DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18972#0352
324
THE ELEMENTS OP DKAWING. [letter hi.
the two ships, and thus give a greater expression of
repose; but two sitting figures would have done this.
Its third and chief, or pathetic, purpose is, as it
lies abandoned in the furrow (the vessels also being
moored, and having their sails down), to be a type of
human labour closed with the close of day. The
parts of it on which the hand leans are brought most
clearly into sight; and they are the chief dark of the
picture, because the tillage of the ground is required
of man as a punishment; but they make the soft light
of the setting sun brighter, because rest is sweetest
after toil. These thoughts may never occur to us as
we glance carelessly at the design; and yet their
under current assuredly affects the feelings, and in-
creases, as the painter meant it should, the impres-
sion of melancholy, and of peace.
Again, in the " Lancaster Sands," which is one of
the plates I have marked as most desirable for your
possession; the stream of light which falls from the
setting sun on the advancing tide stands similarly
in need of some force of near object to relieve its
brightness. But the incident which Turner has here
THE ELEMENTS OP DKAWING. [letter hi.
the two ships, and thus give a greater expression of
repose; but two sitting figures would have done this.
Its third and chief, or pathetic, purpose is, as it
lies abandoned in the furrow (the vessels also being
moored, and having their sails down), to be a type of
human labour closed with the close of day. The
parts of it on which the hand leans are brought most
clearly into sight; and they are the chief dark of the
picture, because the tillage of the ground is required
of man as a punishment; but they make the soft light
of the setting sun brighter, because rest is sweetest
after toil. These thoughts may never occur to us as
we glance carelessly at the design; and yet their
under current assuredly affects the feelings, and in-
creases, as the painter meant it should, the impres-
sion of melancholy, and of peace.
Again, in the " Lancaster Sands," which is one of
the plates I have marked as most desirable for your
possession; the stream of light which falls from the
setting sun on the advancing tide stands similarly
in need of some force of near object to relieve its
brightness. But the incident which Turner has here