In tracing these memoranda of the course to be pursued in producing a
work of the class commonly denominated "Historic Art," we have no
wish to set ourselves in opposition to the practice of other artists.
We are quite willing to believe that there may be various methods of
working out the same idea, each productive of a satisfactory result.
Should any one therefore regard it as a subject for controversy, we
would only reply that, if different, or to them better, methods be
adopted by other painters, no less certain is it that there are
numbers who at the onset of their career have not the least knowledge
of any one of these methods; and that it is chiefly for such that
these notes have been penned. In short, that to all about to paint
their first picture we address ourselves.
The first advice that should be given, on painting a historical
picture, ought undoubtedly to be on the choosing of a fit subject;
but, the object of the present paper being purely practical, it would
ill commence with a question which would entail a dissertation
bearing upon the most abstract properties of Art. Should it
afterwards appear necessary, we may append such a paper to the last
number of these articles; but, for the present, we will content
ourselves with beginning where the student may first encounter a
difficulty in giving body to his idea.
The first care of the painter, after having selected his subject,
should be to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the character of
the times, and habits of the people, which he is about to represent;
and next, to consult the proper authorities for his costume, and such
objects as may fill his canvass; as the architecture, furniture,
vegetation or landscape, or accessories, necessary to the elucidation
of the subject. By not pursuing this course, the artist is in danger
of imagining an effect, or disposition of lines, incompatible with
the costume of his figures, or objects surrounding them; and it will
be found always a most difficult thing to efface an idea that has
once taken possession of the mind. Besides which, it is impossible to
conceive a design with any truth, not being acquainted with the
character, habits, and appearance, of the people represented.
Having, by such means, secured the materials of which his work must
be composed, the artist must endeavour, as far as lies in his power,
to embody the picture in his thoughts, before having recourse to
paper. He must patiently consider his subject, revolving in his mind
every means that may assist the clear development of the story:
giving the most prominent places to the most important actors, and
carefully rejecting incidents that cannot be expressed by pantomimic
art without the aid of text. He must also, in this mental forerunner
of his picture, arrange the "grouping" of his figures,--that is, the
disposing of them in such agreeable clusters or situations on his
canvass as may be compatible with the dramatic truth of the whole,
(technically called the lines of a composition.) He must also
consider the color, and disposition of light and dark masses in his
design, so as to call attention to the principal objects,
(technically called the "effect.") Thus, to recapitulate, the
painter, in his first conception of his picture, will have to combine
three qualities, each subordinate to the other;--the intellectual, or
clear development, dramatic truth, and sentiment, of his
incident;--the construction, or disposition of his groups and lines,
as most conducive to clearness, effect, and harmony;--and the
chromatic, or arrangement of colors, light and shade, most suitable
to impress and attract the beholder.{6}
{6} Many artists, chiefly of the schools not colorists, are in the
habit of making their designs in outline, leaving the colors and
light and shade to be thought of afterwards. This plan may offer
facilities; but we doubt if it be possible to arrange satisfactorily
the colors of a work which has been designed in outline without
consideration of these qualities.
Having settled these points in his mind, as definitely as his
faculties will allow of, the student will take pencil and paper, and
sketch roughly each separate figure in his composition, studying his
own acting, (in a looking-glass) or else that of any friend he may
have of an artistic or poetic temperament, but not employing for the
purpose the ordinary paid models.--It will be always found that they
are stiff and feelingless, and, as such, tend to curb the vivacity of
a first conception, so much so that the artist may believe an action
impossible, through the want of comprehension of the model, which to
himself or a friend might prove easy.
Here let the artist spare neither time nor labor, but exert himself
beyond his natural energies, seeking to enter into the character of
each actor, studying them one after the other, limb for limb, hand
for hand, finger for finger, noting each inflection of joint, or
tension of sinew, searching for dramatic truth internally in himself,
and in all external nature, shunning affectation and exaggeration,
and striving after pathos, and purity of feeling, with patient
endeavor and utter simplicity of heart. For on this labor must depend
the success of his work with the public. Artists may praise his
color, drawing, or manipulation, his chiaroscuro, or his lines; but
the clearness, truth, and sentiment, of his work will alone affect
the many.
The action of each figure being now determinate, the next step will
be to make a sketch in oil of the whole design; after which, living
models, as like the artist's conception as can be found, must be
procured, to make outlines of the nude of each figure, and again
sketches of the same, draped in the proper costume.{7}
{7} There is always difficulty attending this very necessary portion
of the study of the picture; because, if the dresses be borrowed or
hired, at this period they may be only wanted for a few hours, and
perhaps not required again for some months to paint into the
picture.--Again, if the costume have to be made, and of expensive
material, the portion of it seen may be sufficient to pin on to a lay
figure, without having the whole made, which could not be worn by the
living model. However, with all the larger or loose draperies, it is
very necessary to sketch them first from the living model.
From these studies, the painter will prepare a second sketch, in
outline, of the whole, being, in fact, a small and hasty cartoon.{8}
{8} Should the picture be of small dimensions, it will be found more
expeditious to make an outline of it on paper the full size, which
can be traced on to the canvass, keeping the latter clean. On the
contrary, should the painting be large, the outline had better be
made small, and squared to transfer to the canvass.
In this last preparation of the design, the chief care of the student
will be the grouping, and the correct size and place of each figure;
also the perspective of the architecture and ground plan will now
have to be settled; a task requiring much patient calculation, and
usually proving a source of disgust to the novice not endowed with
much perseverance. But, above all, the quality to be most studied in
this outline design will be the _proportion_ of the whole work.
And with a few remarks on this quality, which might appropriately be
termed "constructive beauty in art," we will close this paper on "the
Design," as belonging more properly to the mechanical than the
intellectual side of art; as being rather the slow growth of
experience than the spontaneous impulse of the artistic temperament.
It is a feature in art rather apt to savor of conventionality to such
as would look on nature as the only school of art, who would consider
it but as the exponent of thought and feeling; while, on the other
hand, we fear it likely to be studied to little effect by such as
receive with indiscriminate and phlegmatic avidity all that is handed
down to them in the shape of experience or time-sanctioned rule. But
plastic art claims not merely our sympathy, in its highest capacity
to emit thought and sentiment; but as form, colour, light, life, and
beauty; and who shall settle the claims between thought and beauty?
But art has beauties of its own, which neither impair nor contradict
the beauties of nature; but which are not of nature, and yet are,
inasmuch as art itself is but part of nature: and of such, the
beauties of the nature of art, is the feeling for constructive
beauty. It interferes not with truth or sentiment; it is not the
cause of unlikely order and improbable symmetry; it is not bounded by
line or rule, nor taught by theory. It is a feeling for proportion,
ever varying from an infinity of conflicting causes, that balances
the picture as it balances the Gothic edifice; it is a germ planted
in the breast of the artist, that gradually expands by cultivation.
To those who would foster its development the only rule we could
offer would be never to leave a design, while they imagine they could
alter for the better (subordinate to the truth of nature) the place
of a single figure or group, or the direction of a line.
And to such as think it beneath their care we can only say that they
neglect a refinement, of which every great master takes advantage to
increase the fascination which beauty, feeling, or passion, exercises
over the multitude.