DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20658#0226
212
LANDSCAPE.
the most characteristic lights and shades. As these effects depend on the shapes of the cloudy
combined with their motions unequal and irregular, the representations of them in painting are
arbitrary, and furnish a wide field for the display of the artist's powers : at the same time that
Claude Lorraine and some other great landscape painters seem to have made no use of such
natural incidents; because their effects counteracted that calm serenity which they loved to
represent.
The Sky and Clouds. In the language of the painter the sky means the ethereal firmament
above us, or rather the air in which we breathe, and where clouds and storms are produced. This
sky is of a blue colour, drawing more to a white as it approaches the earth, on account of the
intervention of vapours hovering along the surface of the ground, which being penetrated by the
light communicate it to objects, in a greater or less degree, according to their distance from the
eye.
It is to be observed however that this light being yellowish or reddish at sun-set, those objects
partake not only of the light but of the yellow or red colour; consequently the yellow light ming-
ling with the blue sky gives it a tint more or less greenish, as the yellow colour is more or less
deep. This observation is universal and infallible: but there are many others which the painter
must make on the ground, marking them with his pencil as they occasionally appear: for there
are, in the various appearances of the sky and light, a multitude of curious circumstances which
can neither be described nor readily accounted for. Thus we often observe in the brightest part
of certain clouds a fine red colour, at the same time that the light which illuminates them is of a
lively remarkable yellow. Various reds are likewise visible in different clouds, whilst those red
parts are all illuminated in one place. Such colours and appearances seem to be produced by
other natural causes than those to which we owe the beautiful arches of the rain-bow. These
effects are most observable in an evening, when the state of the weather approaches to a change;
before or after a storm ; or when it is not entirely over, but leaves some marks of its existence,
sufficient to attract our notice.
The property of clouds is to be thin, and of an airy texture; their shapes though of endless
variety ought to be carefully observed and studied from nature, as they present themselves to the
eye. In order to make them look thin in a picture, the grounds over which they pass ought to
be made to unite with them, as if the clouds were transparent, especially towards their edges :
But if the clouds are to be represented of considerable thickness, then the reflection from them
must be so managed that, without entirely destroying their transparency, they may be made to
unite with other clouds in their neighbourhood. Small clouds in a painting seldom have a good
effect, and betray a feebleness of manner in the artist, excepting when they are so near one to
another as, in a general way, to be considered as forming only one object.
Upon the whole, ic must be remembered that the character of the sky is to be luminous, and
that consequently all objects on the earth must be inferior in brightness. The only objects which
can at all rival the sky are water and polished surfaces, susceptible of luminous reflection.
The artist must also recollect that, although the sky be luminous, it is not always equally bright
in all places, nor to be so represented. On the contrary, he must distribute his lights in such a
manner that its greatest force may fall upon one place of the piece ; and also to make this bright
place still more distinguished, or to give it more relief and effect, by contrasting it with some object
on the ground, such as a tree, a tower or other elevated body, of an obscure colour.
This
i
LANDSCAPE.
the most characteristic lights and shades. As these effects depend on the shapes of the cloudy
combined with their motions unequal and irregular, the representations of them in painting are
arbitrary, and furnish a wide field for the display of the artist's powers : at the same time that
Claude Lorraine and some other great landscape painters seem to have made no use of such
natural incidents; because their effects counteracted that calm serenity which they loved to
represent.
The Sky and Clouds. In the language of the painter the sky means the ethereal firmament
above us, or rather the air in which we breathe, and where clouds and storms are produced. This
sky is of a blue colour, drawing more to a white as it approaches the earth, on account of the
intervention of vapours hovering along the surface of the ground, which being penetrated by the
light communicate it to objects, in a greater or less degree, according to their distance from the
eye.
It is to be observed however that this light being yellowish or reddish at sun-set, those objects
partake not only of the light but of the yellow or red colour; consequently the yellow light ming-
ling with the blue sky gives it a tint more or less greenish, as the yellow colour is more or less
deep. This observation is universal and infallible: but there are many others which the painter
must make on the ground, marking them with his pencil as they occasionally appear: for there
are, in the various appearances of the sky and light, a multitude of curious circumstances which
can neither be described nor readily accounted for. Thus we often observe in the brightest part
of certain clouds a fine red colour, at the same time that the light which illuminates them is of a
lively remarkable yellow. Various reds are likewise visible in different clouds, whilst those red
parts are all illuminated in one place. Such colours and appearances seem to be produced by
other natural causes than those to which we owe the beautiful arches of the rain-bow. These
effects are most observable in an evening, when the state of the weather approaches to a change;
before or after a storm ; or when it is not entirely over, but leaves some marks of its existence,
sufficient to attract our notice.
The property of clouds is to be thin, and of an airy texture; their shapes though of endless
variety ought to be carefully observed and studied from nature, as they present themselves to the
eye. In order to make them look thin in a picture, the grounds over which they pass ought to
be made to unite with them, as if the clouds were transparent, especially towards their edges :
But if the clouds are to be represented of considerable thickness, then the reflection from them
must be so managed that, without entirely destroying their transparency, they may be made to
unite with other clouds in their neighbourhood. Small clouds in a painting seldom have a good
effect, and betray a feebleness of manner in the artist, excepting when they are so near one to
another as, in a general way, to be considered as forming only one object.
Upon the whole, ic must be remembered that the character of the sky is to be luminous, and
that consequently all objects on the earth must be inferior in brightness. The only objects which
can at all rival the sky are water and polished surfaces, susceptible of luminous reflection.
The artist must also recollect that, although the sky be luminous, it is not always equally bright
in all places, nor to be so represented. On the contrary, he must distribute his lights in such a
manner that its greatest force may fall upon one place of the piece ; and also to make this bright
place still more distinguished, or to give it more relief and effect, by contrasting it with some object
on the ground, such as a tree, a tower or other elevated body, of an obscure colour.
This
i