Modern Painters, Volume 1 (of 5)

The work now laid before the public originated in indignation at the shallow and false criticism of the periodicals of the day on the works of the great living artist to whom it...

PAGE Sec. 1. Public opinion no criterion of excellence, except after long periods of time. 1 Sec. 2. And therefore obstinate when once formed. 4 Sec. 3. The author's reasons for...

Sec. 1. Distinction between the painter's intellectual power and technical knowledge. 8 Sec. 2. Painting, as such, is nothing more than language. 8 Sec. 3. "Painter," a term cor...

Sec. 1. What classes of ideas are conveyable by art. 13 Sec. 2. Ideas of power vary much in relative dignity. 13 Sec. 3. But are received from whatever has been the subject of p...

Sec. 1. False use of the term "imitation" by many writers on art. 17 Sec. 2. Real meaning of the term. 18 Sec. 3. What is requisite to the sense of imitation. 18 Sec. 4. The ple...

Sec. 1. Meaning of the word "truth" as applied to art. 21 Sec. 2. First difference between truth and imitation. 21 Sec. 3. Second difference. 21 Sec. 4. Third difference. 22 Sec...

Sec. 1. Definition of the term "beautiful." 26 Sec. 2. Definition of the term "taste." 26 Sec. 3. Distinction between taste and judgment. 27 Sec. 4. How far beauty may become in...

Sec. 1. General meaning of the term. 29 Sec. 2. What ideas are to be comprehended under it. 29 Sec. 3. The exceeding nobility of these ideas. 30 Sec. 4. Why no subdivision of so...

Sec. 1. No necessity for detailed study of ideas of imitation. 32 Sec. 2. Nor for separate study of ideas of power. 32 Sec. 3. Except under one particular form. 33 Sec. 4. There...

Sec. 1. Meaning of the term "execution." 36 Sec. 2. The first quality of execution is truth. 36 Sec. 3. The second, simplicity. 36 Sec. 4. The third, mystery. 37 Sec. 5. The fou...

Sec. 1. Sublimity is the effect upon the mind of anything above it. 41 Sec. 2. Burke's theory of the nature of the sublime incorrect, and why. 41 Sec. 3. Danger is sublime, but...

Sec. 1. The two great ends of landscape painting are the representation of facts and thoughts. 44 Sec. 2. They induce a different choice of material subjects. 45 Sec. 3. The fir...

Sec. 1. The common self-deception of men with respect to their power of discerning truth. 50 Sec. 2. Men usually see little of what is before their eyes. 51 Sec. 3. But more or...

Sec. 1. Necessity of determining the relative importance of truths. 58 Sec. 2. Misapplication of the aphorism: "General truths are more important than particular ones." 58 Sec....

Sec. 1. No accidental violation of nature's principles should be represented. 64 Sec. 2. But the cases in which those principles have been strikingly exemplified. 65 Sec. 3. Whi...

Sec. 1. Difference between primary and secondary qualities in bodies. 67 Sec. 2. The first are fully characteristic, the second imperfectly so. 67 Sec. 3. Color is a secondary q...

Sec. 1. The importance of historical truths. 72 Sec. 2. Form, as explained by light and shade, the first of all truths. Tone, light, and color, are secondary. 72 Sec. 3. And dec...

Sec. 1. The different selection of facts consequent on the several aims at imitation or at truth. 74 Sec. 2. The old masters, as a body, aim only at imitation. 74 Sec. 3. What t...

Sec. 1. Meanings of the word "tone:"--First, the right relation of objects in shadow to the principal light. 140 Sec. 2. Secondly, the quality of color by which it is felt to ow...

Sec. 1. Observations on the color of G. Poussin's La Riccia. 155 Sec. 2. As compared with the actual scene. 155 Sec. 3. Turner himself is inferior in brilliancy to nature. 157 S...

Sec. 1. We are not at present to examine particular effects of light. 174 Sec. 2. And therefore the distinctness of shadows is the chief means of expressing vividness of light....

Sec. 1. Space is more clearly indicated by the drawing of objects than by their hue. 185 Sec. 2. It is impossible to see objects at unequal distances distinctly at one moment. 1...

Sec. 1. The peculiar indistinctness dependent on the retirement of objects from the eye. 191 Sec. 2. Causes confusion, but not annihilation of details. 191 Sec. 3. Instances in...

Sec. 1. The peculiar adaptation of the sky to the pleasing and teaching of man. 204 Sec. 2. The carelessness with which its lessons are received. 205 Sec. 3. The most essential...

Sec. 1. Difficulty of ascertaining wherein the truth of clouds consists. 216 Sec. 2. Variation of their character at different elevations. The three regions to which they may co...

Sec. 1. Extent and typical character of the central cloud region. 226 Sec. 2. Its characteristic clouds, requiring no attention nor thought for their representation, are therefo...

Sec. 1. The apparent difference in character between the lower and central clouds is dependent chiefly on proximity. 244 Sec. 2. Their marked differences in color. 244 Sec. 3. A...

Sec. 1. Reasons for merely, at present, naming, without examining the particular effects of light rendered by Turner. 266 Sec. 2. Hopes of the author for assistance in the futur...

Sec. 1. First laws of the organization of the earth, and their importance in art. 270 Sec. 2. The slight attention ordinarily paid to them. Their careful study by modern artists...

Sec. 1. Similar character of the central peaks in all parts of the world. 275 Sec. 2. Their arrangements in pyramids or wedges, divided by vertical fissures. 275 Sec. 3. Causing...

Sec. 1. The inferior mountains are distinguished from the central, by being divided into beds. 290 Sec. 2. Farther division of these beds by joints. 290 Sec. 3. And by lines of...

Sec. 1. What rocks were the chief components of ancient landscape foreground. 309 Sec. 2. Salvator's limestones. The real characters of the rock. Its fractures, and obtuseness o...

Sec. 1. Sketch of the functions and infinite agency of water. 325 Sec. 2. The ease with which a common representation of it may be given. The impossibility of a faithful one. 32...

Sec. 1. General power of the moderns in painting quiet water. The lakes of Fielding. 348 Sec. 2. The calm rivers of De Wint, J. Holland, &c. 348 Sec. 3. The character of bright...

Sec. 1. The difficulty of giving surface to smooth water. 355 Sec. 2. Is dependent on the structure of the eye, and the focus by which the reflected rays are perceived. 355 Sec....

Sec. 1. Frequent occurrence of foliage in the works of the old masters. 384 Sec. 2. Laws common to all forest trees. Their branches do not taper, but only divide. 385 Sec. 3. Ap...

Sec. 1. No necessity of entering into discussion of architectural truth. 409 Sec. 2. Extreme difficulty of illustrating or explaining the highest truth. 410 Sec. 3. The _positiv...

Sec. 1. The entire prominence hitherto given to the works of one artist caused only by our not being able to take cognizance of _character_. 414 Sec. 2. The feelings of differen...

If it be true, and it can scarcely be disputed, that nothing has been for centuries consecrated by public admiration, without possessing in a high degree some kind of sterling e...

In the 15th Lecture of Sir Joshua Reynolds, incidental notice is taken of the distinction between those excellences in the painter which belong to him _as such_, and those which...

The definition of art which I have just given, requires me to determine what kinds of ideas can be received from works of art, and which of these are the greatest, before procee...

Fuseli, in his lectures, and many other persons of equally just and accurate habits of thought, (among others, S. T. Coleridge,) make a distinction between imitation and copying...

First,--Imitation can only be of something material, but truth has reference to statements both of the qualities of material things, and of emotions, impressions, and thoughts....

Any material object which can give us pleasure in the simple contemplation of its outward qualities without any direct and definite exertion of the intellect, I call in some way...

I use this term rather as one of convenience than as adequately expressive of the vast class of ideas which I wish to be comprehended under it, namely, all those conveyable by a...

We have seen in the last section, what classes of ideas may be conveyed by art, and we have been able so far to appreciate their relative worth as to see, that from the list, as...

All qualities of execution, properly so called, are influenced by, and in a great degree dependent on, a far higher power than that of mere execution,--knowledge of truth. For e...

It may perhaps be wondered that in the division we have made of our subject, we have taken no notice of the sublime in art, and that in our explanation of that division we have...

It cannot but be evident from the above division of the ideas conveyable by art, that the landscape painter must always have two great and distinct ends; the first, to induce in...

It may be here inquired by the reader, with much appearance of reason, why I think it necessary to devote a separate portion of the work to the showing of what is truthful in ar...

A few such interrogations as these might indeed convict, if not convince the mass of spectators of incapability, were it not for the universal reply, that they can recognize wha...

I have in the last chapter affirmed that we usually recognize objects by their least essential characteristics. This very naturally excites the inquiry what I consider their imp...

It will be necessary next for us to determine how far frequency or rarity can affect the importance of truths, and whether the artist is to be considered the most truthful who p...

In the two last chapters, we have pointed out general tests of the importance of all truths, which will be sufficient at once to distinguish certain classes of properties in bod...

capable of having any effect on art, because, though perhaps Landseer sees dogs of the color which I should call blue, yet the color he puts on the canvas, being in the same way...

It ought farther to be observed respecting truths in general, that those are always most valuable which are most historical, that is, which tell us most about the past and futur...

We have seen, in the preceding chapters, some proof of what was before asserted, that the truths necessary for deceptive imitation are not only few, but of the very lowest order...

Considering that with all this care and completeness in the background, there is nothing that is not of meaning and necessity in reference to the figures, and that in the figure...

As I have already allowed, that in effects of tone, the old masters have never yet been equalled; and as this is the first, and nearly the last, concession I shall have to make...

There is, in the first room of the National Gallery, a landscape attributed to Gaspar Poussin, called sometimes Aricia, sometimes Le or La Riccia, according to the fancy of cata...

It is not my intention to enter, in the present portion of the work, upon any examination of Turner's particular effects of light. We must know something about what is beautiful...

In the first chapter of this section I noticed the distinction between real aerial perspective, and that overcharged contrast of light and shade by which the old masters obtaine...

[26] Hardly. It would have been so only had the recently finished foregrounds been as accurate in detail as they are abundant: they are painful, I believe, not from their finish...

In the last chapter, we have seen how indistinctness of individual distances becomes necessary in order to express the adaptation of the eye to one or other of them; we have now...

It is a strange thing how little in general people know about the sky. It is the part of creation in which nature has done more for the sake of pleasing man, more for the sole a...

Our next subject of investigation must be the specific character of clouds, a species of truth which is especially neglected by artists; first, because as it is within the limit...

We have next to investigate the character of the Central Cloud Region, which I consider as including all clouds which are the usual characteristic of ordinary serene weather, an...

The clouds which I wish to consider as characteristic of the lower, or rainy region, differ not so much in their real nature from those of the central and uppermost regions, as...

I have before given my reasons (Sect. II. Chap. III.) for not wishing at present to enter upon the discussion of particular effects of light. Not only are we incapable of rightl...

By truth of earth, we mean the faithful representation of the facts and forms of the bare ground, considered as entirely divested of vegetation, through whatever disguise, or un...

It does not always follow, because a mountain is the highest of its group, that it is in reality one of the central range. The Jungfrau is only surpassed in elevation, in the ch...

We have next to investigate the character of those intermediate masses which constitute the greater part of all hill scenery, forming the outworks of the high ranges, and being...

We have already seen that there exists a marked distinction between those stratified rocks whose beds are amorphous and without subdivision, as many limestones and sandstones, a...

Of all inorganic substances, acting in their own proper nature, and without assistance or combination, water is the most wonderful. If we think of it as the source of all the ch...

There are few men among modern landscape painters, who cannot paint quiet water at least suggestively, if not faithfully. Those who are incapable of doing this, would scarcely b...

I believe it is a result of the experience of all artists, that it is the easiest thing in the world to give a certain degree of depth and transparency to water; but that it is...

finely divided water, but with boiling mist; imagine also the low rain-clouds brought down to the very level of the sea, as I have often seen them, whirling and flying in rags a...

We have now arrived at the consideration of what was, with the old masters, the subject of most serious and perpetual study. If they do not give us truth here, they cannot have...

their own forms and lines; and the perpetual repetition of the same shape of leaves and the same arrangement, relieved from a black ground, is more like an ornamental pattern fo...

We have now arrived at some general conception of the extent of Turner's knowledge, and the truth of his practice, by the deliberate examination of the characteristics of the fo...

We wish, in the first place, to remove the appearance of invidiousness and partiality which the constant prominence given in the present portion of the work to the productions o...