or an open sea, by the passing clouds as they sail 
 by ; flashes and streaks of light, as they struggle from between them, 
 &c., are all adapted to work out the general effect. Where the forms 
 of a composition are insufficient, this is the usual resource, these acces- 
 sories generally supplying grandeur and elevation to the scene. All 
 catching lights should be laid hold of with equal tenacity. The clearing 
 off* of a shower is particularly favourable to this useful auxiliary. 
 
 F 2 
 
DEXTERITY AND AFFECTATION. 
 
 ^ 
 
 A CONTEMPTIBLE species of affectation in the form of a dashing dexterity — - 
 used, in most instances, to confuse and mystify bad drawing, conceal 
 ignorance of principles, and all the higher excellencies a painter should 
 have studied and brought to aid his work — has been so widely diffused 
 of late, that a notice of this splashing attainment may not be out of 
 place in a work of this kind. I have heard of * snatching a grace 
 beyond the reach of art,' but could never comprehend its meaning. 
 
 It is * natural to be more captivated with what is brilliant than with 
 what is sohd, and to prefer splendid negligence to painful and humi- 
 liating exactness.' 
 
 Mere novelty and peculiarity, having no other merits, when it ceases 
 to be new, it ceases to have value. 
 
 That which is solely addressed to the eye, is certainly inferior to that 
 which is addressed to the imagination. 
 
 If too much indulgence is given to peculiarity, mannerism will be sure 
 to be the result! 
 
 ' A facility in composing, a lively and masterly handling, are capti- 
 vating qualities to young minds: they endeavour to imitate these daz- 
 zling excellencies, and, after much time spent in the frivolous pursuit, 
 find, when too late, the difficulty of retreat; and there is scarce an 
 instance of return to scrupulous labour, after the mind has been deceived 
 by this fallacious mastery. By this useless industry, whilst boys, they 
 have arrived at their utmost perfection ; they have taken the shadow for 
 
DEXTERITY AND AFFECTATION. 
 
 69 
 
 the substance; and make the mechanical felicity the chief excellence of 
 the art, whilst it is one of the most dangerous sources of corruption. 
 They wish to find some shorter path to excellence, and hope to obtain 
 the reward of eminence by other means than those, which the indis- 
 pensable rules of art have prescribed. But whatever the force of genius 
 may be, there is no easy method of becoming a good painter.' 
 
 There is no mechanism in painting ; for those, who by a clever hand- 
 ling, possess this quality to the greatest perfection, are rarely found to 
 excel in the higher realities of art. 
 
 It is to the whole — the absolute and entire impression — the disposition 
 of pictorial matter and auxiliaries, that imply ability and power in their 
 treatment. 
 
 Do not let the love of novelty induce you to leave the beaten path 
 of excellence ; for all endeavours to surprise and please by that which is 
 uncommon or new, will be attended with defeat; a matter, oftener the 
 result of idleness and caprice, than the striking effect of a mind well- 
 regulated and devoted to study. 
 
 Style, manner, handling, are for the most part matters of tact, dis- 
 tinguishing one painter from another, quite as much as one man's 
 manners are known from another's. Where the inferior and subordinate 
 pursuit of skill in handling or execution is aimed at, it tends universally 
 to form a mannerist; and this is the greatest evil of our time. Instead 
 of elevating the mind to the quality of the whole, it degenerates into 
 an abject and curious species of imitation of the parts, or of some one 
 thing in particular the artist feels he can do cleverly; sacrificing to this 
 ' industrious idleness,' correctness of drawing, character, expression, and 
 elevation of style. In a word, it is mechanics, and not art! Grandeur, 
 sublimity, simplicity, all fly from this one evil. 
 
 Style comprehends the whole of a picture, in all its mysterious or 
 simple workings — its moral character— its elevation, or its degeneracy. 
 
 Decision, spirit, and fi:eedom of execution and expertness of handling, 
 opposed to feeble uncertainty, have great charms, in common with all 
 excellencies ; yet, so delusive is this species of fascination, that it becomes 
 imperious to be guarded against it. The end must not be sacrificed to 
 the means ! 
 
OF BACKGROUNDS. 
 
 ♦ 
 
 * One of the principal and most important parts of painting, is the 
 nature and quahty of backgrounds from which any round or soUd body 
 is to detach itself ; and this may be so contrived that both may be of 
 the same colour ; * because the convex sides of solid bodies do not 
 receive the light in the same manner as the ground does, being lighter 
 or darker than the ground.' 
 
 Different colours, or degrees of light in the background, can alone 
 separate the object from it. They will become more detached as they 
 differ from the colour of the object to be relieved. 
 
 The greatest relief is acquired by a ground of a neutral, or undeter- 
 mined colour. But the object that is to stand out from it, depends 
 wholly on its light and shade for relie£ 
 
 According to the ground which surround colours, they will appear 
 different to their natures. Flesh will look palest on a red ground: and 
 a pale colour, redder on a yellow ground: and so on, always deriving 
 their character from the surrounding one. 
 
 If any object in a composition does not sufficiently assert its place, 
 instead of heightening the colour of it, it is generally more advisable, 
 as the case may be, to subdue the power of its background. 
 
 The outlines of figures should be sketched with either the shadow- 
 colour, or the colour of the ground, on which they are laid; strength- 
 ening them according to their situations. 
 
 A very useful resource, in painting, is often to look at yom* picture 
 in a looking-glass, whose reflection is a copy of the picture ; and the 
 picture, being a copy from nature, a kind of analogy is established: 
 
OF BACKGROUNDS. 
 
 71 
 
 the J are both on even superfices, and both give the idea of something 
 beyond their superfices. In viewing your picture in this manner, keep 
 one eye shut: seeing from both eyes surround the objects too much. 
 
 Looking at your picture through the medium of a glass, blackened 
 on one side, will, in divesting it of colour, show only its light and 
 shade. This is a capital way of ascertaining if the latter is right. 
 
 In painting, it is a good plan to leave all you can to the imagination ! 
 it is flattering to the beholder; it gives him latitude for the exertion of 
 his own mind; and he will supply, better than you, what you wanted, 
 entirely to his own satisfaction — and, of course, to yours : deprive him 
 of this, and you seldom fail to imbue him with apathy. His imagina- 
 tion assumes characters and forms of its own; you have set it painting: 
 he finishes your picture, and is happy, because he has had something to 
 do with it; and he will not quarrel with you, lest he should blame 
 himself. 
 
 Painting should possess * brilliancy without gaudiness, solidity without 
 harshness, truth without familiarity, and sweetness without insipidity; 
 all conjoined in the greatest breadth of colour.' 
 
 If a work possess the known and admitted excellencies of painting, 
 although in the smallest and most moderate degree, it will have the 
 peculiar appearance of looking well, which the want of them would quite 
 invest with another character. The faults of a great mind, capable of 
 the greatest beauties, will never appear to have a vulgar origin. 
 
 It is just possible a picture may possess no defects, nor any beauties ; 
 but he who thinks entirely for himself, wdll give to his work an appear- 
 ance of originality ; he will be consistent with himself! even faults will 
 appear with some lustre in those to whom they are quite natural. 
 
 In conclusion, jealously endeavour to ascertain if any thing has been 
 admitted, or omitted, that, consistent with these rules, may prejudice 
 the general harmony of the work in the ensemble. 
 
 If I have made use of any contradictory observations, it was because 
 I was impressed with the usefulness of their application to the principle 
 described; in which matter I may take shelter under the noblest autho- 
 rities of the Italian, English, or French, who have written on art. I 
 likewise trust I have said nothing the student will have to unlearn. 
 In a word, the grandest, the most exalted principle requires no more 
 
72 
 
 OF BACKGROUNDS. 
 
 time to become master of than the lowest and the worst ! And, * As 
 no school ever excelled the Dutch — combining in itself all the excellen- 
 cies of the Italian — painters should go to the Dutch and Flemish schools 
 to learn the art of painting, as they would go to a grammar-school to 
 learn languages.' — ' A close examination of their works will give us 
 that experience of the principles on which they wrought, in a very 
 short space of time, which cost them ages to ascertain. 
 
 * The frequent allusions which every one, who treats of any art, is 
 obliged to make to others, in order to illustrate and confirm his prin- 
 ciples, sufficiently show their near connexion and inseparable relation.' 
 
 However, *The great business of study is to form a mind, adapted 
 and adequate to all times, and to all occasions; to which all nature is 
 then laid open.' 
 
 * The highest point of art is to conceal itself : and the very praises we 
 lavish on works that are ' true to nature,' only prove the perfection of art.' 
 
 I have taken up the art as I found it in the practice of the most 
 approved methods : nor have I attempted to support any paradoxes for 
 the sake of novelty. 
 
 Theories herein investigated, and many rules here laid down, many 
 loose and scattered suggestions and successful results, that ^ pass current 
 from one to another,' I have endeavoured to place in the readiest manner 
 before the student, that they may become immediately available to his 
 purpose, or occasionally refresh his memory, without caring whence they 
 may be derived. Even in the collecting of disjointed materials, a struc- 
 ture is formed every way calculated to abridge his labours and shorten 
 the road, however carelessly thrown together ; and will, in all proba- 
 bility, stimulate him to further investigation. 
 
 Improve every hour, and the mind will become variously enriched 
 by systematic study: it will look through Nature with a discriminating 
 power, even to her minutest productions, but with a refinement of taste 
 and skill of selection that will reject all that is unworthy. When small 
 pretension finds a welcome, it usually arises fi:om ignorance in those 
 who patronize. These persons, in their turn, generally pay the penalty 
 their errors or conceit bring upon them. 
 
 The Author of this Work teaches upon the principles 
 
 THEREIN demonstrated. 
 
ON WATER-COLOUR. 
 
 ^ 
 
 As the object of this work was, in the first intention, initiatory, I shall 
 conclude it by addressing a few words to the student in water-colour 
 painting; — the more especially as water colour embraces so many advan- 
 tages, and as there is no elevated rank in art that it does not involve 
 in its capabilities. 
 
 After soaking and laying the paper, — an operation that must be seen 
 to be learned, — and assuming you have proceeded to the colouring, it 
 will be essential that you use two palettes, or tiles; set one with the 
 colours required separately, not allowing them to run together; then 
 take sufficient colour up in the brush from each, and mix the tints on 
 another, kept a little wet that they may mix well together; — cleaning 
 this tile, as occasion may require, to make fresh tints on. 
 
 In the management of the greys, allowing the colours to run into 
 one another, will produce many accidental and useful tints. 
 
 When too much colour has got on the paper, dip a thick short-haired 
 brush in clean water, and wash into the paper with it, with sufficient 
 force to blend them more, and remove the superfluous colour. If this 
 method be not found sufficient, take a sponge, with very little clean 
 water in it, and pass it lightly over, which will remove all hard edges, 
 and greatly assist the atmospheric effect:— if this too much generahzes 
 the colours, supply the sharp markings, as may be required, with a fine 
 pointed sable, in their positive colours. 
 
 This method is not only the quickest way of bringing a drawing into 
 a finished state, but adds materially to its transparency and solidity ; and 
 may be done at any period of the work. 
 
 A good master of the sponge will make several drawings, while one 
 
74 
 
 ON WATER-COLOUR. 
 
 may be done with the brush alone. The colour will remove most easily 
 when the surface of the drawing is previously wetted ; taking great care, 
 by keeping the sponge very clean, that none of the green tints float 
 into the sky. 
 
 One colour laid over another, to produce the required tint, is in most 
 cases better than mixing the tint at once, as it tends more to procure 
 that ' internal light' so desirable in water-colour painting — taking care 
 the under colour is dry before the other is floated over it ; and always 
 allowing for the density of the colour beneath qualifying the hue of the 
 one laid over it. Thus, blue laid upon yellow, produces green ; green 
 over red, grey ; and so on. 
 
 The slightest quantity of prepared ox-gall will make the colours wash 
 free from grease; triflingly reducing the brilliancy, but fixing the wash 
 more permanently. 
 
 Flatness of tint is a matter of great consequence, and of equal diffi- 
 culty; and is considered a great excellence, as the clearness and beauty 
 of the gradations mainly depend on it. All mechanical means to produce 
 it will betray themselves; — regulated by any such principle, a blue sky 
 would become a tea-tray ! Nature distinctly rejects all that is mecha- 
 nical : skill alone will enable the student to overcome this difficulty, in 
 addition to observing its process by a professor. 
 
 Meditate well the mixture before applying it; then dash it on with 
 the greatest decision, — always at once, and not backwards and forwards, 
 and the greatest clearness will be the result. 
 
 The greater the diversity of colour, from the transparency of most 
 colours in water, so much more will be its resemblance to nature. 
 
 Wiping out the lights, such as the foliage of trees, or any other 
 forms required, is performed by first wetting the part or form to be 
 taken out, with the brush — applied as it would be in painting — and, 
 after the gloss on the water has subsided, with a clean piece of cotton 
 rag or the pocket handkerchief, folded on the fore finger, the colour 
 intended to be removed must be whisked out with some smart degree 
 of force : and in the event of the light not coming out clean and sharp 
 enough (from perhaps being too dry), the application of the India- 
 rubber to the part will effect it. The colours intended are then laid 
 over the parts so wiped out. 
 
OF TINTS. 
 
 Making good Tints has ever been a matter of extreme difficulty, great 
 perseverance, and too often entire loss of time; and, in the event of 
 success occasionally attending the student's exertions, it is a thousand 
 to one he never gets them twice alike ; for that which is done by accident 
 cannot be repeated. The very difficulty attending them, from want of 
 knowledge of those colours that blend well and harmonize in their 
 natures, and the many requisite to charge the memory with, renders 
 them so easily forgotten, that few but professors ever achieve the object 
 sought. 
 
 To obviate this, — to save the student's time, that he may devote the 
 more to the attainment of his pursuit, — that he may be enabled to tint 
 a drawing in half an hour, when he would have spent three in making 
 a good tint or two (presuming his capability to do it at all), — induced 
 the Author of this work, at a considerable outlay of time and expense, 
 to form a Box of Tints, in permanent cakes, ready at once for use, 
 and all the necessary purposes of landscape or other painting, and for 
 sketching from nature without inconvenience or difficulty. 
 
 As water-colour painting has experienced so much revolution of late, 
 arising from its extensive capabilities, — the best drawings, or rather 
 water-colour paintings, being produced by the balance of opaque and 
 transparent colours, — those tints and mixtures that are found most useful 
 in oil-painting, and most wanting in water, has engaged his particular 
 attention. 
 
76 
 
 OF TINTS. 
 
 He has confided the making them solely to Mr. Charles Smith, of 
 Mar jlebone -street, Piccadilly. The tints are expressed on the cakes 
 in numbers, which have reference to the coloured plates. In addition 
 to which the following colours are those mostly used: — 
 
 Indigo; to which may be added cobalt and French blue. 
 
 Indian red. Venetian red. Purple lake. Madder lake. Vermilion. 
 
 Burnt sienna. Raw sienna. Yellow ochre. Gamboge, Brown pink. 
 
 Raw umber. Vandyke brown. Ivory black. 
 
 REFERENCE TO THE PLATES ON COLOUR. 
 
 Plate 7. — The sky is laid with tint No. 10; — the walls and fore- 
 ground are covered down with No. 1, varied here and there with burnt 
 sienna; — the tiles and roof with No. 4; — tints 6, 7 and 8 are mixed 
 together, varied and floated over for the cool greys; — the figure. Indigo 
 and No. 10 ; vermilion, ochre and burnt sienna. The greens are 
 composed of indigo, gamboge and burnt sienna, with brown pink. The 
 gallery is tint No. 6, floated over Vandyke brown. Cobalt and Vandyke 
 brown in the hollows. 
 
 Plate 8. — The sky is done with No. 9, and thin cobalt floated over: 
 the horizon with No. 4, varied with Venetian red: the orange brought 
 down into the trees, and worked together with gamboge ; the shadowed 
 parts of which are put in with No. 7 — repeated in the bases of the 
 clouds. No. 9 is worked into the cool greys of the middle space. The 
 greens are varied with indigo, burnt sienna, gamboge and brown pink ; — 
 the brightest lights with yellow ochre : foreground with No. 5. 
 
 Plate 9.— The sky French blue and madder-lake ;— distance with No. ], 
 heightened here and there with ochre; — middle space worked in with 
 9 and 8 — the greys with No. 7. Cobalt in the hollows; warmed, in 
 parts, with No. 4. Boats done with No. 9, strengthened with Vandyke 
 brown ; — the water slightly washed with No. 5, varied with the same 
 and indigo ; — steps and railing with Nos. 1 and 5. 
 
 Plate 10. — The sky is washed with indigo and madder-lake, kept grey 
 towards the horizon ; — the distant buildings with Nos. 7, 8 ; — No. 7 is 
 mixed with burnt sienna for the greys of the trees : the greens are com- 
 posed of indigo, burnt sienna, raw sienna, Venetian red, and gamboge ; — 
 
OF TINTS. 
 
 77 
 
 the gravel with No. 5, a Httle burnt sienna, and white ; — the shadows 
 with No. 7 ; — figures with positive colours ; — foreground slightly washed 
 with No. 1, varied with No. 5; — the pedestal with No. 5, varied at the 
 base with Nos. 6 and 9. 
 
 Plate 1 J . — The sky, indigo and madder lake : the clouds varied with 
 Nos. 8 and 9, and floated over with cobalt: the warm lights with 
 yellow ochre and burnt sienna ; — horizon with cobalt and indigo ; — the 
 sands with No. 1, shaded with 2 and 6; — the mill with No. 1, lightly 
 floated over with No. 6, and touched in parts with No. 3; — the fore- 
 ground brought down with brown pink ; — the mill, on the left, painted 
 into with Vandyke brown, Indian-red, and No. 5 ; the lights with No. 4, 
 and roof with No. 3 ; the sail, Indian red and Vandyke brown ; figures, 
 cobalt and vermilion, subdued with No. 6, 
 
 Plate 12. — The walls and pavement floated down with No. 1, and 
 toned over with No. 6 ; — the architectural markings with No. 6 and 
 cobalt, with a little No. 9 in the darkest parts, to give them point ; — 
 hollows of the arches with No. 9, and No. 7 worked in ; — the window 
 is all laid in with positive colours, brought down on the figures, which 
 are subdued with No. 6; — the altar, banners, priests' robes, books, &c., 
 with chrome and white : their shadows with No. 3 ; — the curtain with 
 Vandyke brown, Venetian red, and burnt sienna. 
 
 And here I cannot but express how much the arts and the public 
 are indebted to the highly inventive genius of Mr. Hullmandel, for his 
 numerous inventions and improvements in lithography; having, in a 
 few years, by the most determined perseverance, industry, and single- 
 ness of purpose, brought the first hard, dry, and uncertain drawing on 
 stone, through all its various improvements, until the introduction of the 
 now well-known printing of the tint with modified lights ; to which we 
 are indebted for the many beautiful productions that have appeared of 
 late ; and thence to the extraordinary invention, now dawning on us, 
 of making a painting on stone, from which an impression is procured 
 that may scarcely be articulated from a sepia drawing: enabling painters 
 to multiply their sketches ad infinitum, instead of being confined, as 
 before, to the merely practiced pencil draughtsman. The plates of this 
 work are indebted to his invention. 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 
 
 ^ 
 
 After what has been said already, a lengthened description of the 
 plates would be unnecessary. 
 
 Plate 1 — Has been described in reference to the article on Composi- 
 tion ; as Plates 2 and 3 have, in the one on Light and Shade. 
 
 Plate 4. — The Porch of Chartres Cathedral, has been referred to under 
 the inquiry into accidental Shadows. 
 
 Plate 5. — The Temple of Jupitor Tonans, and the Forum of Nerva, 
 have been noticed in like manner: as has likewise Plate 6, an ancient 
 Wine-store in the Rhaetian Alps. 
 
 Plate 7. — Here are the extremes of hot and cold. The strongest 
 colours are placed in the darks, from which they derive all the power 
 of the palette, while the point is preserved by the figure in red. A warm 
 light, surrounded by warm tints, has the greatest brilliancy when ably 
 supported by the intervention of a cold one. The cool grey centre is 
 repeated in the hollow of the door, the lower part of the figure, and 
 carried out by the blue of the sky ; while the warm colours are dispersed 
 and diffused on the wooden gallery, the walls, the ground, and gathered 
 up by the rich red of the woman's gown and the warm brown of the figure 
 behind; the dark colour of which, being laid on the dark background, 
 helps the woman into her forward position ; — the warm colour, projected 
 by the red gown, is again carried up by the cap and brown of the 
 figure behind into the balcony, tiles, &c., until, after mingling in every 
 possible way with the cool greys, it escapes by the walls; spreading its 
 influence every where, and investing the greens of the vine and the 
 
DESCRIPTION OP THE PLATES. 
 
 79 
 
 foreground with its character. The high hght on the wall is repeated 
 on the linen, carried across by the figure in the gallery, and brought 
 down by the figure and flowers in the foreground. The general tone 
 of the work is warm ; — the blues, greys and greens are used as a foil to 
 give value to the warm colours, the shadows and middle tints: the 
 greys are glazed warm, to preserve the richness of the general effect 
 throughout. The reds and blues are combined of colours possessing the 
 properties of each. The quantity of warm and cold colours are to be 
 principally observed — the union of one part with another — preservation 
 of the breadth, and the general harmony. 
 
 Plate 8. — A View in Belgium. — The disturbed and heavy clouds 
 sweeping across the country are kept of a low, subdued, but warm 
 grey; intersecting the distant trees, and invading the middle space, 
 until it is found among the greens of the foliage and grass of the fore- 
 ground; the stones, the chalky road, &c., ending in the darks of the 
 figures. The warm lights are scattered over the tops of the trees and 
 sunny browns of the middle space and foreground, repeated in the lower 
 part of the sky, and brought forward in the foliage and grass on the 
 left; while the reds are gathered up in the branches and stems of the 
 trees, and brought to a point in the figure on the right; — the white of 
 the chalky road is carried into their trunks, the rock, and up into the 
 clouds by the birds. The breadth is divided into two wedge-shaped 
 forms, carried at an angle across the work, and up into the bank and 
 trees on the left ; opposed by the long stretching line of the horizon 
 and round forms of the clouds and foliage, — ^balanced by the mass of 
 rock on the other side. The harsh opposition of the cutting-lines of the 
 foreground serves to attract the eye, while it reposes the distance. 
 
 Plate 9. — In this example, the darkest dark being of a warm brown, 
 is brought up, by contrast, against the half dark in the distance, which 
 is of a cold grey : it is then carried up into the dark markings of the 
 houses, the roofs at the sides, and repeated on the right ; brought down 
 by the scaffolding over the steps, and woven throughout into the cool 
 greys of the half shade, occupying nearly two-thirds of the subject, and 
 carried, by the reflections of the boats, into the grey of the water and 
 the blue of the sky; — the density of the barge, deepened by positive 
 
80 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 
 
 colour, clearing up all the half tints. The highest light, near the 
 centre, is gradated along the distant buildings, and repeated in the warm 
 red and yellow lights, catching at different intervals on the houses, 
 until lost in the water. 
 
 Plate 10. — St. James's Park and the Horse Guards. — This view 
 was taken from the side of the Column, looking from the steps towards 
 the Treasury. The two great masses, thrown at the boldest angle across 
 the picture, the opposing lines broken up and varied by the round 
 forms of the trees, and cutting it nearly in half, are divided between 
 the bustle of the middle distance and the repose of the sky, the steps, 
 the terraces, and the base of the column; — the colours employed in one 
 division are made to invade the province of the other, until all are 
 placed by the bright red of the soldier^s dress and darker markings of 
 the figures in the foreground, repeated here and there as uniting links, 
 and carried through by the figures in the distance ; while the communi- 
 cating principle is sustained between the reds, blues and yellows, by the 
 colour of the sky and distant buildings being composed of all three. 
 
 Plate 11. — Mills on a Sea Coast. — The large and varied portion of 
 shadow, principally thrown into the wild uproar of the scudding clouds, 
 is gathered together, and focussed by the strong and positive colour in 
 the mill on the left, the stranded vessel, the horizon, the figures and 
 dark markings in the foreground; and brought gradually down by the 
 half shade into the cliff, the cottage, and the principal mill; and again 
 carried up, by the agency of its primitive cause, to the highest parts of 
 the clouds. The highest light is gathered up on the wall of the 
 cottage, repeated in the accidental light on the retiring mill, the horizon, 
 the figures on the sands, the birds in the air, &:c., until it comes down 
 to the chalky rocks and stones, mingling with the weedy greens of the 
 foreground; the blues are carried down by the figures, and on which 
 the reds are centred, and repeated in the unities of the tiles, collecting 
 its force in the retiring mill, and insinuating itself into the distant 
 figures, the sail and flag of the vessel, until lost in the warm colours 
 of the clouds. The middle tints are kept much of the same strength 
 to sustain the breadth, while the dark line of the horizon is graduated 
 upwards and downwards for the same purpose. The shadow on the 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 
 
 steps in the cliff is brought up against the light on the cottage to give 
 it point; and the quantity of half shade that pervades the work is 
 gathered up by the depths of the darks. This effect was observed at 
 Cayeux, in Normandy. 
 
 Plate 12. — The Chancel of a Flemish Church. — In this instance 
 a number of positive, harmonizing and opposing colours, are thrown 
 together and collected in the middle space; diffused, and carried out, 
 by the intimacy of the union of their attributes, in the figures, the altar, 
 the banners, &c., forming a cone of colour surrounded and reposed by 
 warm grey. The greys are lost and found among the browns, in- 
 sinuating themselves into the recesses and tracery on the walls, and 
 every where influencing the warm colours. The figures, in red and 
 blue, are placed in the gallery to disturb the form of the cone: while 
 the highest light of the window intersects the deepest dark, which is 
 repeated in the hollow of the porch, cutting the arch at the side. 
 
Pla;te: 7_ 
 
i 
 
Pla.te 9 
 
mm 
 
 t 
 
HARRY WILLSON'S 
 GENERAL LANDSCAPE TINTS. 
 
 No. 1. — For foregrounds, and many parts of landscape; architecture; 
 
 sands ; roads, banks, lights of buildings (distant or near), shoal- 
 water, corn-fields : — generally useful from its low brownish hue. 
 
 No. 2. — For many of the above purposes; and, being deeper in tone, 
 adapted for shadows to No. 1. 
 
 No. 3. — Darker parts of foregrounds, banks, broken earth, waves, bark, 
 timber, rocks, coasts, &c., useful in buildings and architecture. 
 May be beautifully and usefully varied with white. 
 
 No. 4. — Lights of mountains, rocks, trees, distant masses of foliage, 
 figures and animals in light, autumnal tints in warm skies and 
 sunsets; — applicable to most purposes of warm light, and to 
 vary greens with. 
 
 No. 5. — For almost every part of landscape or buildings ; rich lights of 
 earth in sunshine; interiors, drapery; — applicable to numerous 
 purposes, near or distant, and to mix with and vary other 
 colours. 
 
 No. 6. — ^For skies in cloudy weather, and shadows of clouds;- — ^various 
 pearly greys are produced by its mixture with blues and lake. 
 Mixed with burnt sienna, it produces different degrees of warm 
 browns. 
 
 No. 7. — For shadows to mountains, distant clumps of foliage, drapery, 
 &c., for mixing with general shadows: renders many beautiful 
 tints by blending it with lakes blues and browns, especially 
 with burnt sienna. 
 
 No. 8. — Used alone, in rocks, bark of trees, and many useful purposes; 
 
 assumes a variety of browns when mixed with burnt sienna; 
 
 and different greys, when added to the blues. 
 No. 9. — Useful in clouds, warm shadows, earth, mould ; — mixed with 
 
 cobalt, makes a good tint to vary other greys. 
 No. 10. — For skies in fine weather, and to vary shadows of distant hills, 
 
 and otherwise useful in subduing retiring parts of drawings. 
 
WILLSON'S DIRECTIONS FOR THE UNION OF OIL AND 
 WATER-COLOURS IN THE SAME DRAWING. 
 
 The following is the extract of a letter from the Author of the 
 accompanying work : — 
 
 " Sir, October, 184L 
 
 " From the great revolution that has taken place of late in producing Effect 
 in drawings on paper, from the union of water-colours with oil — the difficulties, 
 I am aware, you must have had to encounter in producing their intimacy, and 
 the powerful results I have obtained by the use of your recent invention and 
 improvements in the moist oil-cohurs and oil-colour cakes, I beg to place at your 
 discretion the means by which I obtained these results, with permission to make 
 any use you may think proper of them. 
 
 " I proceeded as follows : — On a rather absorbent paper, I got in the general 
 arrangement for the effect with water-colours, working and reducing it with water, 
 the usual way. Then, with a large soft brush and clear water, washed away all 
 that would remove : when dry, I proceeded to mix your moist oil-colours in pure 
 spirits of turpentine, working them in exactly the same manner as oil-colours : and, 
 after having procured all the necessary depth, richness, and transparency in the 
 shadows and parts requiring the greatest force of the palette, went over the whole 
 with a coat of the best print varnish, which brought up the colours with the 
 greatest brilliancy and power. When dry, I varnished the work with good copal 
 varnish. That this process has succeeded in producing all the necessary force and 
 effect of an oil picture has been seen and attested in the results of my practice. 
 
 Another way is only to apply a very thin coat of varnish to such parts as 
 have been strengthened with oil-colours, in the manner that gum is generally 
 used, which has a very powerful and lasting quality. 
 
 Drawings, or paintings, made on this principle, can be placed in a portfolio 
 without injury. 
 
 I am. Sir, 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 To Mr. Charles Smith. " HARRY WILLSON." 
 
TO ARTISTS, AMATEURS, ETC, 
 
 C. SMITH, 
 
 (LATE SMITH AND WARNER), 
 
 Begs leave to return his sincere and grateful acknowledgments to his 
 numerous Friends and Patrons for the very liberal and long continued 
 support he has received ; and also to apprize them, and those interested in 
 the Fine Arts of Drawing and Painting, of an Invention, which he has 
 just patented, of a most effective and simple Instrument, containing 
 
 FINELY PREPARED MOIST OIL-COLOURS^ 
 
 Which is superior to any previous Invention, being a vessel of glass, 
 earthenware, &c., in the shape of a bottle standing erect, and occupying 
 no more space, having an elastic cork, which, upon the slightest pressure, 
 gives forth an immediate supply of Colour, through a hole in its side, to 
 a receiver, where it can remain till required, or be immediately transferred 
 to the palette. 
 
 Not having any part to arrange, they are always ready, adapted to 
 the sudden wants of a Painter, who conceives an idea, and wishes to 
 record it on his canvas instantly. The cork, following the Colour 
 till exhaustion, hermetically seals it from the injurious atmospheric 
 influence, so long complained of in the usual Colours known as Bladder 
 Colours," and being but a very little above them in price, Oil-Painters 
 will be tempted to use them in preference. 
 
 Ladies, who have hitherto objected to the unpleasant means offered for 
 Painting in Oil, are strongly recommended to avail themselves of this 
 convenience, as being particularly neat and clean in their use. Also for 
 
 C. SMITHES IMPROVED MOIST WATER-COLOURS. 
 
 They are equally adapted, without having to obtain the same by the 
 pernicious addition of water, as in the usual Sketch-Box. 
 
 For travelling they are admirably adapted, not subject to change or 
 breakage. 
 
 To be had in sets, from 6 to 24, complete in boxes, with or without 
 every other requisite. 
 
 He also continues to manufacture the following requisites for the Fine 
 Arts, in the best possible manner, at his 
 
 34, MARYLEBONE STREET, PICCADILLY, END OF THE QUADRANT, 
 
 REGENT STREET, LONDON. 
 
CHARLES SMITH'S, late SMITH & WARNER'S, 
 
 SUPERIOR IMPROVED XKIOIST WATER COLOURS, 
 
 Suitable for sketching from Nature, which retain their moisture for a length of 
 time, freely and readily give their full force without the usual delay attending the 
 Cake Colours ; they dry instantly on paper, and are free from mildew or cracking. 
 
 C. SMITH'S WATER COLOURS, FINELY PREPARED IN CAKES. 
 
 
 £. s. 
 
 d. 
 
 
 
 8. 
 
 d. 
 
 Ultramarine 
 
 . 1 1 
 
 
 
 Lemon Yellow 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 Burnt Carmine 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 Cobalt 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 Carmine 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 Sepia 
 
 
 I 
 
 6 
 
 Gall Stone 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 Warm 
 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 Smalt 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 Scarlet Lake 
 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 Purple Madder 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 Crimson Lake 
 
 
 I 
 
 6 
 
 Pink Madder 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 Purple Lake 
 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 Intense Blue 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 Brown Madder 
 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 Intense Brown 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 Indian Yellow 
 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 French Blue 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 White, warranted permanent 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 C. SMITH'S PERMANENT MOIST WHITE, 
 
 So celebrated for its permanency and harmless nature, being quite free from lead; 
 useful as lights upon Tinted Paper, without ever losing its brilliancy of Colour. 
 
 All tlie followlngr One Sbilling- per Cake. 
 
 Gamboge 
 Yellow Ochre 
 Roman Ochre 
 Yellow Lake 
 King's Yellow 
 Italian Pink 
 Pale Chrome 
 Deep Chrome 
 Orange Chrome 
 Raw Sienna 
 Burnt Sienna 
 Brown Pink 
 
 Red Lead 
 Vermilion 
 Light Red 
 Venetian Red 
 Indian Red 
 Dragon's Blood 
 Antwerp Blue 
 Prussian Blue 
 Indigo 
 Verditer 
 Raw Umber 
 Indian Lake 
 
 Cappah Brown 
 Burnt Umber 
 Vandyke Brown 
 Bistre 
 
 Cologne Earth 
 Byrne's Brown 
 Neutral Tint 
 Payne's Grey 
 British Ink 
 Ivory Black 
 Blue Black 
 Lamp Black 
 
 Sap Green 
 Prussian Green 
 Emerald Green 
 Verdigris 
 Olive Green 
 Hooker's Greens 
 Varley's Orange 
 
 Dark Green 
 
 Warm Green 
 
 Warm Grey 
 
 • Purple Grey 
 
 Neutral Tint 
 
 *** The above Colours kept in Powder, Bladders, and Crude state. 
 
 WILLSON'S PRACTICAI. LANDSCAPE TINTS. 
 
 C. Smith, being of opinion that a Set of Practical Landscape Tints were required, 
 apart from the above positive Colours, engaged the services of the Author of this 
 Work to assist in forming them, which is intended to accompany his instructions for 
 their use, already printed. See page 83. 
 
 They are now ready, and can be had by themselves, in a box, price 12^. ; or, 
 with Sixteen other general Colours added, inclusive of French Blue, Pink Madder, 
 Cobalt, &c., £1 : 65. 
 
 34, Marylebone Street, Piccadilly, the end of the Quadrant, Regent Street, London. 
 
CHARLES SMITH'S, late SMITH & WARNER'S, 
 
 WATER COLOUXtS, FITTED UP IN BOXES, ETC. 
 
 Mahogany Slide Box, with 6 Colours 
 
 and Bruslies 
 
 ■ 12 Ditto .... 
 
 18 Ditto .... 
 
 • 24 Ditto .... 
 
 Mahogany Lock Box, with 12 Colours, 
 
 Brushes, &c 
 
 ■ • 12 Colours, Drawer, &c. 
 
 18 Ditto .... 
 
 - 24 Ditto 
 
 Mahogany Lock Box, with 12 Colours, 
 Slab, Glass, &c • . . . 
 
 12 Colours, Drawer, &c, . 
 
 ■ 18 Ditto .... 
 
 . 24 Ditto . . . , 
 
 Mahogany Best Box, with 12 Colours, 
 Glass Slab, &c 
 
 — 18 Ditto .... 
 
 24 Ditto . . . . 
 
 Mahogany Best Box, with 12 Colours, 
 Chalks, &c 
 
 18 Ditto .... 
 
 24 Ditto . . . . 
 
 £ 
 
 5. 
 
 d. 
 
 
 
 c 
 
 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 u 
 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 13 
 
 6 
 
 Rosewood Best Box, with 12 Colours, 
 
 Brushes, &c 2 
 
 ■ 12 Colours, Chalk, &c. . 3 
 
 18 Ditto .... 4 
 
 24 Ditto .... 5 
 
 Inlaid Rose and Satin Wood Boxes, 12 
 
 Colours, &c 4 
 
 18 Ditto 
 24 Ditto 
 
 Mahogany Miniature Desk, with 12 
 
 Colours, Brushes, &c. . . .220 
 
 Portable Ditto, Extra Colours . .440 
 
 Boxes and Cabinets fitted up with every 
 requisite for Painting in Oil and 
 Water, from £6 6s. to . . . 20 
 
 Mahogany Boxes, fitted up with Oil, Powder and 
 Body Colours 
 
 Mahogany Boxes of Liquid Colours, for Velvet 
 and Poonah Painting 
 
 Mahogany Boxes, with Slab and Indian Ink 
 
 Mahogany and Tin Boxes, with Chalks, &c., 
 complete 
 
 Tin Boxes fitted up with Moist Colours, &c. 
 
 SUPERIOR HAIR PENCILS AND BRUSHES, 
 
 Made of the Finest Sable Hair, Camel's Hair, &c., by the most perfect Enghsh 
 and French artists. The largest possessing the Fine Elastic Points of the smallest, 
 and with the advantage of containing a much greater quantity of Colour. 
 
 Red and Brown Sable Hair Pencils 
 
 Camel Hair and Pitch ditto 
 
 Sable and Camel Hair Pencils for Miniature 
 
 Painting 
 Sable and Camel Hair Writers 
 French Hog and Goat Hair Tools, round and flat 
 Sable, Fitch, and Camel Hair Tools, round and flat 
 Badger Tools, for Blending, &c. 
 
 Badger, Fitch, Hog, and Camel Hair Brushes, 
 
 round and flat, for varnishing 
 A variety of French Sable, Camel Hair, and other 
 
 Brushes 
 Water Colour Softeners 
 
 Ivory Cases, to protect the points of Hair Pencils 
 Large Hair Pencils, for washing in clouds, &c. 
 Proutonian Sables, the largest ever made. 
 
 C. SMITH'S INDELIBLE COLOUB.ED INKS, 
 
 REMBRANDT'S AND PROUT'S FAVOURITE TINTS FOR PEN SKETCHING, &c. 
 
 Sketches made in these Inks can be made Drawings, coloured over at any time 
 without fear of disturbing the Original Sketch ; particularly adapted for Prout's 
 Architectural Subjects, such as the elaborate work of Churches, Cathedrals, and 
 Buildings of Venice, &c. 
 
 C. SMITH'S PURE CUMBERLAND LEAD PENCILS, 
 
 EQUAL TO ANY MADE. 
 
 F 
 
 FF 
 HB 
 B 
 
 BB 
 
 For General Use 
 Bold Sketching 
 Middle Shade 
 Shading 
 Black Shading 
 
 BBB . 
 HHHH 
 HHH . 
 HH 
 H 
 
 Extra Shading 
 Finest Lines 
 Engineering 
 Architecture 
 Fine Outline 
 
 Common Pencils for Schools, Pocket-Book Pencils, various. Also, Mordan*s, Brookman and Langdon's, 
 
 and Dobbs's Pencils. 
 
 34, Marylebone Street, Piccadilly, the end of tlie Quadrant, Regent Street, London. 
 
CHARLES SMITH'S, late SMITH & WARNER'S, 
 
 SOI.II> SKETCH BOOKS. 
 
 With Compressed Leaves, made of thin and thick White, Drab, Yellow, and Grey 
 Drawing Papers, forming a solid packet of thirty or forty leaves, each of which can 
 be easily separated from the others by the introduction of a pen-knife underneath. 
 
 WOVE AITD CARTaiBGE SRAWXTTG PAPERS. 
 
 Demy . , . . . 20 by 15 Colombier . . . .34 — 23 
 
 Medium , . . .22—17 Atlas . . . . .34 — 26 
 
 Royal . . . . .24-19 Double Elephant . . .40 — 26 
 
 Super Royal . . . .27 — 19 Antiquarian . . . .52 — 31 
 
 Imperial . . . .30 — 21 Extra Antiquarian . . .56 — 40 
 
 Emperor, the largest size paper, 68 inches by 48 inches. 
 
 Rough, Extra- thick, Tinted, and Hot pressed Papers, Drawing Cartridge Papers, for Architects, &c,, 
 Crayon, Tinted, London and Bristol Boards, English and French Tracing Papers, to 60 in. by, 40 in. 
 
 BARDinrcs za-EW drawing paper, 
 
 Made pure and perfectly free from any chemical agency that will tend to fade 
 the Colours or alter their Tint. Recommended to those who paint with Body 
 Colours, &c. 
 
 C. SMITH'S »SATERIAX.S FOR SKETCHIITG IIT WATER COI.OURS. 
 
 Compressed Paper, in Packets 
 
 Sketching Books of all kinds 
 
 Sketching Folios and Portfolios 
 
 Albums and Scrap Books 
 
 Sketching Books, with Boxes attached 
 
 Sketching Desks for the Neck 
 
 Parlour's Patent Sketching Instrument and Camera 
 
 Lucidas and Obscuras 
 Desks, with Colours, &c., for ditto 
 Stands and Tables for ditto 
 Camp and other Seats for Sketching 
 Japanned Tin Boxes, with Moist Colours, Cups, 
 
 Bottles, &c., for Sketching 
 
 Fixed Sketching Inks and Reed Pens 
 
 Ditto, in Cases for Travelling, &c. 
 
 Drawing and Sketching Boards 
 
 Liquid Sepia, for Drawing 
 
 Leather Cases, for Colours, Brushes, &c. 
 
 Greta Ljevis Crayons, or different Colours that work 
 
 dry or with water 
 Portable Cases, containing a Seat, Book, Box, &c. 
 
 for Sketching 
 Artists' Umbrellas, to shade the sun 
 Seat and Table combined, for Sketching 
 India Rubber Water Bottles 
 India Ink of the finest quality, warranted genuine 
 
 C. SMITH'S SUPERIOR NEW DRAWING BOAItDS, 
 
 For straining thick or thin Drawing Paper more efficiently, and much more easily, 
 without pasting or cutting ; also fitted up with Colours, Brushes, Saucers, &c. 
 
 C. SMITH'S MATERIAX.S POR SKETCHING AND PAINTING- IN Oil. COI.OURS. 
 
 Prepared Paper and Millboards, for Sketching from 
 Nature, &c. 
 
 Prepared Panels and Cloths, and Tickens on or off 
 frames 
 
 Tin Boxes for Oil Colours, &c. 
 Portable ditto for Sketching 
 
 Oil Colours in Cakes and Bottles (see Wilson's 
 Letter) 
 
 Tin Oil Cups, and Cups for Washing Brushes 
 Steel, Ivory, and Horn Palette Knives 
 Mahogany and Satin Wood Palettes 
 Bladder Colours, Powder Colours, and Raw Colours 
 Rack, Folding, and Upright Easels 
 
 Desk and Table Easels 
 
 Nut, Poppy, Linseed, and Drying Oils 
 
 Mastic, Copal, and Spirit Varnishes 
 
 Turpentine Gold Size, Asphaltum and M'Guelph 
 
 Glass, Stone, and Earthen Slabs and Mullers 
 
 Maul or Rest Sticks 
 
 Charcoal and Pipe Clay 
 
 Bladder Colour Nobs 
 
 Oil Box and Easel combined 
 
 C. Smith's new invented Telescope portable Cane 
 
 Easels, extremely light, for Sketching 
 Compressed Oil Papers for Sketches 
 
 34, Marylebone Street, Piccadilly, the end of the Quadrant, Regent Street, London. 
 
CHARLES SMITH'S, late SMITH & WARNER'S, 
 
 MEW CAZtCERA OBSCVRAS, 
 
 For Sketching, so contrived, that any person with a slight knowledge of Drawing 
 can use them without difficulty, straining the sight, or previous practice. The 
 images, being reflected on paper, require nothing more than tracing their outlines. 
 
 »XZSCSI.IiANEOUS IMEATERZAXiS. 
 
 Mathematical Instruments 
 
 Dividers and Compasses 
 
 Tee Squares and Triangles 
 
 Flat, Parallel and Stationer's Rulers 
 
 Tracers, Erasing and Pen Knives 
 
 Drawing Pins and Indian Glue 
 
 Crow Quills and Pens 
 
 Deal and Mahogany Clamped Boards 
 
 Boxes of Juvenile Colours, &c. 
 
 Conte's Black, White, and Red Chalks 
 
 Vancouver's Cement for mending China 
 
 Black Lead Powder, and Crayons for Stumping 
 
 Best Italian Black, White, and Red Chalks, in 
 
 Crayons and Pencils 
 Lithographic and French Chalks 
 
 Cabinet Saucers in Cases 
 
 Indian Rubber and Sponge 
 
 Black Lead, in Cakes, for Mezzotinting 
 
 Indelible Marking Ink, for Linen 
 
 Ox Gall, in Pots and Liquid 
 
 Gold and Silver, in Shells, Saucers, and Leaves 
 
 Gold, Silver, Copper, and Green Bronzes 
 
 Ivories for Miniature Painting 
 
 Gum Water for ditto, &c. 
 
 Leather, Paper, and Cork Stumps 
 
 Improved Holders and Portcrayons 
 
 Harding's Silver Crayon Holders 
 
 Oriental Tinting Paper 
 
 White and Coloured Tissue Paper 
 
 Sponge Pencils 
 
 C. SMITH'S N-EW ZUVEirTEB WATER-COIiOXTR CREAHC. 
 
 A M^Guelph, or Medium, for using with Water- Col ours, either transparent or 
 semi-opaque, for obtaining opaque masses of colour or glazing. Drying slower than 
 water, and not so fluid, enables the touch to be preserved where required without 
 hard ridges. 
 
 Soft Swiss and French Crayons 
 Harding's Lithographic Drawing Books 
 Sketches, Tinted Paper, &c. 
 Fixing Liquid for Chalk Drawings, &c. 
 Varley's and Hayter's Perspectives 
 Cooper's Studies of Cattle 
 Modelling Tools 
 Leather and Paper Pencil Cases 
 Finest Quality Indian Ink 
 Best Clear Vellum 
 Ink Stones and Saucers 
 Slabs, Tiles, and Palettes in great variety 
 Ivory and other Pencil Racks 
 
 A great variety of Juvenile Lithographic Drawing Books of Landscapes, Animals, and the Human Figure, 
 and other Popular Works on Drawing and Painting. 
 
 Glass Frames for Tracing 
 
 Graining Combs 
 
 Photogenic Materials 
 
 Patterns for Irregular Lines 
 
 Fixing Liquid for Chalk Drawings, &c. 
 
 New Perspective Parallel Rulers 
 
 Prout's Hints on Light, Shadow, &c. 
 
 Figures for Landscapes, &c. 
 
 Merimee's Oil Painting 
 Cawse's ditto 
 
 Howard's Sketcher's Manual 
 
 on Colour 
 
 Laporte's Studies of Trees 
 
 SHADE'S DRAWZM-G AND PERSPECTIVE BIODEKS. 
 
 For the practice of young students in obtaining a knowledge of the first rudi- 
 ments of Perspective Drawing, Light and Shade, &c. with numerous illustrations 
 explanatory of the infinite variety of useful Drawing Studies they are capable of 
 forming together. To be had complete in boxes, price lOs, 6d. and £1 Is. 
 
 A variety of Miniature Models of Churches, Cottages, Castles, &c. &c. ; lent out 
 for the use of early in-door Landscape Students, as a substitute for Nature. 
 
 Mj^ok^alc, i^ctail, anil for C^iportatton. 
 
 October, 184L 
 
 34, Murylebone Street, Piccadilly, the end of the Quadrant, Regent Street, London. 
 
J. D. HARDING'S WORKS, 
 
 PUBLISHED BY TILT AND BOGUE. 
 
 HARDING'S DRAWING BOOK, 1841. Sketches in Sepia and Chalk, partly original and partly 
 selected. Six Nos. 3s. 6d. each ; half morocco, 24s. 
 
 SKETCHES AT HOME AND ABROAD, containing more than Sixty Views, tinted in imita- 
 tion of the Original Drawings. Imperial folio, half-bound morocco, £. 6. 6s. 
 
 *** This splendid work has been entirely drawn on Stone by Mr. Harding himself, and printed under 
 his immediate inspection. The resemblance to the Original Sketches is complete, and each Subject may 
 be considered as a bond fide and first-rate Drawing. 
 
 ELEMENTARY ART: THE USE OF THE LEAD-PENCIL ADVOCATED AND 
 EXPLAINED. New Edition. Imperial 4to. cloth, price £ 2. 2s. 
 
 The object of this work is to teach the young Student and the Amateur, by the practical use of the 
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 continually refer in the absence of their Master. The work is illustrated by Twenty-eight Lithographic 
 Drawings by Mr. Harding, and he has followed as nearly as possible the course which his experience in 
 actual instruction has suggested to him. 
 
 HARDING'S DRAWING BOOK, 1837. Each Number of this Work contains Four Studies, in- 
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mV2 
 
1061 WILLSON (H.) The Use of a Box of Colours, in a practical demonstration on composition, 
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 uncut, upper hinge rveak ' £10/10/-