Rowbotham, Thomas Leeson; Rowbotham, Thomas Charles Leeson [Ill.]; Dalziel, George [Ill.]: The Art Of Sketching From Nature (London, 1852)

10

DISTANCE OF THE PICTURE.

him, would appeal to rise from the spot on which he
stood, the limit of that rise being determined by a clear
and well-defined straight line, called the horizontal line.
This will at once be understood, in the example of the sea
or of a lake, between which and the sky no object is
supposed to intervene.

This horizontal line—or (as the word* implies) this
boundary—-lies exactly opposite to the range of the eye,
when the spectator, in moving round from left to right,
or from right to left, looks before him in a direction
neither above nor below the natural plane of his vision.
It is important that the learner should have a clear and
distinct apprehension of what this horizontal line is;
because it is to this line that every other line is referred,
and that by its means the accuracy of the drawing is
secured.

DISTANCE OF THE PICTURE.

In Fig. 1, a landscape is supposed to be viewed from
the spot marked E; and that the spectator is desirous
of representing on the plane of his paper a certain portion
of the scene as seen by him from this point. That portion
constitutes his real picture.

Here, therefore, arises the first question; that of de-

* The word horizon is nothing more than the participle of the Greek
verb signifying " to bound."