active 19th century Harry Willson

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 frequently corrupt ourselves: just as one coat, however well made, will not adapt itself to two persons, any more than their talents will blend with and lessen our defects. ”

“ 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 compose, 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 proportions; it should, in all instances, differ materially in quantity ”

“ 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 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 execution, 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. ”

“ Again, 'I very much doubt,' says Sir Joshua, 'whether a habit of drawing 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 allied to mechanical; blending it with the imaginative alone, in composition, constitutes its pretensions to genius; but confidence in the one produces boldness in the other. ”

“ Matter, seemingly incapable of form; wide extents of pathless and unbroken sterility, of nakedness and desolation, will become beautiful and masterly arrangements on these conditions: the torn, and ragged, and scattered fragments of the clouds in their wild and rushing fury over the sea, with its inexhaustible changes and endless variety of colour, are the objects painters often choose, from their very seeming nothingness, to invest with the beau ideal of art. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ Wrongly 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Flatness of tint is a matter of great consequence, and of equal difficulty; 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 mechanical: skill alone will enable the student to overcome this difficulty, in addition to observing its process by a professor. ”

“ 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.
Different coloured pieces of glass held up against a landscape, will serve to show, through their medium, the varieties of hot and cold effects.
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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 Joshua 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In a word, the grandest, the most exalted principle requires no more [72] time to become master of than the lowest and the worst! And, 'As no school ever excelled the Dutch—combining in itself all the excellencies 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. ”

“ They would learn in time to look at nature through the medium of art, and find a delightful interest in it they never anticipated; 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. ”

“ 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 disquisition 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. ”

“ 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] 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Nature is frequently 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. ”