On this page

• Text (2)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    ^January 3, 1853.J THE LEADER. 45 ^ .- —...

  • 

    CHAPTER I. DURABILITY OF PICTURES IN OIL...

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    V - W R Tfheii& Mum A\N1p) Reniamtlqnu V...

    to the same en * . " To the majority , who can never hope to possess a picture by a g * at master , we are convinced that the picture itself is a subject of curiosity . Much re « i interest will arise with respect to the origin of the various master-worts . How were they executed—how long will they last—by what means hare they been preserved through so great a lapse of time ?—these question ? have seldom , if ever , been satisfactorily answered . It is said by some , no such answers can be given to the multitude . We are of a different opinion . We believe that the replies can be given , and that great good will result from giving them . Picture criticisms , by so many deemed matters of capricious taste , might become instructive , if definite rules once

    aided the judgment ; for art is no exception to the law , that interest , appreciation , and refinement , come with the understanding . Compare the remarks of three or four bystanders on any given picture . If the observers are ignorant altogether of the theory and practice of painting , they will exhibit great and perplexing contradictions of opinion ; but , in proportion as they happen to be informed of the means and method by which the picture was produced , and of the peculiarities of the master ' s school , the darkness clears up , principles begin to appear , criticism grows intelligent , and common agreements are manifested . Thus it is with all ordinary questions of science and art , and thus it will be with the art of painting , when the value of right rules and principles shall be properly regarded .

    One very natural objection that will occur to the reader , unless he has paid some attention to this subject , will be founded in the supposition that any elaborate dissertation on the practical details of art must be unfitted for general perusal . This is one of those objections that have survived the period when they were true . When education was altogether deficient , and the people were generally neglected , papers on practical art were of course unintelligible . But now matters are changed , and whilst we have economical and fiscal disquisitions , including all the practical details of statesmanship , as a necessary portion of newspaper information , architecture , painting , music , and sculpture are at last become questions of national taste and universal accomplishments .

    These arts are capable of being made intelligible , and there can be no doubt that they will be found as interesting as rival theories and interminable controversies on matters social and political . We are persuaded that every fact and experience relating to the works of great painters will be welcome and useful to all . A truly national care is beginning to be felt for those master-works which are collected in the large room in Trafalgar-square , and at Marlborough House . The means employed for the preservation of the national pictures have been very generally discussed . Controversies on this subject in 1846 , and again in 1852 , have occupied the attention of Parliament , the press , and the public .

    The fact is , people are really growing in earnest about works of art , and they are also growing anxious about their preservation . We have no hesitation in saying that the old painters and their works are great favourites with the intellectual portion of the English people . It will be remembered that the Penny and Saturday Magazines now and then presented woodcuts of the best pictures of the great Masters , accompanied by biographical and critical notices . These became to the artisan what rare and costly etchings are to the connoisseur . The proprietors of those useful periodicals were

    right m supposing that those pictures and particulars of their authors would greatly interest the working man . Publishers are pursuing the same course now . Among the mass of periodicals now issued weekly and monthly we are gratified to notice engravings , and notices of the old painters , forming one of the redeeming features of penny publications for the mechanic and labouring classes . Publishers find these subjects from the old painters answer the ends of trade , yielding fair returns ; and this fact is a fair criterion by which to judge of the estimation in which the great originals are held .

    ^January 3, 1853.J The Leader. 45 ^ .- —...

    ^ January 3 , 1853 . J THE LEADER . 45 ^ .- — , . - -i -.- - — .-.. ¦— _ - ' ¦ i ^

    Chapter I. Durability Of Pictures In Oil...

    CHAPTER I . DURABILITY OF PICTURES IN OIL . Many of the old painters , by adhering to a very simple process of mixing and laying on the colours , ensured great durability in their pictures . It is no uncommon thing , on ( 'leaning pictures which have been painted two , three , and even four hundred years , to discover the colouring , with trifling exceptions , fresh and beautiful ns when they left the palette . Instances might be pointed out in pictures of the Flemish , Dutch , ( ierman , and Italian schools , now preserved in Knglnml . The / lower pieces of John " Van Hirysum , Miguou , Seghers , and l ) e Ileeni , yet vie with nature in brightness of tints . While penning this , the author has before him a

    work by faeghers , composed of a few white and red roses interwoven with an ivy wreath , side by side with some roses fresh from the garden , placed in a sunny window , ho as to have the uliadows of a dark grove , at a short distance beyond , for Imekgroimd ; and such is the truthfulness , tenderness , and brightness of the flowers in the picture , so little are they injured by time , that art and nature live side by side , and art seems to derive advantage by the rivalry . Van Iluysum's vane of flowers at Dulwieh College ( the one in which the blue tint predominates ) could never have been more perfect in respect to its colours than ut the present time . Tints of the utmost conceivable brightness and delicacy are yet perceptible to the naked eye , and are even euhuneed when viewed through a magnifying leu * of Kreat power . There is a vase of flowers by Mignon at the Hague , in which

    the dewdrops have a diamond-like freshness , and reflect the delicate hues of a warm sunbeam which f ^ dls upon the flowers and displays a number of insects " clothed in rainbow and in fire . " One colour in the pictures of Mignon is commonly faded . It was ( es we may guess from "the natural hue of the flower ) deep orange . The groups of flowers are much disfigured by the loss of this colour . About the year 1848 , a picture by Rubens , in the National Gallery in London , was cleared of the old varnish and dirt which had accumulated on its surface . Objections were made at the time , that it was deaned too much . The colours , on the removal of the outer incrustatiam , shone forth

    with such extraordinary splendour and beauty , that for a long time many critics declared the picture utterly spoiled . The picture was painted by the most brilliant of colourists , in his gayest manner . It had been Jong neglected , and consequently those critics had become familiarized with it in its dingy and , as we crave leave to express it , dirt-harmonized state . The pictures which hung around it were still more dingy , and hence , suddenly beheld in its original fulness , richness , and variety of colours , it presented a contrast so great with its obscured state , that it is not surprising able connoisseurs were impressed with the idea that the picture in the

    cleaning had acquired a false brilliancy at the expense of harmony . To some extent this impression might have been founded in reason . The point to be noticed here , is the fact that the colours of the picture in question had retained their full freshness for a period of two centuries . The smaller and more delicate pictures of Rubens are also found in the same high state of preservation . The clear greys which he always blended with the warm flesh tints , remain unimpaired . These remarks apply equally well to the works of Vandyke , who adhered to the simple rules for mixing and laying on colours recommended by Rubens .

    Pictures in oil , in fact , are not so often of that evanescent and perishable nature which some have described them to be . It could be shown that the decay ( so much lamented ) of the works of great painters has often been the consequence of the ignorance or inattention of those painters to the ordinary laws of chemistry , with which , by intuition , the housepainter is familiar , as we shall have occasion to explain . A great proportion of the works of eminent painters , whose pictures have received reasonable treatment , have not undergone any material change for the worse . It is probable that , in many instances , colours acquire additional lustre in the process of drying . That juicy luscious look in the colours of Rubens and several other Flemish and Dutch masters , is not owing to the presence of liquid oil still in the colours , for in the process of

    drying , the oil in which the colours were ground , found its way to the surface , whence it has subsequently been removed , and its place supplied by varnish . Rubens , who knew the oil would rise to the surface in this way , left directions how it might be removed from some of his best pictures . Albert Durer's pictures are still remarkable for a certain juicy freshness in contradistinction to what is called the " brick tone , " and it is evident this master ' s works are as hard and dry as enamel . The fact is , with respect to colours , when laid on in cool , tender tones , in perfect imitation of natural freshness , it is not , and it ought not to be . necessary to their permanent truthfulness , that they should always retain an actual moisture . For instance , a dew-drop by a Dutch painter will always look like a dew-drop however hard and dry the colours may become .

    Look at the best preserved pictures of Jacob Rirysdael . Their calm , soft airiness , subdued sunlights , and quiet shades , still possess all we can conceive of intense beautv . The pictures of Ruysdael are as opposite , in their simple chnstcness , to the splendid allegories of Rubens , as the mellow notes of a solitary flute to the outburst of au orchestra . Yet Ruysdael's representations of woods , lanes , villages , waterfalls , and scenes on the ocean , have not , as far as we can guess , been despoiled of a single charm . Again , look into the interiors of Adrian Ostade , you may almost guess the hour of the day with no other guide save the lights , reflections , mid shadows .

    Thus you imagine in one picture it is three o ' clock on a summer afternoon , and the Boor on the ale-house bench is dozing over his after dinner cup . Or , in another picture in which the painter has represented himself ut work , that it is early morning , by the cheerful sunlight which steals so calmly into the apartment ; you feel the desire to step across the room and look through the old-fashioned window into the <*« irdeii . You feel sure there is a garden without , nay , that it is the month of June , and that the painter ' s roses are in full bloom . Such are the nice distinctions of light , shade , and tint yet preserved in the pictures of Adrian Van Ostade .

    These instances of durability of colours in the works of the old painter * are taken almost at random . The same quality would he found to exist in the greater proportion of pictures in any choice collection . The carlio « t specimens of Italian pictures in distemper are mostly very-solid and pure in colour ; that is , where a direct cause for their decay , such ns gross exposure , has not existed . The pictures of Taddeo ( Ja < ldi , in the National Gallery , present an instance of colours which have survived the influence of time , through a period of nearly live hundred years . In the representation of " Saints , iu Glory , " those early pictures display a great variety of colour * , and frequently wry striking and beautiful effects of sunlight . The blues and red « have often hii enviable degree of purity , depth , vnriety , and force , even when compared with less anciont productions .

    It is commonly observed that portions of old paintings are in good preservation , while other parts of the same pictures are almost obliterated , the Obliterations having been occasioned either by accident , neglect , or wilful

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 8, 1853, page 45, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08011853/page/21/