DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20658#0264
250
WATER-COLOURS.
the painter. Again, if the purposes of real utility to which the arts of design are applicable be
considered, their importance in society will be manifest. In mechanics, and in the con-
struction of machinery, mere description will not answer the purpose of explanation ; ocular
exhibition of the machine by drawing is indispensable. The perfection to which various
manufactures are now brought would never probably have been attained without the knowledge
©f colours originally studied for improving the art of the designer. Each particular branch of
designing has its favourite professors and patrons ; but the practice of landscape, from the
boundless variety of subjects it embraces, and the consequent interest it excites, may be considered
as more generally pleasing than any other. When practised for amusement a moderate degree
of proficiency is more tolerable in landscape than in the other branches of drawing or painting,
The artist who makes them his profession is, on the other hand, required to be familiar with a
multitude of natural appearances ; so that his arrival at excellence is not much less difficult than
any other part of design.
To the traveller for local information or mere amusement, the practice of drawing is of high
utility; and many of the advantages to be derived from visiting foreign, or even remote home
countries, are lost by inability to practice it in some degree. A beautiful scene in nature, the
remains of ancient magnificence, the theatre of some memorable exploit, a romantic site, the
external figure of a remarkable city ;—these are some of the objects which the traveller may
encounter, of which no verbal description can convey to the stranger a sufficient idea. According
to the feelings of the writer a description may far exceed, or come short of the truth ; but a
graphic representation must exhibit the several objects as they actually exist. The traveller
who, by moderate application, is prepared to delineate or sketch the objects or scenes presented
to his view, secures to himself the recollection ; and toothers the exhibition of numerous objects
and circumstances which would otherwise leave but a faint impression on his memory. He is
also capable of receiving from the view of natural objects a degree of pleasure, of which another
person not so prepared can scarcely form a conception. The difference in this case is like that
between two persons of equally defective sight, of whom the one is enabled, by means of glasses,
to see distinctly those objects which to the unaided eyes of the other appear indistinct and
confused. Nor can any one wholly uninstructed in the art of design describe with propriety
the scenes he has visited ; for ignorant of the meaning of the terms of the art, if he employ them
he can scarcely avoid mistakes. A mere literary man may represent a scene as possessing the
characters of a subject of Claude Lorraine and Salvator Rosa, without perceiving that no such
combination can possibly exist. " It is scarcely in the power of words" says Mr. Hoare, in his
Inquiry, " to convey to an unprofessional reader any adequate idea of the irrelevancy of
classical ingenuity, when exercising its criticism on the arts of design. With regard to this
point much more could be said by painters than can perhaps be said without offence, where it is
their interest and their wish to please. It often creates astonishment in artists, who are apt to
conceive that every kind of knowledge is bestowed by a liberal education, to find scholars of
the most profound erudition in letters very little better informed of the properties of painting
than the idlest bov in an academy."
A person conversant with the principles of design is thereby qualified to perceive the defects
of those arrangements of natural and artificial objects, which have been formed without attention
to those principles. Such defects are but too conspicuous in many of those noble domains
which
WATER-COLOURS.
the painter. Again, if the purposes of real utility to which the arts of design are applicable be
considered, their importance in society will be manifest. In mechanics, and in the con-
struction of machinery, mere description will not answer the purpose of explanation ; ocular
exhibition of the machine by drawing is indispensable. The perfection to which various
manufactures are now brought would never probably have been attained without the knowledge
©f colours originally studied for improving the art of the designer. Each particular branch of
designing has its favourite professors and patrons ; but the practice of landscape, from the
boundless variety of subjects it embraces, and the consequent interest it excites, may be considered
as more generally pleasing than any other. When practised for amusement a moderate degree
of proficiency is more tolerable in landscape than in the other branches of drawing or painting,
The artist who makes them his profession is, on the other hand, required to be familiar with a
multitude of natural appearances ; so that his arrival at excellence is not much less difficult than
any other part of design.
To the traveller for local information or mere amusement, the practice of drawing is of high
utility; and many of the advantages to be derived from visiting foreign, or even remote home
countries, are lost by inability to practice it in some degree. A beautiful scene in nature, the
remains of ancient magnificence, the theatre of some memorable exploit, a romantic site, the
external figure of a remarkable city ;—these are some of the objects which the traveller may
encounter, of which no verbal description can convey to the stranger a sufficient idea. According
to the feelings of the writer a description may far exceed, or come short of the truth ; but a
graphic representation must exhibit the several objects as they actually exist. The traveller
who, by moderate application, is prepared to delineate or sketch the objects or scenes presented
to his view, secures to himself the recollection ; and toothers the exhibition of numerous objects
and circumstances which would otherwise leave but a faint impression on his memory. He is
also capable of receiving from the view of natural objects a degree of pleasure, of which another
person not so prepared can scarcely form a conception. The difference in this case is like that
between two persons of equally defective sight, of whom the one is enabled, by means of glasses,
to see distinctly those objects which to the unaided eyes of the other appear indistinct and
confused. Nor can any one wholly uninstructed in the art of design describe with propriety
the scenes he has visited ; for ignorant of the meaning of the terms of the art, if he employ them
he can scarcely avoid mistakes. A mere literary man may represent a scene as possessing the
characters of a subject of Claude Lorraine and Salvator Rosa, without perceiving that no such
combination can possibly exist. " It is scarcely in the power of words" says Mr. Hoare, in his
Inquiry, " to convey to an unprofessional reader any adequate idea of the irrelevancy of
classical ingenuity, when exercising its criticism on the arts of design. With regard to this
point much more could be said by painters than can perhaps be said without offence, where it is
their interest and their wish to please. It often creates astonishment in artists, who are apt to
conceive that every kind of knowledge is bestowed by a liberal education, to find scholars of
the most profound erudition in letters very little better informed of the properties of painting
than the idlest bov in an academy."
A person conversant with the principles of design is thereby qualified to perceive the defects
of those arrangements of natural and artificial objects, which have been formed without attention
to those principles. Such defects are but too conspicuous in many of those noble domains
which