DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20658#0231
LANDSCAPE. 217
One consideration of great importance is, that the figures be proportionate to the trees and
bushes, houses, or other well known objects near which they are supposed to be placed, that
they may appear neither pigmies nor giants, but real beings in the midst of real scenery. Should
the figures however be smaller than due proportion requires, the effect will be better than if they
were too large, as in this case the surrounding objects will acquire an air of magnitude, one of
the sources of grandeur. As the figures in landscapes, properly so called, must necessarily be
small, they must be touched with a spirit and animation which the best judges will commend,
even although it should in some degree overpass the truth of natural appearance.
Of Trees. These furnish one of the greatest beatfties of landscape, on account of their variety
of sorts and forms, in trunks, branches, and foliage; the vigour and freshness of their growth
when young, the picturesque effects they produce when old, and the light airy appearance they
present to the view, when still or animated with great varieties of graceful or violent motion.
The different sorts of trees demand the painter's utmost attention, that they maybe presented to
the spectator with such features as to leave him in no doubt to what sorts they belong ; whether
oaks, elms, ashes, planes, firs, poplars, willows, &c. &,c. Hence arises one of the difficulties in
the student's way in executing landscape ; a difficulty not to be removed but by a careful and
constant study of such objects, as they appear in nature : but besides this variety in the sorts of
trees even those of the same species are liable to endless variations, in their conformation and
colouring, from many incidental causes inexplicable by us. From these two kinds of variety
the painter is supplied with an abundant stock of materials, for enriching his scenes with objects
the most agreeable and interesting ; at the same time that he is not permitted to plead this
boundless variety of nature, as an apology for his want of discriminating accurately their several
characteristic features. The multiplied diversity of shapes or makes of trees, of the position and
distribution of their branches, of their bark and foliage, is such as to defy description: but this
very variety leaves the painter without excuse, if his productions possess not that air of truth and
nature without which no landscape can or ought to please.
In the 4th Section of this Book, sundry observations and advices were presented to the learner,
for assisting him in gaining some proficiency in landscape-painting. To those the following
may be added in this place. Having made a multitude of separate sketches, or a study of
whatever objects or parts of objects they think may properly appear in their future works, these
drawings or copies ought to be arranged under certain heads, or according to the several subjects
with which they are connected, in order to be consulted and brought forward, as proper materials
for his projected compositions. It is true that, in order to produce a good effect, even with the
most abundant supply of the best materials, the artist must be born with sense, genius, and tast§;
but these endowments may be highly improved by cultivation, observing the practice of the
greatest masters, in their choice of natural objects, and their manner of disposing them, so as to
produce the most picturesque effects, without seeming to depart from the chaste sobriety of
nature.
In the prosecution of these studies different practices have been followed by different artists.
Some have made their designs from nature in the open air, and finished the drawings, but without
applying the colours. Others have made their sketches in oil colours in middle tint on strong
paper, and found a convenience in doing so, as the several colours sinking in the paper, they
were enabled to apply one over another, however different it might be. This method, which
3 k requires
One consideration of great importance is, that the figures be proportionate to the trees and
bushes, houses, or other well known objects near which they are supposed to be placed, that
they may appear neither pigmies nor giants, but real beings in the midst of real scenery. Should
the figures however be smaller than due proportion requires, the effect will be better than if they
were too large, as in this case the surrounding objects will acquire an air of magnitude, one of
the sources of grandeur. As the figures in landscapes, properly so called, must necessarily be
small, they must be touched with a spirit and animation which the best judges will commend,
even although it should in some degree overpass the truth of natural appearance.
Of Trees. These furnish one of the greatest beatfties of landscape, on account of their variety
of sorts and forms, in trunks, branches, and foliage; the vigour and freshness of their growth
when young, the picturesque effects they produce when old, and the light airy appearance they
present to the view, when still or animated with great varieties of graceful or violent motion.
The different sorts of trees demand the painter's utmost attention, that they maybe presented to
the spectator with such features as to leave him in no doubt to what sorts they belong ; whether
oaks, elms, ashes, planes, firs, poplars, willows, &c. &,c. Hence arises one of the difficulties in
the student's way in executing landscape ; a difficulty not to be removed but by a careful and
constant study of such objects, as they appear in nature : but besides this variety in the sorts of
trees even those of the same species are liable to endless variations, in their conformation and
colouring, from many incidental causes inexplicable by us. From these two kinds of variety
the painter is supplied with an abundant stock of materials, for enriching his scenes with objects
the most agreeable and interesting ; at the same time that he is not permitted to plead this
boundless variety of nature, as an apology for his want of discriminating accurately their several
characteristic features. The multiplied diversity of shapes or makes of trees, of the position and
distribution of their branches, of their bark and foliage, is such as to defy description: but this
very variety leaves the painter without excuse, if his productions possess not that air of truth and
nature without which no landscape can or ought to please.
In the 4th Section of this Book, sundry observations and advices were presented to the learner,
for assisting him in gaining some proficiency in landscape-painting. To those the following
may be added in this place. Having made a multitude of separate sketches, or a study of
whatever objects or parts of objects they think may properly appear in their future works, these
drawings or copies ought to be arranged under certain heads, or according to the several subjects
with which they are connected, in order to be consulted and brought forward, as proper materials
for his projected compositions. It is true that, in order to produce a good effect, even with the
most abundant supply of the best materials, the artist must be born with sense, genius, and tast§;
but these endowments may be highly improved by cultivation, observing the practice of the
greatest masters, in their choice of natural objects, and their manner of disposing them, so as to
produce the most picturesque effects, without seeming to depart from the chaste sobriety of
nature.
In the prosecution of these studies different practices have been followed by different artists.
Some have made their designs from nature in the open air, and finished the drawings, but without
applying the colours. Others have made their sketches in oil colours in middle tint on strong
paper, and found a convenience in doing so, as the several colours sinking in the paper, they
were enabled to apply one over another, however different it might be. This method, which
3 k requires