-^es^-zD r UC-NRLF B E fi22 fiMb THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BEQUEST OF ANITA D. S. BLAKE . I Ihe Building of a Pi^ > *- o principles ^^^ Greek honeysuckle ornament has delighted the eyes of men for twenty-five centuries. The eye and mind accept it at once as a pleasing arrangement of lines. A simple transposition of its details proves at once that the beauty lies not in the lines them- selves, but in their arrangement. It is useless to ask why. Beauty is an arbitrary thing defying reason. We only know that certain combinations of lines, masses, shades, lights or colors will please the majoritv of eyes, while other arrange- ments of the same things are unanimously rejected. 66 Composition Allowing for the proverbial exception which proves the rule any work of good chiaroscuro will present several distinct points of interest. It will have a mass of light half-tones of which some point, called the high lieht. will be lighter than anything else in the picture. It will have a mass of dark half-tones of which some point called the accent will be darker than all the rest. If the com- position has any complication at all the principal light will have an echo in a subordinate light of smaller area and lower key. The main shadow will also have its echo and all the masses will be full of gradation, no absolutely flat tone anyhere. Analysis of Ught modulation Intense concentration of the sight on any detail gives it for the moment an exaggerated importance. When every detail of a composition passes succes- sively under this "searching" process the resulting picture is an agglomeration of units, each clamor- ing to be seen first. Seek rather to make the entire picture a single unit subordinating every detail to the general con- ception according to its relative importance. Most young eyes see too much. Try more for breadth. Breadth and detail In nature there is such an intimate mingling of shadows and reflexes that objects have the appear- ance of merging into each other by their edges. A hard edge is always offensive. It can only be ex- 67 The building of a picture cused when its purpose is to force an object forward or bring it into special relief. A good easel picture has the qualities of a good short story. Its plan is simple. It tells its tale without unnecessary detail. Its incidents are clear cut and well relieved. Its local color true and char- acteristic and its language of the best. The most exquisite outline or the most subtle modulation of form is utterly without value if it is lost in its surroundings. The use of relief is a thing to be considered with tho greatest care lest it become an abuse and the composition be shattered to frag- ments by making everything equally emphatic. The thing best worth painting in the picture should be so contrasted and relieved by its surroundings that it will be the first thing to attract the eye with the accent placed where it will be most effective, as the picturesque branching of a tree, the head of a fig- ure or some important part of its outline or mass. Everything else is accessory, each incident tak- ing just so much relief as its importance requires and no more. When everything in the picture is equally prominent it becomes unintelligible like a roomful of women all talking at once. "Cave on Colour" is an old book on water color painting. Among other good things it recommends 68 Composition laying in all the shadows with a wash of black before using color at all. The method is com- mended because it insures transparency of shadows with breadth and simplicity of composition, which amply compensates for the slight loss of color. The theme of a picture is the melody to which its surroundings form a harmony, subordinate but adding force and beauty. A picture is meant to be enjoyed. It should be equally pleasing at any distance within the limits of the room where it hangs. Its carrying quality de- pends on its relief. If that is right it will look well and tell at least the outline of its story where- ever it can be seen. The purpose of a picture Few painters have the power to preserve breadth and carrying quality and at the same time give the work a minute and elaborate finish. If anything must be sacrificed let it be the finish. Breadth and finish Variety is the essential quality of picturesqueness. Symmetry, the chief beauty of conventional deco- ration, has no place in fine art. In posing a composition of flowers or other simi- lar objects they are continually falling into lines, circles, triangles and other geometrical figures. They never look picturesque until we get every suspicion of symmetry out of them. In a study of animals we 69 Symmetry and variety The building of a picture aim to get variety of pose, of groupings of values and colors. The greater their variety the more life and character will the picture possess. So in landscape. A' dozen trees may look alike at the first glance. Careful seeking will show one a little taller, another a little greyer, another a little darker than the rest. When these differences are accented three results a pleasing variety which gives character to the individual and to the whole work. The characteristic quality of any object, whatever it may be, is the point to be insisted on and accented PIcturesqueness If a pond or a tree or a mountain were placed exactly in the middle of a picture it would apear to divide the composition into halves with a sugges- tion of symmetry and a failure of variety. Parallel or concentric lines too have a geometric formality which is unpicturesque. It is the business of the painter to so choose his point of view or arrange his models that picturesqueness may not be sacrificed. The element of picturesqueness depends largely on variety and irregularity for its charm. A sky line broken by mountains or buildings, towers, domes, spires, trees, anything indeed which will give va- riety of bulk, shape and outline, somehow add to the gratification of the beholder. A row of domes or spires or trees exactly alike would excite no such pleasure. Variety is the essential quality. 70 Composition One of the most powerful means of appeal to the imagination is contrast. The opposition of a dark against a light thing is obvious as a means of relief, so is the contrast of complimentary colors in search- ing for harmony. There is a subtler source of power in the con- trasting of things having dissimilar physical qualities as, for instance, the fairy tracery of birch branches against a distant mountain, the firm level line of a distant bay shore in contrast with the undulating contour of rugged mountains behind it, the spider web lines of shipping seen against massive cumulus clouds or a low barred sky seen through tall tree stems. Contrast of line and mass THE SKETCH enmity certain other schools N THE world of art the lines of cleavage run in so many directions that it is almost impossible to conceive it as a homogeneous entity or to divide it into a few well defined groups. Certain schools may differ with a mortal and yet find many points of agreement on principles which are wholly denied by still Schools of painting: It is safe to say, however, that in the study of nature, landscape artists are definitely divided into two camps, working on diametrically opposed lines. Sit down before the choicest bit of scenery within your reach. Simply sit and look and enjoy 73 Memory and facts The building of a picture it for awhile. Next day put down your memory of it with pen or brush. The picture will be somewhat vague of outline and sadly lacking in detail but it will be sure to have the warmth of the sunshine, the tender grey of the mountains, the fathomless depth of the mottled sky, the infinite flash and spar- kle of color and light on rock and leaf and stem because these are the things which will impress you. Now observe how a young beginner proceeds in painting his picture on the spot. He does not ask himself what he most enjoys in the scene,, but only what he sees. The most prominent object may be a fence. In it goes, just the right number of rails and probably the right number of nails. Another fact is a house. In it goes, windows and doors^ panes and panels, chimneys and clapboards. Next come the trees and their leaves, each in its proper place; weeds, grasses, ferns, clouds and mountains, everything in its local color. Everything the eye can see is too important to be neglected. When it is all finished she may weep over it. If it be he, the palette knife will make an end of it, for with all these facts — these truths of nature — studied on the spot — the thing does not resemble anything but an auctioneer's inventory. The charm Without the distraction of the canvas and the of it all matter-of-fact mood, the student would have felt that the facts he understood had nothing to do with the charm of the scene. 74 The sketch These two persons, the dreamer and the digger, represent the two divisions of workers into which the world is divided. The dreamers, the poet painters, the transcend- entalists, despise the paint box and sketching easel as insignia of imbecile industry. They go off alone or by twos or threes equipped with nothing more than a pocket notebook and a bundle of cigarettes. They wander about in the cool of the morning and the dusk of the evening or it may be in the blaze of noon or the tranquil shade of a grey day. A pencil note of color effect here, an outline of a dozen strokes there, a gnarled tree or a picturesque roof, a calf or an old gate. Collecting material The hour or the day comes when the painter stands in the presence of his inspiration, the thing worth painting. He makes himself comfortable. He sits and smokes and dreams and looks. There he will go every day while sun and weather are right. He sits and dreams and looks until he is steeped in the theme^ penetrated through and through. It is forevermore his possession. Next day the place that knew him so long will miss him. He is painting. He paints with passion. His pulses leap with the creative instinct. His soul is brimming over with the poetry, the music of it, the sweetness, the harmony, the emotion of his theme. 75 Saturation Inspiration The building of a picture With strong quick strokes the glowing tints are laid side by side. Realization With consummate judgment tone and value and texture are fitted and balanced. Fingers, handles, knife or brushes are used as the impulse of the mo- ment directs. His gladness of spirit is as the joy of the gods. It is the day of his inspiration and the best that is in him will appear on his canvas. <^ Next day when the paint is cold and the original impulse spent, when the glamour of inspiration no longer deceives the eyes the picture max seem to him a grey and lifeless thing but it is the best he has in him. Is there any need of the contrast? The picture begun in the violet dawn and continued at yellow noon, painted at day by dav through changing weather and changing moods of spirit, painted for truth's sake and missing truth altogether through superabundance of material, commenced with a chill and finished with a cramp. After all, it is only a question of temperament, this selecting of the higher or lower truth, this painting objectively or subjectively, synthetically or analy- ticaly. 76 The sketch A mechanical piano may play with absolute cor- rectness but it has no emotion, no passion. We would prefer a jewsharp if it be only played with feeling. It is the element of human emotion in a picture which makes it thrill. In sitting down before nature to paint ask your- self ''What is it that impresses me and makes this scene worth painting? Is it in the play of light and shadow, in the harmony of tones, grace of line, or is it in the number, shape and construction of its details? How shall I paint it to impress others?" These questions may be hard to answer at first but it is not worth while to go on until a correct solution is reached. Planning: the sketch Landscape painting must always be largely a ques- tion of memory. The glare of excessive light out- doors and the strong reflexes cast on wet paint by trees, sky and earth render it impossible to get the delicate gradations of nature, not to mention the discomfort of dust and flies and wind, sometimes cold and damp, always the changing light and color of nature. The work must of necessity receive more or less of finish indoors. Still the training of the memory to do good work requires long and labori- ous experiment in the presence of nature. An ade- quate knowledge of nature is only to be acquired by living with her and questioning her incessantly. 77 The hindrances The building of a picture Composition In choosing what to paint an innate sense of pro- portion, of picturesqueness and of fitness is the best guide. We find few landscapes ready made. There is always something to be modified, transposed or left out, especially the latter. Sometimes an im- pressive scene would be better made into several pictures; again the picturesque elements may be selected and everything else left out. In a sketch perfect liberty is permitted as to fidelity to form and grouping, provided that no law of nature or probability is broken. Ideality should be held of more value than actual portraiture, yet there are occasional compositions found in nature which are perfect — ^altogether beyond any improve- ment. Tonal qualities A sketch begun in the morning should not be worked on in the afternoon. The appearance of things changes so much from hour to hour in light, color and atmosphere that it becomes practically a new theme. In the morning while the sun is low, shadows are large and dense, while tones are cool. At noon the sun penetrates everything and relief is destroyed. This is not a good time to paint. In the evening when the sun is low again, things take on form and become paintable, but instead of the grey mist of morning the air is filled with a golden haze, 78 The spirit of The sketch The essential quality of landscape painting is at- mosphere. To paint landscape well is to paint mist and dust and cloud shadows in the air, the shim- mer of summer heat, the translucent stillness of black frost, the subtle veilings of the grey morning, the smoking spume of the driving storm. The subject of the picture is of less importance. The scene which stirs your heart today, under the "the time warm glow of some unusual light or cloud effect, you may find meaningless tomorrow. S It is the state of the atmosphere which makes or mars the picture. It may have one tree or more, three cows or a dozen, a horse, a mountain, a pig or a wheelbarrow, but if it be not enveloped within a veil of glorified air it is vanity. Time was when we were instructed that each mass must occupy a certain proportion of space but we have happily forgotten that teaching now. A simple plan of light and shade will be found to be- stow a certain breadth of effect and concentration of force which is both strong and pleasing. The plan of a love song would scarcely meet the requirements of an anthem; still less would it fit the elaboration of an opera. A picture may be nothing more than a simple sonnet, it may rise to the beauty of a poem or even to the grandeur of an epic. 79 Old formulae Evolution of personal manner The building of a picture A composition must have a plan fitting to the dignity of its subject. Whether we make a third or a fifth of the picture shadow, or even if we dispense with shadow alto- gether, we are free so long as the story is well told and the eye is gratified. There is no discredit due the song because it is not an epic. We only insist that it shall be a good song. Any conventional treatment of chiaroscuro should be regarded only as a temporary expedient. Every young artist will base his method on the work of some master, perhaps many masters in succession. Gradually his own individuality begins to emerge and he adopts a manner of his own. .': Every man has his own ideal or personal conven- tion in composition by which he selects his subject or into which he makes his subject fit. S This convention is really the thing by which an artist is known, the personal quality in the picture which declares it to be the work of Brown, Smith or Jones. It is the special arrangement of line, color, light or mass which for him is the only way to express the force, the delicacy, the beauty, the vividness or the glory which appeals to him as the thing best worth expressing. The sketch A painter of narrow limitations will have a nar- row convention. He is like a shore bird repeat- ing forever a single note. It may be a very sweet note, but it is all he has. In a collection of two hundred pictures by many artists it is rarely that the work of one man can be mistaken for that of another by a connoisseur. Ten artists sketching the same subject will pro- duce ten totally different conceptions of it. Not one of them but has some characteristic quality, the sign manual of the artist. The personal sign In great exhibitions like the Royal Academy or the Salon all the pictures can be grouped into a few sections according to their conventions. It will be found that a few great masters of pronounced originality have developed .styles or conventions of their own. Nearly all the rest are more or less frank imitations of these conventions, each painter being led by his personal perceptions to follow one or another, and yet each will have some peculiarity of manner, which, if he be strong and original himself, will some day develop into a style. A good theoretical knowledge of art may be ob- tained from books plus a familiarity with good pictures but no critic is able to judge truly of the merits of a picture without a practical experience 8i Need of practical experience The magic of knowing how The building of a picture with paint. What seems easy and a matter of course in the finished work may be in fact a tre- mendous triumph of skill over difficulties and per contra, the lurid and catchy effect may be the re- sult of some simple commonplace trick of the studio, A study which seems hopelessly weak can be made to glow and sparkle by means of a few judicious strokes of accent. An edge here, a dot of color there, a point of shadow or a high light else- where. It blooms out like the unfolding of a morn- ing glory. An overworked sketch which has run to mud can be cleared up by a few careful touches of pure color placed just where they will give the local keynote to each mass. Accent Too much value cannot be placed on accent. It is the concentration of light or color in small points which give spirit and value and express relief and contrast. Every mass has its accent somewhere. "Papillonage" is an expressive French term for which there is no English equivalent. Many de- tached lights and spots of bright color or shadow suggest the restless, flicking movement of a butter- fly; hence the name. The result is a certain disloca- tion of composition which takes it out of the realm of fine art and puts it over on the side of decora- tion — provided, of course, that it is otherwise good. 8a The sketch "Cherchez, cherchez, toujours." Jt Eyes have been ruined, pecks of them, not to speak of the acres of canvas, by this mischievQUS, unqualified formula. That excessive elaboration of surface called "fin- Finish ish" so dear to the heart of the Philistine and once held in toleration even by some artists has now almost passed out. It is the enemy of so many more important qualities, so inconsistent with spirituality, breadth, grandeur, atmosphere and so on that art- ists sacrifice it without ruth. It so happens that these highest qualities are the very ones which are most difficult to understand by the uncultured many, while minute detail is plain to even the lowest intelligence. This fact is not likely to influence artists to their hurt so long as "art is for art's sake" and the art- ist's judgment must always be the final word, but beginners may be sometimes bewildered between the applause of the untaught and the dictum of the teacher. "And when the evening mist clothes the river- side with poetry, as with a veil, and the poor build- ings lose themselves in the dim sky, and the tall chimneys become campaniles, and the warehouses 83 The building of a picture are palaces in the night, and the whole city hangs in the heavens, and fairyland is before us — then the wayfarer hastens home; the working man and the cultured one, the wise man and the one of pleas- ure, cease to understand as they have ceased to see, and Nature, who, for once, has sung in tune, sings her exquisite song to the artist alone, her son and her master, her son in that he loves her, her master in that he knows her." — Whistler. ^^ , , When the heart is full of the gladness of art the The impulse , , , . , . . , . to paint eager hands hasten with nnpatient desire to impart it to the world, but the most successful effort of the highest inspiration always falls short of the fullness of the message. The placid perseverance of methodical industry has no more art or inspiration in it than the turn- ing of a grindstone. Lovely color and graceful outline and clever tex- ture are good things, but we need more, much more for the making of a real picture. When /he soul is brimming with an overflowing bounty of beauty, all means are inadequate to express the full- ness of its splendor. Man has not yet come to his full heritage, but every new mode of expression is an added language which brings him a little nearer to it. 84 The sketch "Industry in art is a necessity, not a virtue— and any evidence of the same, in the production, is a blemish, not a quality." "The completed task of perseverance only, has never been begun, and will remain unfinished to eternity— a monument of good will and foolishness." —Whistler. In the painting of a tree, its bulk, its projection The great in space, its envelope of atmosphere, the grace of qualities its movement, the majesty of its mass — these are the qualities which impress us. All the petty ama- teurish niggling with leaf and twiglet which delights the great unlearned adds not one iota of value, but may sweep out of existence all the real beauties which make the thing a joy forever. ^^ If the subject be a rose, a cathedral, a human face, or a burro the same principle equally applies. Whoever has seen the exquisite jewel-like cabi- net pictures of Diaz or Rico with their rich textures, vivid color, dazzling light and telling composition, has recognized that a broad handling, even on a small scale, is consistent with the expression of all of which paint is capable. Some good work has been done by the analytic method in which the painting is built up, touch by touch, beginning with the detail and finishing with the glazed shadow but nothng short of genius can accomplish it, and the labor of it is enormous. 85 The building of a picture To be modern is to paint synthetically, com- mencing with masses as if blocking it out in clay, aiming first at the grand qualities, composition, light, color and atmosphere. Detail is added last of all. if at all, and used as accent to the masses. THE PAINTER F I HAD but six pennies in the world I would use three of them to buy me a loaf Beauty the of bread and with the other three I would '°°'*°' buy a white hyacinth to feed my soul" — Goethe To every spiritually conscious man there comes, sooner or later, to some often, the day of fasting in the desert. It is in his bitter hour of discourage- ment, under the juniper tree, that art comes to him as the ravens to Elijah, to feed his soul. The hungering and thirsting for beauty is innate in man. As the starved body shrinks and perishes for want of physical aliment, so does the starved spirit languish and suffer atrophy. «7 the soul The building of a picture Without the sense of beauty in Hfe (and art is its language) nian is but a one-sided creature. Like a one-sided wheel, he goes through life with a limp. Originality The gift most valued b}"- artists is originality. It seems every year as if the entire scale of subject and treatment had been exhausted and there re- mained nothing more but to repeat the best things already done. Once in a while some man will dis- cover a new line of subjects, a new locality of paintable quality, or a new way of looking at an old thing. In each case he becomes the man of the hour and the pattern for a hundred imitators. The art impulse and the artist's equipment A hunger for beauty and the faculty for recog- nizing and reproducing it are the impulses which drive men to paint and carve, and keep them at it if need be through poverty and neglect. Beside these gifts are three essential requirements in the making of a painter. First, his mind must be stored with the necessary facts about nature and the use of materials. In the occupations of ordinary daily life there is so litle occasion for exact knowledge of objects that the sight becomes atrophied by dis- use. The painter must see with the keenness of an Indian on the trail. He must be able to recog- nize and compare masses, outlines, modulations of surface, light and tint. He must learn to see. Lastly, the skilful use of implements and pigments requires the same patient practice as the technique The painter of the piano or violin. Whether the tool be brush or pencil there is no escape from incessant, long- continued practice with the fingers. They must be trained to execute the will of the mind. S What becomes of the thousands of young artists who yearly graduate out of the art schools into the world of productive activity? It looks as if the profession of painting must inevitably become swamped from over-production. The annual brood Not so, however. It is the old story of the fit and few. Good pictures are as saleable as ever they were. Prices are as good as ever they were. But have you noticed the marvelous improvement in wall paper in late years, in ceiling decoration, in color and pattern of fabrics of all kinds, carpets, furniture, stained glass, metal work, everything^ in fact, to which ornament or decoration can be ap- plied, not to speak of commercial lithography, news- paper illustration and similar artistic industries? Countless byways Of six girls studying art side by side, three will marry, one will color photographs, another will be- come a designer, and the last a teacher or perhaps a house decorator. Of six boys graduating together, three will become newspaper illustrators, one a scene painter, another a modeler, still another a lithographer or what 89 The building of a picture The fit and few not. Perhaps one of the dozen will stick to the brush through every discouragement and in course of time will blossom out as a successful painter. Following the line of least resistance the majority prefer the assured salary or the easy berth, dropping out of the line one by one until only the fit sur- vive and the fit are always few. Specialism The early career of many eminent painters has been a series of experiments. Everything beautiful seems so well worth painting that it requires both will and courage to follow out a single line of work to its ultimate conquest. It is the specialist who wins, however, whether the limitation be a matter of accident or preference. Personal temperament will always be a large factor in determining the choice or treatment of any class of subjects. Subject and temperament Surely every phase of human passion is a legi- timate subject for painting as is every phase of beauty in nature. Sadness and tragedjr are quite as acceptable in painting as in the drama. Undoubtedly it is good for us that we may find hope and inspiration in the painted despair of Hagar prone on the desert sands unwitting of the angel who stands near with deliverance in his hands. Yet there are some men, notably of the Dutch 90 The painter school, who find nature always weeping, who see in humanity nothing worth recording but tears, the wretchedness of poverty, the bitterness of disappoint- ment, the horror of death. Perhaps we need such pictures but the painter whose one note is a note of sadness is the same man who is forever complaining of his rheumatism. And there are those whose entire artistic output is limited to a single narrow convention. Such a case is like a tune written with but two notes for melody and harmony or like an endless repetition of the chord 5-1, an agreeable and good enough chord — occasionally. Nay, I have in mind one painter of a single dis- agreeable note who reminds me of notliing finer than a wheelborrow in need of axle grease. The work of some other man rests you. Whether he paints a figure or a landscape, a cattle piece or ^°^ a bag of potatoes his finished work has always that serene completeness which invites to content and repose. "Alabama, here let us rest," it says. Such a picture is a well spring of perennial joy, good for every day's meditation, saints' days and holidays in- cluded. The modern reversion to old types and archaic composition is nothing more than a seeking after sentiment, that strange elusive charm of thrills and shivers which dwells in the half ghostly creations of the early renaissance. 91 forever The building of a picture Is it a useless quest? That sentiment is an odor from the mouldy borderland between a dead past and an awakening future. Today we stand in the dawn of a new time, on the threshold of a new era where art and commerce join hands. Art, strange and beautiful as ever, but illumined by the clear light of science in which there is no glamor of mystery. The painter is no longer a mystic, a recluse, a hermit, an alchemist. He is a plain business man, well skilled in his craft, who works for good dollars and estimates his ability solely by its commercial value. He is keeping up with the procession. And yet the old spirit of art is not dead, that spirit which, like charity "seeketh not her own, hopeth all things, endureth all things," nor are all men and women yet blind or deaf to its presence. You may find them up and down the quiet ways of life, listening for the faint and far-off echoes which fall on the world-wearied spirit of man like the sound of church bells after war. So long as human hearts yearn for consolation, so long as human spirits feel the impulse of a diviner life, so long will they find in art a refuge, and seek it as a fountain of life; so long also will be found in the world seers and poets and painters whose chief joy in life is to interpret the sweet spirit of the Master's music. 92 fc^ LOAN PERIOD 1 HOME USE RETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT TO^- 198 Main Stacks 1 0^ ro O^ CO