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fFEEKS

COMMISSION
APPOINTED BY

THE MINISTER OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION

H. E.

TO EXAiinsrE THE KESULTS OBTAINED BY THE

CAYE METHOD.
MEMBERS OF THE COMMISSION.
President

M. Bouland, Director-General.

Vice-President

M. Fillet, Chief of Division

in the Ministry

of Public Instruction.

HISTORICAL PAINTERS,

M. Eugene Delacroix, Member of the

M. PicoT, Member of the

Institute.

Institute.

M. Belloc, Director of the Imperial Special School of

Drawing.

M. Landois, Inspector of the Paris Academy.

M. BoiLAT, Councillor of

State.

M. EiTT, Inspector-General of Primary Instruction.

M. Rendu, Inspector-General of Instruction.

M. Due,

Architect.

M. Delacroix appointed to Report.

THE\aAYE METHOD OF DRAWING,FOB

STUDENTS SECOND PART, y

C O L O E.
MADAME MARIE

]fiLISABETH N^AYlg,

MEMBER OF THE ACADEMY OF PINE ARTS OF AMSE^DAM.

APPROVED BY M. EUGENE DELACROIX, FOR TEACHHSTG

PAINTING IN OILS AND WATER-COLORS.

To

See^ to Understand, to

Remember,

is to

Know.Rubens.

TRANSLATED FROM THE THIRD FRENCH EDmON.

NEW YORK:
G. P.

PUTNAM

& SON,
1869.

661

BROADWAY,

425
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year
G.

P.

PUTNAM &

1869,

by

SON,

in the Clerk's Oflace of the District Court for the Southern District of

New York.

55

STEREOTYPED BT
& CO.,
AUBURN, N. T.

DEXNIS BRO'S

v5.

PRESS OF THB
PRINTING COMPANY,
CENTRE STREET, N. T.

NEW YORK

KEPOKT OF

M.

DELACEOIX.

Mr. Minister:

The Commission nominated by Your Excellency to give

opinion upon the method of Madame Cave, and upon the
question as to whether that method can be introduced into the
schools, has the honor of presenting to Your Excellency the
results of the examination that it has made.
The uncertain rate of progress in teaching drawing, the
want of fixed principles that has prevailed in the instruction
of it up to this day, even from remote ages, have long since
rendered it desirable to have a method surer in its results, and
capable of being applied by all teachers alike.
Anything like demonstration is impossible by the ordinary
methods of instruction the different ways in which the masters may regard the instruction and the art itself become the
rule a very variable one, as we can imagine that governs
the schools. Even admitting that these ditferent roads can
lead to an almost common result, that is to say, to a satisfactory knowledge of drawing, it is easy to see how important
the functions of the master become, and how necessary it is
that his special talents should qualify him for guiding the
pupils in the midst of the uncertainty of the rules.
The first difficulty in such a method of instruction con-

its

sists,

number

of teachers

and resigned

to the exer-

then, in finding a sufficiently large

endowed with indispensable

talents,

of functions that are, of course, poorly recompensed.

second, and perhaps the most insurmountable difficulty, consists in the impossibility of procuring good models.
Those that are met with in the schools, produced in all the
successive styles, chosen hap-hazard, devoid of correctness or
expression, can only vitiate the pupil's taste, and render the
best guidance almost useless.
cise

The

Your Excellency's predecessor, M. Fortoul, like all judicious minds, had been struck with such a deplorable deficiency.
Aware of the novel results obtained by Madame
Cave's method, he had nominated, to examine into the process, a Commission, the majority of which did not declare

REPORT OF

VI

M. DELACROIX.

themselves in favor of its adoption, but without approving

the old method of instruction, the inconveniences of which
had been almost unanimously recognized. The use of the
tracing-copy, introduced by Madame Cave into her method,
seemed especially to arouse the scruples of the Commission,
and it was impossible for the greater part of its members to
recognize in it anything more than the mechanical repetition
of the models, almost wholly devoid of all intelligent and
rational imitation.
Fresh successes of the Cave method have awakened the
It seems to yon, to-day, that
solicitude of Your Excellency.
in view of satisfactory and permanent results, the processes

employed for obtaining them might not have been suflQciently

understood. There is occasion, then, for reverting to so interesting a question, and, in order to give additional light to
the Commission appointed for this purpose, it has been decided that the elements of the method should be presented
to them and expounded by some person habituated to their
use.
M. d'Austrive, professor of drawing according to the
Cave method, has been charged with this, and, thanks to the
experience thus obtained, it has become easy to dehver an
opinion upon the method with full knowledge of its advantages and its drawbacks.
The principal difference between the method and its predecessor consists in tliis
that it is first of all necessary to
train the eye, by giving it some sure means of correcting its
mistakes in the estimates of lengths and foreshortenings.
transparent tracing-copy {calgue) is put into the pupil's
hands, so that by applying it from time to time to his drawing, he can himself recognize his faults and correct them.
This incessant correction does not enable him to dispense
with the attention that he must give to the original. After
several attempts have shown him to what extent his eye has
been capable of deceiving him, he redoubles his care to
avoid mistakes that reveal themselves to him with a degree
of evidence that could never be attained by the mere counsels of a master.
His attention is furthermore kept up by
the necessity in which he is placed of repeating from
memory this first attempt thus corrected.
This second operation, in which the pupil seeks to recall
the absent model, by drawing from memory his first attempt,
has for its object to engrave still more deeply in his mind
the relations of the lines to one another, and when, by a
third operation, he has to copy the model again, this time
:

REPORT OP
without

tlie

must bring

M. DELACEOIX.

aid of the verifying trace copy,

to this last task a

more

YU

we

intelligent

feel that

power of

he

imi-

tation.
It has

been observed, in fact, in the attempts submitted to

the inspection of the Commission, thkt this third draught ordinaril}^ presented traces of a lively feeling, and one less restrained by the necessity of the precision to which the pupil
had been forced in his drawing, executed by the aid of the
verifying trace-copy.
The entire method consists in these three successive
operations, whicli are applied equally to drawing from the
relief and to the demarcation of shadows.
The pupil thus
acquires, and by very simple means, a very accurate appreciation of the laws of perspective in the human form, where we
know that they are much more difficult, even impossible to
realize in a mathematical manner by the means that the
former methods have employed.
It seems unnecessary to enter into the details of the exercises that have for their final object to familiarize the pupil
with handling the crayon, and obtaining lightness of hand,
together with accuracy of eye. It will suffice to declare, in
favor of this method, that not only can it be taught more
practically than any other, but that it has a reliable startingpoint, such as no other can offer.
It is in point to speak of the influence that the models are
destined to exercise upon the progress of the pupils. These
models are nothing more or less than the most beautiful
specimens of the drawings of the great masters, or engravings from their pictures.
With regard to those taken from
antiques, they are drawn from the reliefs, by means of glass
or transparent gauze, which offers, as objects of study, only
figures traced with an exactitude of rigorous perspective.
The question relative to the choice of teachers is not less
worthy of attention. The trace-copy, put into the hands of
the pupil and designed to give him complete certainty as to
the accuracy of his copy, renders the teacher's task infinitely
more easy. Persons of second-rate talent, but merely familiar with the processes of the method, can become very
good teachers. Even pupils can be substituted when they
have reached a certain degree of facility in imitating the

models.

We have seen this performed in the primary schools,

where the method has been applied, and where the drawings
have seemed very remarkable.
The directors of these

VIU

KEPOET OF

M. DELACROIX.

schools had no knowledge of drawing. It is enough to saythat the same would be the case in all the communes, where
it would be almost impossible to have a teacher. 'We can
therefore judge that the same principles, followed up in their
development by experienced masters, would yield still more
satisfactory results.
Instruction in drawing, thanks to this
new process, would gain in greater utility from an industrial
point of view. It is known how many professions are based
upon drawing. To extend the means of instruction in this
direction is, then, to render a real service to the working
classes.
The models, which can be easily multiplied by all
sorts of objects taken from nature, would augment the number of designs employed in ornamental work, in stuffs, in
decorations of every kind, and would offer a variety and purity of form that would rescue industry and the arts from the
triviality of conventional types, that tend to bring about their
decay.
Such are the considerations resulting from the examinations of Madame Cave's method.
The Commission has judged the principles of it to be useful, and has the honor of recommending them to Your Excellency.

M. Delacroix.

This report was approved and signed unanimously at the

meeting held the second of December, 1861.
By a decree dated February 19th, 1862, His Excellency,
the minister of Public Instruction, upon the report of the
Commission, authorized the rectors of the academies of
Douai and Caen to apply the Cave method in the normal
schools of their jurisdiction.
M. Doudiet d'Austrive, professor of the Cave method,
was charged with explaining and carrying out the method
in the above-named schools.

MANUAL OF COLOR.

CAYE'S

rmST LETTER
ANTIQUES GEE AT MASTERS.

You
you

told

above

answered M. de C

him

all to

that

my

it

was

my dear Julia, when

my not recommending

perfectly,

intentional,

pupils the study of antiques, of Raphael

the great masters

I should take

who have followed

good care not

to.

and

him.

Just as I do not

make

use

of other persons' glasses, so I have instructed your daughters

according to

why

my own

If the result

observations.

is

good,

trouble yourself about the criticisms of the classical

professors?

Have they any

after a year's study,

scholars

who

can, like mine,

draw from memory a Raphael, aWatteau,

or any other master, beyond the possibility of being mis-

taken?

Certainly not.

Then

am

right in

making them

acquainted with the masters before talking to them about

them.
It is

my principle not

to

begin

at the end.

Raphael, Poussin, are the masters of

style to a pupil
1

who

does not

style.

know how

The

antiques,

To speak

to draw,

is

to

of

speak

caye's

manual of

of colors to a blind man.

like the children

of

La

Fontaine,

do not wish your daughters

who are made to learn hj heart

and who repeat like parrots those

lofty philosophy.

despise

coloe.

When

to

be

the fables
lessons of

the age of discretion arrives, they

them because they have never understood them, and

they persist in regarding them, after the manner of their

ancestors, as nothing

more than

dolls,

hobby-horses, and toy

dogs to amuse their children.

It is

as

with the antiques, Michael Angelo, Kaphael, Poussin,

with Homer, Plato, Plutarch.

one's studies in order to

I

One must be well on

in

comprehend them.

have not bored your daughters, then, with the great

masters, as children are bored with our beautiful fables.

First impressions are so

seldom modified that

it is

prudent

not to speak to pupils about great things until they are

capable of appreciating them.

The

may

arts

and the sciences have

which

their mysteries also,

not be revealed to infancy; that would be exposing

delicate eyes to a burning light.

But to-day

I think that I

am free to speak, and

that I shall

be understood.

In our drawing lessons, before placing your daughters in

the presence of nature, I confronted

of

all

latter

them with the masters

the schools, in order that they might see

how

had interpreted nature while drawing

To-day, in

it.

these

our lessons in coloring, before placing them in the presence

of nature, I shall confront them with the colorists, in order
that they

the brush.

may

see

But

how

these latter have interpreted

I shall continue to be impartial

it

with

pupils are

GEEAT MASTEES.

ANTIQUES

own

not made by imposing one's

upon them.

tastes

my manner

I neither teacli

and predilections

of drawing nor

my

My

pupils have all the great masters

for their professors, since,

by means of the tracing copy, the

manner of

painting.

masters come of themselves and set to work, saying

is

not right
I

might write

to

you

master for women.

that

Watteau seems

But perhaps there

organization which resembles his, and

"That

me

to

to

be the

something in

is

my

which makes me ap-

him more than another woman would.

preciate

begin over again, correct."

So I

suffer

the inclination, the feelings of your daughters to develope

and guide themselves uninfluenced.

I have opened for

At

a long road, very wide at the starting-point.

is

room-for everybody

becomes

diflQcult.

the end.

It is

but, as

Many

rest

first

them
there

narrows and

one advances,

it

by the way

very few reach

Elysium, Paradise

many

called

and few

chosen.

But before reaching those summits where the choicest

flowers sparkle, there are charming harvests to be gathered

upon the lower

who

slopes.

How many

wonders, from Teniers,

has painted the pleasures of Bacchus,

animating the woods and the gardens.

those

meadows with

their

chatting and sporting that

enough
Louis

to

make

XY.

the

same

air.

happy in

pau's, so

c'atch ourselves

their

enjoying them

us believe that they did nothing else under

The

and the persons

roaming

we

down to Watteau,

See those parks and

trees
to

belong so completely to the persons,

the trees, that

An atmosphere

this nature, and, if

we

feel that

of happiness

Watteau has not wished

is

to

they breathe

spread over

all

make po^ry,

manual of

caye's

we must
hearts

He

coloe.

admit that he puts a great deal of

at least

and minds of those who contemplate

it

in the

his works.

has painted the nature that was before his eyes.

the costume of the age of Louis

he would be a painter of
faithful

than he

The

is

and

XV. had had any

impossible to be

gtyle, for it is

style is natural

great masters prove

If

character,

more

movement.

Phidias has reproduced

this.

the beautiful forms and the grand figures that were before
his eyes.

that they

What have Eaphael and

had the

Poussin done

We

see

fixed intention of expressing well the great

They

scenes that inspired them.

them with a

cling to

sort

of piety, giving to each one of their personages his physiog-

nomy,

his attitude,

and

they are

men

instance, they

what admirable

of our day

The only

movement.
if

For

his action.

both painted wood-sawers

the

difference

same
is

faces

have

and

how

and natural

correct

in the costume.

And

yet,

Raphael and Poussin had only painted wood-sawers, they

would not have passed

many

prejudices

for masters of style.

There are so

upon the matter of style.

Those who admire the great masters from the true point
of view, admire

all

those

who have adopted the same principle.

Placed before nature, your daughters perfectly appreciated

everything without
just as they

knew

the wherefore.

out

grammar

the best

the

first ?

way
I

effort,

without theoretical explanations,

perspective without

They learned
or dictionary.

Is it not

of learning languages

have adopted

Children, pupils,

work

knowing the how and

as children learn to talk, with-

is

acknowledged that
to

speak them from

this principle.

on.

You

will soon

know why.

ANTIQUES

GEEAT

MASTERS.

You have the good fortune not to have any master, or

have one who is in no hurry to be witty in your presence.
To-clay, if I say to

sweeping

lines

figure gives

it

is

your daughters
the

you a sweeping

line

on one

antiques, the Eaphaels, Poussins,

contrasts
side, it is

broken up by movement on the other," I

The

" Style is

harmony of

I set

them on the road

Give them an example.

a

little girl

She

when a
much

very

shall be understood.

With

a single

to style.

Select from the

common

people

of ten to twelve, dress her in a long shirt without

and

sleeves,

her.

born of

and Lesueurs that they

drew from memory, have spoken before me.

word

to

let

her

move and

will present

seeming

act without

movements of

watch

to

incredible style

and

beauty, revealing to your daughters the beautiful angels of

our great masters.

Add

a second shirt, reaching below the knees and fastened

at the waist, they

will recognise the beautiful

women

of

Poussin.

A young girl

of twelve, brought up

ordinarily natural

the carriage of the antiques, for the

in all ages.

their foreheads

young

among

children

and the contour of

girls

am

race

is

the

we

is

same

fashions,

life.

So Raphael

see

in the shape of

it

their cheeks.

se-

Never, ex-

and young boys of twelve, have

those simple and noble attitudes

human

spoil children so soon in

lected his virgins

works of

the people,

Mannerism comes from manners and

which do not

cept in

among

her movements are her own, and she has

which characterize

found
all

the

this divine painter.

confident that Mary, who, every evening, draws from

memory

lier

beautiful engravings, assents to every

mine, as to an acknowledged truth.

such observations

Was

fact, I

made

her as she has already

to

word of

only

make

herself.

wrong, then, in commencing by giving her that ex-

perience

The experience
parents

it

of one's professors

corrects nothing,

it

only by our
willed

In

own

it

experience.

thus, in order that

like that of one's

is

We

teaches nothing.

The Creator

of

all

profit

things has

we should remain human

other-

wise, from one experience to another, ever progressing,

we

should simply be gods by this time.

With

little

of philosophy in our hearts,

those fools

who

upset our country, crying

gress

They do not know

its limits,

which

it is

are like men, a

should not

Perhaps

know

it is

their days of

impossible for us to cross.

I will not take

calm and

The

art.

pro-

Governments

it

back

I said a

without the bad,

the good.

also necessary that

storms, the arts revive.

a revival of

that progress in everything has

happy mixture of good and bad.

happy mixture, and

we

we can pardon

Progress

governments should have

their days of tempest.

And what an

After the

admirable thing

arts are like flowers,

it is,

they wait until

the frosts and snows have melted before they displaj^ themselves gloriously in the sun.

long winters.
liot-houses for

We

Only

in history there are very

could wish that every government had

bad weather, that

is,

schools where the study

of art might calm the young heads of fifteen or eighteen.

Art

The

is

the contact of the spirit of

artist

thinks

man with the spirit

of God.

more than be speaks, and we speak too

ANTIQUES

much and

GREAT

too well; thus

it

MASTERS.

happens that we no longer under-

stand one another.

But you wish,

the ancients,
its

then,

and sculptors

painters

signet

some one
No.

was applied

upon

all

to

will say to

mean that

everything

me, a society of

art

which, among

that art

which

set

and which reached from

the professions,

the handle of a sauce-pan to the statue of the master of the

gods.

With them, everything was cared

taste.

In those times, a twentieth of the populat ion, at the

for

and

in

good

most, busied themselves with giving laws to the rest, with

advising, with criticising

whereas, to-day, nineteen-twenti-

We

eths wish to decree and advise.

there

scarcely

is

anybody

If all the cotton in the

all

are in a theatre

world were run through a bonnet

the brains through the same loom, from

but writers come out.

Is this

no enemy of the pen.

But you,

the brush a

little better,

wise?

you would

listen to

who do

hear me, to embrace you.

is it

You

which nothing

judicious

am

you loved the pencil and

if

am giving lessons to
me What a blunder

But here

where

but actors.

would be nothing but cotton bonnets.

frame, there

put

left

feel all the better for

it.

governments that will not

-

1 will

come back
M.

to you,

^. C.

manual of

caye's

SECOND

coloe.

LETTEPv.

ON COLOR WITHOUT COLORS.

Befoee
I

giving

oi^r

young pupils a

palette,

my clear Julia,

must make them thorouglily understand what color

is.

common parlance the name of colorist is reserved for

the painter who possesses the science of the harmony of
colors.
He who does not have this science, but places
In

the other, commits an absurdity.

colors one along-side of

He

is like

knowing

man

sitting

the game, and

down

before a chess-board without

moving

and thither

his pieces hither

a singer that has neither a correct voice nor a correct ear,

A picture by such a painter

splitting the ears of his hearers.

is

no painting,

it is

an indescribable something,

this sort

was

for

harmonizing them.

which
tition

to

is

to

This

is

of

That

my

color without

and no talent

way

another

known

I shall consecrate, this letter.

for already, in

making

instinct for tones,

not so well

your daughters.

dis-

age.

when we have no
which

and

famous exhibition of 1848

must confine ourselves

colorist,

it

I seen at the

image of the

the

We
colors,

have

false

How many

cordant, created for the torture of the eye.

of being a

to the vulgar,

It will

and

to

be almost a repe-

course of drawing, I have taught

If they

have read

me

attentively, if

they have forgotten nothing, they wiir u aderstand perfectly

my new

explanations.

COLOR WITHOUT COLOKS.

Color without colors

An

cMaro-oscwro.

engraving wliich has nothing but light and shade

colored, if the light

Qf

the eye.

grand

is

disposes

it

is

way

God has given

there,

view,

if

us this great lesson in coloring, by mak-

more

or less obliquely.

the most striking and varied

which

off,

diversified

not

lit

effects.

here, di-

For him,

that part of
is

the

momentarily shifting panorama.

shadows appear on every side and form the most

and

attractive scenes.

up everywhere

at the

Inasmuch as the earth

same time, we can say

I have said of Rembrandt, that

What

it

his point of

receives the direct rays of the sun

salient point of his

Further

From

indeed he looks at us from up there, he must enjoy

the globe

most

he

the sun of his creation.

It is

art.

ing the earth round, with a single sun to light

rectly

This

especially concerned about his light

with magic

is

as to strike

kind are Rembrandt's engravings.

this

colorist

distributed in such a

is

is

then, as

God has disposed the light.

who know how to study his

a master for those painters

works
In order to understand me, take a
nous point by holding
see through

how many

it

ball

and

shift its lumi-

to the light of a lamp.

gradations

its

light passes,

You

will

from the

brightest part to the darkest ones.

To

his lesson in coloring

turesqueness,

He

earth.

gives

it

which

God has added

a lesson in pic-

by interposing clouds between the sun and the

thus changes the uniform order of light, and

those unexpected shapings, those ever

delight us

we might

willing that ennui should attack us.

1*

new

effects,

almost say that he has not been

10
In imitating him,

painter

tlie

who

is

gifted with an ob-

serving spirit can place the light where he wishes

we only

picture

inasmuch

for in a

see the effect of the light without its cause,

as the cause

is

almost always outside the limits of

the canvas.

who knows how

liut

to profit

by the great lessons that

moment?

the Creator gives us every

our entry into the world.

Pride has ruined us on

It renders us blind

We

nothing.
that

we

are only imitators,

are worth anything.

apes of creation
things,

ness

we

and

Great

we

believe

only by that

it is

men

Ko, we can create

ourselves demi-gods, capable of creating.

title

are only the great

and, in the presence of the author of

all

should have that ingenious and naive awkward-

which we study

vvith so

much

interest in the imperfect

beings that imitate us on earth.

Were

I a political

woman,

add that the best

I should

governed countries are those whose inhabitants have taken

their

form of government from on high, and accept from

their chief

what they accept from God.

everybody pleased
ruler satisfy

But

am

When

And we would have

everybody

at

once

Is

it

possible

only a painter, thank Heaven

it

rains, is

every act of our

And,

as I

have

already said, the painter, continually on the look-out in the

presence of nature, acquires a groundwork of philosophy

that renders

him happy.

things that cost

so

many

him

He

treasures, that

he

soars, so to speak,

weaknesses and miseries of

So,

my

enjoys in this world so

many

nothing, his imagination procures

him

above the petty

this world.

dear Julia, your daughters will be eternally grate-

COLOR WITHOUT COLOES.

ful to

you

I thank
troubles.

having made them learn the

for

my

What

art of

amid

my

a comforter she has given

me

mother

for it every day,

a resource, should fortune

come

to

rely in a country that dates

cept on one's

own

availability

Make

by

drawing.

enemies and
!

And what

play you false

what can one

pupils, to

11

For on

revolutions, ex-

haste, then,

my

dear

have a true talent; to-morrow, perhaps, you will

have need of

it.

You already know how to draw take your brushes.

From color without colors, which we cannot call luminous color, we will pass to the color of harmony, which
;

water-colors teach in a clear and precise manner.

it

for granted that I

know my

first

lessons

am
:

which

who

without which they would not un-

derstand the second ones

this letter,

But I take

addressing Eliza and Mary,

they would not even understand

I close in bidding

you

all three,

adieu.

M.

f:.

0.

12

THIRD LETTER.
THE NIGHT WATCH OF REMBEANDT.
This

is

the occasion for speaking to you,

my

dear Julia,

of Rembrandt's Night Watch, a master-piece of cMaro-oscurOj

of depth, and of atmosphere.

In

this picture it

am about
It

was that

magical work.

It is a

found

all

the processes that I

for

making

objects advance or recede.

was audacious, it is

true, to

undertake upon a

to give

you

work

of white paper, with water-colors, a

little

sheet

that might be

called the vigor of vigors.

But then

have found the secret that I was looking

to detach the personages in a picture in such a

manner

for

that

the air will circulate around them, and that those in the

back-ground will not be in the vapor.

The Night Watch

of a

that, I

ed tone

began
;

of

Rembrandt is lit up

have mentioned

ball, as I

in the light

with a single graduat-

to give the chiaro-oscuro

then I painted over

and

found that

in the

it

it

just like the half

Having discovered

to you.

shadow

precisely as

was with water-colors alone

that such secrets could be discovered,

and with water-colors

alone that they could be painted.

If

me

you only knew how easy painting

after that

work.

was

figures in the back-ground,

able to hit

which

is

in oils appeared to

upon the tone of the

as accentuated, as lu-

minous, as vigorous as that of the figures in front.

THE NIGHT WATCH OF

EEMBRAJSTDT.

You will see this by following,

am going to give you.

by

step

13

step, the lessons

that I

I also

found the shadow of the

light,

which

is

the

whole

color, all in this picture.

Bonington had

hit

upon the very same processes

deavoring to copy a Rubens in water-colors.

that truth

is

one and the same,

this great colorist

it,

after

it

as

was not acquainted with

was M. Carrier who informed me of

having read the

As soon

for I

in en-

This proves

first

edition of this book.

your daughters have practiced upon single

models, you will also place them before a great master and

a great composition.

You can make them commence the study

of the principles

of color with an engraving, in order that they

to trouble themselves

that I

have

am

to give

yellow, a

more or

little

less

may

not have

the processes

them, the tone of the work that they will

You

to copy.

with two things at once

understand, of course, that a

more

light.

blue,

makes things more

little

more

or less dark,

Let us then commence learning the

principles of color from a

model without

You
Young

colors.

see studies that are, at times, extraordinary.

will
girls

had mastered the charcoal so thoroughly, had become so

telligent

by following scrupulously

that I have seen water- colors

very tone of the master.

So,

method

made from

Above

they execute the best, because

taken from

my

all, it is

all

in-

in coloring,

engravings, in the
the colorists that

the processes have been

colorists.

when your

daughters will be able to find the tone by

14

means of

water-colors, they will find

for painting

With regard

to painting in oils

ter-colors, I will give

as

it

for pastel painting,

on ivory and porcelain.

you have applied

have the key

as soon as

you know wa-

you the method of painting

these processes to water-colors,

to all color.

as soon

you

will

PAPER AND BErSHES.

15

'

FOUETH LETTER.
LESSON SELECTION OF PAPER AND BRUSHESMETHOD OP
STRETCHING THE PAPERMANNER OF WASHING-IN.
It

is

not easy,

my

dear Julia, to find brushes and paper

The

suitable for water-colors.

to

hunt

for a

six months, a year

a brush for

weeks, because, at that price,

cent One.
it

A brush,

way

best

A brush

good bargain.

two francs

it is

to be good,

of paying dear,

is

may

last

will last only

two

for six francs

very unusual to find a de-

must be

when

elastic, that is,

has been wet and worked into a point against the rim of

the glass, the point should always re-adjust itself

to the right or the

when turned

Short and thick brushes especially

left.

possess this quality, and their points, although very fine, are

A good brush may be used both for draw-

firm and springy.

ing an eye and making a sky.

the old ones for

skies

new

ones.

spare the points of the

With regard to
touch.

than

It is better,

making the

the paper, choose

it

paper,

to say,

is

By

with your tongue, you will see whether

is

keep
as to

worth much more

which has the additional disadvantage of

having been made by machinery.

that

to

heavy, and dry to the

Paper that has been long kept

new

however,

and back-grounds, so

whether

it

it

wetting the paper

has been well sized,

does not absorb water, which

is

the

essential point.
"

Poor workmen never find good tools," says the proverb.

cave's

16

Perfectly natural

manual of

either they

color.

have never been taught

how to

poor ones are given them, although they need better

select, or

ones than other workmen.

than one.

good

harder to fight two enemies

It is

may be

with a poor sword

fighter

for-

midable, but what can a poor fighter do with a poor sword

Give your daughters, then, the best that there

of brushes and paper

making

you

eye

if

wrong

sheet of paper, hold

you observe any

marks on the

surface,

with matches, or

it

flat

on a

you have the wrong

to stretch this

this recipe,

which

is

Family Cook.

be as simple and clear as

its

wrinkles

lay

it

make

level with

your

and you can

side,

paper on the board.

we missed

am

so admi-

going to try and

size that

you have

wet thoroughly the wrong side of the

sponge, and

to

learned author.

Fold and cut your paper of the

lected

by

as difficult to follow as

the one for those famous preserves that

rably, according to the

trial

anything like scraper-

streaks, or

mark it with a cross.

The great thing is, now,
Follow carefully

way

side of the paper.

they must learn to find the right side.

first

Take a

them many a

will spare

erty to perform feats, to paint

But

in the

After a while, they will be at lib-

their task easier.

water-colors on the

is

sheet,

se-

with a

upon the board evenly and without

then, in order not to soil or rub

it,

place on top,

edge to edge, a piece of ordinary paper.

But, before doing this, wet a piece of mouth-glue,

you can hold between your

lips,

so as to have

it

which

ready for

use.
l!Tow,

with the thumb and fore-finger, spreading them as

STEETCHIXG THE PAPER.

17

two papers upon the board,

far apart as possible, press the

and then pass your mouth-glue under the edge of the moistened paper

you have then only

to bear

upon the paper on

top with the back of your pen-knife, rubbing

other paper

By taking
go

all

glued

is

it

until the

tight.

you can thus

care to keep the mouth-glue soft,

around the board without being in a hurry.

During the operation, a book placed upon your sheet of

paper will serve to hold
"

Having followed

and you ought

to

it flat.

all

these directions carefully, let

have a favorable

This is called the bore of water-colors.

it

already stretched, but the paper

often

on the wrong side

"We must, then,

at the outset,

We must set about

not always good

is

besides,

quality of paper to one's liking,

dry,

Boards can be bought

and in cold blood.

resolutely

it

result."

when one

it is

it is

has found a

not pleasant to change.

form the good habit of helping

ourselves.

Oh
sire of

that.

confess that I

making good
I

bestow

carry out

all

and forbid

We are

have the courage

malediction upon those

that I prescribe.

to write all

who

will not

pronounce them unworthy,

their reading these letters.

While we
ourselves a

my

must indeed be possessed with the depupils, to

are learning to stretch our paper, let us divert

little

by learning

going to

to

handle our brush.

make some

attempts at dull tints on or-

dinary writing paper, with ivory-black, for instance.

Let

us,

with the brush, put some drops of water on a piece of guardpaper, and add to

them a

little

ivory -black, to

make

a gray

18
This tone made,

tone.

brush, and wash-in

we

will take

some of

some squares on the

it,

with the

In order to

paper.

succeed in making them perfectly uniform, we must ascertain

how much water we can leave in the brush, and we shall see
that we need not be afraid of taking too much. We will
also make bands of all widths along-side of one another, in
order to learn how to reserve the white parts with precision.
If we have too much water left, on coming to the end of
what we are trying to execute, we can dry our brush by
against the rim of the glass, and

holding

it

up the

excess.

will not be slow to

From

this

it

will soon take

These exercises are extremely

we

make

useful,

and

us mistresses of our brush.

will pass to the first drawings of houses

that I sent your daughters.

The

about to replace the pencil.

Let them commence by tracing

brush, in their hands,

is

the drawings very lightly, in order to avoid using bread-

crumb and

india-rubber,

which render wash-paper very bad.

This tracing accomplished, they will lay on the

half-tints

everywhere, only reserving the whites with the exactness

that I have enjoined.

You
able to

see,

from the very

first step,

draw from memory.

necessary to lead off correctly

While the

how

necessary

In water-colors,
;

a correction

half-tint is drying,

and not

is

it

it is

is

to

be

always

not possible.

to lose time,

your

daughters will return to their guard-paper and repeat the

exercises that I

dry,

have above indicated.

When

the paper

is

and has become stretched once more, they will draw the

architectural lines with the point of the brush

after that,

they will go over the shadows with tints more or less dark.

WASHEN^G-rN".

They may be

19

obliged to go over the most vigorous parts

twice.

From
hands, to

houses they will pass to draped figures, to heads, to

trees, to skies

ing-in, all that they

after that,

may have

they will shade, by wash-

in the

way

of engravings.

Fmally, they will wash-in, from memory, in order that the

brush

may

amount

of

replace the pencil, and replace

skill.

it

with an equal

M.

!&.

0.

cave's

20

manual of

coloe.

FIFTH LETTER.
EEMAEKSUSEFULNESS OP BOEESHISTOEY OF SOPHEONIA.
Study,

my clear

Julia,

is

like everything in this world, a

mixture of trouble and pleasm-e

no

my

than every other.

less

last letter

the study of water-colors

beginnings are always hard

Its

has proved that, both by the ennui that

caused you, and by the difficulty of carrying out

tions

but I promise to indemnify you for

fairy,

with hands

and studious

But

full

one of those out of employ,

us like drones around the hive.

to neutralize

what

torture

diately I set about stretching

There
;

it is

it ?

By

another

Bores are almost always

he

assists

me at first,
Would you

I have at times seen a bore with a certain

of pleasure.

gence

is

to see a bore

When I see one enter, immemy paper. He sees me impa-

and winds up by doing the drudgery himself

believe

No doubt
my little

one of

who come buzzing around

way

and unhappy that touches him

;

is

Well, I have found the

one bore by another.

good-humored and obliging.

tient

is

children.

torture besides that of stretching paper

enter,

Water-color

it.

we can escape from it. This

I am going to impart to you.

secrets that

has

of beautiful golden fruit for obedient

to stretch a sheet of paper,

fortunately,

it

my instruc-

have even seen more than one

man

amount

of

intelli-

solicit a bore's task.

the way, there seems to be almost an entire system of

rsEFULN'l:ss of boees.

21

conduct there for an intelligent woman, provided she

little bit pretty, to

But

leave the bad for others.

none of

I will

mouth-glue
I

is

had got

that v^^ould be selfishness,

and

me

to extract a little profit

They do not complain

from these good bores.

and

Simply permit

it.

is

self,

take the good of things for one's

of

it.

The

their delight.

my letter, my dear Julia, when the

My servant has pushed

that far in

Countess Stadmiski was announced.

murdering names, that I looked

to such an excess the fault of

around, saying:

mean ? "
went

"It

the Countess de Morantais,

is

" Yes, -ma' am."

I got up, in a very

into the parlor,

thousand to one you would not guess

who had

Sophronia, our old comrade,

receiver-general,
is

you

bad humor, and

and

now

is

whom

Countess de Stadmiski.

as young, as spirituelle, as pretty as ever.

you her history

and our

as she related

girls will see

after

name nor your

residence.

boarding school,

we might

shipwrecked.

it

to

me,

it

you

When

will interest you,

one's fingers.

young

But

girls quit

say they were on a ship suddenly

Each one escapes her own way,

can, like an egoist.

know your

she did not

several

She

If I can give

what can be done with

She began by enquiring

I found.

married, you know, a

if,

some time

after,

the best she

two comrades

meet, their friendships revive as briskly as though there had

never been any parting.

They know each other

Sophronia will be rejoiced to make you a

visit

so well

on her return

from Russia.
I have just found, these last few days, a letter that she

wrote

me

the second year of her marriage with the receiver-

manual of

cave's

22

general of the Haiite-Garonne.

coloe.

send

plain to you, better tlian I could do

It will ex-

to yon.

it

commencement of

the

it,

her history

"My Dear
I

Eliza:

Yesterday evening, at the

saw your unfortunate French

so

much, by way of taking revenge

caused

us.

And, would you believe

prefect's,

whom we

professor,

it? it

was with

Julia's

appeared

me some news

for, at that

me.

to

about you.

a feeling

make me

of pleasure that I saw his hateful face wrinkle to

a gracious salutation

enraged

the ennui that he

for

your face and

instant,

thought that he was going to give

Not

at

Then

all.

became sad

and absent-minded, thinking that we had been separated two

and not one of us three had broken

years,

most

blame

to

know

not

but

it

much

ten years since I have seen you, so

Am I the

silence.

seems to

me

that

it is

has happened in

that short space of time.

"

days,

Seven years

at

boarding school, seven long days

Wednesdays, and Fridays, lessons in grammar

and Saturdays, lessons

days, Thursdays,

in

the

But two years of marriage

life.

an old

At

woman

delivered of

my

already

happy, I

male sex in general, and

all

my

husband.

big white letters

seem
I

one

That

to

.was

com-

myself

was happily

have the honor, Madame,

Yes, Eliza, I have two daughters.

it.

am

Judge whether I

Tues-

centuries in

half, I

two months ago,

second child.

of informing you of

above

for,

two

and a

the age of nineteen

geography

Sunday, mass and vespers, and the next, holiday.

parison.

Mon-

who have always

in particular

When

my poor

pitied the

brother,

and

wrote on the blackboard, in

God has been

well pleased in creating

HISTORY OF SOPHEONIA.
woman, and has

my

know,

man, perfect thyself

said to

I did not think I

was uttering such a great

men go

dear friend, that

Hercules in order to be agreeable to

where the best

23
to please her,'

through the labors of

They

us.

and always the best

places,

Do you

truth.

give us every-

things.

If

we

drop our handkerchief or gloves, they will break their backs

them

to pick

flowers

if

hearts, for

If they

up.

they have wit,

whom

are they,

you observed how they

have gardens,

it is

good heavens,

to offer us the

it is

charm us

to

if

they have

not for us

if

detest one another

and

Have

Those leaves of

paper in which they abuse one another every day have surprised

me

very

much

if

what would the roughs

*'

So I said

expect

to

women

my

well-bred

men

each other

treat

so,

do, if they wrote in the newspapers

husband, the other day

to respect

men

You do

'
:

How

can you

not respect your-

selves.'

" Speaking of

good.

I ask

should love

morning

my

me

so much, that he should

to night, for

Really, in his presence I

ness.

husband, I will

the good of

work as he does from

me and my

I play

daughters

am ashamed of my good-for-nothing-

I take the trouble to rise, to drive out

my servants

you something

tell

myself every day: "What have I done that he

with

my

two

dolls

I give orders to

that finishes the day.

In the evening, as soon as they are asleep, I beautify myself

to

appear in the parlor, where I hear only charming things.

was going

to forget the pleasure that I enjoy in

most delightful fancy

daughters

I swear

to

they bid

you

articles for
fair to

my

buying the

house, for myself, for

be as beautiful as any of

that I shall not stuff

them with

us.

my
So

science.

What good? Men

woman,

my

manual of

cave's

24

love us just as

the other becomes man.

husband has not once asked

know

that he does not

color.

we

me

for a song,

me

and

is

bom

I believe

What

that I learned drawing.

mistaken idea I formed about marriage.

people spoke to

Our sex

are.

Since I have been married,

was alarmed when

of a receiver-general

I believed that

he would not converse with me on anything but accounts and

figures,

and I

said to myself: I shall be able to reply, for I

have always taken the

What trouble might

be avoided,

beforehand with the

man we were

ception of

me some
"

my

parison with
dured.

drawing and

We

to

all

my

if

the torments that

my poor brother has

make

to pass

for the conscription

yer's oflBce,
to

them

where the

first

all his troubles,

us shine.

At

all

brought them

condemned repeatedly
to

Bu.t the

then they

person that comes along exposes

to

make one hand in

events, they will be undis-

No
One

a second time, to turn soldiers.

Enough

en-

only

then they are placed in some law-

turbed in this den of chicanery ?

is

we

a mass of undecipherable papers

have seen some of them.

mount guard

After ten years at college, they have to

tremble through examination after examination

draw

the ex-

bores I did undergo.

have no public examinations

men

With

speak frankly, these bores are roses in com-

get a light varnish of education, to

poor young

to marry.

music, which have afforded

how many

pleasant hours,

However,

On the
me on serious subjects.
we were only acquainted

prizes in mathematics.

first

contrary, he has never spoken to

the state forces them,

order after another to

so that they are sentenced,

twenty-four

hours

his resignation as a

of

prison.

man. Yery

HISTORY OF SOPHEONIA.
fortunately, the state

shows some mercy:

jjiy

me that my brother is not so unhappy

men in general would not be women.

sures

that
"

Perhaps because they are so glad

"

Your

25

as

somewhat extravagant

this

to love us.

letter,

my

happiness was, and what view she took of

on

he writes, and

SOPKRONIA."
dear Julia, you

convey to you, what Sophronia's

will see better than I could

rolled

as-

darling,

"

In

husband

after these first two,

Four years

life.

without changing her circum-

But on the morrow of the sixth anniversary of

stances any.

her marriage, the morrow of a day passed in joy, her hus-

band was thrown from

woman

poor

his horse

"My

body had been brought home:

came

on the

killed

burst into tears while telling

who

convey

took

to

me and my two

you an idea of her

tenderness,

The

the dead

eyes," she said, "be-

so fixed and lustreless that people feared for

There was a friend with me, the wife of the

tary,

spot.

me how

my reason.

prefect's secre-

daughters to her home.

To

patient kindness, her attentive

For one

would be impossible.

entire year I ac-

cepted her devotion, without concerning myself about the

trouble I

was causing her

everybody.

At times

an unconcern that was

would embrace

without thinking of them.

that

was

affairs

my husband

made more than twenty

in different positions.

terrible to

children, but

had but one preoccupation

to recall the features of

upon paper.

my

my

and

fix

them

portraits of him, all

My friend's husband had looked after

my health, or rather of my head

but the state of

prevented him from rendering

2

me any

accounts.

Finally

caye's

26

manual of

me from my

the doctor, in older to arouse

the idea of revealing to me,

'

You have

fifteen

left,'

he

said,

all at

thirty

hundred francs income

hundred francs

five

'

coloe.
apathy, conceived

once, a second misfortune

thousand francs

from that must be deducted

for the lodgings

where your furniture

kept, and, as a thousand francs a year will not be

you, you will

dren, as he
"

At

work

a mother, you will

whom you

these

words

it

regret

him who

thing, then, for

"

left

me

to me
What

for

as
!

me from

though

A great duty

madness.

my

With

gone before me.

my

hus-

he had touched,
there.

all that

my

he had loved.

He was

had drawn during

there, in fact

apart-

the heart of

saw

there

husband,
It

had no

little

delight I

once more everything that had belonged to

around me.

If

until then, I

two daughters into our

my Mend had

chil-

you.'

were awak-

The hand and

traits that

is

for

a fortune, I should be in a lunatic asylum.

conducted

though he were

your

for

them and

ments, which I found charming.

that

enough

I said, I can do some-

Animated by an energy of which,

idea, I

work

lived only for me.

shone upon me, that saved

band had

worked

seemed

ing out of a painful dream

you have

all

the por-

my sickness were hung

Their resemblance was striking

all

all

seemed as

up

the expres-

now smiling, now affectiondown with my daughters before

sions of his noble countenance,

ate,

now

serious.

I knelt

those dear and sacred images, and I

from on high descended upon

"

Not many days

after that, a

the portrait of her daughter,

land.

She expressed

felt

that a protection

us.

lady came to me, to order

who was

about to leave for Eng-

luer regret at this separation,

which was

HISTORY OE SOPHRONIA.
to

Again

be for a long time.

my

was

it

27

friend that

had

in-

terested this lady in

my

case,

ment, and to make

me

understand that there were other

wishing

me

to give

employ-

troubles in the world besides mine.

" I

made

only was

it

good-bye with a tenderness

after that

her mother, her

ting the likeness

not to get

others.

at the

trusted their faces to me.

girl said

had

so I

to paint

And

sisters.

had the merit of

was ignorant enough,

any science

off

young

brothers and

little

me

these portraits procured

of poetry

full

my heart. Not

with

this portrait, so to speak,

a likeness, but the eyes of the

as

hit-

you wrote me,

expense of those

who

en-

myself with seeking

I contented

the physiognomy of each one, his habitual position, adroitly

mixing crayon,

and water-color,

pastel,

Vidal, a beautiful portrait

" I cannot express to

money,

whom

by

you

all

the satisfaction in

and sweetest

me

lasted five years.

for

it,

my fingers,

adornment of

it

seemed

and that I

We lived

to

manner of

at Toulouse.

felt

in earning

and employing

my

I believe that that

life,

every evening

band thanked

after the

had seen

the happiness I

in creating a value out of

this value for the comfort, the

Of

me

is

little

girls.

the purest

that

my

slept blissfully.

hus-

This

in mediocrity, but I envied

no

one.

"

God wished

to try

me

still

more.

Six weeks passed by

my eldest daughter, who was attacked by the

impaired my health. It took us both a year to

the bedside of
measles, had

recover, during

saw

myself,

which time

my

want of money.

I could not handle a pencil.

dear friend, a prey to that torture called

I

saw

bills

come

in that I could not pay,

CAYE

28

OF COLOR.

S MAJiTUAL

want's that I could not satisfy, mortifications, privations.

cannot

tell

you what

poor.

What

of each day

I suflfered.

had the pride

to appear rich, but I

a conflict I had
I will

tell

they are over, gives

difficulties

the recital

me

that

a sort of shudder.

time for their first

commun-

Every day I conducted them twice to church

ion arrived.

made

there they

with the

you no more about them

My daughters grew up. The

"

be unwilling to appear

to

to sustain

remembrance of them even, now

of those things, the

had not the vanity to wish

young

the acquaintance of another

On my

Genevieve Stadmiski.

girl,

had exchanged a few

side I

words with her governess, a very distingue person.

Count

Stadmiski owned a magnificent chateau in the neighborhood

He had come there seeking

He was mourning for

of Toulouse.

found nowhere.

a relief that he
his wife,

had

who had

died a year after marriage, in giving birth to Genevieve.

saw him

for the first time the

day of the

the church

sage from

soon as

it

was raining

him

the governess

offering us his carriage,

we had

taken our seats in

it,

us to partake of a small collation.

communion

As we

me, he was deeply moved by the ceremony.

like

first

left

came with a mes-

which

I accepted.

As

he came himself, to beg

*

Our

children,' he said,

will return to the church together, without being wet.'

"

We were in such delicate health

at that time, that I grate-

The Count was acquainted with

What was an impromptu afiair for me

fully accepted his offer.

my

entire history.

was not one

reception.

did not

for
It

know

him

everything had been prepared for

was luxury
his

own

carried to

wealth.

its

utmost

my

the Count

After the breakfast, a gleam

OF SOPHEONIA.

HISTOlftr

29

We

of sunshine permitted us to take a stroll in the park.

directed our steps towards a delicious pavilion, constructed,

like the chateau, in the style of the palace at Fontainebleau,

The clumps

but on a very small scale.

of trees that sur-

rounded it on the south and north, made it an abode full of mys-

and charm.

tery

live here,

what

'

In your

place,' I said to the

I shall do,' he replied,

'

if

you

am

'

me

refuse

coming here and spending the summer.

that I

Count, I should

and leave the chateau to the servants.'

showing you,

it is

'

That

not a favor

It is

a service that I ask of

you

with them, see

" I accepted,

how gay and

my

daughter has need of the society of your two amiable

dren

is

the favor of

chil-

rosy she becomes.'

had

also

us our rooms, that let in the air

and

looking at Genevieve's cheeks

taken a look at the cheeks of my daughters.

"

The Count showed

the sunshine in profusion.

stalled in them.

my

The next morning we were

remained there

all

troubles so completely that I soon recovered

that

is to

say,

my youth. You

The Count was

He was

me.
sure
all

the

can guess the

seized with an extraordinary passion for

extremely fond of painting

his greatest plea-

see

a rich collection of engravings and works of art

that taught

We

my health,

rest.

me make sketches of all the nooks of his park,

places that we visited together. He mounted them
and collected them in magnificent albums. He had

was to

himself

in-

summer, and I forgot

me

to

know

the masters and formed

he

it

my

was

taste.

complimented each other: he was a connoisseur, but

could not hold a pencil

nothing.

made

I could handle the pencil, but I

knew

rapid progress, thanks to his counsels.

CAVE

30

What
is

MAN^UAL OF COLOE.

eloquence, wlien he spoke of art and everything thai

beautiful in nature

than the greatest

*'

On the

With

artist

other hand, he

ness and generosity for

recompensing them

his

words he painted

better

with his brushes.

showed the most incredible tender-

my

for the

daughters.

He seemed

to

be

gayety and the health that Gene-

vieve had found in their society.

"

You

way,

Then
upon
"

can understand that after six months passed in this

to separate us
it
;

was

five

Some

that

months

would have been

my

later, I

other day I will

months, the

finest of

" There are

known them

to

break

all

our hearts.

marriage with the Count was decided

my

married him.
tell

you how we passed those

two ways of being beloved and happy

both.

soars ever above

it."

five

life.

The one never

have

quits the earth, the other

M.

E, 0.

FLESII-TIXTS.

31

SIXTH LETTER.
LESSON FLESn-TINTS.
Yv^E are

going

to

draw,

my

dear

Jiiiia,

several beads

trace

them, Dot on the wrong side but on the right side of j-our
wash-paper, and then stretch the sheet upon the board.

The colors

of your palette should be arranged as indicated

on the model.*

The

sheet being well stretched, let us go over the draught

of our heads with cobalt blue and red brown.

tones

mixed can become vigorous, but they

Tiiese

two

are never black

or hard; besides, they do not hold to the paper, and are

easil}^ erased.

We

will then

modeled them,

model our

in washing,

faces with indigo, as

we have

with gray.

AVe will make pale ones and vigorous ones.

When

they have dried,

we

will put

This will be the luminous tone of the

on a general tone.

flesh.

The complexwe will

ion of brunettes being darker than that of blondes,

apply dark

tints

to

the heads that are boldly modeled,

light tints to the others.

the colors with

which we

and

Yellow ochre and vermilion are

will

make them

both.

But

in

what

proportions must these colors be mixed, in order to hit upon

*

There are some new

more than

colors, in tubes, that are also excellent.

half the pastel should be put

on the

palette.

Not

32
the light or the dark

Look

us that.

Sometimes
yermiliou

The

Only

at nature^

trials

upon the paper can teach

and endeavor

sometimes, too, ochre alone

The shadows remain

to

be considered.
little

burnt sienna, there are

Sometimes the sienna may be replaced by a

3'our

shadows.

little

vermilion, or a

little lake.

All these tones are found in nature.

for,

and applied

shadow

We make

tints of refiection.

them

however, in order

less,

it

boldly to

for

)ye

all

the

to

at the

use of them, washing

come back

to the

more

vigor-

So yellow ochre and lake give the yery bold parts

under the nose, under the chiu, and in the

wish

to

When you

These shade- tints are

to the light.

same time

ous parts.

They need only

an accurate manner.

taking great care to spare the half-tint that

part,

unites the

in

upon one of them, apply

liavc decided

shaded

suffices.

general tone, being dried, gives us light and half-tint

Naples yellow mixed with a

sought

to imitate her.

lake, in small quantities, succeeds better than

still

more boldness

ears.

Do

3'OU

Substitute Italian earth for the

burnt sienna.

Lake can

also be replaced

by burnt

attempts in the presence of nature

fuid the colors to be chosen,

which

to

mix them.

It will tell

it is

3^our

you will

will learn the proportions in

with vermilion or lake in small

we compose

cheeks of youth.

Keep

ters will serve as

models.

Sometimes a very

Make

little tact,

Obseiwation alone can be your teacher.

you that

quantities that

you

sienna.

with a

the rose color that graces the

on trying

light

the cheeks of your daugh-

pink tone will successfully blend

FLESU-TIXTS.
the lialf-tint with the light.

33

is

what we

will

answer

This

often observe

the pictures of Rubens.

ill

Reddish brown and cobalt blue

become

the lines that have

With

these

I have

two colors

no need

to tell

for

that black eyes are painted.

it is

you which one we keep

Reddish brown will do

going over

too light-colored.

for blue eyes.

for the bolder parts of the

mouth,

the light being obtained with vermilion.

There you have

colors, indigo, red

all

my secrets, my dear friend. With nine

brown, cobalt blue, yellow ochre, Italian

and

earth, sienna, jSTaples yellow, vermilion,

make

flesh-tints like

Correggio and Rubens

her most charming creations

in a

Is

whom

it

the art of water-colors seems to

ros}''

not marvellous?

suffice to

be acquainted w'ith the colors, to

cation, in order to
is

know

It

does not

their appli-

harmonize them as nature does

observa-

combined with experience.

necessar}^ instinct, taste

We make
farailj^

our dishes overdone or underdone with the best of

cook-books, and

we

are not

good cooks because we

do not know the condiments of a dish.

my

children,

have been invented.

Tiike note that I say the art of water-colors.

tion

we can

word, paint those beauti-

ful 3^oung brunettes or blondes, those prett}^

for

lake,

rival nature in

comparisons in the kitchen

mies of good living, nearh''

all

(Pardon me,

painters,

who

are

lay claim to shine in

become soup-makers, we are born

if I

seek

no eneit.)

We

roasters, Brillat Savarin

we become drawers, we are born

who has just left college, translates

has said; I can say in turn:

colorists.

What my

by nascuntur
I

son,

j^oeta-

do not address
2*

my

remarks"^ here to every

mind, as

I did

CAVE

34

in teaching- draAving

we speak

Avhicli

from memory.

willi

more

necessary,

It is

style.

MANUAL OF

.S

we

the language

But color

it

COLO]I.

Drawing-

is

a language,

more

or less pnrit}^ with

or less

can alwaj's be applied usefully,

lilie

speak.
poetry, that art divine, attainable only to

is

choice spirits, that moves, transports them, and gives birth to

master-pieces.

This 3'ou need not

young

domain of

the

your daughters just yet;

tell

might become over-heated

souls

keep them

dry enough study, but

one that will break them in more and more

memory, which they must know above

first

wish

become

will

Perhaps

come back
I

do

them what

to give

there

artists, if

is

not resolution enough to

it

but what can

I fear that

resist the fascinations

she can give herself up to

perfectly.
later the}^

as a twaddler, seeing that I

drawing from memory

so often to

and

a chance.

me

j^ou will treat

drawing from

to

all,

necessary

is

I write these lines in a tremljle

Mary has

of color until

without danger.

She would

only be added to the category of miscarried talents, and

my

trouble

would be

lost.

To you

watch over the novels that your daughters

them

The reading

Avise, like

that

are not old

you

enough

of these might be equally injurious to

they would turn to the novel, and not to the reality;

you would make

Be

all

I confide these letters, to

you, a tender and prudent mother; watch over them as

to read.

in

prose, all the while teaching them, step b}^

step, the processes of water-colors, a

At

their

still

we wish

false painters, as novels

nature, that
to

show

is,

make

never in a hurry.

off before the

false

women.

The

pupils

time are like hot-house

plants, that die as soon as they see the light.

M.

!&.

C.

ATMOSPHERE,

35

SEVEXTH LETTER.
REMARKS ox THE ATMOSPHERE ON THE ART OF DRESSINGON CONVENTIONAL COLOR.
^Iary writes
that she

is

employ

it.

Julia,

me

tliat

she

no aptitude

lias

rather afraid of meddling with

I

have read

with pleasure.

stud3'ing,

is

of an observing and thoughtful

Innocence feeding a serpent

who

are all innocents

the characteristic

an emblem the philosophy

is

This one more,

this

one

Those

on a thousand occasions.

And

even

if

should give us but this good habit,

altars raised in its honor.

the

to

dear

are gifted with the faculty of observing, of comparing,

should thank heaven.

is

my

spirit.

of which few persons understand.

we

letter,

This timidity proves that she catches

the difficulties of the art she

less,

it

passage in her

this

and

for color,

than anxious

it

drawing from memory

would deserve

to

have

Observation and comparison, that

whole of wisdom.

I will then praise Mar}'- for

mosphere behind the

picture.

She

is

figures

right in letting

having noticed that to put

is
it

at-

the principal difficulty of a

engross her attention.

her whether she has noticed in nature, how,

when

Ask

several

persons are assembled in a parlor, the contour of each individual stands out on the background.

Ask her whether

she

sees silhouettes caught, so to speak, with a brass wire, as in

the pictures of certain painters.

Let her follow alternately

36

manual of

cave's

She

the contour of each person.

^vill

places wliere the hne disappears and

shade; but she will find

above, very

marked

slightl}-

around the

figure.

culates the

most ?

it

color.

is

find that there are

completely

lost in the

way

again, ver}^ clear, a little

a little below, varying thus all

Well, what

is

the place where the air cir-

Behind those parts of the contour which

are undecided.

The more

diversifiedly

we endeavor to bring it out on the

we put between the can-

background, the more atmosphere

vas and

its figure.

who

Paul Veronese,

excels in this respect, often brings out

his figures by the tone alone.

recede, and

value

so yellow, white,

green, violet, and gray

its

Generally,

vigor.

in the

black, too, stands out

mixed

by the others

background.

The

painting.

the

"B}^

in

it.

women

so

is

the

first

step in the art of

which a woman wears colors, we can

Not everybody

For instance, pink and blue are the fashion all the
wear them well, those who put blue bows on a
;

other hand, those

tingue look.

who wear

Why

is

that

Nature has given us

precisely

on tho

roses on a blue dress have a dis-

this lessou in

roses that stand out against the sky.

little

by reason of

they always find themselves in the

rose-colored dress have an ordinary look

own

not wear free colors are

see whether she has the feeling of a colorist.

has

which

their

colors yield to primitive ones

art of dress

way

tones, in fact,

force of

and red take the foreground before

women who do

parlor, the

eclipsed

There are

which advance, by

tones

pink on a great deal of blue.

hamiouy.

It is the

Whence the principle

The observing eye, the
;

CONVENTIONAL COLOK.
colorist, feels

and

A pretty toilette

taffeta

with a dark

wiiole

relieved

to-day

and blue do not go

to-

a j^ellow ribbon

Thus

iris.

English green sofa, and

the

iris

would be a

how

to observe

skirt of light lilac

cameo, white collar and sleeves, the

lilac

b}^

decoration of the

if

This

or rose.

arraj^ed, sit

you are the

the

is

down upon an

least bit graceful,

has the least bit perfumed your

will appear very pretty, especially to those

toilette,

who

you

are fond of

iris.

What charming harmonies upon

ers

flowers

their leaves are never of a free green.

her.

the

knows

all

She will give you few blue flowers,

She teaches us ever3'thingwhen we know

if

also

shades, because

Finally, green

leaves.

Observe nature.

gether.

He

knowing why.

this Trithout

that green harmonizes with all

have green

3l

Colorists delight to

make

the birds and the flow-

studies of

them

thej'-

find

here their gamut.

This
colors.

is

what Mary

will

do when she commences water-

All that she sees about her, in the gardens, in the

be mirrored in her mind as in her

fields,

on the

eye.

Those flying flowers, the

trees, will

loves so much, will

caterpillars
verj'-

become

whose beauty she

moss on which they

in quest of delight in the

butterflies, that

still

will env}'-

creep,

she already

dearer to her.
;

There are

she will

when, with a

lens,

domain of those animals

envy the
she goes
that

we

God had given us eyes to see little

things in all their details, we should no longer dare take a
step in the country.
How many beings on the earth share
trample under

foot.

If

the fate of those field flowers that live and die without

any

cave's MANL7AL OF COLOR.

88

one's dciguing to gather or to look at theui

However,

per-

haps they are not the most unfortunate.

eyes play a great part in our

The

This

life.

is

why

seek to perfect them, by exercising them, by teaching them

to see.

But
how,

and

to see well.

we

in painting,

and the

tint

You wish

us return to color.

let

We

light.

put

very close by the side of the

it

By exaggerating

blue which forms the half-tint.

produce a raiubow
to

make

use of

something

it

so

it is

we should

we

it,

and

feel that

However, when your daughters copy

Babeus, he will teach them

this secret

for of course they

copy Babens.

will

The more
more

my

it,

sparing of

necessar}'- to be

only in certain places, where

wanthig.

is

know, dear friend,

to

place the pink tone between, the half-

I find

I find

it

it

bad

to

useful to cop}^

copy oil-paintings in

them

in water-colors.

oils,

the

Here

is

reason

There are pictures that time

Oil-colors are forbidding.

has rendered absurd, incomprehensible, where green has taken

tlie

place of blue, yellow of white, blac\^ of red.

also

some

which time has

in

^vhich remain
Still,

Those are

Bat there are

not the ones that your daughters will copy.

happilj^ blended the tones,

and

worthy of the masters who painted them.

a certain coating has collected on them, which veils the

colors,

and deceives the copyist

b}^

giving

him

a false gamut.

His judgment then errs in the presence of nature, and he

makes conventional
coated in

tlie

color.

As

his painting becomes, in time,

same way, before many years

it

as the pictures of a century, pictures painted

will be as black

with colors of

COXVEXTIOXAL COLOR.
a

good

less,

quality, veiy light, veiy blonde,

39

and which, neverthe-

have not escaped the misfortune of blackening.

As water-colors, on the contrary, blanch, they can be made

xevj vigorous. They will become clearer by the very nature
which

of their colors,

are transparent on paper.

studies from oil-paintings of old

"Water-color

and modern masters

are,

then, an excellent practice.

But what

is

doubtless going to astonish you, I will not

permit Mary to copy from w^ater-colors. I prohibit her from

because I have noticed that pupils are always dis-

doing

so,

posed

to imitate the stroke of the

to themselves.

this sort of imitation,

brush and

to appropriate

have any one antipathy,

jSTow, if I

which

kills all originality

pupils have a character which

is

peculiar to

them

it

is

hence

it

for

my

they have

not the tcay of doing things of any painter.

Those who paint

make a wise beginning b}^ making

in oils

The manner

copies from water-colors.

of painting being

diifei-ent,

they do not run the risk of borrowing the touch of

another

their touch

to

have one

this

we

Commence with
in painting.

must belong

ers

tiuts

water-colors,

which we are long

first,

them, provided they are

all

ye

who

Avish to succeed

Thej' are not easier to handle, but they are

taught and learned more readily.

qualities

to

shall see hereafter.

precision, for

it is

without spoiling them.

They

are quick in giving

in finding in the studios of paint-

impossible to go over the fiesh-

They even

force

you

to color,

because the preparations which precede them on the paper

render them more positive, and imprint them with greater

truthfulness.

So, nothing

is

more

profitable for painters than

CAVE
making

S MAIN^UAL

OF COLOR.

the sketches of their pictures in water-colors.

we advance

proportion as

we

in our lessons,

In

shall recognize

the truth and the advantages of this principle.

Before proceeding to the manner of painting

word more about

the tones that match.

put together some

flowers again and

beautiful adjustment

stuffs,

one

Let us take up the

What

toilettes.

you can make with the pansy!

mantle of violet velvet, a dress of light violet

a hat of

satin,

yellow satin and black velvet, with white sleeves and collar

what

a beautiful, sober costume.

perfume,

we

But you

the pansy has

perfume of the

will not forget the

wish to decorate yourself, after

green

As

no

will not use any.

rose,

when you

image, in a dress of dark

its

a caraco of delicate green, a straw hat orna-

taffeta,

mented with rose-colored ribbons, white sleeves and stomacher.

Have you observed how

a straw hat always gives the

ishing touch to the toilette?

enough

nearly

all

The reason

flowers have a

little

of

yellow

low, like green, produces a good effect with

colors.

Are you

They

The

are going to

taking from
petals

it

daisy

make

hence, yel-

the double daisy

The most smiling

Those

petals that

know whether we

Nowadays,

to pluck the leaves of a

three hours

daisy three hours

A fine

of flowers

a Kational Guard top-knot of

one by one, in our youth, to

by the absent one.

the other

all

the pretty yellow ring, around

grouped themselves

fin-

simple

me, indignant at the audacity of

not, like

who have produced

horticulturists

improvement

is

it

it,

by

which

its

we pluck

out

are

still

loved

would be needed
to

know whether

CONYENTIONAL COLOE.

we

are

still

loved

As well

41
go and

take- the railroad, to

assure ourselves positively.

Thus, from improvement to improvement, poetry

ing this world.

anything

less poetical

on our

man

But

my

we had

of passing from the condition

to that of a thing.

this letter is

growing too long.

I take leave of you,

dear Julia, as well as of those flowers, those butterflies,

those birds,

by means of which

have given your daughters

the secret of combining pretty toilettes.

or,

monotonous

we examine ourselves, we involsee whether we are not woven or

whether we have not become broadcloth or stockings,

such a sensation have

of a

there

arrival,

untarily feel ourselves, to

knit,

forsak-

is

than those long, partitioned boxes,

rolling without horses, so regularly, with such a

noise, that,

is

Since I have spoken of railroads,

rather their coquetry, will enable

season,

new

They

discoveries.

frivolous,

amuse ourselves
sure

by the

it

at

is

side of the

Has not

I always derive

The aim

should

we

little

will be a

not seek to

the Creator placed plea-

most serious things?

family exist without love?

which

why

true; but

work ?

make, every

to

are going to take a

course of botany and natural history.

little

Their cleverness,

them

Would

the

Starting from this principle,

from the Great Source,

we

will learn

water-colors, like drawing, with the least possible ennui.

M.

I:.

C.

42

manual of

cave's

color.

EIGHTH LETTER
LESSONTHE HAIE.
Before

directing our attention to drapery, let us take

up

the hair.

The

rules that I lay

written anywhere.

down

They

for you,

my

dear Julia, are not

are not taught in studios.

am

my knowledge of them to my observations in

The puto my studies in the practice of my art.

indebted for
nature,

and

pils will

selves

understand them well, only by applying them them-

by explanation,

for it is impossible,

to attain perfect

precision, to fix the proportions of the colors in

an exact

manner, in view of such diverse variations in the shades of

objects.

The experience

must come

of the pupils, then, and their essays,

to the assistance of the professor's lessons.

Blonde hah'

is

black and indigo.

modeled with a very

light tone of ivory-

Sometimes the ivory-black will

sometimes the indigo.

You

pass over

it

suffice,

a general tone of

Naples yellow or yellow ochre.

"

When

the general tone,

made by yellow
Naples yellow

ochre, the

and when

which

is

the tone of the light,

is

shadows are produced by lake and

it

is

made by Naples

yellow,

we

must, in order to draw the colors, employ yellow ochre and

Italian earth.

For chestnut

hair,

Naples yellow, lake, and even cobalt

THE HAIE.

43

blue, are introduced into the general lone, and, in the shad-

ows, Italian earth mixed with these

Very black
with warm
tone

hair, the lights

made with

is

and

A general rule

whom nature
There

is

cleverness

it

indigo,

warm

made

itself,

is

suffice to

tints,
all

guide the pupils

is

needed in varying the value of the tones

By

With regard

such as

we

see

to the tone of the

it.

Julia, that

essential precision is in

When

indi-

we mean its
light, we must

the value of a tone,

you

are about to recognize

drawing the

A head is

light.

not round, you already know, unless the light

true.

cold

applicable to

colorists.

Kow it is, my dear

how

made with

such a diversity in the shades of hair, that great

relative force.
it

is

This rule

tints.

would, of

has

and the shadows touched up with

warm-tinted hair

cated for preparations.

make

made
The general

blue, is

lake.

and cold hair with

preparations

first tones.

which are

such as sienna, lake, bitumen.

tints,

Italian earth

of

perfectly

is

the recollections of observation do not

come

to

the assistance of the pupil's intelligence, hair will be an

impossibility

for

it is

of prime necessity that

correctly attacked, right

"said, this is the

grand

off,

it

difficulty in water-colors

should be

As

without hesitation.
;

have

we can

not

correct the drawing without injuring the color.

However, practice with the charcoal teaches us so well

how

to catch the

Mary and

form of the

lights

Eliza, the difficulty will

and shades,

that, for

no longer be anything but

play.

You

will observe that the tones that I

have just

indi-

caye's

44

cated, except the

manual of

bitumen and ivory-black, are the same as

we have employed

those that

the bitumen

ivory-black

is

coloe.

flesh-tints, like

even

for the visual point,

mixed with the indigo

is

And

for the flesh-tints.

sometimes necessary

and

to produce very fair

those of children in our northern countries.

Often, then, the hair and the flesh-tints can be prepared

together

and even the shadows of the hair are the same as

those of the flesh, in the beautiful transparent creatures that

Rubens delighted

to portray.

In passing from hair

ing, the

same principle

The

quality.

to

stufl's,

we

finer the hair, the

more

also very close, as

have

your daughters know.

become a form of speech

The form

brilliant

In

quently, the closer the light becomes.

rally

draw-

find, as a rule of

the form of the light indicates the

to

it is

conse-

satin, the light is

Thus,

it

has natu-

speak of the hairs of

satin.

of the light indicates the quality of the cloth, I

In

said.

not by color that satin or wool

fact, it is

is

made it is by the drawing. Have you not seen your daughters make satin dresses with charcoal, just as the engravers
make them with the graver ?
;

I repeat

it

to

your daughters, who will not touch

colors,

except with a perfect knowledge of drawing, water-colors

will offer

They

little difficulty.

astonish the

first

artists

for,

will

between

are well understood and well applied,

color

may

be,

studies that will

us, if

my

principles

however poor a water-

no one will ever believe that

Tour

a pupil.

make

it is

the

work of

daughters, perhaps, will not be colorists,

perhaps they will not attain to the poetry of color, like the
masters

but they will

still

have learned much

they will

THE HAIE.
appreciate the master-pieces of

art.

4:B

The

elegance, the stylish-

ness of their toilette and their house, will be remarked

as soon as a matter of taste

painters

Do

is still

not

the

first

let Eliza,

comes in question, the

for,

last of

of men.

your sculptor, think that she can

pense with water-colors.

The

sculptors

dis-

who know how

to

know how to color their statuary. Look at Michael

To separate, in education, color from drawing,
Angelo.
would be a mistake. More remains of what we learn than
we suppose the seed, that we think is lost in the ground,
paint,

will rise

up sooner or

have roots

later.

The

lessons taken in

like that boarding-school friendship

youth

which will

end only with ourselves.

M.

t^.

C.

manual of

cave's

46

coloe.

NINTH LETTER
REMARKS BRUNETTES AND BLONDES TALL MEN AND
SHORT MEN OPPOSITES.

You reproacli

my

me,

seems prettier to

me

a disputed beauty

Is it

almost ingratitude

But how does

Why is

flowers, in the sky, yet

?

is

this color

it

happen

it

blondes and the brunettes,

credit

lends

God ?

not also the work of

nothing

it

dress,_

in

its lustre to

is

a preju-

believe that

it

but that later the

men and women,

become jealous of

that this is

There

Must we

at first considered as a great privilege,

majority, have

for

admired in

condemned when

dice here that I cannot explain.

was

than hair of a reddish brown, with

black eyes and lashes.

the hair

dear Julia, with having forgotten

The omission

red hair.

wiio are in a

and thrown

it

into dis-

nearly

all their

Painters have

women
haired.

no share

in this injustice

are blonde or red-haired, their children blonde or red-

These tones, in

flesh-tints

fact,

harmonize better with delicate

the ensemble produced

is

more pleasing

to the

eye.

Kevertheless,

we

adopting this color

charming

more

are mistaken if

we

paint

creatures, that is

will than brunettes

but they wish

men, which

is

it

all.

weak

we imagine
creatures.

that in

We

paint

In general, blondes have

what they wish they wish

with a gentle will which does not

not even suspected by them.

better,
startle

The husband

BKUNETTES AND BLONDES.

of a blonde

is

confident of being master, and often he

whereas the husband of a brunette,

not being master, almost always

who

that must lead her husband

and

First-class

authority

"

a witch

People will

their physique,

al-

by

their wives,

the feebfe creature that

we

provided

name

Insignificant

it is

It

is

to let

them-

done gently, and

so natural to obey

protect, to elevate the loved

this daily condescension,

subject of their

on the contrary, they are well content

that they do not feel their chains.

her pride.

deserve that name.

really

men never annoy their wives on the

selves be led

the

the same with men, those who, by virtue of their

It is

masters

not say, on

"There goes

by the nose

not

is

always afraid of

the dupes of appearances.

character

by

is

Do we

is.

seeing a brunette with black eyes:

ways be

47

making her happy by

one

flattering

men, on the contrary, wish

to

be

they need some sort of superiority, and are vain of

of domestic tyrants.

On

the other hand, are not

large men nearly always very gentle with their wives ?

are conscious of their strength, and have

They

no need of speaking

in a gruff voice, or of frowning, to put on the airs of authority.

JSTot

so with small

their physical defects

by

men, who

that arrogance

like to

make up

for

and unaccommodat-

ing disposition which I call conjugal despotism, and which

turns the household into a veritable civil war.

As an intelli-

gent mother of two daughters, created in your image, you

will be careful, I

or abortions.

am

It is

sure,

not to marry them to blockheads

innate in these monsters to be always

seeking an opportunity of revenging themselves for their

inferiority.

gate's

48

weakness

Still,

manual of
painted

is

fair,

coloe.

and strength dark-com-

In the pictures of the legend. Blue Beard

plexioned.

a colossal size

of Cleopatra,

who was

a portrait that was five feet six inches

make

will not fail to

the Alps

stead of a

must be

man

so.

mistakes.

It is

managing a

And

it

not the mission of art to rectify popular

It accepts prejudices,

has only to do with visible

and

governed by appear-

is

In a word,

prejudices.

things,- and

it

speaks only to the eye,

Thus painting

without running foul of received opinions.

and

see

fiery steed, in-

pensively sitting upon a mule.

which are themselves often

ances,

Even now,

in painting the crossing of

cavalier vigorously

little

Future painters

tall.

a giant of Kapoleon.

what Gerard has done with him

of

is

mignonne^ I have seen

sculpture, fair deceivers, give to great

men,

to heroes, the

appearance of strength and grandeur, although nature, taking

delight in the opposition of contraries, has
nificant

But

this

our law, for

law of opposites in the material world

we

shall fare badly if

we

Color especially lives by opposites.

hair,

which brought on

what we employ

to

posite color to red

trasts.

made them

insig-

and small.

You

recall

forget-me-nots,

is

it ?

blue.

And

Now

Indigo.

Harmony

which have a beautiful

blue,

happy

know

the most op-

of tone

our studies in flowers?

colored stamens, and admired the

also

to speak of red

long digression, do you

this

model

is

do not follow nature.

lies

in con-

In those called

we found orange-

effect

produced by

this union.

How could

we, in a picture, place several figures along-

side of one another, unless

we

observed the same harmonies

49

OPPOSITES.
This

is

the fixed rule of Paul Veronese and

When you come

to Paris,

you

The

the pictures of these masters.

"

Correggio,

your daughters to

will take

Marriage in Cana " and

" Antiope," master-pieces of coloring, will

seem

to

them

to

have borrowed from the flowers the happy selection of their

tones, so effectively

they colored.

my second
starting
"

the

and

at the

letter,

how

the light shades off

Marriage in Cana," the same

tion being immense, the light

is

effect

little,

call the sun.

In

only, the composi-

more widely

spread, and adless

lumi-

points.

How many

amateurs have passed before these pictures

How many artists even have

genius

no education

Because nowadays there

Each

for the artist.

that he has invented painting, that

anything.

This

is

only too true.

merly masters loved

all their secrets

made them

is

you

with the pu-

young apprentices

their assistants

father

and child

Forinto

between
the pupil

picture of his professor, but did not for all

that think himself professor.

master's picture, he goes

made

fault is

Pride has gone to our head.

them there was the friendship of

worked on the

tell

nobody has taught him

But the

to initiate their

they

painter will

Since kings are no longer re-

or rather with the century.

spected, masters are not.

animated them.

that

appreciated their eminent quali-

only after years of study.

really

pils,

you in

by

little

admirably in rebounding upon other

without understanding the

ties

so harmoniously are

see, as I told

from the brightest point, which we

justs itself

nous

same time

In " Antiope " they will

the picture.
3

To-day,

away and

if a

tells

pupil touches his

everybody that he

Consequently the bond that united them

50
is

The young blunderer

soon broken.

wings, and, like the bird that has

soon, he

falls

That is

down and down

why modern

And what

is

society

mirable principle

make an

art is

affection, for there is

its

art.

Legal equality
it

to protect the

The modern system

but envious persons

no more

men

we

equal.

weak, the weak

to

of equality makes none

respect, consequently

The human

no more

respect.

which has

reason,

aberration, cannot fail to return to the right

A minister no longer writes to his employe

road.

an ad-

is

to everything,

no kind of love without

is still left us.

moments of

Nature has not made

She has created the strong

love the strong.

One hope

to the saddest end.

becoming

it.

own

mother's nest too

below ancient

in wishing to extend

absurdity of

to bis

is left

left its

" Citizen,

I discharge thee from thy functions, greeting and fraternity."

Which was the same as

hunger. Thy brother."
Perhaps

it is

nowadays

come

create grand ones.

women, from which they

estranged,

and

have suffered

it

help

blue-stockings, let us teach

to create little chefs-cCceuDre that will recall

desire to

to the

for politics or adventurous undertakings.

The

love of the

pleasures that they procure, will restore

of

thee to die of

Let us take possession of the arts, re-

Without making your daughters

them

condemn

in our power, dear Julia, to

of diseased society.

jected

saying: "I

are

them

to

to the

the sweet

to the society

becoming more and more

will not be said that the

Frenchmen

men

arts,

French

women

become Englishmen.

M.

'k.

c.

BLACK

WHITE STUFFS.

AISTD

61

TENTH LETTER.
LESSONBLACK AND WHITE STUFFS.

You know, my

dear Julia, that

we

going to wear colors," wlien

dress.

In

say

black and white are the absence of

fact,

Nevertheless, in order to

obliged to say

we always

am

" I

leave off a white or a black

make myself understood,

all color.

I shall be

black color, white color, although that

is

an

absurdity.

The shadows
But the

reveal itself to

White

The

of black and of white are highly colored.

rule as to the

you

harmony of

opposites

is

going to

in all its conclusiveness.

prepared with a gray tone of ivory-black.

stuffs are

opposite of white

certainly black.

is

Do we

not say

changing from white to black, meaning an utter change

Your
one of

daughters,

my

who

lessons has

be impossible,

after

have washed

practical utility,

your

stuffs, since,

and that

daughters almost

according to

who know that each

having neglected one of them,

hend the next one

execute white

its

are teachable,

my

to

it

would

compre-

know how

to

directions, they

their draperies according to their old engrav-

ings.

Spread the gray

half-tint of ivory-black

pulously preserving the light

that

is

the

everywhere, scru-

method

for

wash-

ing the whites.

Brilliant stuffs, such as satin,

have bold shadows; the

caye's ma:n^ual of color.

52

ninth lesson in Drawing

ows

are obtained with a

lias told

little

us that "

Now, bold

bitumen, adding a

little

shad-

Naples

Sometimes burnt sienna

yellow in the reflected shadows.

replaces the bitumen."

The whites

made such

are

as

we

see them.

They

are

prepared, as I have said, with ivory-black, which gives a

The preparation

gray tone.

tone to that of light.

by

for

shadows

the opposite

is

Always our

rule of opposites, observed

gilded, as in

woolen

all colorists.

"When the white

ral tone of

ration should be

From

is

stuffs,

mixed with ivory-black or

the prepa-

indigo.

the whites let us pass to the blacks

two master-tones.

take a gene-

Then

yellow ochre, or Naples yellow.

I will tell you, further on,

they are the

why

they are

thus called.

Black

men,

stuffs are

lake,

made with very warm

tones,

such as bitu-

When the drapery is well

burnt sienna.

modelled,

well drawn with one of these tones, the tone of the light

The

must be sought.

colder the light, the

warmer should be

the preparation.

The tone
pery.

This

When

of the light should be laid over the entire drais

why we

call it the general tone.

well dry, which

shadows with the same

is

tone.

essential,

Do

get your black tone without black.

the light.

In satin

Note well
stuffs,

gives the tone.

this

is

Black

remark, which

the lights are white.

This

go over the bolder

not forget that you must

is

is

only used in

an important one.

It is the half-tint that

a general rule that I shall not repeat.

Thus, after having attacked the shadows, a general tone

BLACK AND WHITE STUFFS.

is

53

passed over the whole, the small lights being carefully

This general tone becomes the

spared.

always the tone of the

black,

the satin

if

is

stuff: it is

colors;

and yet

it is

is

pink;

the

same

black.

For black velvet the preparation

warm

half-tint,

pink, if the satin

is

made with

but, instead of using lightly ivory-black, in

order to lay on the general tone, a darkish peach-black must

The very bold

be used.

parts

The

with the warm, tones.

must always be gone over

lights of velvet are exceptional:

they are picked out by drawing with a

little

water on the end

Peach-

of the brush, and then rubbing with a bit of linen.

black adheres to the paper very slightly, and disappears immediately, leaving a light such as velvet calls
it

more

stance,

by wetting

a second time

rubbing with some force,

Practice

it is

you

I advise

kind of

stuff,

to

we

and

make your

how can

So,

my

dear Julia

Whatever

details.

their

guide them.

It varies, first ac-

then according to the object that

it is

though for velvet,

may do

I can only set

own sense will

I explain reflection

stuff,

dry lessons need to be

I cannot then indicate its color

self to saying that

as

in-

little,

daughtei-s take a piece of each

clear, I feel that these

on the right road

cording to the
flects.

dry a

it

in order to try for themselves each process.

make myself

Thus,

For

obtain a pure white.

put in practice in order to be understood.

my pupils

We get

for.

erase.

letting

that gives knowledge.

cannot go into a mass of petty

to

we

or less brilliant, according as

re-

must confine my-

sometimes picked out by proceeding

at others

a bold tone, as in oil-painting.

by passing a bright tone over

64
White, Naples yellow, vermilion, cobalt blue, red brown,
yellow ocbre,

are the colors used for ^r^^wacAm^y* by mix-

etc.,

ing them with others,

we

Another general

tion.

obtain the desired tones of reflec-

which

rule, to

I shall not

need to

revert.

have told you,

dear friend, that white and black

others, has

made

can say that

it:

with figures dressed wholly in

chefs-d'ceuDre

white or in black.

make a picVan Dyck, among

alone, one can

Great painters have proved

ture.

we

my

With them

were master-tones.

Two such powerful colors are they, that

women who wear other colors sacrifice

themselves to those dressed in black or in white.

certainly not their intention

that

you know

This

as well as I

is

do

but one grows weary of her white dress or her black dress,

and

an imperative need of change.

yields to

stituted so

Woman

is

con-

she forsakes a dress that becomes her for one

that does not

but she looks

two successive days

something, were

it

in the

different.

Rarely does she dress

same manner

but a ribbon.

she must change

Hence, the great variety

in our fashions; whereas, the costume of those gentlemen

differs

each year, at the utmost, by the change of a short-

waisted vest to a long-waisted, a high-crowned hat to a low-

crowned.

And

have us on

their arms, dressed

take place.

Yes, dear friends,

they will not alter

a
it

to return to natural beauty, the

and

to give

it

a particle

Grecque,

la

when

which

appears that

we

is

they.

soon to

are going

beauty of sweeping

lines,

our husbands the pleasure of adorning their

goddesses in their true costume.

On

the strength of

I embrace you.

M.
*

To put

in a

body

color.

which

Ij.

0.

65

ELEYEKTH LETTER.
REMARKS DRAWING IN COLOR COLOR IN SCULPTURE,
I

AM

glad,

assistance of

my

dear Julia, your experience comes to the

mine in the task

studies in water-colors will

more how important

taking up a brush.

it is

that I have undertaken. Our

make you comprehend more and

to

I see

be able to draw perfectly before

it,

for

you

are alarmed at all tho

knowledge you must have in order not

to spoil the

form in

putting on the color, and you are very right.

Color

is

freedom.
racy,

form

of itself very delicate

we run
;

it

must be handled with

form with accu-

If the color does not indicate the

for, as

the risk of losing the color

there are projections

by correcting the

and depressions, which are

the whole of drawing, so also there are tones

which advance,

and tones which recede, and which are the whole of color.

The

color then can destroy the drawing,

and the drawing

the color.

The
rise to

great difficulty in

two schools

colorists.

to the

hitherto
time.

The one

god of color.

perfectly

sacrifices to the

god of drawing, the other

This would not be

from memory.

employed

making them keep pace has given

the school of drawers, and the school of

so, if

both could draw

But, as I have said, the

for teaching

means

drawing demand too much

Besides, this art has not, like the art of speaking

writing one's native language, been

and

made one of the elements

56
Unquestionably, one

of education.
lie

knows how

to

he knows how

to write.

hold a pen, a pencil

nation, of genius.

man,

if

he

when

man

how

to

but only a few have the

feels

"Well,

of his

art, for

On

For there

are

commence

he does not know

:

either his

profitably, or his studies

two well defined ages

one where he takes, one where he gives.

But

his

growth once

then he no longer learns.

is

then he

he wishes to produce

arrested,

This

in

During the

period of his growth, he feeds on the ideas of others

learns.

he can

the contrary,

one of two things happens

him from studying

chill his genius.

;

to write in his language,

himself to be a painter, he must

grammar

the

genius prevents

man

of imagi-

gift

If poetical ideas develop themselves in a

nothing arrests his genius.

draw.

a poet because

himself to be a poet, he has no need to study

feels

by studying

is

All have the gift of being able to

grammar, he knows how

take his flight

not a painter because

is

draw, any more than one

the order of nature

it

must be obeyed.

Whence

draw

the conclusion that drawing should bo

earnestly learned in youth,

and that

should become a popu-

it

lar art, like the art of writing.

The Government should think of this.

Whence comes the decline of the arts ? From
for a long time past, each generation has

single track, that of literature.

arts,

There

which may be thrown open

to

is

this,

that

been thrown upon a

another, that of the

many minds

it is

not

even pointed out to the youth, whereas their access to

should be
order.

facilitated.

The

arts

do not lead nations to

They render them happy and

celebrated.

it

dis-

DRAWING
As

a painter, I have great

COLOR.

57

cliflSculty in

explaining to my-

IN^

self this exclusive preference for the art of writing,

when

we
monuments, which we

consider that of the entire heritage of the primitive races,

have

us only objects of

left to

nunt up, which we preserve

of them that

and succeed
persons

we

art,

at great expense.

And

in retracing their history.

who

It is

by means

distinguish civilized nations in antiquity,

of

those

all

study and admire them, whether abroad or in

our museums, not one comes and says to the ministers of

public instruction

"

Cause the

art of

drawing

to

be taught

in all your colleges, not according to the caprice of the pupils,

not as an art of amusement, but seriously, as a useful

Art speaks when history

of Babel

to

is

The

is silent.

art."

history of the tower

be repeated at intervals appointed of God.

After each confusion of tongues, what can there remain of

Buildings, objects of

the past?

art,

which alone speak

the eye, which re-link the chain of time,

humanity by

tradition.

Eliza, our sculptor pupil,

lines, yield to the desire to

colors.

know

Let her

must

not,

that, later, a

without ever having handled

for that has not

on her learning water-

insist

for teaching her modelling.

on perusing these

The time

model.

"We must firmly

yet come.

few lessons will

so that he
at the
ing.

who

wax

or clay, made, on his

same

time.

3*

It

first

was

served as a model and disposed the action

saw both

Whoever

suffice

have known a painter who,

attempt, the statue of one of his friends, a sculptor.

the sculptor

to

and continue on

his master-piece

and his reputation created

That sculptor had modelled before draw-

imitates

him

will be like the painter

who

cave's

58

draws before coloring

manual of
lie

sculptor witkout drawing

coloe.

draw

will never learn to

is

measure his lengths and breadths by the dividers

and a

He must

only a practitioner.
:

always a

captive in his narrow genius.

However
poetry.

matter-of-fact the clay

model may

Even here we must know, and know

to create, to

compose.

What

be,

it

has

its

well, in order

genius could endure the pre-

occupation of looking up the steps, of studying the material

part of art

Can you imagine

and Benvenuto employed

in

to yourself

measuring

Michael Angelo

off

with the com-

passes the length of a leg or the breadth between the eyes?

who has made all his heads very small, Jean Gouwho has made all his legs very long, they thought indeed

Phidias,
jon,

of taking measurements

They were

in quest of elegance,

and they found it.

In sculpture, it must be remarked that marble and plaster

make

the objects appear larger; bronze, on the contrary,

Material color being wanting to the sculptor,

smaller.

can he supply the deficiency?

Thus he

you choose

to call

by the

skilful, original

light

how

has only one way: color

colors a statue, a group, a bas-relief,

without color, or luminous

it.

He

color, just as

manner with which he makes

and project

its

shadows.

it

receive

its

Luminous masses, broad

shadows, black holes, arranged with the knowledge of the

colorist,

and kept in balance with the eye of the draughts-

man, give

to a

work

that taking appearance

which

attracts

admiration and wins approbation.

Eliza will have this skill in modelling in clay,

has acquired

it

by drawing with the

pencil,

when she

by coloring

in

COLOE IN SCULPTURE.
She will not

water-colors.
art

fall

which gives no pleasure

honor

for

him who makes

into that sculpture without

to

him who

which

is

sees

it,

no

earns

as tedious as plaster-

In sculpture, as in painting, I repeat,

casting and less exact.

it is

it,

59

the eye that speaks to the eye, feeling to feeling, not sci-

We live in entire ignorance of our

ence speaking to science.

muscles, and yet there are artists

showing that they know them

the painting of a doctor.

who

devote themselves to

I call that the sculpture,

all.

There are

who
who re-

critics also, it is true,

give especial attention to these amiable qualities, and

joice at being able to say, in front of a picture: " There's a

man

that can't live; his mastoid apophysis can't exercise

This rage for stripping off the flesh

functions."

whether the skeleton

as

it

is

really there,

would be in a lover who

fashion.

beautiful girls,

know how to
is

as absurd in

an

its

see

artist

treated his betrothed after this

Beautiful paintings, beautiful statuary, are not, any

more than
of art

is

to

made

please, that is our

there.

to

be dissected.

law and our aim.

Let us

The whole
M.

I).

C.

60

manual of

cave's

coloe.

TWELFTH LETTER.
LESSON COLORED STUFFS.

The harmony
harmony

the

As

of flowers has taught

have already

It is

make

a scarlet woolen

which

make

said, I

way

stuff.

I brush

brushed on by taking
in such a

the principle of

use of blue in preparing

with indigo that I model the drapery,

red.

lake, over

me

of opposites.

it

I then put

if

wish

to

on a general tone of

some vermilion.

The vermilion

is

very dry with the end of the brush,

as not to put

it all

There

over the paper.

is

no other way of imitating well the grain of the wool.

I

go over the vigorous places with burnt sienna, and

sometimes with bitumen.

For

silk stuffs I

do not use the lake tone, but

immedi-

ately apply, all over, a general scarlet tone, unless the lights

are white, as in satin.

Now

have told you, above,

how

they are reserved.

Sometimes the
gilded,

lights are of a gilded white.

They are then

by a general tone, before putting on that of the

Blue

stuffs,

on the contrary, are modelled with red

stuff.

tones,

burnt sienna, or lake.

Pale rose, with very bright gray -blue.

Pale blue, with bright red tones.
I

have already remarked

to

you that nearly

have green leaves and a

little

green harmonize with

the other colors.

all

all

the flowers

yellow, and that yellow and

It follows that

COLORED STUFFS.
the shadows of green and yellow
the other tones, and that

we may

may

be modelled with

all

obtain an astonishing va-

and

riety of results, for all the greens

61

all

the yellows are not

which

are always derived

prepared in the same way.

Let us pass

to the neutral tints,

from the primitive ones.

Gray, which

is

Hence gray and

derived from blue,

is

prepared with sienna.

rose go well together.

which

Coffee-color, crude color, {Scrue),

are derived from

the reds, are prepared with the blues.

In every

case, if the light is of a

has a cold tone

a

warm

tone.

if

shadow

tone, the

shadow has

This principle applies to everything that has

a color, to woods, metals, plants,

Your

warm

the light has a cold tone, the

etc.

daughters will not bore themselves

studies of all the colors with pieces of

trary, thanks to the

facility

stuffs.

by making

On

which water-colors give

the conin pass-

ing the tone of the light over the tone of the shade, they will
discover tones of such fine quality and such great truth that

they will be astonished.

have said.

Water-colors

experiments, ofttimes so fortunate,

They

the colorist, I

made

in studying

them ?

will also have to look for the tone of the light with

great care.
paper.

make

Why should not your daughters become such, after

Let them

make

their

experiments on the guard-

Sometimes several tones must be mixed

to

make

single one.

I shall not tell

you

that violet is

and green with blue and yellow.

gravings, learn for themselves

all

made with

blue and pink,

Children, in coloring enthose mixtures of primitive

cave's

62

manual of

coloe.
In a word, they

tones that give the composite tones.

how

What

to find the tone of the light.

ing you
lights

the science of shadows, and the

is

among

harmony

of the

Well, the harmony of the lights

themselves.

derived from the

know

have been teach-

harmony of

the shadows

you

is

see this at

every step.

You
is

will doubtless ask

me how

I will

composed of a warm tone and a cold

by

the result

as it is cold,

The same with

For

my

preparation

and many other

green,

make violet, which

is

am guided
warm tone.

tone.

colors.

striped or flowered stuffs the drapery should

ceive the color of the ground

on afterwards.
the folds

The

so they

first re-

the stripes or flowers are laid

drawn, well deflned, turn

stripes well

must not be painted in haste and without

observing the foreshortening.

When we know how

that I have indicated,

pare everything that

same color are

us take the yellows

yellow dress, a

them,

we

side

by

a yellow inlaid

gilt frame.

differ in their light

with the preparation

great difficulty in the

objects of the

to paint stuffs

we know, my dear Julia, how to prehas a color we can overcome a very

execution of the shadows when several

and

side.
floor,

For

instance, let

a wicker chair, a

All these objects, put side by side,

their

Well, in modelling

shade.

lay on our tone lighter or darker, according to

the value of the colors.

The

general tone of the light which

goes over the whole, not being of the same yellow, varies

very naturally the tone of the shade.

each shadow belongs perfectly to
ings

it is

very

difficult to hit

its

upon

Hence

own

light.

it

results that

In oil-paint-

these different tones.

COLORED STUFFS.
Nothing

more

is

essential,

my

63

make

dear Julia, than to

these objects, one after the other,

studies of all

and

to try

thus several blue tones, and several red tones.

But remember

that yellow

flowers are there to prove

reverting to

because they harmonize

Kature puts them almost everywhere.

with all the colors,

The

and green give greater variety

shadows

in the preparation of the

it,

and you will pardon

It is the flowers, too, that will give

with another, and

at the

same time

is

For instance, the deep violet and the

are prepared with burnt sienna

we

you a color that blends

used in preparing

light violet of the

tions of the flowers should be engraved

colors

and

We

is.

The combina-

study

make

upon

It is a real pleasure, in
all

memory,

them afterwards

modelling the

the scales of blue and gray,

the scales of light that

the

studies, essays, in all the

the shades, so as to repeat

all

from memory.
tints, to

should

it.

pansy

find precisely this tone

of burnt sienna in the middle of the flower.

as drawing

my

it.

come over them,

flesh-

and then

all

as well as the tones

of shadow and reflection.

I hope,

you

my

dear Julia, that, without hurrying yourself,

will give yourself

up

to all these exercises.

Your imagiMake, in

nation need not wait for color in order to compose.

the meanwhile, pictures in charcoal, or else
ivory-black, and then, afterwards,
water-colors.
color, until

brush.
sure

you of

it,

you will reproduce them in

Give yourself up exclusively to color withoiit

you

Your

wash them wdth

are perfectly mistress of your color

flrst

and your

water-color will be a master-stroke, I as-

as I do of

my

friendship.

M. ^.

C.

makual of

cave's

64

color.

THIRTEENTH LETTER.
REMAEKS THE TOUCH MOVEMENT AND FORM.

You

pity me,

my
me

dear Julia, thinking of the patience

it

and you

must have

cost

fear that I

may not have the courage to bring my enterprise

You doubtless say to yourself, " When I have

to its close.

to put a figure in

to write the preceding letters,

shadow, one kind of lessons

for the hair, others still for the

"Water-colors

work

entire figure into

way that

They know how

miracles.

Cheer up.

an

to transfer

shadow, in the twinkling of an eye, in a

astonishes even those

tage that they have over

paint in water-colors,

we know how

other lessons

drapery, etc."

who

we can

learn

it

a great advan-

paint

when we know how to

in oils
whereas, when

we

cannot paint in water-

So,

oils.

to paint in oils,

colors.

As

for the profession in

I do not think
is itself

it

one or the other kind of painting,

Kot to have any profession,

anything great.

something

Without the

original.

quire a naive touch that

is

profession,

peculiar to ourselves

not spoiled by a certain amount of awkwardness,

companied by

feeling.

compare

children, that is so charming.

nipulations, but I wish

culiar to yourself.

it

to

it

to the

we

ac-

and that

when

is

ac-

awkwardness of

do not condemn clever ma-

come from

the skill that

is

pe-

In a word, I wish your painting to be

Q5

THE TOUCH.
You

yourself.

paint skilfully, just as

you

Eu-

eat skilfully.

bens could not do anything awkwardly.

If I insist

from
is to

my

upon

pupils painting their water-colors

and oil-paintings from water-colors, that

oil-paintings,

prevent then' copying the touch, be

this or that master,

Besides,

sagacity.

which
it

is

yourself,
skill,

you wish

if

composing, in creating for

Touch, technical

Eubens had knowledge.

had, like myself, the good fortune to see

his chefs-dceuvre at
it at

and
if it

lucrative.

are not knowledge.

You who have

have

it is

to succeed in

knowledge must be acquired.

style,

skilful or not, of

an agreeable condition; and

does not afford any glory,

But

it

often only special dexterity

is

all

Antwerp, do you think that he did not

the end of his brush

when

executing those sublime

compositions that seem to be the work of a day, so complete

and pervading

the harmony, so aptly has the action been

is

caught in the act

Gros, his admirer, said one day to one of his pupils

"

You have

nature."

That

pupil,

we may be sure, had not

we cannot express

edge of form, without which

ment and action

model never
Nature
ism.

is

that are given

by

nature,

the knowlthe move-

and which the

gives.

man

The model

motioli and

copied the model, but you have not copied

at liberty,
is

moving without effort or manner-

only a living manikin which you

which always

has, consequently,

set in

something

false

and borrowed.
Every man

is

constructed for the

take, or rather every

man moves

movement

that he can

according to his physical

66

gate's MAIfUAL OF COLOK.

organization.

Wliat one can do, another cannot

graceful in one

Here

ungraceful in another.

is

with a long neck, short waist, and long legs

wliat is

is

woman

certainly she

has not the same movements as one with a short neck, long

one

waist,

and short

stiff.

Here, a distingue look, elegance, style

It follows that

legs.

nary look, a vulgar nature.

due

defects are

to the form.

ladies look like servants,

Movement

mean

and who,

birth,

"

you

You have

there,

All these qualities,

This

and servants

these

like fine ladies.

Those who

have the same man-

who have been orphans from

at fifteen or at thirty,

had

an ordi-

all

so true that certain fine

is

as their parents,

children

that their parents

Now

supple, the other

follows form, even in children.

have the same tournure

ners.

is

their

have the same gestures

at those ages.

will understand perfectly the

words of Gros

copied the model, but you have not copied

nature."

Nature
one, for
is

it

is

everybody

the model

is

obeys a will from without,

but one
it is

the composition which starts from the

artist,

and which

ment

to the form.

sessed so well.

than

we

Nature

it is

not even

Nature

memory

of the

by adapting the move-

that our old masters pos-

People have said that they had finer models

may

it

his genius animates

it is

itself.

not

be so

but

it is

silly to

think that

it is

be-

cause they had fine models that they were great painters.

They were

great painters because they

of nature.

That

is

had the knowledge

the source of the style that

we admire

in

their works.

Although Kubens has, in a remarkable manner, adapted

MOVEMENT AND FOEM.

movement

to form, nevertheless there are great artists

good

say, in

comes from

Rubens

faith, that

their

is

no painter by

we

It is there alone that

from Greek nature

sin,

nature

find

in nature.

it

Phidias has taken

it.

Lesueur, Jean Goujon, from French nature

Rubens from Flemish

bold to say

it,

thing truer,

more

it

Raphael, Titian, Michael Angelo, from

Paul Veronese, from Venitian nature

who
This

style.

having derived their idea of style from

certain master-pieces, instead of studying

Roman

67

nature.

Pous-

and, I

make
any-

Is there

than the Virgin

poetic, holier in its grief,

standing at the foot of the Cross, in the picture of the Crucifixion,

ternal

by

this

master

sorrow

stretchfes

Every mother weeps before

just

she

as

naturally and

this

ma-

involuntarily

out her arms to those beautiful infant Christs, pal-

pitating so with
say, not style.

life

If it

and
is

fresh beauty.

not

style,

how

It is poetry,

could

it

people

be poetry ?

Let us leave these discussions to the men,

who

think

themselves obliged to judge according to tradition, under

We

penalty of passing for ignoramuses.

a right to be ignorant,
let

let

women, who have

own feeling, an^

us judge by our

us proclaim the good wherever

we

find

it.

When God
why

has not willed that all beautiful natures should be alike,

should people wish for similarity

tures

Why

creation, so

numerous, so diversified

poet represent

all

all

beautiful pic-

all

the works of

Why

of beauty that there

is

should not each

in every country

And then, what an aberrais his own ?

when judging of works and classifying paintpresume to give so much pre-eminence to form over

with the poetry that

tion of mind,
ers, to

among

reduce to one solitary one

68
color

Form, good

but after that

Do you think that art

When they have

Interrogate the poets, then.

stops there ?

bestowed upon

their heroines regular

and pleasing

features,

a lissome and elegant form, they hasten to give them

life, b}'

borrowing from the rich palette of nature those colors which

you

despise.

Behold them, animate with

their rosy, lips,

their ivory neck, their azure eyes, their golden or their raven

and

hair, their rose

is

lily

complexion, and then say that form

everything.

The utmost

that I can conceive is the discussion of the

drawing aids the color more, or the

question, whether the

color the drawing

but I detest this senseless war of words

Let us enter boldly into the application of

against facts.

drawing and of

color.

The Greeks and

the

we

We

are obliged to submit,

rules

no

women.

traditions to

which

and the doctors who lay down

at the masters of art

prehend them with our

soul,

the

in

left

with such comic pedantry have no authority over

We can look
pwn

are creating a school of

Romans have

own

with our

own

intelligence, feel

eyes,

us.

com-

them with our

and then, enlightened and inspired by them, go on

way opened

better than

our

rivals,

before

us.

perhaps, but

We
we

different, especially if

we remain women.

nature than they are

that

is

not do

shall

shall

any

do something

We are nearer

to

one advantage already.

Let us constantly seek of her our inspirations, as the

first

masters have done.

among
our

Let us take our harmonies from

the flowers, the butterflies, the birds;

eflects of light

let

us select

from among those which God has pro-

fusely scattered over the earth,

and

let

us say, at every step

MOVEMENT AND FOEM.

"Every human

creation has

Would you

God's."

believe

We

the magnifying-glass ?
vases,

toilettes,

we

source in a creation of

that all the Grecian, Gothic,

designs, are to be found in snow-crystals

and Moorish

stuffs,

its

it,

69

clocks,

Besides,

etc.

shall succeed

shall find there

arranging

in

under

wonders

for

pretty

in finding harmonious composi-

tions for our pictures.

Our habit of wearing

in happily

blending them.

colors will render us

The

more

skilful

old masters are perhaps in-

debted, in a measure, for their talent as colorists, to the colors

they were in the habit of wearing.

only change color in their opinions.

whether that will make them

colorists.

Now-a-days the men

I

doubt very

M.

much

!&.

0.

manual of coloe.

caye's

'70

rOURTEENTH LETTER.
LESSON PROJECTED SHADOWS DISTANT HUES SKIES ^
ANIMALS.
In order
to

We
its

to proceed regularly,

my

must commence by studying a

background and

figures in

am

going

figure in its light,

shadow.

on which they

On

fall.

pared with yellow

harmony with the

on the

grass, like green

it

is

that the

belong to the ground, and not to the

would be glued

notice,

when

shadow

varies with that of the

is

light.

Then

and so on.

Otherwise, the

Get your daughters to

walking, that

the color of

his

ground on which he walks.

Sometimes the projected shadow

which gives the

shadow should

figure.

to the ground.

a person

object

a yellow inlaid floor they are pre-

You know how important

figure

with

projected shadow, before passing to

its

Projected shadows should be in

for

dear Julia, I

speak to you about projected shadows and distant hues.

is

reflected

by the object

the reflection must be sought

and applied accurately, either by picking

out, or

by

pass-

ing a bright tone over a bold one.

When

the background of a picture

no longer distinguish the

door resembles the opening of a

made with
vermilion.

cobalt blue

is

so far off that

color, for instance,

we

when an open

cellar, this

dark tone

is

and red brown or with indigo and

These same tones are used

for the

dark back-

DISTANT HUES.

'71

grounds of the landscape, because they are vigorous without

being black, and are consequently airy, and stand back from
the foreground.

But remind your daughters that in painting,

ing, they

selves

and the nature that they seek

will be

as in

draw-

must hold a piece of black velvet between them-

more and more convinced

even the boldest

Our pupils

blonde,

is

tree- trunks that rise against the sky.

a black hat, as soon as

Black

longer black.

They

to represent.

that everything

it is

in the shade, is bold

but

Even
it is

no

only employed in the light of black.

is

will observe this in the pictures of great colorists.

You know

that the very distant mountains

and

trees in

the landscape are sometimes very blue; they are painted

with cobalt blue or ultramarine.

we add
little

little

Naples yellow

if

If they are greenish blue,

they are greenish yellow, a

For the

yellow ochre or Italian earth.

may

cobalt green
success.

also

Transparent colors do not

"When the

landscape.

suit the

background of a

foliage of a tree in the foreground

stands out boldly against the sky, the contour

green, even in the light.
ples yellow,

and

distant tones,

be mixed with red brown, with good

is

never crude

So cobalt blue, yellow ochre,

aSTa-

Italian earth are preferable to brilliant yel-

lows and greens, which must be reserved for the foreground

of the tree.

With regard
in forests or

to those bold blue tones

on the horizon of the

with cobalt blue or indigo, adding,

vermilion.

if

which we observe

sea, they are

prepared

necessary, red

brown or

Cobalt blue and red brown are necessary for

ships and their rigging, that

seem

to us, at times, so black.

11
Indigo yields a green

mineral blue,

when

it is

gives greater distance tlian

tliat

used with opaque yellows.

Impress upon your daughters that the tones I have indicated for the background should adhere but slightly to the

paper

The reason

this is indispensable.

mountain in the background,

has lights and shadows.

it is

Now,

is

if

you have a

modelled, that

is

to say,

it

in backgrounds, the lights

have more distance by erasing than by preserving them.

The same

is

true for all the

more

distant tones.

Make, then, on your guard -paper, a study of the colors

that are readily erased.

Skill,

acquired experience, will bring

out a light such as you wish.

It will

then be of service to

repeat this exercise with united tones, by using the

have already explained

means I

for draperies.

One more thing worth knowing to know how to take a

To do this, stretch a corner of your handker:

tone half out.

chief over your finger, moisten

and tap

it

When

our pupils have

processes, Ihey will put

ture of

it

slightly

with the tongue,

against the paper.

some

I found

made

them

a detailed study of

all

these

in practice in copying the pic-

colorist.

them while copying

in water-colors, in the

Am-

sterdam museum, Rembrandt's picture, called the Night

Watch, a composition twenty

feet large,

which

I reduced, of

course.

Rembrandt makes the

the

harmony of

colors.

chiaro-oscuro intelligible

Rubens,

A trip in Belgium and Holland

is

grand lesson in coloring, especially as one can copy there

these two masters.

73

SKIES.

We must, then, my dear Julia, seek to

find the

means of

copjdug in water-colors one or two grand pictures by master

colorists.

But we will speak of that

time for

has come.

At

it

hereafter,

present let us pass over to skies

The most

skilful water-colorists

We

trembling.

The white

clouds, the

the

a weighty matter.

do them only in fear and

must, with the same stroke of the brush, hit

both the form and the color.

spoiled.

when

sky retouched

is

a sky

of the paper being reserved for the

main point

accurately the design of the

is to hit

contour while making the ground of the sky, and the ground

You

should be free from spots.

lies in

Mary and

when

see that the entire difficulty

the execution.
Eliza will

know how to draw

they begin to wash

you

skies from

feel this in all its

but you will notice what I have noticed in

my

memory

importance
pupils, that

they must, in washing the skies, acquire the habit of drawing

in

an inverse

sense.

Thus, in their charcoal drawings, your

daughters bring out the white clouds from the black ground

by means of bread-crumb

this is the ordinary

way

of draw-

ing the object in the ground; whereas, for skies, the ground
is

drawn

in the cloud

by washing with

water-colors.

An-

other habit that the eye has to learn.

With regard
them.

to the colors, they are

made such as we

Cobalt blue and ultramarine are preferable

"

but

see

we

can also use other blues without detriment, especially in

skies of a greenish blue.

Ked, brown, or vermilion, mixed

with ivory-black or indigo, can also be used for the vanishing tones of skies.

manual of

cave's

74

Let us re-descend to the

eartli, to

coloe.

study

Animals

its beasts.

generally have a white, black, yellow, or gray dress.

mentioned above

One

how these

great advantage of water-color

model an

entire animal

right off the light

have

four tones are prepared.

the ability to

is

Thus we catch

with a single tone.

The

and the shade.

on

light is very close

animals with short hair, more open on animals with long

Order your daughters

hair.

to

model without troubling

When

themselves about the details of the hair.

them

ishing, they can take

out, or

they are

fin-

gouacheHhem. in the neces-

sary places.

In saying the necessary

We must
catches

places, I

first

the ensemble, and that

when

spection of the details

appearance.

That

is,

of

tiful

Do not people

is

it

itself,

the striking places.

only goes into the

it

satisfied

"

in-

with the general

a great eulogium on an

and say

to stand before his picture

finished."

mean

always bear in mind that the eye of the spectator

What

a pity

artist,

it is

not

speak thus in the presence of a beau-

unfinished construction

They

feel that the

work has

been well conceived, and regret that the author has not been
able to finish

The imagination

it.

in the position of the

artist,

construction,

and often

ished work.

This

mere

more taken by

large

it

than by a

fin-

sums have been lavished on

sketches.

But when a picture

when

it is

why

is

of the spectator puts itself

so as to finish the picture or the

all

is

incorrectly finished, that

is

the details are there without their masses,

more regarded than

everything in

it

is

there
*

a heap of withered flowers.

is

nothing in

To put

it.

in a body color.

to say,
it is

no

There

M.

fi.

C.

is

EEMARKS.

76

FIFTEENTH LETTER.
EEMAEKSHOW TO PLACE A FIGUEE IN THE SHADOWHAIR
AND WIGLOVE AND FEIENDSHIP.
"

Your

work does not resemble faded

daughters'

Already you find that

has form and

it

graver has told you that he could

from some of their designs."

Julia,

An

style.

make charming engravings

In sending

me

this,

you bestow upon me an eulogium of which

So I

am

going to open course

my pupils
is

him with

after course for the

I experience so

much

do what I should not do.

sees her son develop

cavalier

my

dear

have the

my

instruction, the first essays are masterly efforts.

of this simple idea.

seeing

Under

right to be as proud as your daughters are.

method of

flowers.

English en-

propagation
pleasure in

The mother who

and become a handsome and

admiration.

intelligent

She gazes upon him and

not happier.

Sueh

is

the presence of your daughters.

listens to

the picture of you, of me, in

I do

you the honor of not

doubting it.
Water-colors cannot but increase your pleasure.
proceed, too,

You must have

by masses.

They

noticed that the

drawings and water-colors of a scholar do not excel in this

respectvery naturally

one must be very

skilful in order

to finish the details without altering the masses.

Hitherto

pupils have always begun by finishing their drawings

hatching, and their

first

water-colors by stippling.

by

So they

manual of

cave's

'76

say,

when they have become men

I could draw when
I made magnificent heads
but at present
''

was young

could not draw a straight line."

That

learned to draw.
gotten

is

hand

when we have

did at

which

never

is

at rest the

mind

for-

be-

But

not.

is

copied and shaded a great lumbering head by

hatching, as the practice

we may

is

I
I

Such ones have never

a knowledge

on the contrary, we progress without working

cause, although the

dios,

color.

be sure that

in many stuknow any more than we

is still

kept up to-day

we do

not

first.

The

science of drawing and painting

is

so neglected or

rather so badly understood in our days, that there are artists

who have worked

a figure in the

for ten years

shadow

without knowing

how

side of their foreground

we

put

to

in the background of a picture.

Out-

perceive something misty, fantasIf they

had commenced with

water-colors, like your daughters, they

would boldly plant a

tical

but living beings, never.

drawn, accentuated, colored figure in the shadow or in the

half-tint, as

Paul Veronese has done, and

alive, in its right place,

Do you remember
satisfied

this figure

would be

not too far forward nor too far back.

that at boarding-school

we were

never

with the pictures that they gave us to copy, and

were always saying

If at this period I

"

How

shall

we work from

had discovered

teacher which I give to

my

pupils,

nature

"

tracing, that infallible

what master-pieces we

should have executed in the very teeth of our masters, and

in spite of

And

them

if I

Yes, master-pieces, I venture to say.

had had

this

simple process that I

am

finally

going to reveal to you, which immediately transfers any

fig-

HOW

TO PLACE A riGUEE IN SHADOW.

or object wliatever to the

lire

shadow

or half-tint,

77

we should

have made a resolution.

The

process, here

it is

Begin by drawing the whole composition.

Then

pass a

general gray tone over everj^thing that you wish to put in the

shadow or

the half-tint.

This tone will be more or

less dark,

according as the shadow or the half-tint that you wish to obtain

as

is

more or

though

it

Then

less vigorous.

paint on the gray paper

were white, and the tones which would other-

wise be tones of light become tones of shadow or

Do you

understand

me ? On

brunettes, negroes, with the colors that

white paper, and you

shadow and
I

am

made

half-tint

half-tint.

gray paper you make blondes,

your

find, to

you would use on

surprise, those tones of

which characterize the

great colorists.

indebted for this process to the various attempts that I

in copying their

Try

You

color.

works in water-color.
Pass the gray tone over the

to reverse the process.

will get only a bungling performance

and muddy

colors.

To find the tone of the shadow and the half-tint

To find the shadow and the half-tint in the shadow

To model in

the

shadow and

These are the three great

itself;

the half-tint

difficulties

of painting.

My simple process solves them all.

If

you

isolate

from the other figures the one thus executed

in the shadow, if
will find in

it

you look

the

little

at

it

carefully for

of refiection so perfectly, that you will think

luminous.

It will

some

time,

you

blue tones of the light and the tones

it

has become

not return to the shadow until you have

MANUAL OF

CAvis'S

Y8
compared
ing,

it

with

it

painter

we cannot

" O, yes,

it is

There was no
give

say that

it

does not exist.

in

life

what we

to

In

name

has given him the

Englishman

owe

this

eminent -quality

also

owe

it

it's

a wig."

my

portray, that,

this

Rubens excels

dear Julia,
:

this

is

that

Does he

of master of masters.
to his genius alone

it is

Does he not

profound knowledge of nature, that nature

which he had before

his eyes in northern countries,

see the blood circulating under the cuticle

so to speak, laid bare

transparent-fleshed

types for

"but

it.

the object of painting.

to his

to a rich

a head of light hair perfectly executed.

hair," said the

life

In reced-

It preserves its life,

was one day exhibiting with pride

London amateur

To

figures placed in the light.

has nothing misty or fantastic.

just as in nature

tlie

COLOE.

all ages,

He

young

found in his

girls

where we

where the

own

life is,

family, in the

who surrounded him, those

and so much admired,

so often reproduced

the Yenuses, the Helens, the Ledas, the Ceres, the Floras, in
short, all the

blonde goddesses of heathendom, even to the

Virgin of the Christians, also blonde, with the blooming

cheeks and the red lips of your daughters.

And

his genius

has made them live again on the canvas.

Believe me,

all

the great painters have wished to excel in

color.

Those who were

gretted

it.

When Titian

Raphael from
Raphael
in

fact, is

sleeping.

feel the

less of colorists

than their rivals

More keenly than any one

admiration that they must inspire.

the magic

re-

exhibited his Yenuses, he prevented

else did

So

great,

power of the brush that created them,

that amateurs have remained for years in Florence, solely for

LOYE

A]SD FEIENDSHIP.

79

the pleasure of going every day to contemplate

them and

to

admh-e the most marvellous harmony of beautiful forms and

I

beautiful colors.
It is the

apogee of

You must

have never seen anything more

beautiful.

art.

laugh at me,

my dear Julia, noticing

ever I speak of a master-piece I always say:

seen anything more beautiful."

*'

that

when-

I have never

This exclamation has

es-

caped from me, by turns, in the presence of a Eubens, a Paul

To-day,

Veronese, a Raphael, a Poussin.

I render this homage.
tiful

whom

am like our gentlemen in the presence

women the last is always in the right.

However,

way

as to myself, there are only

I love

first sight,

two ways of liking

real love, I like others in

I love, I loved

them without

after- thought, at

struck by that ravishing splendor which

to the others, those that

by seeing them
ciated

some with a

of friendship.

Those that

As

of

chefs-^cewDre.

ble.

Titian to

it is

seems that in the presence of beau-

pictures I

beautiful

the

It

frequently,

have

is irresisti-

my friendship,

it

was

by studying them, that I appre-

them and became attached

painting will understand me.

to them.

Amateurs of

do not doubt but that they

have, unconsciously, experienced the same emotions in the

presence of so

many

master-pieces, the constant objects of

their adoration.

After this I expect to see your daughters analyzing their

feelings, to find

out whether they love or like a picture.

Their observations will perhaps amuse you as

anxiety of Margaret,

who

is afraid

because she always sneezes

much

as the

she loves her young cousin

when he comes.

M.

fi.

C.

manual of

cave's

80

coloe.

SIXTEENTH LETTER.
LESSON-COPYING A PICTURE-COMPOSING A PICTURE.
In order to copy a picture in water-colors, my dear Julia,
you must proceed with method, and never be in haste. Take
a tracing of the picture,

same

size

and

if

though drawing
care.*

It is

the water-color

if

you wish

to reduce

important to

ing on ordinary paper,

make

first,

paper without mistakes.

It

trace

it

precisely as

That must be your

from nature.

it

it,

be of the

to

is

a careful study of the draw-

in order to transfer
is

first

it

transferred simply

to

wash-

by tracing

through a window-pane, or by red paper put between the

trace-copy and the white paper.

Unless a bore should come

in,

you

will

have

to stretch

your drawing yourself on the board.

You

then pass a general tone of yellow ochre over the

whole paper, in order to give

it

a yellow-white tone.

While studying with your daughters the picture that they

are going to copy,

you

will

make them

notice all the parts

that are in the half- tint, figures, furniture, ground.

as the yellow tint

is

tone of ivory-black, in their drawing,

tint in the original.

drawing

is,

how

Do you

it facilitates

* See "

As soon

perfectly dry, they will cover with a

all

that

is

how necessary
what I now ask ?
see

Cave on Drawing,"

eightli letter.

in the half-

our charcoal-

COPYING A PICTURE.
One matter well

81

settled.

The paper remains

parts of the drawing

intact
all

wherever we find the luminous

the rest

is

covered with a gray half-

tint.

They

will begin

by painting those persons or

objects of

the picture that have the most light, the parts which fix the

and then continue copying

attention,

until .done, always

taking up the lighter points before the bolder ones, in order

preserve the proper value of the

to

efl'ects

of the light.

"Where there are some parts bolder than others, they are
treated with a second gray

color

Your daughters

make

will certainly

in every case, before the

make

the tones too light or too dark

them in the words of the gospel

find, if

you follow

The

blunders

but that

my

"

sketch.

It is also

good

to

memory,

make

From

after the

sketches from

and reproduce them from

These exercises will accustom the eye

correct tones

can only

teachings."

the pictures of the great colorists,

memory.

Seek and you shall

copies should be repeated from

manner of a

they will

a matter of

is

Their very mistakes will teach them.

practice.
tell

tint, but,

put on.

is

to find the

and harmonize them.

copied compositions

we

pass to compositions from

nature.

Our

pupils will

the correct

compose from memory, in order

movement and

will adapt the

movement

expression.

to the form, because the recollec-

tion of nature caught in the act will

charcoal

for it is

to give

Quite naturally they

with charcoal that

come

we

4*

3S 5

to the

end of their

compose.

82

The composition being

model

they will take up the

settled,

The

in order to study the details.

kind as the figures

we have

choice of models

They should be

not a matter of indifference.

is

of the same

If they are short while

drawn.

the figures are long, thin, and the figures are stout,

how

shall

we

They

give

ever arrive at the ensemble, at truthfulness

the detail of the form.

They do not
them,

is

always

give the movement, which,

stiff

and

The

false.

if

taken from

painter himself must

perform the action of his picture, or he will give only a puppet show.

If

models, he

is

he cannot compose without the help of his

no

painter.

The

pupil

from memory knows more about

characterizes the

works of the masters

presence of nature.

We

is their

power

see that they are her masters.

find shapes, attitudes, that one

offer.

With them, the model

What

can

we

who has learned to draw

than he does. What

it

is

woman

in the

They

in a thousand can

only a slave wearing drapery.

expect from painters

who demand

every-

thing of their models, both the composition of their draw-

ing and the

movement

tremble at the
studied,

whom

of their figures?

sight of nature,

they

know

whom

Nothing.

They

they have never

not; as an inexperienced orator

trembles before the public, because he does not possess the

faculty of

remembering language.

Both of them hem and

haw.
It is

unnecessary to repeat here what I have already said

about composition in the fifteenth

When

your daughters are

letter

satisfied

on Drawing.

with the ensemble and

the details of their drawing, they will trace off their compo-

COMPOSING A PICTUKE.
sition

on wasli-paper,

ochre

tint.

Then they will

stretcli

it,

and pass over

they will pass to the

To

find this

The sketch

it

83

the yellow

return to their drawing, in order to study

When they have caught

out the effect by means of charcoal.

it,

harmony of

the tones.

harmony, they must make a sketch.

is

the composition reduced to the tenth, the

twentieth part of the picture.

Over

this

the effect

reduced composition your daughters will pass

by means of a gray tone of ivory-black.

obtain this effect from the drawing that they

They will

made

in char-

coal.

The
will

cMaro-oscuro of the sketch being determined, they

make

their selections

which the flowers and the

and

will dress

among

all

the pretty toilettes of

butterflies offer so

their composition

as they

many

models,

would a

single

person.

They

will notice

that the great masters

have always

painted a white stuff between the skin and the colored

They

will not forget that there are tones

and tones which stand back of themselves.

they wish to obtain brilliant

lights,

they

stuffs.

which stand out

know

Thus, where
that yellow,

orange, red, and pink are the colors that stand out most with

white.

They know

that very bold black has also the

to take possession of the foreground.

harmony of

opposites in the flowers will be of great help to

them, without their suspecting

it.

In a word, they will dress

their composition as they dress themselves,

taste.

power

Their studies in the

with

art

and good

caye's

84
Nearly

manual op

color.

painters are in the liabit of

all

making

very small, in order to take in the ensemble

is

an excellent

rule,

and

this

making pupils begin by drawing from small

the idea of

artist,

their sketch

a glance

have always been astonished that

models has not occurred to

great

at

M.

Ingres.

all

In

the professors, as

fact,

by practicing

it

has to our

at first

with

we acquire the knowledge of masses before that of details, we catch more quickly the fittings and
jointings, that is to say, we know how to put a hand on an
small proportions,

arm, to put an eye in

its

place, before studying the

teach a pupil

how

from the head

themselves

draw an

eye, a nose, a

Why not also make

idea, to

mouth, detached

them draw the

nails

by

Gifted artists,

work

to

hand and

What an odd

the eye separately in all their details.

at first

who have begun by drawing from memory,

on a very small

scale.

Hence

catching the ensemble of persons, animals,

their aptitude in
all

that they see.

In the presence of nature, as soon as they wish to make a detailed study of

first stroke, to

it

in large proportions, they are able, at the

place a figure in the desired movement.

Small proportions force us to bring out only what

We cannot, in a little bit of a figure, express

see.
We limit ourselves, therefore, to the choice

essential.

that

we

that

which

make

characterizes the form, even exaggerating

Look

ourselves understood.

engraved on antique gems

it

is

all

of
to

at the little cJiefs-dC (x,uvre

as soon as

we

enlarge

them by

the Rouillet process, they acquire a most extraordinary bold-

ness of form and expression.

The admirable engravers

whose names they have handed down

to us,

had caught

all

COMPOSING A PICTUEE.
the difficulties of the reduction
cisely the essential poihts

85

knew how

they

to tint pre-

for instance, out of three folds to

preserve that one which reveals the form, to take that wrinkle which characterizes the physiognomy,

a large figure stupidly

So we find in the
ters, all their spirit

seem

colder.

We

The

"We can copy

croquis^ in the sketches of the great

and

all their fire.

see that

expression of form

is

mas-

Their pictures always

by enlarging

have tamed down what I shall

feeling expressed

etc.

a small one, never.

call the

their figures they

expression of form.

given only by

memory

it is

by movement, gesture, and physiognomy.

M. t.

C.

cave's

86

manual of

coloe.

SEVENTEENTH LETTER.
REMARKS ON THE HARMONY OF COLORS
THE SKETCH.

Your

daughters

IN COMPOSITION

having already produced

effects

piquant that an engraver finds them worthy of his

shall not,

my

of

my

dear Julia,

recommend

to

on composition, in the

letter

That would be

so

tools, I

them a

fresh perusal

letters

on Drawing.

to insult them.

They have now reached

the most difficult part of the art

of painting; and, indeed, had they not carried out

my in-

structions in every respect, I should fear that they

might

Fortunately, I have not got to

recoil before the impossible.

that extremity, and I write

my

thirty-second letter in confi-

dent assurance.
Thirty-two letters on the art of drawing and painting

would be a great deal

in

two or three

been concise;

years.

to read in a day, but

In expounding

for the pupil that is

But in sending you these

nothing to study

my

doctrines, I

have

bored learns nothing.

letters at pretty

long intervals, I

have probably indicated that I did not intend to be read at

one breath.
derstand

The
the

me

In

fact, it is

only by practice that you will un-

perfectly, unless

art of

you

drawing and the

are already an artist.

art of painting require that

hand should be the accurate expression of the thought.

We must

then acquire an execution, an address, which the

HAEMONY OF COLORS

IN COMPOSITION".

87

does not require; physical effort must be

art of writing

joined to intellectual,

we must become

skilful not

only with

our minds, but with our hands.

M. Eugene Delacroix has

on Braioing:

" I shall not

said,

go

to

on speaking of the

letters

law with writers who, with-

out being thoroughly acquainted with painting, or even

without having practiced

its

and give complacent advice

Why should

rudiments, write upon the

art,

to artists."

not these same writers also give to physi-

cians and surgeons complacent advice on the art of healing

They would have just

and operating?

tunately, the witty raillery of

to

We have

all.

as

much

M. Delacroix

is

For-

right.

not applicable

read some articles on painting which will

always remain master-pieces of acuteness and judgment.

But, nota bene, the litterateurs
painters,

and used

who

wrote them lived with

their tools, enough, at least, to

know

the

danger of handling them without practice and study.

Practice and experience, study

what
is

my

lessons

what they

must have given

to

and observation, that

is

your daughters, and that

will need to-day in order to

go boldly

to the

attack of the sketch.

The

sketch of a composition

The

picture should excel the sketch only in the superiority

of the details.
his soul,

is

the picture.

Into the sketch the painter throws his

and his

heart.

Into the picture he puts

knowledge, his patient and devoted work, that

firm resolve to submit to his sketch.

his

to say, his

The sketch

con amore ; the picture, with that calmer and

sentiment which I shall call friendship.

is

spirit,

all

is

more

The sketch

made

lasting
is

the

gate's

88

work of

manual of

a day or an hour

needed

is

ceived in a day
So,

my

the picture

Do you

or of several months.
will that

colok.
the

is

work of a year

appreciate all the force of

what has been con-

to execute in a year

dear Julia, a great artist has said

"

Years are

needed before succeeding in putting into one's picture

there

is

in one's sketch."

Inspiration

To

fleeting.

is

while at the pitch of inspiration

We

process, so to speak.

men

in such of

them

In saying

on canvas,

that I

as are in a

to you,

my

it

making

and

the

is

which

only met with

meant

was the

execution on paper or

its

But we must

reflect

upon

it

a long

There are some sketches

first line.

and how many

will

my ideas germinate and ripen

when I see them, with my mind's

let all

only

them
fruit

should be thus, in order that the imagination

may

finished, that I decide

then they drop from

upon

my

tree.

be otherwise employed, not coming every moment

the execution of pictures by suggesting

now

the cold

realizing

and

And

from the

And it

by

brush as ripe

eye, complete

on paper.

it is

fire

measure women.

have thought over whole years

my head,

that iron courage

dear Julia, that the sketch

as a thought.

remain mere projects

falls

make

to

is

need for

of a day or an hour, I

while, before

in

sustain ourselves for a long

claim to be their privilege, and which

work

all that

Ever since

that.

my debut in

art,

now
I

to hinder

this variation,

have succeeded in

my sketch and my
my sang-froid^ have often said to

securing a great resemblance between

picture.

me

"

Artists,

How

is it

admiring

that

you contrive

to

make no change in your

HARMONY OF COLORS
first

idea

am

"

IN COMPOSITIOIT.

I compose, in pelto, pendants to

In

executing.

this

way

th.e

I can sit before

89

picture
it

tliat

calm and

cold.

The

sketch

is

work

the

colors, preserved in the

of observation in drawing

memory

and

for the use of the imagina-

tion.

All

one room

to another, their

am

sure, that

more advantage

when they

complexion changes

they are prettier in certain places

to

Your

the parts of a picture reflect one another.

daughters have noticed, I

pass from

at times

that

shows

that their toilette

The whole

in one parlor than another.

science of color lies in this observation, that persons reflect

their surroundings.

tween them.

This

Hence, the harmony which prevails beis

what

pletely to the trees,

and the

"

The

to

admire in

figures belong so

trees to the figures, that

same

that they breathe the

upon you

I called

Watteau, when I said to you

air."

com-

we

see

Paul Veronese, beneath

those brilliant porticos, possesses, in an eminent degree, this

quality of atmosphere.

The one formed

his impressions

while following with his eyes, his personages frolicking in

the gardens of

le

Notre

the other, while watching the forma-

tion of groups under the magnificent colonnades of the palace.

We feel that their figures never

from

then-

came

them

isolated

background, and that they have seen, in

all their

to

entirety, the scenes that their genius has reproduced.

The grand
settled thus

in

its

dispute between colorists and drawers

may be

the former see one corner of nature completely,

ensemble, with

its lines, its color, its

out of the whole they

make

a poem.

atmosphere, and

The

latter see

only

90
some

beautiful lines liere for

th.eir figures,

other beautiful lines

there for their landscape, and out of these beautiful scattered

make

debris they try to

her rights, and says

She desires

united."

But nature comes

a whole.

You

"

to

claim

only put asunder what I have

have her pictures remain as she has

to

made them, because she alone knows how

to

make them,

and knows that those which are made without her have not
anything of her.

Her

variety

same everywhere and in

is infinite,

modern

tory reappear to us in

The

all ages.

but her laws are the

scenes of ancient his-

history.

It

was while seeing

a great worldly festival that Paul Veronese imagined the

"

Wedding

in Cana."

Roman women

was

It

in the presence of the beautiful

suckling their infants, that Raphael composed

his admirable Yirgins.

After

all,

the subject

is

of so

little

importance to posterity,

that artists, genuine amateurs, never trouble themselves about

it

The

action

is

given well or badly, the sentiment ex-

pressed well or badly, the picture

painter

is

not a historian

A beautiful picture is like

her

name

is

fine or

it is

ugly.

we have books for our instruction.

a beautiful woman we do not ask
:

or her address, to determine whether she

is

beauti-

ful.

To

To commence by drawing and

return to our subject.

grouping figures on white paper, without at the same time

making

the background on

live, is to

commit an

which they are

absurdity,

is

man and

God commenced by

creating

creating the earth ?

The background

picture

what the earth

is

to

man

to stand out

to build in the

air.

and

Has

the animals before

is to

the figures in a

they cannot be isolated

HARMONY OF COLOES

I]S'

91

COMPOSITIO:^".

Do your friends ever appear to you in

When you think of them, you always picture

one from the other.

empty space

them

to yourself as

some

act or other

being in some place or other, engaged in

thus

it

that the figures of a picture

is

should present themselves to your daughters.

I have trained in

them has opened

without their being aware of

to

The

one another.

tion, will

it,

color of

This

memory

their eyes, doubtless

to the relations of all objects

harmony, the color of

reflec-

be sure to strike them, in consequence of the habit

I have taught them of composing the figures in front of the

background, instead of composing the background behind

In

the figures.

this

way they have

attained, in the

most

natural manner, the science of sketching, the object of our

studies, the

lesson,

step

by

one that I have had in view ever since

and towards which

my

first

have constantly conducted them

step.

I said, in

my

last lesson, that

they ought to dress their

sketches with art and good taste, as they dress themselves.

I should

have

said, as

you

dress them, you,

who

could give

every mother lessons on the art of dressing her children

gracefully, without overloading

that give

many painters fall

their sketches

that bears

them with

useless trinkets

them the appearance of learned poodles.

How

into this error, through trying to embellish

They make

no resemblance

a cheap jewelry shop of them,

to anything.

Let us urge them to

greater simplicity; but let us be lenient to them, for the

sketch

is

the

artist's

well-beloved daughter.

with passion, he adorns

it

He

creates

it

with tenderness, as a mother orna-

ments her daughter when she expects the young

man

for

cave's MAiq-UAL OF COLOR.

92

whom

Since I

similar destination:

am

initiating

from

I cannot refrain

been assured

you

telling

it

into the mysteries of painting,

more of them

amateur

is

protector of the arts

artists in

who, through vanity,

order to purchase the

rising, gets

when

in the rue des jeuneurs

fellows are easily recognized

up a museum, only

the market

falls.

they enter the

liberally but insolently.

his

works

or when, and

He

amateur.

three or four

does not

whom

to

who

hitherto unobserved,

knows how

With

them.

croquis !
it,"

be says

It is

man,

that

An

There are only

he fancies, and whose works he seeks

joy he

or at sales.

let his

feels at

a God-send.

to the painter

takes possession of

is

be at home

to

every painter.

With what

it,

"

begun

to the

meeting with a successful

"

Do

first

not put another touch to

you would only

spoil it."

in consideration of a

that the artist does not count,

scruti-

eye wander from the finished

picture to the picture begun, from the picture

What

studio

to the frames,

reluctance does the

But who

who seems

visit

nizing attention does he

to sell

has got into the studio, no one

after, either at their studios

sketch

of

No, those

artist's

making a great fuss, higgle over everything, even

up

scat-

title

not the habitue of the Stock Exchange,

who, when stocks are

and pay

pity.

not a great lord rolling in wealth because

money among

artist deliver

have

be seen, and that per-

That would be a

extinct.

his ancestors deserved to be hung,

it

to

is.

February revolution,

that, since the fortunate

there are scarcely any

ters his

painter's sketch has a

awaits the amateur.

you what an amateur

haps the species will become

An

The

she has destined her.

somewhat

And he

few gold pieces

and he hastens to hang

it

up

in

THE SKETCH.
his cabinet, taking great pains to put

so that

round

it

He

loves

Since

a father or a lover.

we

us cast our eyes about us.

some old

antiquity, or

lief to the objects of his

everything

good

on no account whatever would he

for

of them to another.

let

in a

it

is

liglit,

harmonize with the other marvels that

will

it

93

them

are admitted into the sanctuary,

tapestry, that

only a few objects of

merely serve

to give re-

How neat and well

worship.

arranged

then, that the amateur's

Are you astonished

wife should be jealous of his collection?

that he should rise from his lunch precipitately about

o'clock, in a panic lest the servant

shutter
little

He

once more

will console himself

:

that

is

his happiness.

are here, let us be careful not to evince

by admiring

And

while

any too great com-

posure, to speak of things outside, or to see any defects.

would hold us in sovereign contempt, and

shut on us for ever.
fices

he has made

his delight

all

the greater the sacri-

Let us not disturb

have
is

is

ferocious.

this sensitiveness

towards the painter.

an inexplicable bond of union.

can, this irresistible feeling

to attach himself to another, to give

which causes one

De-

man

an almost exclusive

preference to his works, to pass entire hours in watching

at

He

would be

is,

passion

He would not
you

The poorer he

his doors

to gratify his passion.

Between them there

fine, if

one

might not have closed a

and the sun should come in and devour one of his

chefs-d'cBuvref

their beauties

we

one

with the affection of

all

No luxury

Are you astonished,

sacrifice

and
sur-

him

work, following with his eye every movement of his brush,

and holding his breath so

were

to permit

it,

as not to disturb him.

the amateur

If the artist

would follow him

like his

cave's

94

manual of

coloe.

shadow, and end by making himself a sharer in

or

all his

happy

unhappy emotions.
I understand perfectly the pleasure that one

an amateur finds in watching a

present at an act of creation.

pass through wide awake.

this pastime,

man

who

dream

It is a beautiful

is

not

We are

of talent work.

that

we

Louis Philippe often indulged in

but not in silence.

He was

fond of giving ad-

vice to the artists, readily sacrificing the picturesque part of a

picture to historical accuracy.

People

know

light in seeing

But there

that the

Emperor of Russia

is

King of

know

one thing that they do not

Horace Vernet have given his

sia or

takes great de-

Horace Yernet work.

talent to

Would

the. French?

the

or Louis Philippe have exchanged their

would

be Emperor of Rus-

Emperor of Russia
crown

for the talent

of Horace Yernet ?

This

much

is sure,

more pleasure and

that

Horace Yernet has experienced

less ennui, that his

kingdom

secure

is

Happy

from revolutions and the ingratitude of nations.

privilege of the arts

Nor

is this

great Alexander and Francis

left

still further,

what

been, they have

;

and

P. 8.
is

I have

made you

M.

we go

fi.

C.

fully recognize all the difficulty

in reducing the tones of the

studio to the tones that

if

are the heroes of the Iliad along-side

him who has sung them ?

there

However

the only one.

may have

fewer souvenirs than Raphael and Titian

back
of

I.

models

you have given them

who

sit

in your

in your sketch,

but I have forgotten to teach you the means of overcoming

THE SKETCH.
this difficulty.

ground,

it is

An

instance.

you have an open-air back-

impossible for the walls of your studio to pro-

duce on your model

trees that

If

all

the reflections from the sky and the

must be cut upon your

figures,

daughters have noticed in their sketch.

Take

pieces of white, yellow, green,

range them so as to
sketch.

By

95

this

reflect

and which your

Here

and other

is

the -rule.

satin,

process I have always obtained

tones that I found in nature.

and

ar-

your model in the tones of the

all

the

96

EIGHTEENTH LETTER
PAINTING IN

Let us begin, my
are

dear Julia, by saying that colors in tubes

more convenient than

The

OILS.

colors in bladders.

principal colors are the

same

as those in water-colors,

and they must be well studied and known before any new
ones are added.

You
tones,

Mary has made

see

herself quite familiar with all the

by making water-colors from

I shall

now

say to her

oil-paintings.

Make your

studies in oils

from

and

their

water-colors, in order to understand well the tones

value in the shadow.

But, in the next place,

Mary must devote her

entire intel-

ligence, her entire skill, to one or the other of the

ods of painting

more

let

who

girls

are intending to

is

I shall always say to

in accordance with her taste.

young

two meth-

her consider well which of the two

marry

Select water-colors,

because you will never give them up, because they are
cleanly work, because

The

you can paint an hour, a

palette is always ready,

half-hour.

and does not dry, while

oil-

painting calls for at least three hours without interruption,

and the

palette,

I repeat

if

when once changed,

you wish

to

is lost

unless used.

have a genuine

choice, do not seek to excel in both

it is

talent, take

your

too difficult to be

PAII^TING

97

OILS.

rN-

incessantly changing one's palette, one's brush, consequently

way

one's

But remember,

of paiuting.

painting, that

if

you must always continue

you adopt

oil-

make your

to

sketches in water-colors, in order to have a free and decided

cMaro-oscuro.

However,

my

pupil of

As soon

it is

Mary

needless to say this to

a conscientious

method, the contrary will never occur to her.

as she has understood the art of

charcoal, the art of reproducing

it

making

a picture in

in color without changing

the cJiiaro-oscuro^ without altering the arrangement of the

she

light,

is

born with the sense of composition and color,

she will become a painter, I have no doubt of

it.

I shall only say to her that there is nothing

when one wishes to attain to genuine talent

ist, than to make rough draughts in oils.

^m

going to give her, then, the

method of painting

make draughts
ist.

If,

in oils

first

more

principles of the

with these principles, she will

only, if she decides

upon being a water-color-

on the contrary, she wishes

to

make

oil-painting a

serious study, she can, with this method, perfect

heart's content

and

all

by devoting

but,

useful,

as a water-color-

all

her time,

all

it,

her

to

her

skill,

her intelligence.

draught

is

not a draught because

it is

done quickly

at that rate, the greater part of the Yelasquez, the Rubenses,

the

Paul Yeroneses,

and even the Raphaels would be

draughts.

My profile, made
made

it

in

by M. Ingres, would be a draught

an hour, and, nevertheless,

pieces.

it is

he

one of his master-

manual of

c aye's

98

Time

coloe.

counts for notliing in a work, there must be knowl-

edge and inspiration.

You must work

from oil-painting

seriously, then, not straying continually

to water-colors, otherwise

nothing but sketches;

finish,

skill,

you

means of a continuous succession of experiments

direction,

upon the same

This being

will

make

are acquired only

in the

by

same

thing.

settled, let

us return to oil-painting

I say to

Mary, then

You must

choose canvas that

is

primed

fine-grained but

not shining.

dull,

On

this

canvas you will draw in ink what you wish to

paint.

In order to paint, you must buy hair-pencils and brushes

the pencil pointed and

flat,

or three blender brushes

the brushes pointed and

difi'erent sizes

will first paint a

have accustomed you

must accustom yourself

is

As

washing-in a single tone, so you

to

must get the knack of the

canvas

oil-color,

head in monochrome camaleu.

to

two

of each.

In order to accustom yourself to the brushes and

you

flat,

impasting in a single tone.

easel

and the maul-stick.

You

For the

placed right before you on your easel, and you lean

upon the maul-stick

to

steady yourself.

By

occasionally

putting the end of the maul-stick on the canvas or the easel,

you can spare yourself some

well

is itself

give

fatigue.

To

take one's position

a study, but a study that experience only can

so also the handling of the brushes, the appropriate

selection of

them according

and an experience.

to one's native skill, is a study

PAINTII^^G

Do

I need to tell

you

that, in order to

must take a pointed brush

model, a

to

99

OILS.

IN-

draw the

flat

brush

you

lines,

Your lines having been drawn in ink, you will pass over
mixed with fatty oil for it is

the whole canvas burnt sienna

model upon white canvas.

difficult to learn to

This preparation well dried, you make your monochrome

tones from an engraved head or a plaster model
tint,

shadow of

the

reflection,

and the pure white

With

You
You
laying

about

the half-

for the light.

these four tones

set

and the shadow of projection,

it

you can learn

in the

manner

to

am

model by painting.

going

to tell

you

pass the tone of the half-tint over the whole figure,

it

on

You take

lightly

the masses of

work on

where there are

lines.

the lightest shadow-tone and

shadow

you go

the light, leaving the half- tint where

You draw your

in uniting

all this

direction of the

When,

to

work on

you next take the white and go

it is

But the

lines in the paste.

to

to remain.

difficulty lies

together, with a flat brush, preserving the

drawing and the modelling.

in your modelling,

you have joined the

light

with

the half-tint, you go over your bright lights with pure white,

and you

soften this light again,

on the edges, with your

flat

brush.

In the same

way you

restore vigor to the

you have weakened while modelling

last,

and

shadows that

finally, at

you put your bold shadows under the nose,

the very

in the corner

of the nose and the eye.

You

then put

light correctly,

all

the half-tint on the hair,

and you go

to

work on

you

the shadows.

fix

your

You
tint,

manual of colou.

caye's

100
see,

my

dear Mary, that the study of shadow, hidf-

and light that you have made,

first

with the charcoal,

now becoming most

secondly by washing, are

invaluable to

you.

You know how

of material.

to

This

model.

only your

It is

know

In a word, you

is for

skill that

you only a change

you have

the art of modelling

practice yourself in expressing your thought

to exercise.
;

you must

by a new handi-

craft.

I leave you, then, to

before speaking to

handle your oil-color in monochrome,

you of

You must have

color.

seen by the difference in process that I

have made between the hair and the

answer equally well

else to

to

put the lights

commence by attacking

In beginning with the

light,

figure, that it

on the

first

would

half-tint, or

the shadows.

you follow

of charcoal-drawing and washing, which

altogether the plan

commence by show-

ing the half-tint and the light.

You must

try to find out

what

is

and make and

easiest,

re-make until you succeed, without becoming discouraged

for, if

that

is

the

first

For the
whole

production is tolerable, very good

only to be expected, the usual

way of

if it is

poor,

things.

draperies, furniture, pottery, the half-tint over the

object,

same

repetition

the light well arranged, and

the shadows afterwards.

Do

your monochroming, then, courageously, and make an

entire picture

dabble in

it

do not seek

production, but a rough draught

to

make

a finished

and by making draught

draught you will acquire the art of finishing.

M. ^.

after

C.

PAINTING IN

OILS.

10]

]st:neteenth letter.
PAINTING IN OILS CONTINUED COLOEED COLOES.

From

oil-color

without color

let

us pass to oil-color with

color.

You

prepare the canvas with sienna, as soon as you

still

have drawn the design in ink.

As soon

as the

drawing

is

thoroughly dry, pass over the

entire canvas a layer of burnt sienna

it

with fatty

oil,

and

let

dry well.

Do

not think that this preparation repels the color and

renders

it

draughted

black in time.
fifteen years

The

No.

pictures that I rough-

ago have become bolder, but they are

not black.

Moreover,

it

was the unfinished

pictures of

ployed,

Let us take the

flesh-tints to

of half-tint, that you

make

Eubens and

me to discover the processes that

and that I am going to transmit to you.

Greuze that led

in

oil-colors

ivory-black,

begin with.

make with

is

with white, cobalt blue, and a

blonde or brunette

em-

This blue tone

indigo in water-colors,

which you take darker or

the flesh-tint

I have

you
little

lighter according as

finally,

you must hunt for

the tone of the half-tint of the very complexion that

you are

copying.

Having found the

half-tint,

you pass

it

over

all that

part

102

C aye's MAisTUAL OF COLOR.

'

you wish

that

head.

to paint during

Where you come

your

to a line,

sitting.

you put

it

Let us take a

on thinner, so

as not to lose the line altogether.

Then you

take, as in water-colors, burnt sienna

and you attack boldly, over your

ples yellow,

shadow-parts.

and Na-

half-tint, all

Bright yellow and yellow ochre

may

also

the

be

used with burnt sienna, according as the shadows are warmer

or greener.

It is a

matter of

trial

and experiment, as in water-

colors.

You always draw your

and cobalt

blue.

flesh-tone that

the light

is,

lines in the paste,

you place over the

with red brown

of,

you have a pink

half-tint

on the side where

This being disposed

leaving, however, a slight half-tint

between

this

pink light and the tone of the shadow.

You

see that

you

are following the principles of water-

colors.

With

flat

brush you model these tones as you modelled

the gray tones, always in the direction of the form.

Sometimes you can make

brushes

they tend to

make

the

work

soft

I prefer the hair-pencil and the

And now you

tint.

It is

joining
bly,

use, lightly, of little blender-

but you must be on your guard against them,

it

are to put

flat

brush.

on the grand

light of the flesh-

made with white and with yellow

skilfully to the rose tone,

and you will find

if

On that account

and round.

you

will

and by

ochre,

model admira-

live flesh-tints like those of

Rubens

and Greuze.

The

rose of the lips and the cheeks

as also the bold parts under the nose

you leave

to the last,

and in the eyes

these

PAi:N^TrN'G

made with

are

tint of

and yellow ochre.

lakes

your hair over

ow and

the light: precisely the

You

put the half-

you attack the shad-

the hair, then

all

103

OILS.

IIS"

same tones

as in water-

colors.

You know them, then you have handled the brush enough
monochrome to have found out how im;

in painting hair in

portant

it is

to

have the stroke of the brush in the direction

of the head or the lock,

how much

delicacy

is

required for

the roots of the hair along the forehead.

When

the head

your

lines,

with

this

and

manner of

soft at the

same

For everything
always spread the
paint.

is

dressed,

you come back

which are always indented inwards

These

painting,

you

why,

is

make your work

that

you wish

to paint, the

firm

same system

half-tint over all the part that

half-tints are the

you

drawing

to

that

time.

same

always the opposites to the light

I do, since

will

you wish

to

as those in water-colors,

you know them

as well as

are acquainted with all the values of the

tones.

For

objects

also teach

that

you

you

use.

and persons in the background, water-colors

that
So,

you must put ivory-black

in the

no more white on your palette

as

white

soon as

you attack your background, graduated gray tones taking

the place of the white, and mixing themselves with all the
colors.

The

further off the things are, the

more you must

force

the gray tone.

Now understand me
colors as in the light,

perfectly.

You

paint with the same

you put on the same

light

only, in

104

cave's

proportion

the

as

manual of
recede,

objects

coloe.
your luminous white

becomes more and more gray.

This gray white

is

the shadow, the atmosphere,

more and more dense between yourself and your

growing

figures in

proportion as you multiply the perceptive planes of your

picture.

Do you now

understand

you have made

that

how the monochrome

will be of service to

you

modellings

Leonardo da Vinci and Prudhon have sometimes

monochromes

dry,

and painted by glazing

but I

let their

am

not ac-

quainted with that system.

Only, you must see that colorists are not afraid of the
gray, for the

Endymion

of

Correggio

may

be admirably

copied in this way.

Odd,

is it

not, to put so

en picture like the one I

secret of

ground

making

is

to

much gray

am

in a blonde

and gold-

make

Well, the

trying to

the picture blonde and golden in the back-

employ the gray underneath the shadows and

the lights.

For the background of a room, the same

wall

is

white.

A white

process.

never white in the background, in the light of the

If

you have

a stone in the foreground, that is white.

In the same way the most brilliant clouds are never white.

you have made,

But

the water-colors that

the

monochromes you have painted

you

all

If

to

begin with, and

afterwards, have given

these lessons.

you have any black

depths,

must use red brown and cobalt

you know

also that

blue, or else indigo

you

Naples

yellow and ivory-black mixed will accomplish wonders.

PAINTING IN

Remember

that crude lakes,

always advance.

105

OIL.

however dark they may

be,

Transparent colors recede only in glazing

over grays.

Painting on ivory, on earthen-ware, on porcelain, can

ways keep

abreast with water-colors.

a few lessons from the

trade

any

first

You have

artists in this

al-

only to take

line, to

learn the

but you must not change these principles of color in

respect.

You

will be glad to hear that

my

two large water-colors,

the " Tournament," and the " ConTalescence of Louis XIII.

in Childhood,"

have been placed in the gallery of the Luxem-

bourg.

That

is

the place to find the truth of what I

am

teaching

you, on throwing the figures in shadow, and making the

background recede.

5*

M.

tl.

C.

-A',
c aye's

106

manual of color.

TWENTIETH LETTER
WOMENTRIFLING WOMEN.

SERIOUS

One more

word, my dear Julia, before closing

spondence, which has put

me

some

to

without a certain feeling

nevertheless, I shall not leave

oflF

of regret; for the labor that

we have

friends has about

it

this corre-

trouble, but which,

undertaken for our

a charm, which grows in attractiveness.

But what could I say further?

Besides, I have found for

myself occupations that consume

all

know, I

am

not a writer;

woman, who has no motive

sentiments

who

my leisure

and, as

do not even like the

you

art in

for publishing her thoughts

and

should, on the contrary, sacredly seclude her

I

have

written these letters only in an effort of friendship for

you

life

in that

mystery of intimacy for which she

The

and your dear daughters.

has embarrassed

me

whom

I admire), but

sive than agreeable,

born.

publicity they have

somewhat.

no doubt

tions that flattered me,

is

met with

have received congratula-

(for

they come from

artists

which would have been rather oppres-

had

I not been free to believe that they

were more especially addressed

to the painter,

and I

am noth-

ing more.

They have

my telling them.
my pen only to excuse
demand pardon for my

seen that, however, without

I wish to bear in

mind

that I took

myself for having taken

it

up

up, and to

SERIOUS WOMEIf.
complete igaorance of the

myself clearly

my

That

is

107

art of writing.
all I desire.

Have

I expressed

Let people say that

method has nothing methodical about

it,

my

that

thought wanders, that I often come back to the same ideas,

as in conversing or teaching

On

they will not hurt my feelings.

the contrary, they will judge of

wished

to appear.

greater care, or resorted to

as I

Why

have painted any better pictures ?

as to ac-

I should

Would

I like painting above all things.

it

have followed an

I like

it

better than

permits a woman to remain at home, because

it

does not require a public and a theatre.

is

a musician must have a

little

The woman who

of the audacity of the come-

dienne; she must expose herself, like the actress.

painting, however,
is

Still,

equality
to

me.

to

music, because

which

with

letters

should I have done so

pupils have been any better taught

aim foreign

am, just as I

my

some practiced pen, so

quire an usurped reputation.

Would my

me just

might have worked on

we need

With

never emerge from that modesty

one of the virtues and charms of our sex.

we must
is

There

woman

wish that

doll, pleasing

This

more

Woman

man, that

is

in certain circles, a tendency

not

my

understanding of

one worthier of

it.

her,

I desire

more

re-

should be the intelligent companion of

to say, his associate in the

life,

She should be

is

useful part,

spectable.

struggles of

is,

should not be anything more than a

her husband and taking the part of mother for

his children.
for her a

not misuse the word modesty as the word

misused.

ofttimes painful

his supporter, his counsellor, his consoler.

for his children not

merely a well-dressed

idol,

108
that tliey are to

box

come and

and mornings, not a

kiss evenings

of sugar-plums, but a vigilant guardian and an attentive

physician, the professor of all that

wish her

fireside.

choice shrub, protecting

pruning

cleaning

it,

I wish

still

mission on

spect herself
respect the

That

is

more

earth.

and
I

it

from

who

wish her

How

can an

and be respected

woman and mother

it,

it

giving

and useless

noble

woman

And who would

as I

Not

it,

can acquire.

to take pride in this

idle

a reasonable pride.

raises a

aud the heat of the sun,

frost

the beauty that

all

home

learned at the

of weeds, straightening

it

in short, all the vigor

is

be like the gardener

to

re-

dare not to

have described her ?

that fault

which caused

the loss of the fallen angels, that exaggerated feeling of one's

own worth which

wish

to

later, that
evils.

leads us to over-estimate ourselves

domineer others
produces so

an error that

many

faults, so

But that virtue without

will

and the com'age

to

our

lot,

and beyond

it,

and

to

punished sooner or

is

many

deceptions and

affectation, that gives us the

be worth something, to be useful in

if

possible

that serene conscience before

that

calm strength and

which the boldest

Let

recoil.

us respect om'selves, and idle talk will not come and buzz in

our

ears.

People generally say

"

Women

are trifling."

should have limited themselves to saying

fling

women."

"

They

There are

How many women, how many mothers

with pity at

families, could smile

"We must come

fling, that is

to

this

tri-

of

word.

an understanding about

this

word

tri-

flung in our faces.

If a pretty

young person, adorned with her natural beauty

TRIFLING WOMElSr.
and

knows liow

fashion

all tliat

gracefully

if slie sits

add

to

down with

109

to

enters a parlor

it,

a smile and enters into a

lively interchange of th6..e thousand little nothings that

up

the substance of conversation in society

tap of the bow, she

arm
so

flies

away

if,

make

at the first

like a bird, whirling

on the

of a cavalier with that expression of pleasure which

becoming

to youth,

without which

was no youth, you exclaim

You are very

know about it ?
In society she
ing, elegant

But, on the

come and
early,
fore,

is

just

morrow

down by

sit

A trifling woman
Trifling

what she should

What do you

be, natural,

charm-

of the ball, get access to her home,

her

You

fireside.

will find her

up

having already laid aside the flowers of the night be-

and given her

first

She receives you in a

attention to her beautiful children.

toilette that is

the apartments in which she resides.

matters, she listens to
little

is

say there

woman.

in a word, a

"

yourself

trifling

we might

you with

simple and elegant, like

Speak

attention,

to

her on serious

and you are not a

surprised at the good sense of her answers.

enough

to jiake

around you
palette

do you not

and brushes

teur bought

it,

are not rich.

some pony
pastel,

you blush

it is

and

for

see,

your prejudice ?

ofi"

there,

near the window, a

That water-color

it

paid for our last night's

is

Is this not

Well, look

our work.

An

ama-

toilette, for

we

That other one will give our husband a hand-

that he regrets not being able to buy.

As

to that

going to enrich a lottery for the benefit of the

poor mothers of the ward.

I do not say all I might, for I

do not wish

to

be accused

cave's

110
of vaunting

how many

my

sex and soliciting Montyon -prizes for

mur and with

a smiling face

What long,

are trifling

be,

and keep our places.

we

are worth.

of pleasing

my

Men

A puerile book
If

have decided
title

Yesterday."

"

Oh

dear Julia, against

us be what

it

The

what

has been written on the art

art of

making

should happen that I were obliged to

to publish the

It will

we can

really love us only for

up painting, I should publish some

under the

let

no one has ever thought of the

Let us be on our guard, however,

one's self beloved.

But
mur-

unrecognized de-

any other prospect than ingratitude

presuming too much on ourselves, and

give

it.

cruel sufferings I could cite, borne without

votion, without

women

manual of color.

Woman

letters

on

this subject.

third part of this work,

Woman of
my meditation on the

of To-Day, the

be the resume of

necessity of turning our attention to

woman.*

MAEIE-ELISABETH

CAy:E.

* After no little hesitation, I offer the above as a conjectural rendering

of the original

" surla necessite de s'occuper de

" The need of occupation for woman."

Tk.

lafernme.''''

It

may mean

COLORS FOR THE PALETTE.

These

colors can be

In

way

this

had in leaden

paper as clear and as thick as

have

Pastilles

and

if

tubes, like oil-colors.

they do not dry, and they can be put on the

this

may

be desired.

inconvenience

you are so unlucky as

to

they come unglued,

drop your palette, they will

break, because they dry so far as to lose their transparency.

Of

down

course, if
here,

will not do
first

you

an unusual tone that

find

you must use

it

for the richness of

is

not put

your palette

any harm when you are very familiar with the

necessary colors.

You must

first

familiarize yourself with these

trustful of the others for the flesh-tints.

and be mis-

H
H
<

w
H
H
W
<
Ph

Q
o

Hist oi

^uMimiionB

ti)t
OF

PUTNAM

G. P.

66 1 Broadway^

OLTE
torical

(Amely).

Novel

Johnson.

& SON,

New

MADAME

York.

de

translated from the

i6mo, cloth

STAEL A
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New AND

Final Volume of Bayard Taylor's Travels.

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BY-WAYS OF EUROPE,
the author of " Views Afoot," "

By

Home

and Abroad," &c.

CONTENTS
A
A

The Grande Chartreuse.

The Kyffhauser and its Legends.

Familiar Letter to the Reader.

Cruise on Lake Lagoda.

A Week at Capri.
A Trip to Ischia.

Between Europe and Asia.

Winter-Life in

Petersburg.
of Appenzell.
to Montserrat.

St.

The Little Land

From Perpignan

The Land of Paoli.

The Island of Maddalena.
In the Teutsberger Forest.
The Suabian Alb.

Balearic Days.
Catalonian Bridle-Roads.

The Republic
In one

vol.

of the Pyrenees.

lamo. (uniform with his other works), blue cloth, $2.25.

THE NEW WEST;

Or, California in 1867 and
CHARLES

By

L.

Author of " Races of the Old World," " Home-Life

1851," &C.

i2mo.

300 pp.

'68.

BRACE,
in

Germany," " Hungary

in

(In February.)

This work contains an account of what till lately has been a terra incognita to
Americans themselves, the Pacific Slope.
Mr. Brace in his California journey
has described what most travellers have omitted, the minute features of natural
scenery and products, the different world of vegetation, and climate, aad landscape
which characterizes the Pacific coast. He has mvestigated closely the vine-growing
regions, and the wine-making of California its wonderful gardens and orchards, the
new branch of silk-growing just beginning, and the remarkable agricultural capacities of the State.
He pictures that wonder of the world, the Yosemite Valley.
and the Giant Trees, and the Geysers.
Social Life, Schools, and Education are also treated, and several chapters are given
Much practical advice is given to emigrants and farto the Chinese in the State.
mers as to where to settle in California. Adventures among Robbers and DiggerIndians are the subjects of some of the chapters.
It is a work which all Americans who desire to understand their own country,

should possess.

A MEMORIAL OF THE REV. DR. TAYLOR.

SERMONS
Preached in Grace Church,

House

D.D.

With a

New York.

1846-67,

By

the late Rev.

Photographic Portrait fi-om

Thomas

In
one volume. 8vo. Tinted Paper. Price, $s..-k3.
*^* This volume is printed specially for Subscribers and Memoers of Grace
Church. Those desiring copies of the First Edition, which will be handsomely
printed, are requested to send their names at once.
Taylor,

fine

Elliott's Picture.

^'0V

To

1S08