V. THE SIMPLON 337

vital strength; and that no word more could be written of him, till I had tried the range of these.

101. It surprises me to find, by entries at Paris (which I was reasonable enough now to bear the sight of again), in August of this year, how far I had advanced in picture knowledge since the Roman days; progress which I see no ground for, and remember no steps of,-except only a lesson given me by George Richmond at one of Mr. Roger’s breakfasts (the old man used to ask me, finding me always reverent to him, joyful in his pictures, and sometimes amusing, as an object of curiosity to his guests),-date uncertain, but probably in 1842. Until that year, Rubens had remained the type of colour power to me, and (§ 37 above) Titian’s flesh tints of little worth! But that morning, as I was getting talkative over the wild Rubens sketch, (War or Discord, or Victory or the Furies, I forget what,¹) Richmond said, pointing to the Veronese beneath it,² “Why are you not looking at this,-so much greater in manner?” “Greater,-how?” I asked, in surprise; “it seems to me quite tame beside the Rubens.” “That may be,” said Richmond, “but the Veronese is true, the other violently conventional.” “In what way true?” I asked, still not understanding. “Well,” said Richmond, “compare the pure shadows on the flesh, in Veronese, and its clear edge, with Rubens’s ochre and vermilion, and outline of asphalt.”

102. No more was needed. From that moment, I saw what was meant by Venetian colour; yet during 1843, and early 1844, was so occupied with Modern Painters, degree-getting, and studies of foliage and foreground, that I cannot understand how I had reached, in picture knowledge, the point shown by these following entries, of which indeed the first shows that the gain surprised me at the time, but

¹ [“The Horrors of War,” the original study for the large picture in the Pitti Palace: No. 51 in Mrs. Jameson’s Catalogue of Rogers’s Collection (Handbook to the Private Galleries of London, 1844, p. 407).]

² [Study for a picture of “Mary Magdalene anointing the feet of the Saviour”: No. 26 in Mrs. Jameson’s Catalogue (ibid., p. 398).]

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