I am most anxious to get into my London painting-room, for I do not
consider myself at work unless I am before a six-foot canvas. I have
done a good deal of skying, for I am determined to conquer all
difficulties, and that among the rest. And now, talking of skies, it is
amusing to us to see how admirably you fight my battles; you certainly
take the best possible ground for getting your friend out of a scrape
(the example of the Old Masters). That landscape painter who does not
make his skies a very material part of his composition neglects to avail
himself of one of his greatest aids. Sir Joshua Reynolds, speaking of
the landscapes of Titian, of Salvator, and of Claude, says: "Even their
_skies_ seem to sympathise with their subjects." I have often been
advised to consider my sky as "_a white sheet thrown behind the
objects_." Certainly, if the sky is obtrusive, as mine are, it is bad;
but if it is evaded, as mine are not, it is worse; it must and always
shall with me make an effectual part of the composition. It will be
difficult to name a class of landscape in which the sky is not the
keynote, the standard of scale, and the chief organ of sentiment. You
may conceive, then, what a "white sheet" would do for me, impressed as I
am with these notions, and they cannot be erroneous. The sky is the
source of light in nature, and governs everything; even our common
observations on the weather of every day are altogether suggested by it.
The difficulty of skies in painting is very great, both as to
composition and execution; because, with all their brilliancy, they
ought not to come forward, or, indeed, be hardly thought of any more
than extreme distances are; but this does not apply to phenomena or
accidental effects of sky, because they always attract particularly. I
may say all this to you, though _you_ do not want to be told that I know
very well what I am about, and that my skies have not been neglected,
though they have often failed in execution, no doubt, from an
over-anxiety about them which will alone destroy that easy appearance
which nature always has in all her movements.
_Constable._