The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-12-11 00:00:00

Reynolds divides colour into warm and cold, and he lays
it down that the lights should be of warm colours. Warmth
is more agreeable than coldness at all times. Warmth is the
rule, and coldness is the exception. In every part of your
picture, high or low, let your colours be warm. The Greeks
painted in distemper, and varnished intensely. From Pliny's
description thew used wax, liquified with oil, as a vehicle.
Sir Joshua Reynolds introduced wax into the English school.
Oil painting must have been practised by the Greeks as well
as distemper painting. The first thing an artist has to do is
to prepare his ground, and this ground is either to absorb
the oil or to resist it. It is a question whether the Venetians
used an absorbing or a resisting ground. After long expe-
rience the lecturer thought that a white ground was the best,
as you can do anything with it. Pliny says that Protogenes
painted his pictures four times over, so that if one was de-
stroyed another might be ready ; but the better construction
is, that he acted as Titian did, by laying upo❑ his pictures
four coats of colour. The lecturer had written to Sir Hum-
phry Davy to ask hiin whether a white absorbent ground
would keep its colour 300 years, if painted upon with oil.
Sir Humphry Davy replied, that whe❑ a painting in distem-
per is varnished over, it would be difficult to tell whether the
ground was distemper or oil. Thus the greatest authority in
chemistry asserts that oils become varnishes by time. Titian
could not have used gum, as the sun is so hot in Italy that
it would have melted it. The vehicles of Claude and Titian
were quite different, and it is quite clear that Claude used
gum. When Wilkie and the lecturer began the art, oil was
not used, and an artist was pointed out who was daring enough
to paint with oil. We owe the revival of oil painting to the
success of Wilkie's "Village Politicians," which was a most
beautiful performance. So little did Wilkie think of this;
chef d'wuvre, that it was with the utmost difficulty he could
be prevailed upon to send it to the exhibition. The
News newspaper was the first to praise it highly, as
the extraordinary work of a young Scotchman, and to
predict the future brilliant career of Wilkie. Being
the first to discover this newspaper critique, he (the lec-
turer) immediately hastened with it to Wilkie, and told
him that his name was in the paper. "Is it ?" said Wil-
kie, and he danced around the table with joy. Nobody can
imagine but those who have experienced it, how cheering is
the first encouragement which a young artist receives. Sur-
face has a considerable effect in the action of colour upon the
eye; and as all paintings are executed in such a manner as
that the various colours may have the proper effect upon the
eye at a certain distance, a person should not apply his eye
close to the canvas, and complain of its roughness, any more
than he would to the cheek or eyes of a beautiful woman, and
complain that the one was covered with down and pores, or
the other with veins and blood vessels. The very ringluers
of the skin gives it a soft appearance when viewed at a Mo-
derate distance; but ivory, which is smooth when closely in-
spected, looks, on the contrary, hard when seen at a short
distance. The atmosphere makes a great difference in the
appearance of figures. Thus, if a subject be painted to ap-
pear well when closely viewed, it will not look well when
viewed from a distance, and vice versa. It is a gross delusion
to suppose that the Italian painters got better colours and
better brushes than we do. Wilkie never had a colour dis-
charged, because he uses common colours. Sir Joshua Rey-
nolds was always making experiments in colours, conse-
quently he was at the mercy of every adventurer, and his
colours always fled. In reality, the old masters had not half
the advantages which we have. Their canvas was so small,
that they were obliged to have them pieced; indeed, Titian
has painted some of his pictures on table cloths. It is a mis-
taken notion with young men, that all depends upon the ve-
hicle The lecturer hail painted with the common pure lin-
seed oil for 22 years ; not, however, such common oil as can
be got in the ordinary way (for oil manufacturers very natu-
rally like to extract as much oil as possible from the seed),
but from a great oil manufactory, where an artist can procure
it expressed with one blow of the iron, cold. By this means
oil may be procured which will not decay; but if you get oil
which is expressed by 4(1 or 50 blows of the iron, it will not
stand. It is the practice now to grind white colour in poppy
oil because it is thin; but the lecturer ground his whites in
this pure linseed oil, which, in appearance, is like gum when
poured from a bottle. By employing a white ground you get
even the lowest parts of crimson draperies quite transparent,
owing to the effect of the white shining through it, and you
have a depth of colour which could not be procured on a
black ground: indeed, a colour may be readily changed by
having a white ground. Never mix down to make a thing
retire. The nearest figures should be painted with the most
brilliant colours; but if it be wanted to make a distant co-
lour, we should not take Vandyke brown, and filth down the
colour, but use a pure colour of a lower scale. Thus, in the
Venetian School, we find the retiring figures painted with
pure naked tints, and not mixed down. Cleanliness in co-
lour is of essential service, and every night the colours ought
to be thrown away, and the pallette made bright and clean.
In a very curious little work, which the lecturer had fortu-
nately got bold of, there is given an interesting account of
Titian's manner of painting. He based his portraits upon a
rich mass of colour. In four paintings he gave the promise
of a beautiful figure. After having laid on his solid painting,
he put his pictures aside, and left them. When he came to
touch them again, he examined them with the closest scru-
tiny, as if they were the productions of his greatest enemy.
By this strict examination he brought his pictures to the most
beautiful state of nature, so that breath was only wanting to
make them perfect. Titian worked day after day until he
had perfected his pictures. In finishing, Titian preferred his
fingers and his thumbs to his brushes.

We come now to the execution of the brush, which no
people study so little, or talk of so ignorantly, as my glorious
countrymen. Painting is altogether a deceptio visas. It must
be admitted that the atmosphere intervening, renders an oh:-
ject more and more indistinct, until we lose sight of it alto-
gether. There is nothing at which the ignorant are so much
asstonished as, after having been much delighted at viewing
any thing at a distance, to see it composed of a few daubs or
streaks. Roughness of actual surface has nothing to do with
the softness; in fact, a picture may be full of touches to a
microscopic eye, which, viewed from a proper distance, looks
like nature. We find out original pictures by the roughness
of the touch. Every touch is a thought; but all this is lost
in copies;—it is sheer imitation. 11, at a proper distance, a
figure strikes you as a reality, what right have you to look
close, and complain that the touches are rough ? Your won-
der ought to be raised as you ascertain the apparent slight-
ness of the means taken to produce the effect. Dashing exe-
cution is, however, the end in art, and he who begins its this
style, will always end in emptiness. Never copy a picture.
I never knew a person who was a copyist, who ever painted
an original picture. Execution is the result of the utmost
labour. With respect to the instrument of execution,—the
pencil,—it was the lecturer's opinion that a flat one should
not be used. It is an excuse for a feeble touch, and was in-
troduced by Sir Thomas Lawrence. It was not used by the
old masters. What you do, you should do with the decision
of an unerring hand, with a round brush. Light and sha-
dow is one thing, and light and dark is another. There is a
solemnity in the shadow which there is not in the dark.
Light and shadow increase the effect of a picture tenfold. A
cavern is formed by dark; a shadow is the interception of
light. Breadth, which is a significant word in art, consists
in painting your lights in masses; but breadth must not be
emptiness.