DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20678#0014
A FAMILIAR TREATISE
ON
DRAWING, FOR YOUTH.
THE study of the imitative arts is so general that it
is needless to apologise for adding another elementary
work to the number already in circulation. It is hoped
that the present attempt will be found acceptable, as
offering a desirable medium between the very expen-
sive essays on the Fine Arts on the one hand, and the
inferior, confined examples on the contrary. Yet, while
we set aside comparison with those costly originals, as
to their extent, we would not shrink from the most
scrutinizing criticism as to the real and intrinsic merit
of the examples here presented to the student: so
that while thus a basis is offered, on which a super-
structure of excellence may be founded, these speci-
mens, selected from the highest authorities, will guaran-
tee the youthful mind from that vitiated taste which
inferior originals inevitably tend to produce.
The mind naturally prefers immediate facility in all
its enterprizes ; seldom considering whether those paths
which are easiest to commence are most useful to
continue. In the present instance, perhaps Flowers or
Landscapes would be preferred by the juvenile prac-
titioner ; but the very circumstance which renders them
apparently preferable produces their real unaptness:
namely, that defects of representation in the leaf of a
ON
DRAWING, FOR YOUTH.
THE study of the imitative arts is so general that it
is needless to apologise for adding another elementary
work to the number already in circulation. It is hoped
that the present attempt will be found acceptable, as
offering a desirable medium between the very expen-
sive essays on the Fine Arts on the one hand, and the
inferior, confined examples on the contrary. Yet, while
we set aside comparison with those costly originals, as
to their extent, we would not shrink from the most
scrutinizing criticism as to the real and intrinsic merit
of the examples here presented to the student: so
that while thus a basis is offered, on which a super-
structure of excellence may be founded, these speci-
mens, selected from the highest authorities, will guaran-
tee the youthful mind from that vitiated taste which
inferior originals inevitably tend to produce.
The mind naturally prefers immediate facility in all
its enterprizes ; seldom considering whether those paths
which are easiest to commence are most useful to
continue. In the present instance, perhaps Flowers or
Landscapes would be preferred by the juvenile prac-
titioner ; but the very circumstance which renders them
apparently preferable produces their real unaptness:
namely, that defects of representation in the leaf of a