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 tempering 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 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 _light_, 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, produces
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 from 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 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
undetermined 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 outlines 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.
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
arrangement), 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.
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
atmosphere: this may be tested by holding a piece of silk, the _exact
colour_ of the grass at our feet, up against a field, when 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 contrast, 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
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, perplexity
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
introduction 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 we '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 procured 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 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
management 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
landscape-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.
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 upwards
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
may be carried out by being repeated in the blue of the water, and so
into parts of the sky, &c. 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
_generalizing_, 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, possessed
repose.
ACCIDENT.--Accident often comes in aid of invention. In nature, all
objects by daylight are equally illumined; the painter has, therefore,
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 mountain, 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
accessories 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.
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 solid, and to prefer splendid negligence to painful and
humiliating 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
captivating qualities to young minds: they endeavour to imitate these
dazzling 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 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 indispensable 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 handling,
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,
distinguishing 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 freedom 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 quality of backgrounds;' from which any round or solid 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
undetermined colour. But the object that is to stand out from it,
depends wholly on its light and shade for relief.
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;
strengthening them according to their situations.