DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19949#0053
ON THE CHOICE OF SUBJECT.
49
able to himself, and his works presentable to others. To
beginners, the great precept of one of the most accom-
plished of our living landscape painters is, to " study
little bits/' a precept which will apply equally to sketch-
ing as to painting.
Among the subjects forming the wood-cuts, which
illustrate these instructions, there are many which might
serve as initiatory essays j and others of various degrees
of progress, even to compositions which might be worked
up into drawings and paintings of considerable beauty.
All artists have some peculiarity in their method of
sketching, and rapid and broad sketches are frequently
intelligible only to those who make them. One of the best
qualities, however, of a sketch is, that it should not only
refresh the memory of the artist, but should be suggestive
and intelligible to every one.
With a little education, the eye will discover material
for study everywhere. London and its environs abound
with subjects of picturesque beauty. Hampstead, High-
gate ; the banks and wharves of the Thames down even
to the Nore; every suburban locality; all the green lanes,
and the commons with which they communicate, abound
with materials which may be wrought into pictures of the
highest degree of interest. These are the localities which
have contributed to form many of the best of our land-
scape painters; and so it is elsewhere; there is no spot
in the country so entirely divested of picturesque character,
4
49
able to himself, and his works presentable to others. To
beginners, the great precept of one of the most accom-
plished of our living landscape painters is, to " study
little bits/' a precept which will apply equally to sketch-
ing as to painting.
Among the subjects forming the wood-cuts, which
illustrate these instructions, there are many which might
serve as initiatory essays j and others of various degrees
of progress, even to compositions which might be worked
up into drawings and paintings of considerable beauty.
All artists have some peculiarity in their method of
sketching, and rapid and broad sketches are frequently
intelligible only to those who make them. One of the best
qualities, however, of a sketch is, that it should not only
refresh the memory of the artist, but should be suggestive
and intelligible to every one.
With a little education, the eye will discover material
for study everywhere. London and its environs abound
with subjects of picturesque beauty. Hampstead, High-
gate ; the banks and wharves of the Thames down even
to the Nore; every suburban locality; all the green lanes,
and the commons with which they communicate, abound
with materials which may be wrought into pictures of the
highest degree of interest. These are the localities which
have contributed to form many of the best of our land-
scape painters; and so it is elsewhere; there is no spot
in the country so entirely divested of picturesque character,
4