DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18975#0212
172
THE ELEMENTS OF DRAWING
quietly, at their edges; just folding one over another as they
meet, like a little piece of ruffled silk, and leaping up a little
as two children kiss and clap their hands, and then going
on again, each in its silent hurry, drawing pointed arches on
the sand as their thin edges intersect in parting. But all
this would not have been enough expressed without the
line of the old pier-timbers, black with weeds, strained and
bent by the storm waves, and now seeming to stoop in
following one another, like dark ghosts escaping slowly from
the cruelty of the pursuing sea.
202. I need not, I hope, point out to the reader the
illustration of this law of continuance in the subject chosen
for our general illustration. It was simply that gradual
succession of the retiring arches of the bridge which in-
duced Turner to paint the subject at all; and it was this
same principle which led him always to seize on subjects
including long bridges wherever he could find them; but
especially, observe, unequal bridges, having the highest arch
at one side rather than at the centre. There is a reason
for this, irrespective of general laws of composition, and con-
nected with the nature of rivers, which I may as well stop
a minute to tell you about, and let you rest from the study
of composition.
208. All rivers, small or large, agree in one character,
they like to lean a little on one side: they cannot bear to
have their channels deepest in the middle, but will always,
if they can, have one bank to sun themselves upon, and
another to get cool under; one shingly shore to play over,
where they may be shallow, and foolish, and childlike, and
another steep shore, under which they can pause, and purify
themselves, and get their strength of waves fully together
for due occasion. Rivers in this way are just like wise
men, who keep one side of their life for play, and another
for work ; and can be brilliant, and chattering, and trans-
parent, when they are at ease, and yet take deep counsel
on the other side when they set themselves to their main
purpose. And rivers are just in this divided, also, like
THE ELEMENTS OF DRAWING
quietly, at their edges; just folding one over another as they
meet, like a little piece of ruffled silk, and leaping up a little
as two children kiss and clap their hands, and then going
on again, each in its silent hurry, drawing pointed arches on
the sand as their thin edges intersect in parting. But all
this would not have been enough expressed without the
line of the old pier-timbers, black with weeds, strained and
bent by the storm waves, and now seeming to stoop in
following one another, like dark ghosts escaping slowly from
the cruelty of the pursuing sea.
202. I need not, I hope, point out to the reader the
illustration of this law of continuance in the subject chosen
for our general illustration. It was simply that gradual
succession of the retiring arches of the bridge which in-
duced Turner to paint the subject at all; and it was this
same principle which led him always to seize on subjects
including long bridges wherever he could find them; but
especially, observe, unequal bridges, having the highest arch
at one side rather than at the centre. There is a reason
for this, irrespective of general laws of composition, and con-
nected with the nature of rivers, which I may as well stop
a minute to tell you about, and let you rest from the study
of composition.
208. All rivers, small or large, agree in one character,
they like to lean a little on one side: they cannot bear to
have their channels deepest in the middle, but will always,
if they can, have one bank to sun themselves upon, and
another to get cool under; one shingly shore to play over,
where they may be shallow, and foolish, and childlike, and
another steep shore, under which they can pause, and purify
themselves, and get their strength of waves fully together
for due occasion. Rivers in this way are just like wise
men, who keep one side of their life for play, and another
for work ; and can be brilliant, and chattering, and trans-
parent, when they are at ease, and yet take deep counsel
on the other side when they set themselves to their main
purpose. And rivers are just in this divided, also, like