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038 - Common-Sense in Art · Reviews

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  Speaker 1: Section thirty seven of reviews by Oscar Wilde. This is
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  Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Reviews by Oscar Wilde, edited by Robert Ross. Section thirty
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  Speaker 1: seven common Sense in Art Paul Maul Gazette, January eighth,
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  Speaker 1: eighteen eighty seven. At this critical moment in the artistic
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  Speaker 1: development of England, mister John Collier has come forward as
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  Speaker 1: the champion of common sense in art. It will be
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  Speaker 1: remembered that mister Quilter, in one of his most vivid
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  Speaker 1: and picturesque metaphors, compared mister Collier's method as a painter
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  Speaker 1: to that of a shampoor in a Turkish bath footnote
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  Speaker 1: see a Jolly Art Critic, page one twelve and a footnote.
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  Speaker 1: As a writer, mister Collier is no less interesting. It
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  Speaker 1: is true that he is not eloquent, but then he
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  Speaker 1: censures with just severity the meaningless eloquence of the writers
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  Speaker 1: on esthetics. We admit that he is not subtle, but
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  Speaker 1: then he is careful to remind us that Leonardo da
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  Speaker 1: Vinci's views on painting are nonsensical. His qualities are of
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  Speaker 1: a solid indeed, we may say of a stolid order.
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  Speaker 1: He is thoroughly honest, sturdy, and downright, as he advises us,
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  Speaker 1: if we want to know anything about art, to study
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  Speaker 1: the works of Helmolt's, Stokes or Tyndall, to which we
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  Speaker 1: hope we may be allowed to add mister Collier's own
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  Speaker 1: manual of oil painting. For this art of painting is
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  Speaker 1: a very simple thing. Indeed, according to mister Collier, it
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  Speaker 1: consists merely in the representation of natural objects by means
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  Speaker 1: of pigments on a flat surface. There is nothing, he
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  Speaker 1: tells us, so very mysterious in it. After all, every
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  Speaker 1: natural object appears to us as a sort of pattern
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  Speaker 1: of different shades and colors, and the task of the
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  Speaker 1: artist is so to arrange his shades and colors on
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  Speaker 1: his canvass that a similar pattern is produced. This is
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  Speaker 1: obviously pure common sense, and it is clear that art
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  Speaker 1: definitions of this character can be comprehended by the very
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  Speaker 1: meanest capacity, and indeed may be said to appeal to
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  Speaker 1: it for the perfect development. However, of this pattern producing faculty,
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  Speaker 1: a severe training is necessary. The art student must begin
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  Speaker 1: by painting china, crockery, and still life. Generally, he should
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  Speaker 1: rule his straight lines and employ actual measurements wherever it
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  Speaker 1: is possible. He will also find that a plumb line
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  Speaker 1: comes in very useful. Then he should proceed to Greek sculpture,
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  Speaker 1: for from pottery to fidius is only one step. Ultimately
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  Speaker 1: he will arrive at the living model, and as soon
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  Speaker 1: as he can faithfully represent any object that he has
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  Speaker 1: before him, he is a painter. After this, there is
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  Speaker 1: of course, only one thing to be considered, The important
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  Speaker 1: question of subject. Subjects, Mister Collier tells us are of
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  Speaker 1: two kinds, ancient and modern. Modern subjects are more healthy
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  Speaker 1: than ancient subjects. But the real difficulty of modernity in
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  Speaker 1: art is that the artist passes his life with respectable people,
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  Speaker 1: and that respectable people are unpictorial. For picturesqueness, consequently, he
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  Speaker 1: should go to the rural poor, and for pathos to
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  Speaker 1: the London slums. Ancient subjects offer the artist a very
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  Speaker 1: much wider field. If he is fond of rich stuffs
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  Speaker 1: and costly accessories, he should study the Middle Ages. If
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  Speaker 1: he wishes to paint beautiful people untrammeled by any considerations
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  Speaker 1: of historical accuracy, he should turn to the Greek and
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  Speaker 1: Roman mythology, and if he is a mediocre painter, he
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  Speaker 1: should choose his subject from the Old and New Testament,
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  Speaker 1: a recommendation, by the way, that many of our royal
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  Speaker 1: academicians seem already to have carried out. To paint a
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  Speaker 1: real historical picture, one requires the assistance of a theatrical
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  Speaker 1: costumer and a photographer. From the former one hires the dresses,
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  Speaker 1: and the latter supplies one with the true background. Besides
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  Speaker 1: subject pictures, there are also portraits and landscape apes. Portrait painting,
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  Speaker 1: mister Collier tells us, makes no demands on the imagination.
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  Speaker 1: As is the sitter, so is the work of art.
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  Speaker 1: If the sitter be commonplace, for instance, it would be
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  Speaker 1: contrary to the fundamental principles of portraiture to make the
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  Speaker 1: picture other than commonplace. There are, however, certain rules that
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  Speaker 1: should be followed. One of the most important of these
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  Speaker 1: is that the artists should always consult his sitter's relations
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  Speaker 1: before he begins the picture. If they want a profile,
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  Speaker 1: he must do them a profile. If they require a
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  Speaker 1: full face, he must give them a full face. And
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  Speaker 1: he should be careful also to get their opinion as
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  Speaker 1: to the costume the sitter should wear and the sort
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  Speaker 1: of expression he should put on. After all, says mister Collier, pathetically,
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  Speaker 1: it is they who have to live with the picture.
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  Speaker 1: Besides the difficulty of pleasing the victim's family. However, there
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  Speaker 1: is the difficulty of pleasing the victim. According to mister Collier,
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  Speaker 1: and he is of course a high authority on the matter,
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  Speaker 1: portrait painters bore their sitters very much. The true artists, consequently,
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  Speaker 1: should inc courage his sitter to converse or get some
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  Speaker 1: one to read to him, For if the sitter is bored,
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  Speaker 1: the portrait will look sad still. If the sitter has
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  Speaker 1: not got an amiable expression, naturally the artist is not
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  Speaker 1: bound to give him one. Nor if he is essentially ungraceful,
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  Speaker 1: should the artist ever put him in a graceful attitude.
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  Speaker 1: As regards landscape painting, mister Collier tells us that a
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  Speaker 1: great deal of nonsense has been talked about the impossibility
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  Speaker 1: of reproducing nature, but that there is nothing really to
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  Speaker 1: prevent a picture giving to the eye exactly the same
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  Speaker 1: impression that an actual scene gives. For that, when he
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  Speaker 1: visited the celebrated panorama of the Siege of Paris, he
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  Speaker 1: could hardly distinguish the painted from the real canons. The
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  Speaker 1: whole passage is extremely interesting and is really one out
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  Speaker 1: of many examples we might give of the swift and
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  Speaker 1: simple manner in which the common sense method solves the
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  Speaker 1: great problems of art. The book concludes with a detailed
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  Speaker 1: exposition of the undulatory theory of light according to the
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  Speaker 1: most ancient scientific discoveries. Mister Collier points out how important
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  Speaker 1: it is for an artist to hold sound of views
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  Speaker 1: on the subject of ether waves, and his own thorough
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  Speaker 1: appreciation of science may be estimated by the definition he
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  Speaker 1: gives of it as being neither more nor less than knowledge.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Collier has done his work with much industry and earnestness. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: nothing but the most conscientious seriousness, combined with real labor,
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  Speaker 1: could have produced such a book, and the exact value
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  Speaker 1: of common sense and art has never before been so
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  Speaker 1: clearly demonstrated. A Manual of Oil Painting by the Honorable
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  Speaker 1: John Collier, Castle and Company. End of section thirty seven