Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1902-11-23
live here a.few IDEAS Coz tudgtne q pic:

give mere aS1eW IDEAS loI sJuu5niS O ~
ture.
Some OF these. hints were cleaned from
4 little treatise by Van Dyke, and y pass
them On for the benefit OF others who are
willing and anxious to be assisted IN
their search after the true and the beau
stiful.
If you sit In 4 picture gallery and
watch the crowd come In you will notice
that nine persons out of ten Of the tenth
nappers to be- of artistic temperament)
will make straight for the pictures paint
ed with the brightest colors.
We Americans possess an eye and
taste for bright colors, which may be said
TO nave been handed over to US by our
predecessors. the Indians. The taste is
primitive and natural, but 1t is not GOOD
taste, for all that, and it is certainly a
taste TO beware of when judging, pic
ture.
A gaudy picture may generally De set
down as bad picture.
Good painters invariably eschcw the
things in nature which are beyond their
powers of realization. such as mountain
ranges, great cataracts like Niagara, and
highIy-colored landscapes.
Do not allow yourself, then. to be led
estray by glare and glitter in picture.
for they are as out or taste in art as IN
dress.
Look again at the gray. low-toned, half
tinted picture, over which you have
passed in your haste-tne Vile D'Avray
of Corot. exquisite in its truth and sim
p1icity-and you will be half convinced,
at the truth of my statement
It is, as an artist would say, good In
tone, in atmosphere, in composition, and
in values.
When you tire of gray tints turn to tie
rich, substantial coloring of Millet, the
cattle pictures Of Troyon. the wood In
teriors of Diaz. and the marines OF
Dupre, excellent examples, most of them,
of harmonious color effectively handled.
We hear artists speak of warm" or
cold colors with much amusement the
general idea being that red alone ex-
presses warmth, and white cold: whereas,
as they understand it, the warm colors
are red. orange. and the Eellows. Vhile
the cold ones are blue. green. and Vlo-
let.
The next thing to notice In a picture
is its tone Harmony is ''the relation of
color qualities; but tone Is the re-
action of color qualities.
A false tone is like a false note in mu-
sic, and jars the eye as dfscord jars the
ear.
IL Judging the tone of picture. look
for that point where the light is brightest.
picture, and strikes the keynote with
UGH all other tones should be in pro-
per accord in descending scale.
Next, we turn our attention to light
and shade
In looking for lights and shadows. half
close your eyes always, that you may un~
derstand their true value.
THE arm of a mahogany chair may
seem to have told you its whole history
at first glance" says Van Dyke, but
look at it again. just for curiosity. and
see what you had not noticed before.
The polished surface reflects like mir
ror. and upon it are patches Of light as
bright az sheet of white paper.
Mr.. Ruskin says that the deep blue
whitest paper made. If you do not L.
lieve it. try it for yourself.
Everything In nature, from mole to
mountain. possesses its proportions OF
light and shade to an artists eye Ihcre
is always a point Of high light and an
opposite point Of deep shadow, and 1t IS
the tro atment of the shades between the
TWO that gives the rounded and real ap-
pearance to objects in nature.
Now let US look at the perspective,
which Is the first ta1nE sought for by
most picture viewers, who think they
nave found out the principal thing IN
picture when the vanishing point has
been discovered.
But this is not all of perspective In a
picture. Inere Is announcer. feature mo-
generally recognized by the lay mind,
namely, the indistinctness of Zines which
increase in proportion with the dimuni-
ton of size"
For instance. we may be able to recog-
inze the face of a friend a few yards
away from US: at hundred yards the
features are not clear enough for recoS-
milton; at half a mile we see merely
the head. body. and legs. 1t is the grad
ual dissipation Of line which we fail TO
take into account. and some artists seem
no wiser than ourselves in this respect.
Value means "the quantity of light or
dark contained in q tone" In color. the
unit of value is that hue which ap-
proa ches the nearest 20 near white.
In a baszet of fruit. for Instance, the
lemon will have more value than the or
ange: IN ora1ge than TN apple, etc.
Lerolle's Organ Rehearsal in the Me-
tropolitan is a good example OF values
well maintained. And do not listen to the
friend who implores you to "see how tn.
figures stand out Lerolle never painted
the picture with any such intention, you
may be sure; his object being rather 10
make the figures stand in.
Texture in art is the quality Of any
object in the picture whatever, whether
it be clouds. silk. rocks. trees. or human