DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18751#0009
5
spot: the groups then assume the air of nature; their occupations are
mostly accordant to the scene; and they are consequently appropriate in
action, character, and every essential that constitutes fitness or propriety.
The eye that is accustomed to look for truth of representation in all
the embellishments of a landscape, cannot tolerate what is so commonly
met with in pictures of great merit in many other respects ; namely, the
want of character, not only in figures, but in expletives, that should give
value from their form and appropriate uses. A pump or well, a wheel-
barrow, a cart, plough, or other object, if not represented with atten-
tion to mechanical construction, instead of adding to the interest of the
piece, really deteriorates its merit.
The student should make himself acquainted with the true form of
these objects, by carefully drawing them in every point of view. This study
is amusing as well as useful, great satisfaction resulting from a successful
imitation of any object that can be introduced into a picture. Our best
painters copied nature in detail, or they could never have produced such
identity in every object which they represent. Nothing appears a labour
to those who have drawn with accuracy at the commencement of their
study. Gainsborough, whose pictures appear to the unskilled in art
scarcely intelligible, copied weeds, dock-leaves, and all the minutiae of
fore-grounds with unwearied accuracy: hence a few touches of his
magic pencil described the character of such objects.
It would be no less useful to copy groups of animals from the best
prints of these subjects, previously to attempting to draw them from na-
ture: for cows, horses, asses, deer, sheep, dogs, and pigs, should be
represented with as much truth of character as the human figure; and a
landscape, however well painted, wherein these domestic animals appear
defective in character, loses half its charm.
Hills's Etchings of Animals drawn from nature form the most cele-
brated work designed for this purpose, and should be possessed by all
spot: the groups then assume the air of nature; their occupations are
mostly accordant to the scene; and they are consequently appropriate in
action, character, and every essential that constitutes fitness or propriety.
The eye that is accustomed to look for truth of representation in all
the embellishments of a landscape, cannot tolerate what is so commonly
met with in pictures of great merit in many other respects ; namely, the
want of character, not only in figures, but in expletives, that should give
value from their form and appropriate uses. A pump or well, a wheel-
barrow, a cart, plough, or other object, if not represented with atten-
tion to mechanical construction, instead of adding to the interest of the
piece, really deteriorates its merit.
The student should make himself acquainted with the true form of
these objects, by carefully drawing them in every point of view. This study
is amusing as well as useful, great satisfaction resulting from a successful
imitation of any object that can be introduced into a picture. Our best
painters copied nature in detail, or they could never have produced such
identity in every object which they represent. Nothing appears a labour
to those who have drawn with accuracy at the commencement of their
study. Gainsborough, whose pictures appear to the unskilled in art
scarcely intelligible, copied weeds, dock-leaves, and all the minutiae of
fore-grounds with unwearied accuracy: hence a few touches of his
magic pencil described the character of such objects.
It would be no less useful to copy groups of animals from the best
prints of these subjects, previously to attempting to draw them from na-
ture: for cows, horses, asses, deer, sheep, dogs, and pigs, should be
represented with as much truth of character as the human figure; and a
landscape, however well painted, wherein these domestic animals appear
defective in character, loses half its charm.
Hills's Etchings of Animals drawn from nature form the most cele-
brated work designed for this purpose, and should be possessed by all