Framers

“ The modern idea in framing pictures is to have the frame harmonize with the subject, rather than to employ a stock moulding with set pattern made by the mile, and cut up into frames of all sizes and for all sorts of pictures. All the frames shown in the illustrations accompanying this chapter were made at home, and from such simple materials as thin boards, burlap, tea-chest matting, denim, wire, sheet-lead, harness-rings, and brass-headed upholsterers’ tacks. ”

“ Of the canvas you make a screen, you build a dwelling with the pile of stones, chisel a door-sill out of the block, with the vocabulary you write an essay. And in each case you work well and creatively, if your work be in harmony with God’s laws, if your screen be light, sightly, and protective, your dwelling healthful and commodious, your sill lie solid and square, your essay be judicious and sound. ”

“ Carbon photographs and other pictures of dull tones, are appropriately framed in wood of dark or medium colour, and appear best when hung against a dark wall. The truth of these statements will hardly be questioned by any one who has a good sense of colour harmony. But there are many other elements that enter into a concrete problem of picture [68] framing that cannot be brought under general rules or formulas. It is generally best to depend largely upon the tests of trial. In framing and hanging pictures, as in many other things, observation and experience are the best teachers. ”

“ She is seated on the extreme left of the mirror. A sort of shadowy figure crouches down beside her-- I can dimly discern that it is a man--and then behind them is cloud, in which I see figures--figures which move. It is not a mere picture upon which I look. It is a scene in life, an actual episode. She crouches and quivers. The man beside her cowers down. The vague figures make abrupt movements and gestures. ”

“ A collection of photographs in passe-partout bindings, especially if they deal with subjects in any way related, may form an attractive group. But pictures of any considerable size or those having decided individuality are generally not suited to any plan of grouping. They should appear by themselves, in frames and other surroundings which accentuate their peculiar merits.
The Kind of Frame.—The material of the frame, its colour, and the colour of the mat are determined by the tone of the picture. Oil paintings easily support gilt frames and should be hung in good light. ”

“ If you want a row of people to exhibit their eyes, of course you must have a row of the holes. Supposing you have only one. The frame is placed in front of a door opening into another room or a hall, from which the actors are to come, the audience sitting on chairs on the other side of the frame. Now a boy or girl who is ready at speaking, and can say funny little things nicely, must stand before the frame, and introduce the strange beast or bird, or man or woman, or child, or mummy, just what the showman chooses to call it, to the assembled company. ”

“ When it comes to the form and design of a frame, infinite latitude is allowable, but, in general, the law of contrast holds good here also. A very complicated picture which depends for its effect largely upon some graceful and intricate design will show to best advantage in a comparatively flat and simple frame. A simple picture, on the contrary, which is built up with a few broad and powerful masses, will frequently appear best in a rich and ornamental frame, the very richness of design accentuating the simple beauty of the canvas. ”

“ Once he gives up the naïve assumption that his own frame is the one and only right frame the question arises, Which then of the innumerable other frames is right? There is no answer, and so far as we can see no possibility of an answer. ”

“ There was, indeed, three feet below the window-sill a rough string-course, which might give to a fugitive a moment's finger-hold before dropping to earth. But the fall between shoes and ground would be some two and a half yards—a serious matter even for an acrobat so placed that he could not watch his feet.
And how should man or woman escaping get even the moment's grasp of that two-inch projection of stone? ”

“ The figures cast on the screen in a theatre are on the flat, but have all the illusion of motion, distance, shadow, light and form. The figures of human memory I am content to accept as being in two dimensions. ”

“ And this example I would impress upon every grainer, young and old, who may aspire to produce something great in his own line of life; for the work on a door, a dado, shutter, skirting-board, or mantelpiece, is of as much importance as the fresco on the plaster above—those frescoes which have been the pride and glory of the best of our old masters.
The grainer who desires to be remembered must possess himself with the true diffidence of the uncompromising realist. ”

“ The frame of the mirror then, does, to some extent, turn the reflected scene from one that belongs to our actual life into one that belongs rather to the imaginative life. The frame of the mirror makes its surface into a very rudimentary work of art, since it helps us to attain to the artistic vision. For that is what, as you will already have guessed, I have been coming to all this time, namely that the work of art is intimately connected{14} with the secondary imaginative life, which all men live to a greater or lesser extent. ”

“ Anyhow the picture, beside being a beautiful painting, is very interesting to us to-day as an illustration of the domestic life of a Dutch girl of some two hundred and fifty years ago. And the same interest belongs to all the old genre pictures. They make the past still alive to our eyes; just as the genre pictures painted to-day will show some future generation how we lived. But this, I repeat, was not Vermeer’s first thought. ”

“ Frames are not necessary for the simpler types of work, but for wide borders in needle-weaving, particularly for the novice, a frame will fix the warp threads by keeping them taut, and prevent puckering of the material—little tambour frames which consist of a couple of rings, the one fitting into the other, will serve the purpose. ”

“ He sees in the mirror an interesting doorway, a picturesque tower, a beautiful statue, or a vigorous dog-fight; but when he leans out of the window and gazes in front of the omnibus in search of them he cannot discover them, and only when it is too late does he remember that the treacherous mirror has led him to look in the wrong direction. ”

“ Fig.6—Details of Background Frame
Many amateur photographers who desire to do portrait work at home have left the subject alone for the want of a suitable background. A frame such as is used by the professional is entirely out of the question in most homes, says a correspondent of Camera Craft. The frame as shown in the sketch was devised and its chief advantage lies in the fact that when not in use it can be compactly tied together and stored away in a closet. ”

“ If you can train a nasturtium round the window, or some sweet peas, then you will have the most beautiful frame you can invent for the picture without, whether it be the busy crowd, or a distant landscape, or trees with their lights and shades, or the changes of the passing clouds. ”

“ An object is now placed behind the screen, upon which the light of a strong lamp is thrown from a point above the mirror, and is received by the mirror and reflected to the center of the arched cavity in the screen, where it will appear to the spectator. Care should be taken to place the image in an inverted position, and the light, which must be very powerful, should be so placed that none of it may reach the opening. ”

“ Every group of two or more visible things, and nearly every visible thing in itself, must of necessity be looked upon as a pattern, either pleasing or displeasing to the eye. Therefore every motion picture that has been, or can be, thrown upon the screen describes a pattern, fixed, moving, or changing. ”

“ The chief constable had given the document to me, and I sat on the stair head, spread it out on the floor and scrutinized it. It was all but meaningless. Apparently two words and the initial letter of a third had been attempted. Now, however grotesque a piece of writing may be, you can sometimes decipher it by holding it at various angles, as those puzzles are solved which remain a mystery when gazed at direct. By partially closing the eyes you frequently catch the intent, as in those pictures where a human figure is concealed among the outlines of trees and leaves. ”

“ Some cattle and horses standing under a tree in a meadow are a reality, and your description or report of the scene, either in words, lines, or colors, would be the truth of the scene—that is, provided your description was accurate. Under no circumstances is the report made by producing the real things in evidence. It is practically impossible to do that in art. Any close attempt at doing it, or misleading one into thinking he sees reality, generally results in absurdity or repulsiveness. What, for instance, could be more hideous than the wax figure in the museum? ”

“ Now the question at once arises as to the best form for this protecting barrier, the best material to use in its construction, and the best and most harmonious surface for its finish. Artists are all aware of the vital importance of this matter. They know that a frame can either make or mar their picture, and they give the subject constant thought and attention. ”

“ His mind, well-acquainted with the enemy situation, his vision, accustomed to the appearance of terrain from on high, examines the roads, searches the railroads, observes both fields and camps, and since at times some detail may escape the notice of the observer, the other eye, the faithful lens of the camera, completes the picture by recording what the observer may have overlooked. ”

“ In the present case so intimate is what I may call the logical identity between the bare view, as represented by the initial sketch, and as a topographical fact, and the whole living and moving scene as represented by the finished design, that the development of the one from the other seems as inevitable as the march of the seasons or the processes of growth and decay to which we ourselves are subject. ”

“ In the same manner we have all, no doubt, detected in the papering of a room some one-sided cast of this kind in flowers, leaves, or any other figures, making the paper look as if not placed straight upon the wall, or making even the wall itself appear slanting, so that the eye becomes continually puzzled, and painfully occupied in tracing out lines which have no agreement either with the horizontal or the perpendicular. ”

“ Money is well expended on picture-frames, as when they are handsome and chosen with taste, they enhance our enjoyment of the pictures. But a costly frame is not always a good one, and when gilt composition runs riot in ferns and fantastic flames, as we frequently see it do around mirrors, its effect is barbaric, rather than elegant. ”

“ The impulses which made frames beautiful have long been extinct or dormant, but fine work was produced in such profusion that great numbers of examples are still extant. Frames for pictures or mirrors are usually square, oblong, round or oval, and, although they have usually been made of wood or composition overlaid upon wood, the richest and most costly materials have often been used. ”

“ To be effective in a frame, balance and unity are just as necessary. The eye finds repose and delight in the perfect equipoise of elements, brought into combination and bound together by the girdle of the frame.
A picture should be able to hang from its exact centre. Imperfect composition inflicts upon the beholder the duty of accommodating his head to the false angle of the picture. Pictures that stand the test of time do not demand astigmatic glasses. We view them balanced, and they repeat the countersign—“balanced.” ”

“ In what are called close-up scenes only a small part of an object shows in the camera, and often when a magnificent entrance to a marble house is shown, it is only a plaster-of-Paris imitation of a door with a little frame around it. ”

“ Therefore in this “still” from “The Four Horsemen” the jagged holes in the buildings attract more attention than they do on the screen, where the movement of the soldiers and civilians brings the whole composition into balance.
When the whole picture is deep, as in the example just discussed, it offends us if some of the moving objects come near the camera, because this produces two pictures within a single frame, namely, a close-up and a long shot. ”

“ Their plan is to steal up noiselessly to the window, and applying the moist tips of their tongues to the paper, the soft substance yields silently to the little weapon, and thus a hole is made through which a bright eye surveys the interior of the forbidden chamber, and a quick ear drinks in the delicious tones of the prohibited conversation. ”

“ They should be inclosed each in a light wooden frame, under a glass the surface of which a raised mount should prevent them from touching. These frames should slide into cases, containing about twelve drawings each, which would be portable to any part of the room where they were to be seen. I have long kept my own smaller Turner drawings in this manner; fifteen{84} frames going into the depth of about a foot. Men are usually accused of “bad taste,” if they express any conviction of their own ability to execute any given work. ”

“ I thought, “be the sojourn of any thing human?”—and had scarcely asked myself the question, when the path opened into a long gallery, at the farthest end of which a gleam of light was visible. This welcome glimmer appeared to come from some cell or alcove, in which the right-hand wall of the gallery terminated, [pg 57] and, breathless with expectation, I stole gently towards it. ”