The Painter in Oil Part 11

So, too, is the difference marked between the general light of out-doors and the more concentrated light of the house. The pitch is different. Outside, even in a dark day, the general character of light is clearer, more full, than in-doors.

There is nothing possible under the open sky like the strong contrasts you get from a single window in an otherwise unlighted room.

Compare, for instance, the character of the light and shade as shown in the ill.u.s.trations on pages 156 and 159. The one is the diffused, out-of-door light, the other that from a studio window. The character of the subject has nothing to do with this quality. The head would have less of sharpness and contrast in the open air, and more reflected light.

Other differences to be studied as to quality of the light in the manner of its contrast, and also for its color quality, are to be seen in moonlight or nightlight as compared with daylight. Artificial light, such as lamp- and candle-light, gives marked effects also, which may be compared with daylight both as it is out-of-doors and in its more concentrated effects in the studio. Compare the picture of the "Woman Sewing by Lamplight," by Millet, with the "Ca.n.a.l" and the "Bohemian Woman" given above. The effects of gas and electric light also should be studied. Their characteristics both of contrast and, particularly, of color are worth your attention as a student, inasmuch as the essence of some pictures lies in these qualities.

Another matter of great importance to the student, and one which the same three ill.u.s.trations just referred to may serve to show, is the effect on objects of the position of the point of entrance of the light with reference to them and to the observer. The simplest light is the side-light from a single window. This gives broad, sharp ma.s.ses of light and shade, and makes the study of drawing and painting more simple. With the observer in the same relative position to the subject, as the light swings round towards a point back of him the contrasts become less, the relations more subtle and difficult of recognition, and naturally the study of them more difficult. In this position of light the values become "close." To make the object seen at all, it is necessary that the finest distinctions shall be observed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: =Bohemian Woman.= _Frans Hals._ Effect of contrast of light and shade in studio to be compared with diffused light of open air in the "Ca.n.a.l," and artificial light in "Woman Sewing by Lamplight."]

[Ill.u.s.tration: =Sewing by Lamplight.= _Millet._ Effect of artificial light contrast to be compared with natural light in ill.u.s.trations of "Ca.n.a.l" and "Bohemian Woman."]

[Ill.u.s.tration: =Descent from the Cross.=]

Portrait painters have always been fond of a top light, which gives a direct concentrated light descending on the sitter, very similar in character to the side-light, but more favorable to the expression and drawing of the face.

=Cross Lights.=--The most confusing and difficult of study and representation are the "_cross lights_." If there are several windows or other points for the admission of light, and the sitter or object painted is between them, the light comes from all sides, so that the rays cross each other and there is no single scheme of light and shade. The rays from one side modify the shadows cast from the other side, and a perplexing and involved arrangement of values is the result. This is a favorite technical problem with painters, and its solution is splendid training; but the student who can successfully solve it is not far from the end of his "student days."

CHAPTER XX

COMPOSITION

=Importance.=--Composition is of the utmost importance. It is impossible that a picture should be good without it. You may define it as that study by means of which the balance of the picture comes about. But you must understand the word balance in its broadest sense.

There is nothing in the planning of the picture which has not to be considered in making the picture balance.

The arrangement of the lines, of the forms, of the ma.s.ses, and of the colors must all be right if the composition be right. Composition is the planning of the picture; and it is more or less complicated, more or less to be carefully studied beforehand in exact accordance with the simplicity or complication of the scheme of the picture. You may not need more than the consideration of a few main facts. It may almost be done by a few moments' deliberation in some simple studies or even pictures. But even then there is possible the most subtle discrimination of selection, and a perfect gem of composition may be found in the arrangement of a picture having the simplest and fewest elements. The more complicated the materials which are to be worked into a picture, the more careful must be the previous planning; but, for all that, the genius will find scope for his utmost powers in a simple figure, just because the fewer the means, the more each single thing can interfere with the balance of the whole, and the more a fine choice will tell.

=The aesthetic.=--I have already mentioned briefly the aesthetic elements of a picture. I have called to your attention that back of the obvious facts of a subject and the objects in the picture, and the theme which the painter makes his picture represent; back of the technical processes and management of concrete material which make painting possible, is the aesthetic purpose of the work of art; without this it could not be a work of art at all: it would be merely a more or less exact representation of something, a mere prosaic description, the interest in which would lie wholly in the _fact_, and would perish whenever interest in the fact should cease. It is not the _fact_, nor even the able expression of the fact, which makes a work of art a thing of interest and delight centuries after the bearing of the fact has been forgotten. The perennial interest of a work of art lies in the way in which the artist has used his ostensible theme, and all the facts and objects appertaining to it, as a part of the material with which he expresses those ideas which are purely aesthetic; which do not rest on material things. These have to do with material things only by rendering them beautiful, giving to them an interest which they themselves could not otherwise have.

=Theory.=--Does this sound unpractical? Well, it is unpractical. Does it seem mere theory? It is theory. I want to impress it on you that it is theory. For it is the theory which underlies art, and if you do not understand it, you only understand art from the outside. Consciously or unconsciously every artist works to express these purely aesthetic qualities, and to a greater or less extent he expresses himself through them.

=Art for Art's Sake.=--This is the real meaning of the much-debated phrase, "Art for art's sake." The mistake which leads to the misconception and most of the discussion about it, is in confounding "art for art's sake" with "technique for technique's sake," which is a very different thing. Certainly every painter will work to attain the most perfect technique he is capable of. But not for the sake of the technique, but for what it will do. The better the technique the better the control of all the means to expression. If you take technique to mean only the understanding and knowledge of all the manipulations of art, technique is only a means, and it is so that I mean it to be understood here. If you broaden its meaning to include all the _mental_ conceptions and means, that is another thing, and one likely to lead to confusion of idea. So I use the word technique in its strictest sense.

=The aesthetic Elements.=--What, then, are these aesthetic qualities I have spoken of? Will you consider the quality of "line"? Not _a_ line, but line as an element, excluding all the possible things which may be done with lines in different relations to themselves and to other elements. Now will you consider also the other elements, "ma.s.s" and "color"? Do you see that here are three terms which suggest possibilities of combination of infinite scope? and they are purely intellectual. What may be done with them may be done, primarily, without taking into consideration the representation of any material fact whatsoever. Take as the type, conventional ornament. You can make the most exquisite combinations, in which the only interest and charm lies in the fact of those combinations in line and ma.s.s and color.

Take architecture. Quite aside from the use of the building is the aesthetic resultant from combinations of line and ma.s.s and color.

And so in the picture the question of _art_, the question of aesthetic ent.i.ty, lies in the intellectual qualities of combinations of line and ma.s.s and color which permeate through and through the technical and material structure that you call the picture, and give it whatever universal and permanent value it has, and which make it immortal, if immortal it ever can be.

=Composition.=--The bearing of all this on composition should be obvious, for composition is the technique of combination. In the composition of a picture all the elements come into play. It is in composition that the management of the abstract results in the concrete.

Let us look at it from a more practical side. Frankly, there are qualities, which you always look for in a picture,--good drawing, of course, and good color. But there are such things as these: Harmony, Balance, Rhythm, Grace, Impressiveness, Force, Dignity. Where do they come from? Must not every good picture have them, or some of them, to some extent? How are you going to get them? If you have fifteen or twenty square feet or square yards of surface, you will not get them onto it by unaided inspiration. Inspiration is, like any other intellectual quality, quite logical, only it acts more quickly and takes longer steps between conclusions perhaps. You will get these qualities onto your canvas only by so arranging all the objects which make up the body of your picture that these qualities shall be the result. It is arrangement then.

=Arrangement.=--But arrangement of what? how? The objects. But on some principle back of them. Consider another set of qualities: proportion, i.e., relative size; arrangement, relative position; contrast; accent,--these are what you manipulate your objects with, and your objects themselves are only line and ma.s.s and color in the concrete.

Objects, figures, bric-a-brac, draperies, houses and trees, skies and mountains, and every and any other natural fact, you may consider as so many bits of form and color with which you may work out a scheme on canvas; and how you do it is to consider them as p.a.w.ns in your game of aesthetics.

With these as materials, what you really do is to combine ma.s.s and line and color by means of proportion, arrangement, contrast, and accent, that a beautiful ent.i.ty of harmony, balance, rhythm, grace, dignity, and force may result. And this is composition.

=No Rules.=--Naturally in dealing with a thing like this, which is the very essence of art, rules are of very little use. Ability in composition may be acquired when it is not natural, but it calls for a continuous training of the sense of proportion and arrangement, just as the development of any other ability calls for training.

The best thing that you can do is to study good examples and try to appreciate, not only their beauty, but how and why they are beautiful.

Cultivate your taste in that direction; and with the taste to like good and dislike bad composition will come the feeling which tells you when it is good and when it is bad, and this feeling you can apply to your own work, and by experiment you will gain knowledge and skill.

Rules are not possible simply because they are limitations, and the true composer will always overstep a limitation of that kind, and with a successful result.

Principles of composition, too, must be variously adapted, according to the kind of picture you have in hand. The principles are the same, of course; but as the materials differ in a figure painting and a landscape, for instance, you must apply them to meet that difference.

=Suggestions.=--The first suggestion that might be made as a help to the study of composition is to consider your picture as a whole always. No matter how many figures, no matter how many groups, they must all be considered as parts of a _whole_, which must have no effect of being too much broken up.

If the figures are scattered, they must be scattered in such a way that they suggest a logical connection between them as individuals in each group, and groups in a whole. There should usually be a main ma.s.s, and the others subsidiary ma.s.ses. There should be a centre of interest of some sort, whether it be a color, a ma.s.s, or a thing; and this centre should be the point to which all the other parts balance.

=Simplicity= is a good word to have in mind. However complicated the composition may seem superficially, you may treat it simply. You will control it by not considering any part as of any importance in itself, but only as it helps the whole; and you may strengthen or weaken that part as you need to. Don't cut the thing up too much. Let a half a dozen objects count as one in the whole. Ma.s.s things, simplify the ma.s.ses, and make the elements of the ma.s.ses hold as only parts of those ma.s.ses.

=Study placing= of things in different sizes relative to the size of the canvas. Make sketches which take no note of anything but the largest ma.s.ses or the most important lines, and change them about till they seem right; then break them up in the same way into their details. Apply the _steps_ suggested for drawing to the study of composition, searching for balance chiefly, or for some other quality which is proper to composition.

=Line.=--Each of the main elements of composition can be used as a problem of arrangement. You can study _composition_ in line, in ma.s.s, or in color.

"The Golden Stairs," by Burne-Jones, is almost purely an arrangement in _line_, and beautifully ill.u.s.trates the use of this element as the main aesthetic motive in a picture.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Compare this composition in line with the "Descent from the Cross," in which the _line_ is equally marked, but more complicated, and used in connection with _ma.s.s_ to a much greater extent, and involved with interrelations of chiaroscuro and color. Consider the effect which each picture derives as a whole from this management of these elements. The one emphasizing that of line, with the resultant of rhythm and grace; the other balancing the elements, and so gaining power and impressiveness.

[Ill.u.s.tration: =The Sower.= _Millet._ To show arrangement in ma.s.s and line, in which the ma.s.s gives weight and dignity without weakening the emphasis of rhythm in the line.]

Often the whole composition should be a balancing of the elements, as in this case. But the emphasizing of one element will always emphasize the characteristics to which those elements tend as the main characteristic of the picture.

Grace, rhythm, movement, come most naturally from arrangement chiefly in _line_. If _ma.s.s_ comes into the picture, the ma.s.ses may be arranged to help the _line_, or to modify it. In "The Sower" the management of ma.s.s is such as to give great dignity, and almost solemnity, to the picture, yet not to take away from the rhythmic swing and action of the figure which comes from line, but even to emphasize it. Compare this in these respects with the lighter grace of "The Golden Stairs" and the less unified movement, but greater activity, of the "Descent from the Cross."

Of course ma.s.ses will come into the picture; but either the ma.s.ses themselves can be arranged into line, or there can be emphasis given to lines which break up or modify the ma.s.ses, so that the character of the picture is governed by them.

=Ma.s.s.=--In the arrangement of ma.s.s, light and shade and color are effective. Smaller groups may be made into a larger one, and individual objects also brought together, by grouping them in light or in shade, or by giving them a common color.

[Ill.u.s.tration: =Return to the Farm.= _Millet._ To show the effect of ma.s.s in giving qualities of "scale" and "the statuesque."]

Weight, dignity, the statuesque, scale, are characteristics of _ma.s.s_.

Line in this connection only takes from the brusqueness that ma.s.s alone would have, or helps to break up any tendency to monotony. The "Return to the Farm," by Millet, shows this combination, the reverse of "The Sower." In this, the _line_ is used to enrich the repose and weight, the statuesque of the _ma.s.s_. In the other, the _ma.s.s_ gives dignity and impressiveness to the grace and rhythm of the _line_.

The color scheme of course will have an equal effect in the emphasizing or modifying of the motive of line or ma.s.s. Color will not only have an effect on it, but must be in sympathy with it, or the balance will be lost.

=Color.=--This is mainly where composition in color will come in.

Light and shade or chiaroscuro, as I explained in the last chapter, are necessarily intimately connected with composition here. And you never work in color or ma.s.s without working in light and shade also.

Of color itself I shall speak in the next chapter. It is only necessary to point out the fact of connection here. Of course in painting, all the elements are most closely related. Although it is necessary to speak of them separately in the actual working out, you keep them all in mind together, and so make them continually help and modify each other.