solitary tree, brilliant with the green of summer, It "The artist should fear to become the slave "Broadway of detail. He should strive to express his Magazine." Sept., 1905. thought and not the surface of it. What avails a storm cloud accurate in form and colour, if the storm is not therein ?" "Imitation is not inspiration, and inspira- Ibid. tion only can give birth to a work of art." "It is the first vision that counts. The Ibid. artist has only to remain true to his dream, and it will possess his work in such a manner that it will resemble the work of no other man for no two visions are alike, and those who reach the heights have all toiled up the steep mountains by different routes." "The idea of what a work of art is,” said W. Brymner, R. C. A., in an interesting lecture on painting, "is very vague in the minds of most people. I think the majority are satisfied it is the faithful copying of objects or individuals. From the earliest times we find writers on art extolling paintings, not because they said something, but because they were deceptively lifelike. Zeuxes painted. grapes the birds pecked at. Vasari continually praises the deceptive painting, and Leonardo said that a painter's best master was the mirror. What is it, then, that elevates a painting from the mere representation of objects to the level of a work of art? Zola describes art as 'a corner of nature seen through a temperament.' That is, that an artist must, before he begins his picture, have experienced some emotion, some thought suggested by the view of nature before him. The artist conveys to us the feeling he has experienced by perhaps making everything very real to us and true, but all as seen from his standpoint. He leaves out, does not see, the sides of the question that do not emphasize his argument. He wishes leaves nature re forms itself in the mind may for new how- creation." "Essay on The Beauty." to convey the idea he has, and everything "The tending to give form to that idea he uses. beauty of Everything not helpful to this end he out. In conveying a great truth, he sacrifice inconsequent facts. I believe, ever, that this is done unconsciously. artist thinks he is copying what he sees, be- Emerson. cause he feels so strongly from his point of view. Of course, this is open to discussion; but if the imagination is true imagination and not merely a grotesque play of fancy, the mind must be in some such condition. Many can learn to copy nature. Few are artists who can make us see and feel with them. The real artist makes us see even the simplest things in a new light. We feel to be true what he shows us, although we have never thought of it in that way before. Thus an artist, although he imitates nature and reproduces its external forms, must throw the light of his individual thought upon it, and this thought or emotion that he conveys by means Painters." of nature must be his own thought, or some emotion he has personally experienced, and his manner of expressing himself must be proper to himself." The point mentioned by Mr. Brymner, that the act of the artist in leaving out unnecessary facts, or even changing them, is performed unconsciously, is a very interesting one. It is 1" Modern alluded to by Ruskin, who says: "In making these changes Turner does not think at all. They come into his head involuntarily. An entirely imperative dream has taken possession of him; he can see and do no otherwise than as the dream directs. No happy chance, nay, no happy thought, no perfect knowledge, will ever take the place of that mighty unconscious Vol. IV. 2 "Landscape." Chap. XIII. ness.' In such cases as that of Turner painting P. G. Ham- Loch Awe," or "striking off the refractory summit of Mount Pilatus" as its lines did erton. "Modern Painters." not compose well with the rest of the picture. Vol. IV. Page 232. 4" Essay on John W. J. Still man. of Lucerne, or painting the gorgeous colours 4 of a sunset in a sky where the sun is still |