(Go to summary of review, 'Modern Painters', North American Review, January 1848, pp. 110-45.)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Of the old masters I have spoken with far greater freedom; but let it
Go to
the passage in Modern Painters I
be
remembered that only a portion of the work is now presented to the
public,
and it must not be supposed, because in that particular portion,
and
with reference to particular excellencies, I have spoken in constant
depreciation,
that I have no feeling of other excellencies of which cogni
zance can
only be taken in future parts of the work. Let me not be
understood to
mean more than I have said, nor be made responsible for
conclusions when
I have only stated facts. I have said that the old masters
did not give
the truth of Nature; if the reader chooses, thence, to infer that
they
were not masters at all, it is his conclusion, not mine.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
[T]he
water painting of
Go to
the passage in Modern Painters I
all the elder landscape painters, excepting a few of
the better passages
of Claude and Ruysdael, is so execrable, so beyond
all expression
and explanation bad; and Claude's and Ruysdael's best
so cold and
valueless, that I do not know how to address those who like
such
painting; I do not know what their sensations are respecting sea.
I
can perceive nothing in Vandevelde or Backhuysen of the lowest
redeeming
merit; no power, no presence of intellect -or evidence
of perception
-of any sort or kind ; no resemblance -even the.
feeblest-of anything
natural; no invention-even the most sluggish
of anything agreeable[.]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Of Claude, Salvator, and Gaspar:-
There
is no evi-
Go to
the passage in Modern Painters I
dence of their ever having gone to nature with any thirst,
or
received from her such emotion as could make them, even for an
instant,
lose sight of themselves; there is in them neither earnest
ness nor humility
; there is no simple or honest record of any
single truth; none of the
plain words nor straight efforts that men
speak and make when they once
feel[.]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
There is a sea-piece of Ruysdael's in the Louvre' which, though
Go to
the passage in Modern Painters I
nothing
very remarkable in any quality of art, is at least forceful,
agreeable,
and, as far as it goes, natural; the waves have much
freedom of action,
and power of colour; the wind blows hard over
the shore, and the whole
picture may be studied with profit as a
proof that the deficiency of
colour and everything else in Backhuysen's
works, is no fault of the
Dutch sea[.]
He really seems to forget that this Dutch sea was painted by one of those two painters whose best works he still persists in pronouncing so cold and valueless. (p.118)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
If
I say that all men in China are opium
Go to
the passage in Modern Painters I
eaters, I say something interesting,
because my subject (all men) is
general. If I say that all men in China
eat, I say nothing inter
esting, because my predicate (eat) is general.
If I say that all men
in China eat opium, I say something interesting,
because my pre
dicate (eat opium) is particular.
Now almost everything
which (with reference to a given subject)
a painter has to ask himself
whether he shall represent or not, is a
predicate. Hence in art, particular
truths are usually more important
than general ones[.]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
According to Locke, Book ii. chap. 8, there are three sorts of
Go to
the passage in Modern Painters I
qualities
in bodies : first, the "bulk, figure, number, situation, and
motion or
rest of their solid parts : those that are inthem, whether
we perceive
them or not." These he calls primary qualities.
Secondly,---the power
that is in any body to operate after a pecu
liar manner on any of our
senses" (sensible qualities). And thirdly,
"the power that is in any
body to make such a change in another
body as that it shall operate on
our senses differently from what it
did before : these last being usually
called powers."
Hence he proceeds to prove that those which he calls
primary
qualities are indeed part of the essence of the body, and charac
teristic
of it ; but that the two other kinds of qualities which
together he calls
secondary, are neither of them more than powers
of producing on other
objects, or in us, certain effects , and sensa
tions. Now a power of
influence is always equally characteristic of
two objects-the active
and passive; for it is as much necessary
that there should be a power
in the object suffering to receive the
impression, as in the object acting,
to give the impression. (Com-
pare Locke, Book ii. chap. 21, sect. 2.)
For supposing two people,
as is frequently the case, perceive different
scents in the same
flower, it is evident that the power in the flower
to give this or
that depends on the nature of their nerves, as well as
on that of
its own particles ; and that we are as correct in saying it
is a
power in us to perceive, as in the object to impress. Every power,
therefore,
being characteristic of the nature of two bodies, is im
perfectly and
incompletely characteristic of either separately; but the
primary qualities,
being characteristic only of the body in which
they are inherent, are
the most important truths connected with it.
For the question, what the
thing is, must precede, and be of more
importance than the question,
what can it do.
Now, by Locke's definition above given, only bulk, figure,
situation,
and motion or rest of solid parts, are primary qualities
Hence all truths
of colour sink at once into the second rank. He
therefore, who has neglected
a truth of form for a truth of colour
has neglected a greater truth for
a less one[.]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *