The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1897-06-11

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The artist is Natures servant, bu
not her slave. His is the power to TAX
from Nature that which most appeals
| to his artistic sense and in his owl
mastery to arrange, place and harmo
nize into a perfect whole the element!
she gives so bountifully.
In the restricted lines of the
draughtsman or colorist, limited tt
the surface to be decorated. true Art
is to fill that surface, be it with masses
of glowing color. hues of sweetest har,
mony OF lines of purest simplicity.
1t is one of the facts of an artists
development that he passes this a pc
riod of painfully accurate following
in slavish imitation, of the scene or OBJ
ject before him, putting in every house
or tree that comes within the range of
his picture and counting each individu-
al window or branch that none be lost,
never asking himself if the balance
and unity of the whole demand such
a thing.
This is shown in some of Corot's
earlier work, which is as hard and dry
as bone. and about as uninteresting.
Later he was found to avoid subjects
that called for these painful window
countings. or at least go to modify
them that, should the picture be of a
homely cottage nesting among the her
bage. one took no thought of how
many windows might or might not be
shown in the picture, they became a
minor part of a perfect whole.
The Sunderland we all are students
to the ends too apt in attempting to
picture some object or thought that
tickles his fancy. TO stick too literally
to the facts before him. making pho
tographic illustration of his subject,
putting in an inharmonious line be-
cause he fancies he sees it before him.
introducing or emphasizing part that
conflicts with the whole simply because
it happens to be there, losing sight of
the fact that his is the power to select
and choose, and that his one object in
life is to create a masterpiece of har-
mony out of whatever material comes
before him.
I have been asked to give some prac-
teal points that might be helpful to
those interested in Art-be it as work
ers or connoiseurs.
In reproducing on canvas whatever
subject the artist may choose. it is his
province to tell his story with those
touches that best express his idea, Sc
lecting and choosing and arranging,
not always as Nature arranges, but
with the mastery of his knowledge and
the Art that is in him.
The all important points of beauty
aF and hnrUnn-
nv of color must not be sacrificed to
the too literal telling of story or de-
pictation of a subject in all its photo
graphic literality Tho if the story be
told or the subject shown and these
points still be retained, Art will have
been married TO utility and both the
Aesthetic and Publican touched.
Take a rose. paint that rose-truly-
give its beauty of color, not forgetting
IFS particular form nor the charming
character its petals have of nesting
one within the other, its lines flowing,
following. opposing each the other IN
perfect harmony. But do not unbal-
ance the whole by attempting to intro
duce the 18th petal when you IND you
have shown but IS. You are not nor
ist giving an automatically correct rep
resentation of that particular rose, ask
ing the exact number of petals it might
possess. MOI the artist in you is strlv-
ing to express the feeling given by
that rose-of perfect beauty of form
and sense of color harmony-and that
is the art of it.
But rather than paint the simple
rose-be it ever so beautiful in its pure
singleness-take a huge bunch of the
glorious flowers, thrown carelessly into
a mass, then what chance for the
artist,-the flow of line, the juxta-
position of one glowing tint TO another,
the perfect harmony that Nature, for
once. nges-attempt all this and
find for how little that petty 18th petal
counts or how even single rose is
but a minor part.
Yet how often we find the uninitiated
seeking for that 18th petal never rising
to the plane of the glorious whole.
"The artist looks at Natures flower
not with the enlarging lens that he
may gather facts for the botanist, but
with the light of one who sees in hel
the selection of brilliant tones and deli
| Cdlt llllS SuSSGSllOiiD vi LuNuiN AAteA
monies.
HE does not confine himself to pur'
pose less copying, without thought
each blade of grass, but, in the long
curve of the narrow leaf, corrected by
the straight stem he learns how grace
is welded to dignity, how strength en-
hances sweetness, that elegance shall
be the result
In all that is dainty and sweet ht
finds hints for his own combinations
and this is Nature, always his resource
and always at his service and to hin
is naught refused.
This principle governs in all branch
es of pictorial Art. Portraiture, still
| life landscape.
Often one makes literal study of al
object or place. color photograph, TO
reference. or study in lines other thai
that of beauty. But in arranging pic
ture from the same much is modified
giving perhops a truer impression o
the subject than the literal study.
And that is my definition of true I'm
pressionism, and is where the true in
dividuality of the artist asserts itself
l recollect some small canvasses o
Corot's in which the trees were eX
pressed by mass of silvery grey wit
only a few twigs and leaves in detail
and yet which so faithfully represent
ed the trees that felt their absolut
truth to Nature.
They were trees in whose branche
one felt there might be songsters carol
ing in the silvery dawn-light that per
meated the whole canvas.
That was true Impressionism unde
analysis. What was it but few care