The Portland daily press., 1878-03-21
lAppleton's Journal
The Human Element in Landscape Art.


"The Human Element in Landscape Art" is
the title of recent essay in the London Spec.
tstor, 10 which the writer disputes the dictum
of those critics who affirm that fl CURE painting
aud landscape painting are SO distinctive that
figure, except as a local light or dark, is out
OF place in landscape, and vice versa. 10
opposition to this doctrine, the Spectator de-
clsres that human Interest in landscape paint
ing Is necessary in order to give it any real or
permanent hold upon our symp athies. He
does not mean that this human character
must be arbitrarily expressed by figures of
men aud women, but that there should be In
every painting some connection with mans
doings or else ths work loses its pictorial inter-
est. This human element may be even more
powerfully expressed without the introduction
of figures than with them 'Stanfeld,' he says
'painted many harbor scenes crowded with
sailors and shipping, but he painted one pic
ture without figure in it that was the most
powerful one of his life This was The Aban-
doned,' "a dsmantled ship rocking On stormy
sea, with the light streaming down from mo-
mentary break in the heavy clouds. Here it
was the connection with man. and the sort of
semi-humanity which the title suggested as be-
longing to the ship, which gave the real force
to the painting,-a force which wave and sky
would have been unable 70 gain of themselves"
The ossayst then proceeded to describe pic
lures 10 which this connection of mind and mat
ter is absent, citing some Alpine subjects, which
consist solely of ga few stones in the fore
ground, wealth of cloud filing the valley, a
blue mountain beyond, and, above all, the
oE lIas, so<
gray in the dawn" These paintings of the
most beautiful scenery in the world produce
upon the spectator, according to our essayist,
no effect whatever. Oae says, "They are
pretty" aod they straghtway pass out of the
mind altogether
People generally will assent to this argument,
no doubt, but artists, in many instances, will in
part reject it. aud on grounds that are worth
while considering. 1t is unqualifedly true that
there should be 10 every landscape painting a
connection of mind and matter, linking of
human life with the objects delineated; but as
in Stauield's 'The Abandoned" this can be
done more powerfully by suggestion than by
direct dellneation. Paintings may be crowded
with human figures and have no human senti-
ment> or they may give no sign of the presence
OF man. and yet appeal powerfully to human
sensibilty. The Alpine paintings selected for
illustration By our essayist belong to classes
OF subjects that are tolerated 10 art solely be-
cause of technical skill or some measure of
pronounced pretty" and then are speedily
forgotten, bat this fate Just as frequently be-
falls paintings of human subjects The true
and lasting value OF painting must be its
power to suggest, to awaken, to touch the
Imagination or the sympathies to link itself
closely to the heart of the spectator. Let us
imagine painting of forest interior, the suli-
tudes vf which are disturbed by no human
presence. If this picture is full of imaginative
power aud strong sympathies, If the painter
felt the in all ita bnautio1 and
the spectator ideRtl6es with it the full beat of
human interest. The cool shadows are to him
dream of delicious rest; the fall Of the brook
over the stones sends musical murmurs to his
ear; be feels the pleasant wind fan his cheek;
the sunshine that hecks through the leaves
charms his eye with its shifting play of light;
odors from the moses and aromatic plants
seem to fiji. his Dostrils; the scene in it's com
pleIepess takes possession Of his whole nature,
fills him with subdued rapture, becomes
an embodiment of his emotions. If the forest
scene has no power of this kind over one's i'm
aginatiop, it is less than nothing; the value aud
charm of the picture are in its control over the
human senses, in its power to transport the
spectator there and permit him to fill it with
his own personality. In this way human ele-
ment may and does enter landscape art effect
lively, efficiently, and to the complete identif-
cation Of the scene with our emotions and our
susceptiblities The mere introduction of
figures cannot of itself create human inter-
ests; If they form part of the picture in such
way as to strengthen the sentiment of the
landscape. we'll and good; if not, they weaken
If they do not destroy the very human interest
to the end of which they are imported into the
Scene. 1t is clear that the value aud character
of painting do not depend upon rules at all.
but upon the Imagination of the painter, lack
ing which his human figures will have no hui
man vitality or hold possessing which, his SOL
emp, empty forest depths will be full of human
foeliug