A. V. Sutton

“ Then how is it, it may be asked, that an artist who has given to the world works of surpassing excellence—standard models for future ages—is yet incapable of adapting himself to pourtray the simplicity of real life as it is? Why cannot the artist thus enabled to invest the imaginary characters35 of his works with all the sparkling vivacity of life, identify the same in portraiture? To solve this problem we must glance and circumspectly dwell for a time on the personal characteristics of artists. ”

“ Photography not only aids and assists the Fine Arts, but gives invaluable aid to Architecture, Astronomy, Geology, Mineralogy, Science of Chemistry, Physiology, Literature, and numberless sciences, and likewise what the human eye is incapable of discerning, the microscope reveals and Photography delineates. ”

“ At the period we speak of, Photography was entirely confined to that class of illiterate men who only pursued it to benefit by its novelty, and like everything new, particularly when added to cheapness, produced a great amount of bad taste and unpardonable vulgarity. It is, no doubt, an art which is peculiarly liable to be perverted to base and immoral uses, but now that better taste prevails, no such fears need be entertained. All classes of society have been benefited by Photography ”

“ An art which assists the memory and educates the taste is entitled to encouragement, the more particularly, when by its aid we can recall in privacy the happy hours suggested by the contemplation of the sure-reflected lineaments of a doating mother, an affectionate sister, a tender loving wife, or a fond and innocent child.
One great reason why Photography is so frequently applied to unworthy purposes20 is, owing to its cheapness, for, where there is a supply of anything novel, combined with cheapness, patrons will present themselves. ”

“ Department another stamp of artistic merit is required—“Conception,”—the eye being called upon in every way to arrange such pictorial effect that its every production may be in themselves studies. Thus has the felicitious combination of Science and Art become irrevocably united—each depending upon the other for success. ”

“ When the practical eye of an artist takes up a Work of Art, he at once recognizes the forte of the genius in some one particularity. Say for instance one27 artist may excel in the master-stroke of execution, and by a few strokes of the brush give much more artistic and life-like effect than another would by hours of close application and the minutest finish—the difference between these two artists being that the one was a true born artist, and the other a lover of the art—simply one who had acquired its mechanism from untiring study and practice. ”

“ It would be utterly impossible to estimate the advantages Photography has conferred upon all mankind, or to anticipate the still greater wonders it is yet destined to achieve.
Having sketched the early struggles which Photography had to surmount to claim a high place for its followers, we now proceed to examine its distinguishing features. In scrutinizing the works of even the greatest artists of our day, we are sure to find some fault—some error. ”

“ The opinion that Photography exaggerates to such an excess that, the lineaments it has pourtrayed are quite distorted, or that five or ten years have suddenly been added to a “sitter’s” age, and their youth apparently eclipsed by the lines being, perhaps, too harshly defined, and the shadows too strongly marked, adding innumerable furrows, reverential and admired in old age,44 but despised in youth! ”

“ Art, in the present age, stands conspicuous for its great achievements in Truthfulness, which has been guided and assisted by the aid of the Camera. Perspective, the great key to Art, was fabulous before Photography was introduced; and by its aid what perfection has it not obtained, not only is distance42 mathematically exact, but the round, soft, accuracy of light and shade in nature, is most beautifully defined! ”

“ But to return to the fallacy of portraiture being confined to the erroneous pencil of the deceitful imagination of an artist possessing one or more only of those capabilities essential to the production33 of the truthfulness of individuality. How can it be expected that he can pourtray, from a few short sittings taken from nature, to be afterwards finely finished from memory with that unerring accuracy that the Photograph identifies? I have never yet seen a portrait painted from life that conveyed the idea of life. ”

“ If not drawn from Scriptural, historical, or poetical sources, it is from some grand scene of nature memory has conjured up as he treads, the path of life, ruminating with all the fancy of the imaginative poet buried in those early dreams yet to be realised in the various phases of life in some poetic fashion, glowing resplendently, as personified in the mock Tableau Vivants of his conception, at a future day to be developed upon a piece of canvas cloth, and embodied in all the beauty and vigour of life ”

“ The portrait thus conveyed by Photography, is not only an immense saving of time, labour and trouble, both to artist and sitter, by being enabled to secure individuality, but the variety of talent required for an artist to execute a portrait from life, is thus adequately balanced. ”

“ Thus was the combination of Art and Science for a time checked in its progress, and the artists, now exulting in having temporarily attained their purpose, watched jealously the science of chemistry, and depreciated as useless any further inquiry that seemed to encourage or aid Photography. ”

“ Not that we would suppose, or would wish to suggest that fac-similar traits are hereditary to the born artist; but as countries are remarkable for their individual nationalities, so are the peculiarities in the temperament of an artist. We might without offence notify it by calling it eccentricity, for it has been said that genius and eccentricity are inseparable. The active and creative mind36 of an artist is ever busy arranging subjects for his art. ”

“ For instance, I have known artists who have excelled in the execution of a face, and yet fail in the representation of the hair—all their heads conveying to the observer an idea that they were wigged! In other productions we are at once made sensible that the artist has one ideal for a nose, and if the picture represents innumerable figures, they are all possessed of the same type of nasal organ! ”

“ In others again, we find the29 artist manifest in some peculiarity in the eye or in the mouth; but it is not any of these artistic individualities we ask for when we are desirous of possessing a faithful likeness of some loved one, nor do we care to find as we scan their well-remembered features, the artist’s ideal of a nose, an eye, a mouth, a chin, or some other member, in place of its, perhaps, more homely characteristic. ”

“ Photography in the32 hands of a lover of its art, initiated in the theory and practical knowledge of its science, would not waste valuable time in the production of such enormities. We have, therefore, only to deal with its advantages in its higher order of execution; or if we deviate a while from our theory, it is but to confirm our arguments, and give the reader an opportunity to discriminate for himself between the two. ”

“ Having thus solved the problem why artists cannot adapt themselves to follow nature in its identical peculiarities, the39 same reasons likewise explain the necessity why Art and Photography should be combined, a consumation still more desirable in the art of portraiture, where the artist, perforce, is made obedient to the truth of reality. ”

“ Then, let us not fall into the folly of our ancestors by standing aloof, each waiting for the other to take the first step in advance, so biased by the prejudice of the times that we unite in the general cry, in place of going forward and judging discriminately for ourselves. ”

“ No!—let us by careful training assist its maturity by removing from its path any noxious weeds that spring up spontaneously, and by the same method of cultivation eradicate the evils that threaten to sap its tender youth. ”

“ Though painting renders the chemical result subordinate, and likewise subservient to the skill of the artist, when24 removed from the pressure frame to the easel, yet in no way does it depreciate Photography as an art which is necessary to assist in securing with unerring accuracy of outline momentary indications of character, expression of face, and costume, consisting of numberless and minute details ”

“ Photography, therefore, has a double claim upon our affections—to19 preserve it unscathed and unsullied, when we find it diverted into new channels that may endanger its purity and legitimate usefulness. ”

“ I have most cautiouslyx avoided any sentiment that might be so construed, and beg that judgment may be suspended until these pages have been perused, the perusal of which, I sincerely trust, may have the desired effect—not actually resulting in the revival of Fine Arts—but as an auxiliary for paving the way for others commanding a greater range of knowledge, who may thereby be induced to embark in the cause I am humbly seeking to advocate. ”

“ We will again find others who excel in the amalgamation of colours, others for composition, others for costumes and drapery—others for the delicacy and transparency of the flesh tones; and we28 might still further attempt to specify their various fortes of particular excellence, by dissecting the human forms and classify them by their technical terms in anatomy. ”

“ With this view, I have gathered materials from every common report or otherwise, from personal acquaintance with some of the most distinguished artists of the day, and it is with regret that I find how immeasurably incompetent I am to do justice to a subject so worthy of being treated by greater talents and accomplishmentsix than are granted to me. ”

“ These few short hints, and brief and explanatory statements of General Art Principles, may, we trust, be found enlightening and useful to all supporters of Fine Art, not forgetting that a small grain of seed often becomes a goodly46 tree ”