periences such as I have just stated bring out the result that you have seen, there is for you no such thing as realism. If you ever know how to paint somewhat well, and pass beyond the position of the student who has not yet learned to use his hands as an expression of the memories of his brain, you will always give to nature, that is, what is outside of you, the character of the lens through which you see it... which is yourself."

"Life of Chapter IV.

Turner."

P. G. Hamerton tells us that after living on Loch Awe for a year, and after careful study, he painted a picture of the great mountain Ben Cruachan, that towers aloft at the upper end of the lake. He drew it with absolute fidelity. Turner painted the same mountain.1 To gain the real but not the apparent truth, he disregarded local conditions. He drew P. G. Hamthe mountain too high, left out a neighbouring peak, Ben Vorich, and changed the shape of "Landanother. In literal and exact truth he was wrong, but Hamerton realized that his own fidelity to nature had only produced a topographical picture and did not give the true impression made on him.' Whereas Turner lacks that

erton.

And

scape."

Chapter
XIII. P. G.

Hamerton.

2 "Talent

indescrib

able noth

ing, that in

estimable

something,

had by an effort of the imagination so painted the scene as to impress the beholder with the same feeling of awe and wonder that had that consti- inspired him as he looked at this guardian tutes the life giant dominating one of the most beautiful of the lakes of Scotland. Hamerton felt that it was not only grander than his view, but picture gets its immor- that it was in reality more truthful. "I used Hawthorne. to believe," he writes, "that if work was truth

and soul

through

which the

tality."

ful it would appear truthful, and if the artist put deep feeling into his picture it would be visible to everyone. I have no remnant of these beliefs now. It becomes clear that the landscape painter must look out for compensations to counterbalance the weakness of his art in conveying the emotions excited by nature. Accuracy in drawing makes simple topography the inevitable result. So the artist goes to nature for suggestion and materials, Chapter XIII. P.G. and not to draw accurately; but the student

"Landscape."

Hamerton.

struggle for imitative skill must be over before the soul of the master can make its way through the clogging material pigments. After the first great disappointment caused by the discovery that truthful portraiture in landscape

painting does not produce the impression conveyed by the natural scene, there comes a return to art, with clearer views of its true power and of its inevitable deficiency. There is something in art of an intimate character that addresses itself to our sympathetic imagination, and it is by this, rather than by the conquest of technical difficulty,' that repre- 1It is a sentations of landscape retain their hold on the mind." This is the position he arrived at, against his own former strongly held opinions. He learned by experience the true view, and he states it very decidedly.

canon of art that a painting is fine,

not from the

absence of faults, but

on account

of the pres

ence of

great

Ruskin's teaching is somewhat contradictory. He lays too much stress on accuracy qualities. of detail in leaf, tree, and rock forms.

Painters."

Vol. I.

2d Edition.

"Infants in judgment, we look for specific "Modern character and complete finish. As we advance we scorn such detail altogether and look for Preface. breadth of effect. But perfected in judgment, we return in a great measure to our early feelings, and thank Rafaelle for the shells upon his sacred beach, and for the delicate stamens of the herbage beside his inspired St. Catherine."

1 "Modern
Painters."

Vol. I.
Preface.

2d Edition.

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid.

1 "Poussin's picture, in which every vineleaf is drawn with consummate skill, produces a perfect tree group.'

2"The background of Sir Joshua Reynolds's Holy Family, owing to the utter neglect of all botanical detail, has lost every atom of ideal character."

366

'Every class of rock, earth, and cloud must be known by the painter with geologic and meteorologic accuracy.'

Too much attention is given to these matters in this beautifully written book, "Modern Painters," and indeed photographic accuracy in all the details is the chief thing he inculcates, and we are told he was sorry in later life when he saw the effect that was produced by the importance he placed on them. And it is to be regretted that, with all his knowledge of and love for art, he was not able to see the greatness of such splendid artists as Rembrandt, Ruysdael, Hobbema, and Constable," and that he expressed such slighting opinions these artists, about their works; and also that he should see Appenspeak in a similar manner of modern French dix. landscape. These mistakes and omissions de

⚫ For Rus

kin's opin

ions about