Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Painting Popularly Explained With Historical Sketches of the Progress of the Art
Although a degree of imitation is necessary in a work of art for the conveyance of thought, the quantity or exactitude of imitation in a picture forms by no means a measure of the amount of thought or emotion which it may awaken, apart from the simple ideas which the mind receives through the painted resemblance of natural objects. Indeed, literal imi tatien is sometimes so much dissociated from imagination, that Haydon went so far as to say, that 'the power of representing things as they are, constituted merely the painter of domestic art;' adding, with characteristic bold ness and enthusiasm, while that of restoring them to what they were at creation constitutes the great painter in High Art.' When we re?ect, however, upon the inexhaustible richness of nature, a more humble spirit of imitation appears not only excusable, but laudable. Modern pre-raphaelitism is on this ground - viz., that of protest - chie?y serviceable to art. For it is a mistake to suppose that artistic imitation can ever be entirely mechanical, that it is only a means to an end, or that it is but as language is to thought. The eye has its own poetry, and the faithful rendering of the simplest object in nature has a special value and beauty that touches some of the pleasantest chords of our being. Still we must unhesitatingly give the preference to those works in which we have not only the inherent and intrinsic poetry of art, but also subject and incident conveying thought, expression, and sentiment. Moreover, though art is finite, yet nearly every branch is too comprehensive in its means for one man to do justice to all its capabilities; hence a larger measure than usual of the judgment and taste necessarily shown in selection and adaptation is justly allowed to distinguish and elevate the artist. 'style in the highest sense arises from the peculiar bias the artist takes in this selection and adap tatien. But style' is also applied to the several methods of painting materially considered; for the painter is a curious combination of poet and mechanic, as his picture is a curious compromise between a thought and a thing.'
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