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NATURALISTIC PHOTOGRAPHY.
D*ONDON
PRINTED BY GILBERT AND KIVINGTON, LIMITED,
ST. JOHN'S HOUSE, CLERKENWELL ROAD.
NATURALISTIC PHOTOGRAPHY
FOR
STUDENTS OF THE ART
BY
P. H. EMERSON, B.A., M.B. (CANTAB.)
LUT HOB OF " PICTUBES OF EAST ANGLIAN LIFE," " PICTURES FBOM LTFB IN FIELD
AND FEN," " IDYLS OF THE NOBFOLK BBOADS," AND JOINT AUTHOB OF
" LIFE AND LANDSCAPE ON THE NOBFOLK BEOADS."
Beauty is truth, truth beauty,— that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."
KEATS, " Ode on a Grecian Urn
D EDITION, REVISED
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE & RIVINGTON
Limited
FETTER LANE, FLEET STREET, E.G.
1890
[ All rights reserved]
TO THE MEMOEY
OF
ADAM SALOMON
SCULPTOR AND PHOTOGRAPHER, •
Chevalier de I'ordre de la legion d'honneur,
toorfe is iitKtcatetr
BY THE AUTHOR
AS A TRIBUTE OF ADMIRATION AND RESPECT
FOR THE FIKST ARTIST OF ACKNOWLEDGED ABILITY WHO WAS ORIGINAL ENOUGlt
TO PRACTISE PHOTOGRAPHY FOR ITS OV N SAKE,
AND WHO WAS BRAVE ENOUGH
TO APPEAR BEFORE A PREJUDICED ART WORLD AS A PHOTOGRAPHER
AS WELL AS A SCULPTOR.
Bonne renomimee vaut mieux que ceinture dorte.
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.
MY first and pleasantest duty is to offer my
heartiest thanks to the numerous correspondents
who have honoured me with sympathetic letters
of approval and with valuable criticisms. Judging
from these kind letters, which have poured upon
me in grateful showers, my book has filled a want
in art literature. These letters, coming as they
do from artists of all kinds, art-masters and
photographers, many of whom are perfect
strangers to me, have supplied me with sugges-
tions and criticisms which I shall make use of in
a later edition, if the public so will that there
be one, and some of my correspondents I shall
take the liberty of publicly thanking.
The call for this second edition has come so
soon that I have only had time to correct a few
superficial errors, and as but few reviews have as
yet reached me, I cannot answer any criticisms
vi ii Preface.
upon my work. So far there is nothing to
answer.
I can only repeat that the student will do well
to make artists his final court of appeal, and he
must then act as he thinks fit. I have no burning
desire to make converts, my sole object has been
to tell the student what I could — if he wished to
know it. As to my views, I am perfectly willing
that no one shall accept them, and am content to
let posterity judge between me and my adverse
critics.
In deference to the opinion of a highly valued
friend — a well-known artist — I have included
in this edition (as an Appendix) my paper on
" Science and Art " read at the Camera Club
Conference on March 26th, 1889.
P. H. E.
CHISWICK, March, 1889.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
PREFACE / . . vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS . ix
INTRODUCTION.
Daguerre at a stance of the French Academy, Aug., 1839 . 1
Eetrospect of work done by Photography since 1839 . . 2
Influence of Photography on the Glyptic and Pictorial Arts,
and vice versa ......... 5
Aim of this book . . . . . . . . . 8
The Naturalistic School of Photography 8
A word to artists 9
The three branches of Photography — Artistic, Scientific, and
Industrial : —
A. Art Division 10
B. Science Division . . . . .
C. Industrial Division ....
" Professional and Amateur " photographers .
A College of Photography .....
The Future of Photography ....
11
11
12
13
13
BOOK I.
TERMINOLOGY AND ARGUMENT.
CHAPTER I.
TERMINOLOGY.
Preamble , 17
Analysis 17
Art 17
"Art-Science" . . . . ' 18
Artistic . . 18
Contents.
PAGE
Breadth 18
Colour 18
Creative Artist 19
Fine Art 19
High Art 20
Ideal 20
Imaginative 22
Impressionism 22
Interpreting Nature ........ 22
Local Colour 22
Low Art 22
Naturalism ........ 22
Original Work . . . . . . . . .24
Photographic 24
Quality 24
Realism 24
Relative Tone or Value 25
Sentiment .......... 25
Sentimentality ......... 25
Soul 25
Technique 26
Tone 26
Transcript of Nature .... .... 26
CHAPTER II.
NATURALISM IN PICTORIAL AND GLYPTIC ART.
An inquiry into the influence of the study of Nature on Art . 28
Egyptian Art 30
Monarchies of Western Asia . . . . . . .32
Ancient Greek and Italian Art 33
Early Christian Art 44
Mediaeval Art 47
Eastern Art — Mohammedan ....... 52
Chinese and Japanese Art ....... 54
The Renascence 59
From the Renascence to Modern Times 67
A. Spanish Art 67
68
B. German Art
C. Flemish Art
D. English Art
E. American Art
F. Dutch Art .
G. French Art
69
78
80
84
H. Sculpture ......... 92
Retrospect 94
Contents. xi
CHAPTER III.
PHENOMENA or SIGHT, AND ART PRINCIPLES DEDUCED THEREFROM.
PAGH
Introduction and Argument . . . . . . .97
Optic Nerves 97
Le Conte's Classification of the subject 98
Physical characters of the eye as an optical instrument . 98
Direction of Light . .102
Intensity of Light 103
Colour 108
Psychological data, and binocular vision . . . .111
Perspective, depth, size, and solidity ..... 112
Art principles deduced from the above data .... 114
BOOK II.
TECHNIQUE AND PRACTICE.
CHAPTER I.
THE CAMERA AND TRIPOD.
The Camera
Choice of a camera ; tripod and bags
Manipulating the Camera
Pin-hole Photography .
Accidents to the Camera
Hand Cameras
False drawing of photographic lenses
Hints on the correct use of the lens
Lenses for special purposes
Diaphragms or " stops " .
Physical qualities of Lenses .
Hints on lenses ....
125
125
129
131
132
132
CHAPTER II.
LENSES.
Optics 134
Dallmeyer's long-focus rectilinear landscape lens . 135
136
136
137
138
138
140
Xll
Contents.
CHAPTER III.
DARK ROOM AND APPARATUS.
Dark Room
A developing rale .
Ventilation of dark room
Apparatus
PAQl?
141
141
141
141
CHAPTER IV.
STUDIO AND FURNITURE.
Studio
Studio Furniture
Studio effects. A rule for studio lighting
144
L45
147
CHAPTER V.
FOCUSSING.
How to focalize .
The ground-glass picture
Examples and Illustration in point
148
149
150
CHAPTER VI.
EXPOSURE.
Ways of Exposing .
Rule for Exposing .
Classification of Exposures
A. Quick Exposures
B. Time Exposures .
Exposure Shutters .
Variation of exposure, and conditions causing them
On Exposure Tables
154
154
154
155
155
156
157
160
CHAPTER VII.
DEVELOPMENT AND NEGATIVE FINISHING.
Study of Chemistry
On Plate making
Wet-plate process .
Tonality and development
On developing
On developers .
Local development .
162
163
16:?
166
170
171
171
Contents. xiii
PAGE
173
174
179
180
181
0 ii the study of tone ....
Accidents and faults, and their remedies
Varnishing the negative ....
Boiler slides and paper negatives .
Orthochromatic photography .
CHAPTER YTII.
RETOUCHING.
Definition of retouching 184
On working up photographs . 184
On retouching ......... 186
Adam Salomon and Rejlander on retouching . . . 187
CHAPTER IX.
PRINTING.
Various printing processes 191
The Platinotype process 195
Vignetting . ^ . . 196
Combination printing . . . . . . .197
On cloud negatives and printing in of clouds. . . . 198
CHAPTER X.
ENLARGEMENTS.
On enlarging 200
CHAPTER XI.
TRANSPARENCIES, LANTERN AND STEREOSCOPIC SLIDES.
Transparencies 202
Lantern Slides 202
Stereoscopic Slides 202
CHAPTER XII.
PHOTO-MECHANICAL PROCESSES.
Photo-mechanical processes 204
A. For diagrams and topographical work . . 204
B. For pictures 204
Photo-etching 207
The Typographic Etching Co 208
xiv Contents.
PAGE
Hints for those having plates reproduced by photo-etching . 210
W. L. Colls on " Methods of reproducing negatives from
Nature for the copper-plate press " 212
CHAPTER XIII.
MOUNTING AND FRAMING.
Mountants 218
Mounts 219
Frames 219
Albums 220
CHAPTER XIV.
COPYRIGHTING.
On copyrighting 221
Method of copyright
Law of copyright . . . . 222
CHAPTER XV.
EXHIBITING AND EXHIBITION.
Exhibitions . ' . . -225
Medals 226
Judges ........... 227
CHAPTER XVI.
CONCLUSION.
Conclusion 229
BOOK III.
PICTORIAL ART.
CHAPTER I.
EDUCATED SIGHT.
Men born blind 233
Education of Sight 234-
Contents. xv
CHAPTER IT.
COMPOSITION.
PAGB
On Composition 237
Burnet's " Treatise on Painting " . . . . . . 238
CHAPTEE III.
OUT-DOOR AND IN-DOOR WORK.
Out-door portraiture
Landscape
On picture-making .
Figure and Landscape
Studio-portraiture .
Decorative art .....
Naturalism in decorative art .
Photography as applied to decorative art
Principles of decorative art .
Practice of decorative art
243
245
250
251
252
CHAPTER IV.
HINTS ON ART.
Practical hints ' . , . .254
CHAPTER Y.
DECORATIVE ART.
260
260
261
261
261
UENVOL
PHOTOGRAPHY — A PICTORIAL ART.
On different art methods of expression ....'. 269
Answers to criticism on " Photography a pictorial Art " . 278
Artists on Photographv 279
•Some masters of the minor arts .... 289
xvi Contents.
APPENDIX I.
ON PHOTOGRAPHIC LIBRARIES.
PAGE
Art books . .293
Art-teaching
Books recommended 293
Photographic Libraries 294
APPENDIX II.
" Science and Art," a paper read at the Camera Club
Conference, held in the rooms of the Society of Arts in
London on March 26th, 1889 295
INDEX . . . 303
3SI7BESITT
NATURALISTIC PHOTOGRAPHY,
INTRODUCTION.
AT a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences, held
iii Paris on the 19th day of August, 1839, Louis Jacques
Mande Daguerre, in the presence of the flower of Parisian Academy,
art, literature and science, gave a demonstration of his new
discovery — the Daguerreotype. The success of the seance
was complete, and the gathering of illustrious men was
intoxicated with enthusiasm in favour of the Daguerreo-
type. It is, then, almost fifty years ago that the result of
the work of the father of photography, Joseph Nicephore
de Niepce, who had died six years previously, and of the
partner of his latter days — Daguerre — was given to the
French public, for though Arago declared that " France
had adopted the discovery and was prqud to hand it as a
present to the whole world/' Daguerre, sharp business
man that he was, took out a patent for his process in
England on the 15th of July, 1839.
It may be said, then, that for fifty years the influence of
photography has been working amongst the people for
better for worse; but a short half-century has photography
had to develop, and we naturally feel a little curious
to know what it has been doing all that time. Has the
art been lying idle and stagnating, or has it been de-
veloping and extending its roots into all the industrial,
scientific and artistic fields of enterprise ? Let us see
what this cool young goddess, born of art and science, who
generally comes to stay and finally to oust the old god-
desses from their temples, has been doing these fifty years.
Naturalistic Photography.
science sne nas been most busy. She
t f .
progress nas been giving us photographs of the moon, the stars,
of photo- and even of the nebula. She has recorded eclipses and
graphy in a transit of Yenus for us. She has drawn too the Sun's
norny. corona, and registered those great volcanic explosions
which playfully take place there periodically. She
has shown us that there are stars which no telescope
can find, and she has in another form registered for us
the composition of the sun and of many of the stars ; and
now she is busy mapping out the heavens. Like an all-
powerful goddess, she plays with the planets and records
on our plates, with delicate taps, the stars. She runs
through the vast space of the kosmos doing our biddings
with a precision and delicacy never equalled — in short she
is fast becoming the right hand of the astronomer.
Micro- ]^0t content with her vast triumphs in space over the
infinitely great, she dives down to the infinitely small, and
stores up for us portraits of the disease-bearing genera-
tion of Schizomycetes, the stiff-necked 'bacteria, and the
wriggling vibrio, the rolling microccus, and the fungoid
actinomycosis — with deadly tresses ; these she pictures for
us, so that we may either keep them on small plates, or
else she throws them on large screens so that we are
enabled to study their structure. On these screens too we
can gaze on the structure of the Proteus-like white blood
corpuscle, and we are able to study the very cells of our
tongues, our eyes, our bones, our teeth, our hairs, and to
keep drawings of them such as man never had before.
So the kindly bright goddess stints us in nothing, for
wherever the microscope leads there will she be found at
our bidding. With the greatness of an all-seeing mind, it
matters not to her whether she draws the protococcus or
the blood-cells of an elephant, whether she depicts the
eroding cancer cell or the golden scale on the butterfly's
wing — anything that we ask of her she does ; if we will but
be patient.
Chemis- But the little goddess, the light-bearer, is not content
try< with these sciences but she must needs go and woo chemis-
try and register the belted zones of the spectrum and tell
us the mysterious secrets of the composition of matter.
Introduction. 3
Meteorology, too, has claimed her, and she draws for the
meteorologist the frowning nimbus and the bright rolling
cumulus. She scratches quickly on his plate the lightning's
flash, and even measures the risings and fallings of the
mercuries in his long glass barometers and thin-stemmed
thermometers, so that the meteorologist can go and rest
in the sun; and good-naturedly, too, she hints to him
that his registerings are but fumblings after her precise
and delicate work. This versatile little goddess, too, is
playing with and hinting to the surveyors how she Survey-
will not be coy if they will but woo her, for, says she, in&-
"have I not already shown you how to measure the
altitude of mountains, and how to project maps by my
aid ? »
The geographer, too, is another lover well favoured by Geogra-
the dainty goddess, he always takes her on his travels p y*
now-a-days, and brings us back her inimitable drawings
of skulls, savages, weapons, waterfalls, geological strata,
fossils, animals, birds, trees, landscapes, and men, and
we believe him when we know the light-bearer was with
him, and soon in all his geographies, in all his botanies,
in all his zoologies, in all his geologies, his entomologies,
and all the rest of his valuable " ologies/' we shall find
the crisp and inimitable drawings of his dainty com-
panion.
The horny-handed engineer, too, is wooing her; he Engineer-
makes love to her away down in dark caissons half -buried lng*
in river beds ; whilst above-ground she scatters his plans
far and wide. He uses her to show how his works are
growing beneath the strong arms of his horny-handed
gangs, and he even uses her to determine the temperature
of the depths of the sea, and the direction of oceanic cur-
rents ; yes, she does the work for him and he loves her. Medicine
The earnest doctor and the curious biologist are amongst and Bio"
her lovers, and the dainty one does not disdain their work, ogy'
for she knows it to be good ; for though she is fickle, she
is kind at heart. For them she goes into the mysterious
globe of the eye; down into the hollow larynx; and
into the internal ear ; and drags forth drawings. The
tumour-deformed leg, the tossing epileptic, the deformed
B 2
Naturalistic Photography.
Military
and naval
services.
Forensic
medicine
Libraries.
Indus-
trial arts.
leprous body, the ulcerous scalp, the unsightly skin
disease, the dead brain, the delicate dissection, the
galloping horse, the flying gull, and erring man does she
with quick and dainty strokes draw and give her lovers
the physician and biologist.
Then like the Valkyria she too delights in dire war.
For her heroes she writes so finely that her letters are
carried in a quill beneath a pigeon's wing into and out of
beleaguered cities. She draws hasty notes of the country
for the leaders of an invading army ; she preserves a
record of the killed and she gives truthful drawings of the
fields of battle and of the poor torn and jaded men after a
battle ; whilst in times of peace she draws for the officer
the effects of the explosion of a shell, the path of a bullet
through the air, or the water thrown on high, like a geyser,
by a hidden torpedo. She is the warder's friend too, for she
draws the skulking thief, the greedy forger, and the cruel
murderer; she draws, too, the knife that stabbed in the
dark, and the dress all blood-besmirched ; she detects the
forged bank note, and draws without quibble the position of
the overturned and splintered railway car ; and she shows
the scorched and gutted ruins of the burnt house for the
insurance agent. She has her fun, too, for she twits the
librarians with the ever increasing deluge of books, and
hints laughingly they must one day come to her, for she
will show them how to keep a library in a tea-caddy.
The haggling tradesman she does not disdain, she will
draw portraits of his fabrics to be circulated all over the
world, she will copy the bad paintings and drawings done
for him as advertisements by the pariahs of art. She
reproduces trade-marks and signatures, and oh, naughty
goddess ! she even, on the sly, copies on. old yellow paper
old etchings and engravings so that the connoisseur does
not know the new from the old. She helps in all kinds
of advertising, reproducing the scenery by railways for
the railway companies, sketching topographically for
tourists, drawing mothers and fathers and children for
the woild, so that the loved ones can go across the seas
and leave themselves behind in form and feature. And
so that the dead may not be forgotten she soothes the
Introduction. 5
living with their dear faces done in her pretty way. Nay,
she even goes so far as to allow her works to be burnt on
porcelain and sold in brooches, on plates and other ware.
Nor do the children love you in vain, pretty goddess,
for you give them magic-lanterns, and invisible pictures
of yourself; to be made visible by a little secret you
tell them. You give them magic cigar-holders and
stereoscopes, all this out of your bountiful lap do you Ait.
scatter ; but, pretty dainty light-bearer, have you no love
dearer to you than all these, is there none amongst your
wooers that you prefer? Yes, blush not, oh, dainty one, it is
the artist who sees in you a subtler, finer aid than his
sorry hand, so monkey-like in its fumblings. To him you
give your delicate drawings on zinc to illustrate his books,
or on copper to fill his portfolios, to him you give poems of
the winds whispering amongst the reed-beds, of the waves
roaring in the grey gloaming, of the laughing, bright-
eyed mortal sisters of yours. To him, your favoured one, •
your chief love, you give the subtlety of drawing of the
wind-shorn and leaf-bare oak, the spirit of the wild
colts on the flowery marsh, the ripple of the river and the
glancing flight of the sea-fowl. Together you and he
spend days and nights, mid the streams and the woods,
culling the silvery flowers of nature. Oh ! bright gene- -
rous little goddess, who has stolen the light from the sun
for mortals, and brought it to them not in a narthex reed
as did Prometheus bring his living spark, but in silvery
drops to be moulded to your lover's wish, be he star-
gazer, light-breaker, wonder-seeker, sea-fighter or land-
fighter, earth-roamer, seller-of-goods, judger-of-crimes,
lover-of-toys, builder-of-bridges, curer-of-ills, or lover of
the woods and streams.
The influence of photography on the sister arts of
sculpture, painting, engraving, etching and wood-cutting
during these fifty years has been tremendous, as have
they influenced in turn photography. Sculpture has
been, perhaps, least influenced, although without photo-
graphy thousands of posthumous statues which now
grace the streets and the squares of the world could not
have been modelled at all, or could only have been very
6 Naturalistic Photography.
conventionally and unsatisfactorily modelled. As it is,
they are often excellent portraits. The effect of sculpture
on photography has been to induce experimentalists to
attempt a production of models in clay by means of an
instrument called a pantograph. It is reported that these
methods succeeded, but we never saw any of the produc-
tions and have little faith in the methods.
The influence of photography on painting, on the other
hand, has been nothing short of marvellous, as can be
seen in the great general improvement in the drawing of
movement. It is a common practice for painters to take
photographs of their models and throw enlargements
of these on to a screen when the outlines are boldly
sketched in. Again, it is a practice for painters to study
the delicate tonality of photography, which is of course
quite legitimate. Another influence of photography on
painting is that the painter often tries to emulate the
detail of the photograph. But this was more notice-
able in the early days of photography, and it had a bad
effect on painting, for the painter did not know enough of
photography to know that what he was striving to imitate
was due to an ignorant use of the art. He thought,
as many people think now-a-days, that there is an absolute
and unvarying quality in all photographs. The effect on
miniature painting was disastrous ; it has been all but
killed by photography, and we think rightly. And it
must be remembered that photography killed it not-
withstanding the fact that many of the best miniature
painters adopted the new art as soon as they could.
Newton was a photographer. Photography also killed
the itinerant portrait painter who used to stump the
country and paint hideous portraits for a few shillings,
or a night's lodging. Photography too, has, unfortu-
nately, been the cause of a vast production of weak
and feeble water-colours, oil-paintings and etchings.
Second and third rate practitioners of these arts have
simply copied photographs and supplied the colouring from
their imagination, and thousands of feeble productions
has been the result; this is a dishonest use of photography,
but one by no means uncommon. We often have food
Introduction. 7
for reflection on the gullibility of man, when we see poor
paintings and etchings exhibited at " one man " exhibi-
tions and elsewhere, which are nothing but ruined photo-
graphs; the very drawing shows that, and the time in which
such a collection of paintings is painted also hints at the
method. All the drawing has been done by the photo-
graphic lens, and transferred to the panel or canvas.
These are the very men who decry photography. Such
work is only admissible if confessed, but of course such
people as this keep their method quite secret. The
etchings done in this way are simply impudent. The
influence of painting on photography has been great and
good as a factor in the cultivation of the aesthetic
faculty, but its conventionality has often been harmful.
As we have said, by the aid of photography feeble
painters and etchers are able to produce fairly passable
work, where otherwise their work would have been dis-
graceful. Wood-cutters and line engravers too gain
much help from us, but they find photography a rival
that will surely kill them both. We have gone into this
vexed question in detail in the body of this work. One
of the best and most noted wood engravers since Bewick's
time has given it as his opinion that there is no need for
wood engraving now that the " processes " can so truly
reproduce pictures, for, as he says, no great original
genius in wood-cutting will ever be kept back by " process
work," and it is a good thing that all others should be
killed.
The chief thing which at present oppresses photo-
graphy is " the trade." Print sellers have accumulated
stocks of engravings and etchings and as they may not
come down in price, they therefore give photogravures
and photographs the cold shoulder. A print seller who
would confine himself to the sale and publication of photo-
etchings and photographs is sorely needed.
Such, briefly, are the effects of photography on her sister
arts and of them on her.
Incredible indeed seems the all-pervading power of this
light-bearing goddess. Next to printing, photography is
the greatest weapon given to mankind for his intellec-
8 'Naturalistic Photography.
tual advancement. The mind is lost in wonderment at
the gigantic strides made by this art in its first fifty
years of development, and we feel sure if any one will
take the trouble to inquire briefly what photography has
done and is doing in every department of life he will be
astonished by the results of his inquiries.
Branches From what has been said it is very evident that the
graphy.0" Practice of photography must be very different in the
different branches of human knowledge to which, it is
applied.
The application of its practice and principles has been
most ably treated in some of these branches, especially
the scientific branches, but hitherto there has been no
book which gives only just sufficient science for art-
students and at the same time treats of the art side.
Aim of ^ye propose in this book to treat photography from
naturahs- ,, X . .r , . . TXT , ,, .^ n \ J .
tic pho- tfie artistic standpoint. We shall give enough science
tography. to lead to a comprehension of the principles which
we adduce for our arguments for naturalistic photo-
graphy, and we shall give such little instruction in art
as is possible by written matter, for art we hold is to be
learned by practice alone. That, then, is our aim, and no
one knows better than ourselves how far short of our
ideal we have fallen, but we trust the task as attempted
may do a little good and lead some earnest wandering
workers into the right path. We know that we have
not accomplished our task without errors, all we plead
is that we have endeavoured to reduce the number to a
minimum, and where we have failed we trust those who
detect our failures will kindly, not carpingly, communi-
( ate them to us, so that if we ever reach a second
edition we may therein be regenerated.
Contents The photographic student, whose aim is to make
300 ' pictures, will find in this book all directions, such as the
choosing of apparatus, the science which must be
learned, the pictures and sculpture which must be
studied, the art canons which are to be avoided, the
technique to be learned, including all manipulations ;
the fundamental principles of art, and a critical resume of
conventional art canons, including much other advice.
Introduction. 9
In addition to this the book is an argument for the
Naturalistic school of photography, of which we preached
the first gospel in an address delivered before the members
of the Camera Club in London in March, 1886. '
The necessity of this book may not be patent to artists
who do not know the photographic world; but if they
will consider for a moment the present position of a
student of photography, whose aim is to produce artistic
work, they will see the necessity for some such work.
The position of the photographic world at present is this :
nearly all the text-books teach how to cultivate the
scientific side of photography, and they are so diffuse that
we find photo-micrography, spectrum analysis and art all
mixed up together. And when we assure the artistic reader
that the few books and articles published with a view to
teaching art, contain resumes of Burnet's teachings, as
set forth in his well-known "Treatise on Painting;"
that the widest read of these books lays down laws for the
sizes of pictures as advocated by that " eminent painter
Norman Macbeth; " cautions the student not to take pic-
tures on grey days ; and contains various other erroneous
ideas ; we say when artists know this, and in addition that
there is no book in which " tone" is properly defined, they
•will perhaps understand the necessity for some such book
as this one. Lastly, the artist must remember that
photographers are very loath to listen to any one but
photographers on any subject connected with their art.
To give the student a clear insight into the first
principles of art is of course, as we have said, the chief
aim of the book, but besides that it is an attempt to start
a departure from the scientific side of photography.
This departure must be made, and the time is now ripe.
It should be clearly and definitely understood, that
although a preliminary scientific education is neces-
sary for all photographers, after that preliminary educa-
tion the paths and aims of the scientist, industrial
photographer and artist, lie widely apart. This matter
should be kept . constantly in view, and specialists in
one branch should not meddle with other branches. The
1 Yide Photographic News for March 19, 1886.
I o Naturalistic Photography.
art has so extended its fields for work that there is scope,
even in a sub-branch of the scientific division to occupy the
full energies and attention of the most able men. At
exhibitions, too, the three great divisions into which
photography falls should be kept rigidly separated. The
writer sees in all these branches equal good and equal use,
but he sees also the necessity of keeping their aims and
methods separate. That this differentiation is now possible
and necessary is, from the evolutionary standpoint, the
greatest sign of development. The author feels convinced
that if any student is going to succeed in any one branch
he must not scatter his energies, but devote himself with
singlemindedness to that particular branch. Directly
the aims and methods of the separate branches of the
art are fully recognized there will no longer be ignorance
and misunderstandings of first principles. We shall not
hear a first-rate lantern slide described as artistic,
because it is untouched, and we shall not hear of a
" high-art " photographer criticizing photo-micrographs
of bacteria, matters that none but a medical microscopist
can criticize. And above all, we shall not have the
hack-writer talking of our " art-science/'
We have drawn up a rough table of classification to
illustrate our meaning, but of course it must be remem-
bered that this division is arbitrary, but it would, we
think, be a good working classification.
THE AET OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
A. — Art Division.
Art divi- In this division the aim of the work is to give aesthetic
sion. pleasure alone, and the artist's only wish is to produce
works of art. Such work can be judged only by trained
artists, and the aims and scope of such work can be fully
appreciated only by trained artists. Photographers who
qualify themselves by an art training, and their works
alone, belong to this class. They alone are artists. Included
in this class would be original artists, first-rate photo-
etchers, and typo-blockmakers, whose aim is to repro-
duce in facsimile all the artistic quality of original works
Introduction. n
of art. Such photographers should have an artistic
training without fail, as all the best have had.
B. — Science Division.
In this division the aim of the work is to investigate Science
the phenomena of nature, and by experiment to make
new discoveries, and corroborate or falsify old experi-
ments. The workers in this great and valuable department
of photography may be divided into —
a. Scientific experimentalists in all branches of science.
b. Chemists and spectrum-analysts.
c. Astronomers.
d. Microscopists.
e. Engineers.
/. Military and naval photographers.
g. Meteorologists.
h. Biologists.
i. Geographers.
j. Geologists.
k. Medical men.
Z. Physicists.
m. Anthropologists.
These sub-divisions include all that vast host of
trained scientific men who are photographers in con-
nection with their work. Their aim is the advancement
of science.
G. — Industrial Division.
This class includes that great majority of the photo-
graphic world — the craftsmen. These men have learned Division,
the methods of their craft, and go on from day to day
meeting the industrial requirements of the age, producing
good useful work, and often filling their pockets at the
same time. Their aim is utilitarian, but in some branches
they may at the same time aim to give an aesthetic
pleasure by their productions, but this is always subordi-
nated to the utility of the work. When they aim at
giving this aesthetic pleasure as well, they become art-
draftsmen.
Amongst these craftsmen are included photographers
1 2 Naturalistic Photography.
who will take any one or anything if paid to do so, such
forming what is known as "professional photographers."
All reproducers of pictures, patterns, &c., by photo-
mechanical processes, in which the aim is nofc solely
aesthetic pleasure, as in reproducing topographic views.
All plate makers. Transparency, opnl, lantern-slide, and
stereoscopic slide makers. All facsimile photographers ;
photographers of pictures, statuary, &c. All makers
of invisible photographs, magic cigar photographs. All
operators who work under the guidance of artists or
scientists for pay, they not having artistic and scientific
training- themselves, as in the preparation of lantern
slides for a biologist. All enlargers, operators, spotters,
printers, retouchers, mounters, &c. Producers of porce-
lain pictures. Producers of facsimile type blocks and
copper plates, with no artistic aim, et id genus omne.
All photographs produced for amusement by the un-
trained in art or science. All photographers who pro-
duce pattern photographs, " bits " of scenery, and animals
for draughtsmen to work from.
It will thus be clear to the student that all these photo-
graphers serve useful purposes and each is invaluable
in his way, but we repeat the aim of the three groups of
photographers is very different and quite distinct, as
distinct as in draughtmanship are the etchings of
Rembrandt, the scientific drawings of Huxley, and the
pattern plates of a store catalogue. All are useful in
their place, and who shall dare to say which is more
useful than the other ; but all are distinct, and can in no
way be compared with one another or classed together
any more than can the poems of Mr. Swinburne, the text
of Professor TyndalPs "Light," and the Blue-books.
All can be good in their way, but the aims and methods
of the one must not be confounded with the aims and
methods of the other, and we fear that such is the case
" Atna- in the photographic world at present,
teur" There is one obstacle which we must clear from the
fepsional°'" ^dent's Patn ^n tn^s introduction, and that is the con-
photo- fusion of the terms " professional " and "amateur," as
graphers. used in the photographic world j for in this world it must
Introduction. 1 3
be understood that these terms are used as in no other
world. Briefly, photographers mean by " professional "
one who gains his living by photography, and an "amateur"
means one who does not practise photography for his
living. The folly of this is obvious, for by this definition
the greatest English scientific photographer, Captain
Abney, is an " amateur/5 and the sands photographer at
Margate is a " professional/'
This anomalous definition of the two classes has led
journalists into strange errors and mistakes. We re-
member one journal, which prides itself upon its accuracy,
breaking into satirical writing because the judges at a
certain photographic exhibition were to be " amateurs/'
Of course the journalist who wrote that article used
"amateur" in the ordinary English sense, and hence his
amusement ; but, as we have shown, he made a great
error in fact.
In reality professional photographers are those who
have studied one branch of photography thoroughly,
and are masters of all its resources, and no others. It is
no question of £ s. d., this " professional " and " amateur "
question, but a question of knowledge and capacity. An
amateur is a dabbler without aim, without thorough
knowledge, and often without capacity, no matter how
many of his productions he may sell. We think, then,
the words "professional" and "amateur" should be
abolished from the photographic world, until that day
shall arise when there is a central training and examining
body, that shall have the power of making real pro-
fessional photographers, when all possessing a diploma
would be professionals and all others amateurs.
We fondly hope that a college of photography may A college
one day be instituted, where a good art and science training °* k°*
may be obtained, where regular classes will be held
by professors and regular terms kept, and where some mas.
sort of distinguishing diploma as Member of the Koyal
Photographic College will be given to all who pass
certain examinations. The M.E.F.C. would then have a
status, and the profession which would then exist — but
only exists as a trade now-— would be able to draw
14 Naturalistic Photography.
up salutary laws for the government and good be-
haviour of its members, and the status of photography
would be everywhere raised. The diploma of F.R.P.C.
(Fellow of the Eoyal Photographic College) could be
given to distinguish photographers at home and abroad
as an honorary title.
But if such an institution is to have weight it must
procure a charter. Money must be obtained to give
honorariums to the lecturers, and the lectureships must
be held by the best men. To begin with, all photographers
in practice could be admitted upon passing a very simple
examination in the subjects of elementary education and
photography. If ever such a thing is brought about —
and we trust it may be — we should find many gentlemen
of education would join the ranks, as indeed they are
doing now; and with the taste and education they
brought to the work, we should see them working quietly
in studios like painters, and the " show-case " and the
vulgar mounts with medals and other decorations, and
the u shop-window," and the " shop-feeling" would all
disappear. We need not despair if we will all do what
is in us to kill " vulgarity," for painters were not so well
off as most photographers are now but a very few decades
ago. What gives us hope for these golden days is the
fact that we number in our ranks in some branch or the
other probably more intellectual men than any other
calling. We have an emperor, and quite a profusion of
royal-blooded wights and aristocrats, whilst every learned
profession gives us of its best. Law, medicine, art,
science, all contribute largely important members to
swell our ranks.
Here, then, we must end our introductory remarks,
and we wish the student who comes to the study of
photography with capacity and earnestness all success.
P. H. E.
CHISWICK, July, 1888.
BOOK I.
TERMINOLOGY AND .ARGUMENT.
"The dignity of the snow-capped mountain is lost in distinctness,
but the joy of the tourist is to recognize the traveller on the top. The
desire to see, for the sake of seeing, is, with the mass, alone the one
to be grasped, hence the delight in detail."
J M. WHISTLER.
CHAPTER I.
TERMINOLOGY.
IT were better at the outset to define our terms, for Term111-
iiothing leads more certainly to confusion in studying00^'
a subject than a hazy conception of the meanings
of words and expressions. Perhaps in no branch
of writing have words so many meanings as in
writings on Art, where every expositor seems intent
upon having his own word or expression. For this
reason we wish clearly to define the words and art ex-
pressions in use in this book. Not, be it understood,
that we claim in any way for any definitions that they
are the rigid and final definitions of the expressions
used, but we de'fine what we mean by certain words and
terms so that the reader may understand clearly the
text in which such words occur, our aim being to be clear
and to avoid all empty phraseology.
Seizing the impression of natural objects, and ren- Analysis.
.dering this impression in its essentials has been called
analyzing nature ; and the impression so rendered is an
analysis.
Art is the application of knowledge for certain ends. Art*
But art is raised to Fine Art when man so applies this
knowledge that he affects the emotions through the
senses, and so produces aesthetic pleasure in us ; and the
man so raising an art into a fine art is an artist. There-
fore the real test as to whether the result of any method
of expression is a fine art or not, depends upon how much
of the intellectual element is required in its production.
Thus Photography may be, and is, in the hands of an
artist, a method of expression producing works of fine
c
1 8 Naturalistic Photography.
art, because no such works can be produced in photo-
graphy by a man who is not an artist ; whereas organ-
grinding is a mode of expressing music, but the result is
not a fine art, because no intellect, and therefore no artist,
is required to produce the expression ; a monkey might
produce as good music on a hand-organ as could a
Beethoven.
Art- A compound term applied by some writers to photo-
science, graphy, and by others to all crafts founded upon science.
It is an absurd term, and its use should be strongly
discouraged. It is to be found in no good dictionary.
It is an unmeaning expression, because photography is
an art founded upon science, just as is etching, and to
call photography an " art-science " is to show imperfect
knowledge of the English language, and especially of
the meaning of the two words of which the compound is
formed — art and science.
Artistic. A word greatly misused by photographers. When
applied to a person, it means one trained in art, and when
applied to a work, it means leaving the impression of an
artist's handiwork ; and this photographers should not
forget, neither should they forget that an artist has been
trained in art. Ihis should especially be borne in mind
by those who dub themselves "artist-photographers,"
whatever they may mean by that compound. Photo-
graphers should wait for other people to call them artists,
and when artists call a photographer a brother artist, he
will probably deserve the title, and not before. In the
same way they should refrain from calling things artistic
or inartistic, for it must be remembered that to use these
words aright implies that the speaker possesses a know-
ledge of art.
Breadth. Is a term used to describe simple arrangements of
light and shade of colour, which produce a sense of the
largeness and space of nature. All great work has
breadth, all petty work is devoid of it ; for petty minds
cannot see the breadth in nature, so they are naturally
unable to get it into their work.
Colour. "This theory of what constitutes fine colour is one of
the peculiar traits of the old-time painters, and of the
Terminology. 1 9
landscape critic who studies nature in the National
Gallery. If one may judge by their remarks or by the
examples they worship, a painting to be fine in colour
must first of all be brown, or at least yellow; the
shadows must all be hot and transparent ; lakes and
crimsons must be used freely, while a certain amount of
very deep blue should be introduced somewhere, that the
rest of the picture may appear the warmer by the
contrast. Above all things it must not be natural, or it-
ceases to be fine and sinks to the level of the common-
place. In fact, these colourists appear to admire a picture
from just the same point of view they would an Indian
carpet, a Persian rug, old tapestry, or any other con-
ventional design, and seem to judge of it by similar
standards ; if one suggests that it has no resemblance to
what it claims to represent, they reply, ' Ah, but it is a
glorious frame, full of colour ! ' But colour in painting
can only be really fine so far as it is true to nature. A
grey picture may be just as fine in colour as the most
gorgeous. Beauty in colour, as in form, depends on its
fitness and truth."— I7, F. Goodall.
The vulgar view of fine colour is easily explained on
evolutionary grounds, it is but a harking back to the
instincts of the frugivorous apes — our ancestors.
There is much misconception as to the use of the word
1 ' creator " in the arts. Some think only those gentlemen
who paint mythological pictures, or story-telling pictures,
are creators. Of course such distinction is absurd ; any
artist is a creator when he produces a picture or writes
a poem ; he creates the picture or speech by which
he appeals to others. He is the author, creator, or
whatever you like to call him, he is responsible for its
existence.
Versifying, Prose- writing, Music, Sculpture, Painting, Fine art.
Photography, Etching, Engraving, and Acting, are all
arts, but none is in itself a fine art, yet each and all can
be raised to the dignity of a fine art when an artist by any
of these methods of expression so raises his art by his
intellect to be a fine art. For this reason every one who
writes verse and prose, who sculpts, paints, photographs,
c 2
2O Naturalistic Photography.
etches, engraves, is not necessarily an artist at all, For he
does not necessarily have the intellect, or use it in
practising his art. It has long been customary to call
all painters and sculptors artists, as it has long been
customary in Edinburgh to call all medical students
doctors. But in both cases the terms are equally loosely
applied. Our definition, then, of an artist is a person who
whether by verse, prose, sculpture, painting, photo-
graphy, etching, engraving, or music, raises his art to a
fine art by his work, and the works of such artist alone
are works of art.
High art. In a word, high and low art are absurd terms, no art is
high or low. Art is either good or bad art, not high or
low, except when skied or floored at exhibitions. " High
art " and ' ( higher artistic sense " we shall not use because
they are meaningless terms, for if they are not meaning-
less then every picture falls under one or other category,
high or low ; if so let some one classify all pictures into
these two divisions and he will find himself famous — as
the laughing-stock of the world.
ideal. A volume might be written on this word, but it would
be a volume of words with little meaning. As applied
to art, the meaning of " ideal " has generally been that of
something existing in fancy or in imagination, something
visionary, an imaginary type of perfection. G. H. Lewes
says, "Nothing exists but what is perceived ;" we would
say, nothing exists for us but what is perceived, and this
we would make a first principle of all art. A work of
pictorial art is no abstract thing, but a physical fact, and
must be judged by physical laws. If a man draws a
monster which does not exist, what is it ? It is but a
modified form of some existing thing or combination of
things, and is after all not half so terrible as many
realities. What is more terrible than some of the snakes
than the octopus, than the green slimy crabs of our own
waters ? Certainly none of the dragons and monsters
drawn from the imagination is half so horrible. Did
the great Greek artist, ^Eschylus, describe a dragon as
gnawing at the liver of Prometheus ? No, he simply drew
the picture of a vulture as being sufficiently emblematic.
Terminology. 2 r
Bat let us assume, for the sake of argument, that the
dragon is more dreadful than any reality, even then the
pictorial and glyptic artist cannot use it, for as he has no
model to work from, the technique will necessarily be bad,
there will be no subtleties of tone, of colour, of drawing',
all which make nature so wonderful and beautiful. The
dragon will be a pure caricature, that is all. Again, some
people consider it wonderful that a painter takes a myth
and renders it on canvas, and he is called " learned" and
" scholarly " for this work. But what does he do ? Let us
say he wishes to paint the Judgment of Paris. He, if he
is a good painter, will paint the background from
physical matter, shaped as nearly like the Greek as
possible, and he will paint the Paris and the ladies from
living models. The work may be perfect technically, but
where is the Greek part of it ; what, then, does the painter
rely upon ? Why, the Greek story, for if not why does
he not call it by a modern name ? But no, he relies upon
the well-known story — the Judgment of Paris — in fact he
is taking the greater part of the merit that belongs to
another man. The story of the Judgment of Paris is not
his, yet it is that which draws the public ; and these men
are called original, and clever, and learned. Jean Francois
Millet, in one of his scenes of Peasant Life, has more
originality than all of these others put together. Many
people, not conversant with the methods of art, think
artists draw and paint and sculpt things "out of their
heads." Well, some do, but no good artist ever did.
We have in our possession a beautiful low relief in marble,
done from a well-known Italian model in London. The
work is as good as any work the Greeks did, the type is
most admirable, and it was done by one of the sternest
naturalistic sculptors of to-day.
A highly educated friend, an old Oxford man, called on
us not long ago, and was greatly taken with the head; after
looking at it a long while, he turned to us and said, "An
ideal head, of course ! " So it is the cant of "idealism" runs
through the world. But we have heard some of the most
original and naturalistic artists use the word " ideal,"
aiid on pressing them, they admitted it was misleading
22 Naturalistic Photography.
to others for them to use the word ; but they meant by it
simply intellectual, that is, the work of art had been done
with intelligence and knowledge, but every suggestion
had been taken from nature. The word ideal, to our
mind, is so apt to mislead that we shall not use it.
Irnagina- jdeaj work / v
live work. m T v^ / . ,, ., .
impres- J-° us Impressionism means the same thing as natu-
sionism. ralism, but since the word allows so much latitude to the
artist, even to the verging on absurdity, we prefer the
term Naturalism, because in the latter the work can always
be referred to a standard — Nature. Whereas if impres-
sionism is used, the painter can always claim that he sees
so much, and only so much, of Nature ; and each indi-
vidual painter thus becomes a standard for himself and
others, and there is no natural standard for all. A genius
like Manet tried to work out new ways of looking at nature,
and that was legitimate, but when weak followers took
up his " manner " and had not his genius, the result was
eccentricity. For these reasons, therefore, we prefer and
have used the term "naturalism " throughout this work.
But, as we have said, we regard the terms "impres-
sionism" and "naturalism" as fundamentally synonymous,
although we think the work of many of the so-called
modern "impressionists" but a passing craze.
Inter- The method of rendering a picture as it appears to the
1Dg' eye has been called interpreting nature. Perhaps inter-
preting is as good an expression as any, for the artist in
his language (for art is only a language) interprets or
explains his view of nature by his picture.
Local " The local or proper colour of an object (Korper-farbe)
Colour. js ^at which it shows in common white light, while the
illumination colour (Licht-farbe) is that which is pro-
duced by coloured light. Thus the red of some sandstone
rocks, seen by common white light, is their proper local
colour, that of a snow mountain in the rays of the setting
sun is an illumination colour." — E. Atkinson, Ph.D.,
F.RS.
Low art. See high art.
Natural- By this term we mean the true and natural expression
of an impression of nature by an art. Now it will im-
1S111.
Terminology. 2 3
mediately be said that all men see nature differently.
Granted. But the artist sees deeper, penetrates more
into the beauty and mystery of nature than the common-
place man. The beauty is there in nature. It has been
thus from the beginning, so the artist's work is no
idealizing of nature; but through quicker sympathies
and training the good artist sees the deeper and more
fundamental beauties, and he seizes upon them, " tears
them out," as Durer says, and renders them on his
canvas, or on his photographic plate, or on his written
page. And therefore the work is the test of the man —
for by the work we see whether the man's mind is
commonplace or not. It is for this reason, therefore, that
artists are the best judges of pictures, and even a trained
second-rate painter will recognize a good picture far
quicker than a layman, though he may not be able to
produce such a one himself. Of course Naturalism pre-
misses that all the suggestions for the work are taken
from and studied from nature. The subject in nature
must be the thing which strikes the man and moves him
to render it, not the plate he has to fill. Directly he
begins thinking how he can fill a certain canvas or plate,
he is no longer naturalistic, he may even then show he
is a good draughtsman or a good colourist, but he will not
show that he is naturalistic. Naturalistic painters know
well enough that very often painting in a tree or some
other subject might improve the picture in the eyes of
many, but they will not put it in because they have not
tlie tree before them to study from. Again, it has been said
that arranging a foreground and then painting it might
improve the picture, but the naturalistic painter says no,
by so doing " all the little subtleties are lost, which give
quality to the picture ! " Nature, is so full of surprises
that, all things considered, she is best painted as she is.
Aristotle of old called poetry " an imitative art," and we Aristotle.
do not think any one has ever given a better definition of
poetry, though the word " imitative " must not in our
present state of knowledge be used rigidly. The poetry
is all in nature, all pathos and tragedy is in nature, and
only wants finding and tearing forth. But there's the
24 Naturalistic Photography.
rub, the best work looks so easy to do when it is done.
Does not Burns* poem ' ' To a mouse " look easy to write ?
This, then, is what we understand by naturalism, that all
suggestions should come from nature, and all techniques
should be employed to give as true an impression of
nature as possible.
This is a mightily misused word. Only those artists
can be called original who have something new to say,
no matter by what methods they say it. A photograph
may b.e far more original than a painting.
Some of the best writers and journalists of the day
have adopted the use of the word ' ' photographic, " as
applying to written descriptions of scenes which are ab-
solutely correct in detail and bald fact, though they are
lacking in sentiment and poetry. What a trap these
writers have fallen into will be seen in this work, for
what they think so true is often utterly false. And, on
the other hand, photography is capable of producing pic-
tures full of sentiment and poetry. The word " photo-
graphic" should not be applied to anything except
photography. No written descriptions can be " photo-
graphic/1 The use of the word, when applied to writ-
ing, leads to a confusion of different phenomena, and
therefore to deceptive inferences. This cannot be too
strongly insisted upon, as some cultured writers have
been guilty of the wrong use of the word " photographic/'
and therefore of writing bad English.
Quality is used when speaking of a picture or work
which has in it artistic properties of a special character,
in a word, artistic properties which are distinctive and
characteristic of the fineness and subtlety of nature.
By Naturalism it will be seen that we mean a very
different thing from Realism. The realist makes no
analysis, he is satisfied with the motes and leaves out the
sunbeam. He will, in so far as he is able, paint all the
veins of the leaves as they really are, and not as they look
as a whole. For example, the realist, if painting a tree a
hundred yards off, would not strive to render the tree as
it appears to him from where he is sitting, but he would
probably gather leaves of the tree and place them
Terminology. 25
before him, and paint them as they looked within twelve
inches of his eyes, and as the modern Pre-Raphaelite? Pre-Ka-
did, he might even imitate the local colour of things phaeiites.
themselves. Whereas the naturalistic painter would care
for none of these things, he would endeavour to render
the impression of the tree as it appeared to him when
standing a hundred yards off, the tree taken as a whole,
and as it looked, modified as it would be by various
phenomena and accidental circumstances. The natural-
ist's work we should call true to nature. The realist's
false to nature. The work of the realist would do
well for a botany but not for a picture, there is no
scope for fine art in realism, realism belongs to the
province of science. This we shall still further illustrate
in the following pages.
Eelative tone or value is the difference in the amount Kelative
of light received on the different planes of objects when tone and
compared with one another.
Artists speak of the " sentiment of nature " as a Senti-
highly desirable quality in a picture. This means that ment.
naturalism should have been the leading ddea which
has governed the general conception and execution of the
work. Thus the sentiment of nature is a healthful and
highly desirable quality in a picture. Thus " true in
sentiment " is a term of hig-h praise. " Sentiment " is
really normal sympathetic " feeling."
As opposed to sentiment, is a highly undesirable genti-
quality, and a quality to be seen in all bad work. It mentality.
is an affectation of sentiment, and relies by artificiality
and mawkishness upon appealing to the morbid and
uncultured. It is the bane of English art. The one is
normal, the other morbid.
Soul = Yis medicatrix = Plastic force = Vital force
= Vital principle = O. The word is, however, used by
some of the most advanced thinkers in art, and when
asked to explain it they say they mean by it " the funda-
mental." From what we can gather, the word "soul"
is the formula by which they express the sum total of
qualities which make up the life of the individual. Thus
a man when he has got the " soul " into a statue, has
26
Naturalistic Photography.
not only rendered the organic structure of the model, but
also all the model's subtleties of harmony, of movement
and expression, and thought, which are due to the
physical fact of his being a living organism. This
" life " is of course the fundamental thing, and first
thing to obtain in any work of art. In this way, then,
we can understand the use of the word " soul " as synony-
mous with the " life " of the model. The " soul " or
life is always found in nature, in the model, and the artist
seizes upon it first, and subdues all things to it. " Soul,"
then, to us is a term for the expression of the epitome
of the characteristics of a living thing. The Egyptians
expressed the "soul" or life of a lion, Landseer did
not.
By technique is meant, in photography, a knowledge
of optics and chemistry, and of the preparation and em-
ployment of the photographic materials by the means
of which pictures are secured. It does in no way refer
to the manner of using these materials, that is the
" practice/'
To begin with, as this book is for photographers, we
must tell them they invariably use the word tone in a
wrong sense. What photographers call " tone J> should
properly be colour or tint, thus : a brown tint, a purple
tint, or colour.
The correct meaning of tone is the amount of light
received upon the different planes of an object.
" ' A. mere transcript of nature ' is one of the stock
phrases of the art critic, and of many artists of a certain
school. The precise meaning attached to it puzzles us ;
were it not always used as a term of reproach, we should
believe it the highest praise that could be bestowed
upon a picture. What adds to our perplexity is that the
phrase is generally applied by the critic to work which
has nothing in common with nature about it : and is
used by artists who themselves have never in their lives
painted a picture with the simplest values correct, as
though transcribing nature to canvas were a stage in the
painter's development through which they had passed,
and which was now beneath them. The critic must
Terminology. 2 7
have but a very superficial acquaintance with nature
who applies this term, as is frequently done, to work
in which all the subtleties of nature are wanting. We
have heard of pictures in which no two tones have been
in right relation to one another, in which noisy detail
has been mistaken for finish, and the mingling of deci-
sion and indecision in fine opposition — the mysterious
lost and found, the chief charm of nature — has been
utterly unfelt, described as •' transcripts of nature/ Those
artists who use the phrase, adopt it as a convenient
barricade behind which they may defend their own in-
competence."— T. F. Goodall.
All photographers would do well to lay these remarks
to heart. Instead of it being an easy thing to paint " a
mere transcript of nature," we shall show it to be utterly
impossible. No man can do this either by painting or
photography, he can only give a translation, or impres-
sion, as Leonardo da Yinci said long ago ; but he can Da Vinci,
give this impression truly or falsely.
28 Naturalistic Photography.
CHAPTER II.
NATURALISM IN PICTORIAL AND GLYPTIC ART.
An in- IN this chapter we shall endeavour to trace the influence
quiry into of ^e study of nature on all the best art up to the pre-
the mflu- -, "V T , -, ,T • ., .n T r
ence of sent day. ^n or(ler to do this it will be necessary to
the study follow in chronological order the development of art, and
^nature we propose taking as our guide in this matter Messrs.
Woh- Woltmann and Woermann, who seem the most trust-
mann and worthy and are the most recent of art historians. We
Woer- f^ however, that we must state our attitude towards
them as historians of art. For the main historical facts,
we willingly accept as authorities these writers, since
they have studied the matter, but when these historians
try to trace the causes and effects of different phases of
art on contemporary life then we entirely part company
from them, for there are so many wheels within wheels in
this complex comedy of life that we cannot with patience
listen to searchers of manuscripts and students of auto-
graphs, who trace the fall of an empire to an oil painting,
or the decadence of painting to the cheapness of wheat :
such dreams may still serve, as they have always served,
as a peg whereon to hang rhetorical rhapsodies, but they
can have no attraction for rational minds. What we pro-
pose, then, is briefly to compile a short outline, consisting
of the salient facts in the history of art, in so far as they
bear on our subject, that is, how far the best artists have
been naturalistic, and how true in impression their
interpretation of nature. When we agree with any of
the critical remarks of these gentlemen, we shall quote
them in full, acknowledging them in the usual way,
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 29
but we reserve to ourselves the right to differ entirely
from them on artistic points. We ourselves feel much
diffidence in advancing any critical remarks of our own
upon these arts, for we are convinced, after a long and •
practical study of the subject, that no one can criticize
any branch of art and the criticism le authoritative,
unless he be a practical master artist in the branch of
art which he is criticizing ; but as our opinions have been
put to the touchstone of some first-rate practical artists
in other branches than our own, we offer them, standing
always ready to be corrected by any good practical artist
on any point. As to who are good artists is again another
wide question. Certainly their name is not legion.
Our object in traversing all this ground, then, is one of Criticism,
inquiry, to really see how far '* naturalism " is the only
wear for all good art, and we have done it in an impartial
spirit, arriving at the conclusion that in all the glyptic
and pictorial arts the touchstone answers. How far this
is the case with the arts of Fiction, Poetry, &c., is a more
complex matter, and one we cannot now deal with, but we
feel that in the literary arts the matter is very different,
for in these arts we are not confined, as we are in the
pictorial and glyptic arts, to physical facts and their re-
presentation ; for there is no such thing as abstract beauty
of form or colour. Art has served as a peg on which to
hang all sorts of fads — fine writing, very admirable in its
place — morality, not to be despised — classical knowledge
and literature generally, both of the highest aasthetic
value, but in no way connected with the glyptic and
pictorial arts. Naturalistic art has been found and lost,
and lost and found time after time, and it is because the
Dutch, French, English and American artists of to-day
are finding it again that we feel hopeful for the art of the
future.
Our object is, by these notes, to lead our readers to the Our aim.
works of art themselves, hoping that by this means they
will, to some extent, educate themselves and finally form
independent judgments on art matters. Much of the
lamentable ignorance existing on these subjects is due
to the acceptance of the dicta of writers on pictures, with-
30 Naturalistic Photography.
out the readers seeing the pictures themselves. We
earnestly beg1, therefore, of any one who may be sufficiently
interested in the subject as to read this book, that he will
' go and see the original pictures and sculptures cited ; all
of which are within easy reach. It was our original in-
tention to introduce photographic reproductions of the
best pieces of sculpture, and the best pictures into this
work, but we have decided against so doing, fearing that
the reader might be tempted to look at the reproductions
and neglect the originals, and a translation, however good
it may be, is but a small part of the truth. In thus ex-
pressing our conclusions on naturalism in art, we do not
set up as the preacher of any new gospel. Such opinions
as ours are as old as the art of ancient Greece, nay older,
for from the early days of Egypt downwards these ideas
have been held, we shall find, by great artists in all ages.
It is only in the application of these ideas to photo-
graphy, and in attempting to reduce them to scientific
first principles that we presume to claim any originality.
EGYPTIAN ART.
Egyptian On examining specimens of Egyptian art, whether it
be their paintings, architecture, sculpture or book illus-
trations (the papyri), one is struck by the wonderful
simplicity, decision and force with which they expressed
themselves. The history of Egypt has been so little
studied, save by students of history, and the old popular
stories concerning the nations of the past are so inaccurate
and misleading, that one is at first surprised to find such
power in the works of those whom we were taught, not so
long ago, to look upon as Philistines ; so that we might
gaze on the Pyramids of Gizeh, the statues of Kameses,
and the granite lions, with the wonderment of incompre-
hension. But now, of course, every one knows that the
Egyptians were masters in certain directions, where we
are but in our infancy. Even in their cavi relievi and
wall paintings, though these latter are but tinted outlines,
they are not the outlines of childish draughtsmen, weak
and unmeaning, but they show the force of a powerful
skill that in one bold outline can give all the essentials of
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 31
a man, bird or beast, so that the picture looks living and
doing. All through their work there is a bigness of
conception, a solid grip of nature which makes their
work surpass many of the elaborately finished and richly
detailed pictures of our modern art galleries.
Let us call the reader's attention to such examples as
are easily to be seen, namely, the granite lions, the cavi Btudied.
relievi and the papyri in the British Museum. The lions, The lioua.
which are remarkable for strength of character and truth-
fulness of impression, may be taken as representative of
the greatest period of Egyptian art, a period which ended
about the time of Kanieses II. ; for after that time the
artist began to neglect the study of nature, and gradual
decadence set in.
We strongly advise all our readers to go to the British
Museum and look well at these lions. They are hewn
from granite, or porphyry, the hardest of stones, they
have conventional moustaches, and are lying in conven-
tional positions, yet withal, there is a wonderful ex-
pression of life and reserved strength about them which
makes you respect them, stone though they be ; and they
convey to you, as you look on their long lithe flanks so
broadly and simply treated, the truthful impression of
strong and merciless animals. Your thoughts involun-
tarily turn from them to Landseer's bronze lions guarding Landaeer's
Trafalgar Square. In them you remember all the tufts llolls<
of hair correctly rendered, even to the wool in the ears,
the mane, the moustaches. Even the claws are there,
and yet you feel instinctively you would rather meec
those1 tame cats of Trafalgar (Square, with all their claws,
than the Egyptian lions in the British Museum. The
reason of this is that the Egyptians knew how to epito-
mize, so as to express the fundamental characteristics of
the lion, they cared not to say how many hairs went to
make up the tufted tail, nor yet how many claws each paw
should have, but what they tried to do, and succeeded in
doing, was to convey a sense of his power and animalism,
or to convey, in short, an impression of his nature.
1 Since this was written Mr. Frith has published that Land-
seer modelled these lions from a tame cat.
32 Naturalistic Photography.
These lions, were the outcome of the best period of
Egyptian sculpture. The Egyptian artists who carved
those lions had been striving to interpret Nature, and
hence their great success ; but as soon as their successors
began to neglect nature, and took to drawing up rules,
Barneses they went wrong, and produced caricatures. We read
dn 3" khat after the time of Rameses II. "every figure is now
mathematically designed according to a prescribed canon
of numerical proportions between the parts."
Wilkin- All this we can trace for ourselves in the plates sup-
•Tlnoient ^e^ with Wilkmson's learned work, entitled, "The
Egyp°-ieB Ancient Egyptians." We see in those plates that some-
tians." thing has happened to the people and objects represented,
something that makes them no longer tell their own
story, they no longer look alive, but are meaningless;
the reason of this falling off was that the artist no longer
used his eyes to any purpose, but did what was then sup-
posed to be the right thing to do, namely, followed the
laws laid down by some men of narrow intellect — laws
called as now the " canons of art." The very life of the
Egyptian artists of that period was against good work,
for they were incorporated into guilds, and the laws of
caste worked as harmfully as they now do in the Orient.
Artists* There is, then, distinct evidence that on the one hand the
status. Egyptian artists of the best period, when untrammelled
by conventionality, created works which, though lacking
the innumerable qualities of later Greek art, yet possessed,
so far as they went, the first essential of all art — truth of
impression. Again, on the other hand, directly anything
like " rules of art " appeared, and the study of nature was
neglected, their art degenerated into meaningless con-
ventionality, and as this conventionality and neglect of
nature were never cast aside, the art of Egypt never
developed beyond the work done by the artists who
carved the stone lions.
MONARCHIES OP WESTERN ASIA.
Assyrian Assyrian art differed from that of Egypt in that the
an. outline of the figures was much stronger, and that they
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 33
painted their bas-reliefs ; but the " imitation of nature
was the watchword " in Assyria, as it was in Babylon.
In studying the Assyrian bas-reliefs, those interested
in the subject should go to the Assyrian rooms in the reliefs,
basement of the British Museum, and look at the reliefs
of Bani-Pal — the famous lion-hunting scenes. There The lion-
is, of course, much conventionality in the work, as hunt,
there was in that of the Egyptians ; but no observer
can fail to detect that the Assyrians were naturalistic
to a degree that strikes us as marvellous when we
consider the subjects they were treating. Note the
lioness, wounded in the spine, dragging her hindquarters
painfully along. Does this not give a powerful impression
of the wounded animal ? and does it not occur to you how
wonderful was the power of the man who in so little ex-
pressed and conveys to you so much. Consider when those
Assyrian sculptors lived. Look, too, at the bas-reliefs num-
bered 47 and 49 ; and in 50 note the marvellous truthful-
ness of impression of the horseman, who is riding at a
gallop. There is life and movement in the work, though
there is much scope for improvement in the truth of the
movements. Look, too, at the laden mules in bas-reliefs
numbers 70 and 72. Such works as these were done by
great men in art, and though crudeness of methods pre-
vented them from rivalling some of the later work, their
work is at least honest, and, as far as it goes, naturalistic.
The work does not say all that there is to say about the
subject ; but it does say much of what is most essential,
and by doing that is artistically greater than work done
by scores" of modern men. In addition to their artistic
value, how interesting are these works as records of
history. Indisputable, as written history can never be, Historic 1
they are to us a valuable record of the life and times. theTas-
They constitute historical art in its only good sense. reliefs.
ANCIENT GEEEK AND ITALIAN ART.
In discussing Greek, painting we shall rely entirely upon
the erudite historical work of Messrs. Woltmann and Woer-
mann,giving a short resumt of their remarks on the subject, art.
34
Naturalistic Photography.
No Greek
paintings
extant.
History
of Greek
painting.
Polygno-
tos.
Agathar-
chos.
This is absolutely necessary, as not one specimen of
Greek painting has come down to us.2 Bat on the other
hand, in dealing with Greek and Graeco-Roman sculpture
we shall base our remarks on the Greek and Grseco-
Roman sculpture in the British Museum.
Beginning then with Greek painting, let us see what
the historians tell us. They begin by saying, in paint-
ing " the Greeks effected nothing short of a revo-
lution. ... by right of which they deserve the glory
of having first made painting a truthful mirror of
realities." This fact, that their pictorial art reached such
perfection, is not generally known, for the reason that
the assertion rests on written testimony, — but it is reliable
testimony. The historians " insist on the fact that no
single work of any one of the famous painters recognized
in the history of Greek art has survived to our time."
Let us then briefly trace the rise of Greek painting till it
culminated in Apelles. Polygnotos (B.C. 475-55) is the
first name we hear of, and of his works we are told, " they
were just as far from being really complete pictorial repre-
sentations as the wall-pictures of the Assyrians and Egyp-
tians themselves/' although in some particulars there must
have been a distinct advancement on the work of the
orientals. For example, we are told Polygnotos painted the
" fishes of Acheron shadowy grey, and the pebbles of the
river-bed so that they could be seen through the water."
Polygnotos fell, however, into a pitfall which has en-
trapped many painters since, he painted imaginative
pictures. We are told he " was a painter of heroes,"
some of his school attempted portraiture, " but painting
though in this age was still a mere system of tinted out-
line design." Then followed Agatharchos, " thedeader of
a real revolution, a revolution by which art was enabled to
achieve great and decisive progress towards a system of
representation corresponding with the laws of optics and
the full truth of nature." Agatharchos was a scene-
painter, and was no doubt led by striving for naturalism in
2 Some paintings quite recently discovered in Egypt are
apparently the work of Greek artists, and tend to confirm this
written testimony.
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 35
his scenery to study naturalism in painting generally.
As the historians remark, " In scene-painting as thus prac- Scene-
tised, we find the origins not only of all representations painting,
of determinate backgrounds, but also, and more especially,
of landscape painting. It is impossible to over-estimate
the importance of the invention of scene-painting as the
most decisive turning-point in the entire history of the
art, and Agatharchos is named as the master who, at the
inspiration of ^schylus, first devoted himself to prac-
tising the invention." This painter, it is said, also paid
great attention to perspective, and left a treatise which Perspec-
was afterwards used in drawing up the laws of perspective. tlve<
It is said his manner of treatment was " comparatively
broad and picturesque/' Next came .Apollodoros, a Apollo-
figure-painter, who also combined landscape and figure
subjects, and of whom Pliny says tc that he was the first to
give the appearance of reality to his pictures, the first to
bring the brush into just repute, and even that before
him no easel-picture (tabula) had existed by any master Easel-
fit to charm the eye of the spectator/' Apollodoros was pic
the first to give his pictures a natural and definite back-
ground in true perspective ; he was the first, it is
emphatically stated, " who rightly managed chiaro-oscuro Chiaro-
and the fusion of colours He will have also oscl
been the first to soften off the outlines of his figures. . . .
For this reason we may, with Brunn, in a certain sense Brunn.
call Apollodoros ' ' the first true painter." We are told,
however, that his " painting was, in comparison with his
successors, hard and imperfect/' and that the innovations
made by him in the relation of foreground and background
cannot be compared to the improvements effected by the
brothers Yan Eyck in modern times. We now read of j
Zeuxis, Parrhasios, and Timanthes, who, we are told, Parrha-
" perfected a system of pictorial representation, adequately sips> and
rendering on the flat surface the relief and variety of
nature, in other particulars if not in colour." The
endeavour of Zeuxis was " by the brilliant use of the
brush to rival nature herself," and from anecdotes related
of him and of Parrhasios, we gather that they " laid the
greatest stress on carrying out to the point of actual
D 2
36 Naturalistic Photography.
illusion the deceptive likeness to nature." Many of
Zeuxis' subjects were taken from everyday life — 'another
step in the right direction. We now come to the Dorian
school, with Eupompos as its founder ; and here we find
pog, a determination to study painting scientifically, and to
conscientiously observe nature, for we are told Eupom-
pos expressed the opinion " that the artist who wished to
succeed must go first of all to nature as his teacher."
Pam hi Pamphilos, a pupil of Eupompos, brought this school to
lot™1* maturity, and insisted on the " necessity of scientific study
Melan- f°r the painter." He was followed by Melanthios, who
thios. pursued the same lines of scientific investigation j and was
Pausias. ^n n^s turn succeeded by Pausias, of whom we hear, <( It is
quoted as a novel and striking effect, that in one of his
pictures the face of Methe (or personified Intoxication)
was visible through the transparent substance of the glass
out of which she drank/' His work was considered to have
great technical excellence, his subjects were taken from
everyday life, and his pictures were all on a small scale.
Pliny says " his favourite themes were ' boys/ that is, no
doubt, scenes of child-life He developed, it seems,
a more natural method of representing the modelling of
objects by the gradations of a single colour." We read,
too, that his paintings drawn fresh from life " were much
appreciated by the Komans." Such is the case with all
good naturalistic works, they always interest posterity,
whereas the so-called imaginative works only interest the
age for which they are painted. We should to-day prefer
and treasure as beyond price one of Pausias' studies of
familiar Greek life, whereas the heroes of Poly gnotos would
lack interest for us, and excite but little enthusiasm.
There was a third school of Greek painting, that called the
The The- The.ban- Attic, and of this we read that there was " a great
ban-Attic ease and versatility, and an invention more intent upon
scnool. ^e expression of human emotion,'' but no painter of this
school made any very great advance. At length we come
Apelles. to Apelles, the most famous of all Greek painters. He,
although already well known and highly thought of,
went to the Sikyonian school,- to study under Pamphilos,
and we afterwards hear of him as court painter to Alex-
ander the Great.
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 37
was to celebrate the person and the deeds of the king, as
well as those of his captains and chief men." This was
at any rate legitimate historical painting. Woltmann
and Woermann say, "In faithful imitation of nature he
was second to none ; he was first of all in refinement of
light and shade, and consequent fulness of relief and
completeness of modelling."" And again we read,
" Astonishing technical perfection in the illusory imitation
of nature " distinguished Apelles. Thus we see that the
great aim of the greatest of Greek painters was to paint
nature exactly as she is, or as glib critics would say, to
paint "mere transcripts of nature/' Contemporary with
Apelles was Protogenes, whose aim was to reach the "high-
est degree of illusion in detail." The cycle of develop- gen
ment seemed now to have reached its highest point, and
as the naturalistic teachings fell into the hands of inferior
men, they were abused, and Woltmann and Woermann
tell us the imitative principle was not kept subservient to
artistic ends, and in the hands of Theon of Samos the Theon.
principle of illusion became an end iD itself, and art
degenerated into legerdemain. This same tendency is
now showing its hydra head, and in London, Brussels, and
other places are to be seen inferior works hidden in dark
rooms, or to be viewed through peep-holes. We only
want the trumpets of Theon or the nmsic of the opera
bouffe to complete the degradation. Following Theon, and
probably disgusted with his phantasies, came painters of
small subjects ; the rhyparographi of Pliny, or the rag-
and-tatter painters, " who painted barbers' shops, asses,
eatables, and such-like." tf We see, therefore, that about
B.C. 300 . . . Greek painting had already extended its
achievements to almost all conceivable themes, with the
single exception of landscape. Within the space of a
hundred and fifty years the art had passed through
every technical stage, from the tinted profile system
of Polygnotos to the properly pictorial system of natural
scenes, enclosed in natural backgrounds, and thence
to the system of trick and artifice, which aimed at the
realism of actual illusion by means beyond the legiti-
mate scope of art/'
" The creative power of Greek painting was as good
3 3 Naturalistic Photography.
as exhausted by this series of efforts. In the following
centuries the art survived indeed as a pleasant after-
growth, in some of its old seats, but few artists stand oat
with strong individuality from among their contempo-
raries. Only a master here and there makes a name for
himself. The one of these whom we have here especially
Timoma- to notice is Timomachos, of Byzantium, an exception of
chos. undeniable importance, since even at this late period
of Greek culture he won for himself a world-wide
celebrity."
Decadence, however, had already set in, and we find
that Tirnomachos neglected the study of familiar subjects,
and returned to the so-called imaginative style, producing
such works as " Ajax and Medea/' and " Iphigenia in
Taurus/' Curiously enough, it was during this period
that the only branch of painting not yet tried by the
Greek Greeks, namely, landscape painting, was attempted,
landscape Woltmann and Woermann suggest a reason for this
'mg' new departure when they say, " We can gather with
certainty from poetry and literature that it was in the age
of the Diadochi (the kings who divided amongst them the
kingdom of Alexander) that the innate Greek instinct of
anthropomorphism, of personifying nature in human
forms, from a combination of causes was gradually modi-
fied in the direction of an appreciation of natural scenes
for their own sake, and as they really are." Landscape
painting, however, did not reach any great perfection,
for we are told it " scarcely got beyond the superficial
character of decorative work." With this period ends
the true history of Greek painting, though it still lingers
on, and becomes so far merged into that of Roman art
that between the two it is not possible to draw a line
of distinction. Roman art had a character of its own,
and even two painters, whose names, Fabius and Ludius,
Fabius ari(j jn fae case of the latter whose works, have been
Ludius. handed down to us ; but the works of Ludius do not
appear to have been more than decorative work.
Vases, Besides the written testimony referred to, the state of
mosaics, art can be gathered from the vases, bronzes, mosaics,
' *°* paintings on stone, and mural decorations which have
come down to us. These were elm-fly the work of Greek
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 39
journeymen, and though there is much that is excellent
in these productions, their period of decadence very soon
set in. It is a gauge of the art knowledge of to-day to
watch the gullible English and Americans purchasing Antiques
third-rate copies of the works of Greek journeymen house- for
decorators, and taking them home and hoarding them as tounsts-
works of art, — works which were only valuable in their
own time, in connection with the life and architecture
then existing, but which at the present day are interesting
merely from an historical point of view, for no really
artistic mind can possibly find satisfaction in such work
for its own sake. Did these uncultured buyers but
reflect and study for a while the natural beauties around
them, they would soon see the error of their ways.
In their conclusion on Grgeco-Roman art Woltmann and
Woermann say that they "have no doubt that Greek painting
had at last fully acquired the power to produce adequate
semblances of living fact and nature," which could not be
said of any painting up to that time. Here then we have
traced a quick development of Greek painting, and an
almost equally quick decline, and all through we find the
never-failing truth, — that so long as nature was the
standard, and all efforts were directed towards interpret-
ing her faithfully, so long did the national art grow and
improve till it culminated in the statues of Pheidias and
the paintings of Apelles ; but that directly nature was
neglected, as it was in the time of Theon, arfc degenerated,
till at last it fell, as we shall see, into the meaningless work
of the early Christian artists. We find even thus early Art criti-
that the pedantic writer who knows nothing of practical cism*
art had begun to fill the world with his mysterious non-
sense. Such were the rhetoricians of the empire who Rhetori-
describe works " purely anonymous, indeed in many cases cians*
it is clear that the picture has been invented by the man
of letters, as a peg whereon to hang his eloquence/-'
It cannot be too often repeated that technical criticism
is not authoritative unless made by masters of the
several arts.
Let us now proceed to the British Museum, and look Greek and
at the best specimens of Greek and Graeco-Romau ^rasco~
i •» • i i Komati
sculpture as exhibited there, sculpture.
40 Naturalistic Photography.
Taking for examination the specimens nearest at hand ;
•we refer to those to be seen in the gallery leading out
The of the entrance-hall of the British Museum. The busts
British which strike us most forcibly are those of Nero, Trajan,
coHeetion ^u^us Hevius Pertinax, Cordianus Africanus, Caracalla,
, ' Commodus, and Julius Cassar. The bust of Nero (No. 11)
bust. strikes one by the simplicity and breadth of its treatment,
combined as these qualities are with the expression of
great strength and energy. The sculptor has evidently
gone at his work with a thorough knowledge of the
technique, and hewn the statue straight from the marble,
a custom, by the way, followed by only one modern
sculptor, namely, J. Havard Thomas. Look at the broad
treatment of the chin and neck of this bust of Nero.
Nowadays one rarely meets with even living awe-in-
spiring men, but that marble carries with it such force,
that, all cold and stony as it is, it creates in you a feeling
of respect and awe. It should be studied from various
distances and coigns of vantage, and if well studied it can
surely never be forgotten. It gives the head of a
domineering, cruel, sensual, yet strong- man. In the bust
Trajan's of Trajan (No. 15), we have the same powerful technique
employed this time in rendering the animal strength
of a powerful man. With his low forehead, small head,
and splendid neck, the embodiment of strength, Trajan
looks down on us somewhat scornfully. Then, too, No. 35,
Bust of the bust of Publius Hevius Pertinax, is no mask, but a face
I'ertinax w^ a brain behind it. You feel this man might speak, and
if he did, what he had to say would be worth listening to.
Perhaps for grip of the impression of life this is the best
of all these busts. Compare it with the mask (it can be
called nothing else) on the shelf above it, and you will
see the difference. The portrait busts of Cordianus
Cordianus Africanus (No. 89) and Caracalla are also marvellous for
and liie-like expression. Look well at the cropped head and
Caracalla. beard of Cordianus from a little distance, and see how
true and life-like the impression is ; then go up close and
see how the hair of the beard is rendered. It is done by
chipping out little wedges of the marble. Here is a very
good example of the distinction between what is called
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 41
i-ealism&nd naturalismor impressionism fior the two last we
hold to be synonymous, though for lucidity we have denned
them differently. If all the detail of that beard had been
rendered, every hair or curl correctly cut to represent a
hair or curl, and this is what the modern Italian sculptor
would have done, we should have had realism and bad
work. This should be borne in mind in portrait photo-
graphy, that the essence, the true impression, is what is
required; the fundamental is all that counts; the rest is
small, niggling, contemptible.
Let us turn to No. 33, — the sensual face of Commodus,
— he re-lives in the marble. Another very notable bust c]us
is that of Homer (No. 11 7), in the corner of the gallery at Bugt of
right angles to that we are leaving. Look how truly Homer,
the impression is rendered of the withered old literary
man ; how the story of his long life is stamped on his face,
the unmistakable look of the studious, contemplative man.
Pass we now to the next gallery, and stop at the wonder-
fully fine torso, No. 172. Look well at this beautiful T g an^
work, so feelingly, sympathetically, and simply treated boy and
by the sculptor. You can almost see the light glance as thorn,
the muscles glide beneath the skin. This is a marvellous
natural work, as is also the boy pulling out a thorn from
.his foot. The young satyr (No. 184) is also a wonderfully Young
fine piece of sculpture, and well worth close study. The Sat7r-
student will have ample opportunity for studying, side by
side, in this gallery, bad stone cutting and fine sculpture,
for many of the fine marbles have been barbarously re-
stored. As an example, we cite the lifeless, stony arms
of No. 188, which compare with the rest of the figure,
look at the india-rubber finger of the right hand, and
you will understand what bad work is, if you did not
know it already. Before leaving this gallery let the
reader look at No. 159, the Apotheosis of Homer. Now, Apotheo-
as can be imagined, this is the delight of the pedantic
critic, and more ignorant rhapsodies have been written on
this work than perhaps on any other piece of sculpture.
Of course, as any candid and competent observer will see,
this is, as a work of art, very poor, and hardly worth talking
about, except as a warning. In passing into the gallery
Naturalistic Photography.
Parthenon
frieze.
cantering
horse.
where are the remains of the Parthenon frieze, notice an
archaic nude torso which stands on the left, and see how the
artist was feeling his way to nature. All portions of the
Parthenon frieze should be most carefully studied. The
animals in 60 and 61 are fairly true, as in fact is the
whole work. It was on seeing one of Muybridge's photo-
graphs of a man cantering on a bare-backed horse, that a
sculptor remarked to us, " I wonder if the Greeks knew of
photography." And yet critics and feeble artists call
this work ideal, and declare they discover imaginary
groupings according to geometrical laws, and heaven
knows what ; all of which the best sculptors deny. The
student must now look at the " Horse of Selene," one of
the most marvellous pieces of work ever done by man. It
was a long time before we could see the full beauty and
truthfulness of impression of this great work, and the
reason was due to a simple physical fact. We stood too
near to it. To see it well you should stand about twenty
or thirty feet off, and out of the grey background you will
see the marble horse tossing its living head, and you will
be spell-bound. Having observed the truthfulness of
impression, go to it close up, and note the wonderful-truth
with which the bony structure of the skull is suggested
beneath the skin. We can say no more than that it is a
true impression taken direct from nature, for in no other
way could it have been obtained. Nothing ideal about it
at all, simply naturalism.
Much nonsense has been written, too, about " idealism"
in Greek coins. To us they seem simply impressions
taken from busts or other works; but to make assurance
doubly sure, we have taken the opinion of two of the
very best modern sculptors, who are, we venture to
prophesy, going to show us as good work as any done
by the Greeks, and in many ways even better work.3
Well, their opinion as to " idealism " in Greek sculp-
ture is emphatically that it existed not. They say that
the Greeks were naturalistic, the study of nature
3 All old work is to be surpassed, and that in the fundamental
matter of movement. This advance is entirely due to Photo-
graphy.
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 43
was the mainspring of their art, and the truthful
expression of the poetry of nature their sole end and
aim. That they attained this end in many ways we
know, and in certain ways they will never be surpassed,
but in other directions their work will one day appear
childish.
We do not attempt to give a detailed technical Technical
criticism of sculpture as executed by the Greeks, for, criticism-
as we have said before, none but a first-rate sculptor can
do that ; and as there are not half a dozen such in
England, and as they have quite enough work to do at
present, we fear the public will have to wait some time
for such criticism. In the meantime those interested in
the subject cannot do better than study the works men-
tioned, and let them leave all others alone ; let them
spend days in studying those pointed out, and they will
soon find themselves able to distinguish good work from
bad. Then, if they want a good shock, let them walk
into the Gibson Gallery at Burlington House, for there gaiiery.
they will see nothing but bad work.
There is one point to be borne in mind when we look
at the surpassing beauty of the Greek statues, and that is
the natural beauty of the Greek race, and the number
of excellent models the Greek sculptors had before them to
choose from. Taine,in his charming but atechnical volume Tame'
on " La Philosophie de 1'art Grec," goes as thoroughly
into this question as a historian and philosopher can enter
into the life of the past, and into art questions, which
in our opinion is to a very limited extent. Nevertheless,
his book is full of suggestions, and if our sculptors do not
to-day equal in beauty the antiques, the cause, in our
opinion, lies in the lack of perfect models, for the best
technical work of to-day we think is superior to that of
the Greeks. We have seen impressionistic renderings of
nature by some modern sculptors which we think more
natural in all points than anything of the kind to be found
in Greek sculpture.
Like the Greeks have the leading men of the modern Modern
French school adhered to nature, — a school in our mind French
more akin to the Greek school at its best than any other, sc
44 Naturalistic Photography*
and for the simple reason that it is more loyal to nature
than any art has been since the time of Apelles. As an
example of the kinship between the two schools we quote
Woltmann and Woermann, who tell us the Greeks " placed
Horizon- their horizon abnormally high according to our ideas ;
Hue. an(j distributed the various objects over an ample space
in clear and equable light." Now modern painters have
happily discarded all laws for the position of the horizon-
line, and common sense shows that the height of the
horizon naturally depends on how much foreground
is included in the picture. The angle included by the
eye vertically as well as horizontally varies with the dis-
tance of the object from us, and the only law therefore is
to include in the picture as much as is included by the
eye ; and this of course varies with the position of the
Millet. motif or chief point of interest. Millet has a good many
high horizons, and we feel they are normal not abnormal.
On this point therefore we think the Greeks were very
advanced.
EAELY CHEISTIAN ART.
5fr1/ . Leaving Greek art, we now come to the art of the
artu early Christians. Woltmann and Woermann tell us that
" Early Christian art does not differ in its beginnings from
the art of antiquity. . . . The only perceptible differ-
ences are those differences of subject which betoken
tne fact that art has now to embody a changed order
of religious ideas, and even from this point of view
the classical connection is but gradually, and at first
imperfectly, severed. ... At the outset Christianity, as
was inevitable from its Jewish origin, had no need for art.
In many quarters the aversion to works of material
imagery . . . — the antagonism to the idolatries of antiquity
— remained long unabated. Yet when Christianity, far
outstepping the narrow circle of Judaism, had been taken
up by classically educated Greeks and Romans, the preju-
dice against works of art could not continue to be general,
nor could Christendom escape the craving for art which
is common to civilized mankind. The dislike of images
used as objects of worship did not include mere chamber
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 45
decorations, and while independent sculpture found no
footing in the Christian world, or at least was applied
only to secular and not to religious uses, painting, on the
other hand, found encouragement for purely decorative
purposes, in the execution of which a characteristically
Christian element began to assert itself by degrees."
The pure Christian element began to assert itself
silently in decorative work in the catacombs, and " these The cata-
cemeteries are the only places in which we find remains of com 8'
Christian paintings of earlier date than the close of the
fourth century/' These works, however, " constituted no
more than a kind of picture writing/' as any one who has
leen them can certify. But this symbolism got very
'nixed with pagan stories, and we get Orpheus in a
Phrygian cap, and Hermes carrying a ram, both represent-
ing the Good Shepherd. At other times the artists seem
to have set themselves to represent a Christ constructed
on their knowledge of the attributes ascribed to him, and
we get a beardless youth approaching fi closely to the
kindred types of the classical gods and heroes. " " Mary
appears as a Roman matron, generally praying with
uplifted hands. }} Peter and Paul " appear as ancient
philosophers/' and -the well-known bronze statue of St. g^ Peter's
Peter, in the cathedral dedicated to him at Rome, is no statue at
less than a bond fide antique statue of a Roman consul. Kome-
Here we have the same neglect of nature, and the bad
work always to be expected from this neglect and from
enslaved minds.
The mosaics of Christian art were also handed down Mosaics.
from classical antiquity. Though rarely found in the
catacombs, this art was being much used above ground
for architectural decoration. This art, as Woltmann and
Woermann rightly say, was " only a laborious industry,
which by fitting together minute coloured blocks
produces a copy of a design, which design the workers
are bound by. They may proceed mechanically, but not
so flimsily and carelessly as the decorative painters."
From about A.D. 450 we are told that church pictures
become no longer only decorative, but also instructive.
Here then was a wrong use of pictorial art — it is not meant
46 Naturalistic Photography.
to be symbolic and allegorical, or to teach, but to interpret
the poetry of nature.
A new conception of Christ it seems now appeared
in the mosaics, — a bearded type, — and this time we get the
features of Zeus represented. By means of the mosaics a
new impulse was given to art, and in A.D. 375 a school
The was founded by the Emperors Valentinian, Valens, and
emperors' Gratian, of which we read, " The schools of art now once
school. more encourage the observance of traditions ; strictness
of discipline and academical training were the objects
kept in view ; and the student was taught to work, not
independently by study from nature, but according to
the precedent of the best classical models/'
Byzantine At this time art, though lying under the influence of
art. antique traditions, held its own for a longer time in
Byzantium, where the decorative style of the early
Christians lived on after the iconoclastic schism in the
eighth century, and where we read that this ornamental
style began to be commonly employed. After the age of
Justinian. Justinian (which itself has left no creation of art at
Rome), many poor and conventional works were executed
at Ravenna. We read that for " lack of inner life and
significance, amends are attempted to be made by material
splendour, brilliancy of costume, and a gold groundwork,
which had now become the rule here as well as in Byzan-
tium." Thus we see the artists became completely lost in
confusion since they had left nature, and they knew not
what to do, but, like many weak painters of the present
day, tried to make their work attractive by meretricious
ornaments, and true art there was none. This is carried
out to-day to its fullest development by many men of
medium talent, who make pictures in far countries, or of
popular resorts, or religious subjects, and strive to appeal,
and do appeal to an uneducated class, through the sub-
ject of their work, which in itself may be a work of the
poorest description.
We read that in the year 640, "the superficial and
Mosaics, unequal character of mosaic workmanship increased
Minia- quickly.-" The miniatures of the early Christians, however,
tures. we are told, showed considerable power, but the icono-
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 47
clastic schism brought all this to an end. " The gibes of
the Mohammedans " were the cause of Leo the Third's
edict against image worship in A.D. 726. All the pictures
in the Bast were destroyed by armed bands, and the
painters thrown into prison, and so ended Byzantine
art. This movement did not affect Italian art.
MEDIAEVAL ART.
We have followed Messrs. Woltmann and Woermann Medieval
closely in their account of the decadence of art from the
greatest days of Greek sculpture and painting to the end
of the Christian period ; but as our object is avowedly
only to deal with the best art — that which is good for all
time — and to see how far that is naturalistic or otherwise,
we shall speak but briefly of (the main points connected
with) mediaaval art, which has but little interest for
us until we come to Niccola Pisano, and Giotto. During
the early years of what are called the Middle Ages,
miniaturists were evolving monstrosities from their own Minia-
inner consciousness, but with Charlemagne, who said, fcunsts-
" We neither destroy pictures nor pray to them," the Charle-
. , . Y • • 01 magne.
standard adopted was again classical antiquity, bo art
continuously declined until it became a slave to the Church,
and the worst phase of this slavery was to be seen in the
East, under Ivan the Terrible, for we read that " artists
were under the strictest tutelage to the clergy, who chose
the subjects to be painted, prescribed the manner of
the treatment, watched over the morality of the painters,
and had it in their power to give and refuse commissions.
Bishops alone could promote a pupil to be a master, and it
was their duty to see that the work was done according
to ancient models/' Here was indeed a pretty state of
things, a painter to be watched by a priest ; to have his
subjects selected for him ! One cannot imagine anything
more certain to degrade art. Religion has ever been on the
side of mental retrogression, has ever been the first and
most pertinacious foe to intellectual progress, but perhaps
to nothing has she been so harmful as to art, unless it has
been to science.
Naturalistic Photography.
Glass
paintings,
Gothic.
The
guilds.
During the period of this slavery, the Church used art
as a tool, as a disseminator of her tenets, as a means of
imparting religious knowledge. Very clever of her, but
very disastrous for poor art.
How conventional art was during the Romanesque period
can be seen in the glass paintings that decorate many of
the old churches, to admire which crowds go to Italy and
waste their short time in the unhealthy interiors of
churches, instead of spending it at Sorrento or Capri.
These go back to their own country, oppressed with dim
recollections of blue and red dresses, crude green land-
scapes, and with parrot-like talks of " subdued lights,"
" rich tones mellowed by time/' and such cant.
The Romanesque style of architecture was superseded
in the fourteenth century by the Gothic. A transforma-
tion took place in art and France now took the lead. The
painters of this period emancipated themselves from the
direction of the priesthood — a great step indeed. The
masters of this age were specialists ; the guilds now ruled
supreme in art matters. We read that " now popular
sentiment began to acknowledge ttat the artist's own
mode of conceiving a subject had a certain claim, side by
side with tradition and sacerdotal prescription. . . .
They took their impressions direct from nature," but
their insight into nature was scanty. As Messrs. Wolt-
mann and Woermann very truly remark, " If for the
purpose of depicting human beings, either separately or
in determined groups and scenes, the artist wishes to
develop a language for the expression of emotion, there
is only one means open to him — a closer grasp and
observation of nature. In the age which we are now
approaching, the painter's knowledge of nature remains
but scanty. He does not succeed in fathoming and
mastering her aspects ; but his eyes are open to them so
far as is demanded by the expressional phenomena which
it is his great motive to represent ; since it is not yet for
their own sakes, but only for the sake of giving expres-
sion to a particular range of sentiments that he seeks to
imitate the reaiiilds of the world/*
There was a struggle at this p'^-ior? for the study of
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 49
nature, and the tyranny of the Church was being
thrown off ; there was then hope that art would at last
advance, and advance it did. What was wanting was a
deeper insight into nature, for nature is not a book to be
read at a glance, she requires constant study, and will not
reveal all her beauties without much wooing. And
though we read of a sketch-book of this time, the teenth
thirteenth century, in which, appears a sketch of a lion, century
which " looks extremely heraldic," and to which the sketclt-
artist has appended the remark, "N.B. — Drawn from
life/' this in no way surprises us, for have we not been
seriously told in this nineteenth century by the painters
of catchy, meretricious water-colours, with reds, blues
and greens such as would delight a child, that they had
painted them from nature ; pictures in which no two tones
were correct, in which detail, called by the ignorant,
finish, had been painfully elaborated, whilst the broad
facts of nature had been ignored. Such work is generally
painted from memory or photographs. Happily work of
this kind will never live, however much the gullible
public may buy it. Next we read that " the germs of realism
already existing in art by degrees unfold themselves
further, and artists venture upon a closer grip of nature."
Here, then, were the signs of coming success, and the
great effect of these gradual changes was first manifested
in the work of Niccola Pisano, who " made a sudden and Niccola
powerful return to the example of the antique/' All
honour to this man, who was an epoch-maker, who based
his conception " upon a sudden and powerful return to the
example of the antique, 'of the Eoman relief/' His work
is by no means naturalistic or perfect, but it was enough
for one man to do such a herculean task as to ignore his
own times and rise superior to them. Painting, however,
took no such quick turn, but Cimabue was the first of Cimabue.
those who were to bring it into the right way. The
principal works ascribed to him, however, are not
authenticated.
Another epoch -maker, Giotto, now appears. He seems Giotto,
to have been a remarkable man in himself, which however
hardlv concerns us. The historian of his works says,
• jg. . '
%£' OF THE
50 Naturalistic Photography.
" The bodies still show a want of independent study of
nature; the proportions of the several members (as we
know by the handbook of Cemieno hereafter to be men-
tioned) were regulated by a fixed system of measurement;"
again, "The drawing is still on the whole conventional,
and the modelling not carried far." His trees and animals
are like toys. Yet we read that " their naturalism is the
very point which the contemporaries of Giotto extol in
his creations/' but, as Woltmann and Woermann say,
this must be accepted according to the notion enter-
tained of what nature was, and we are by this means able
to see how crude the notions of nature can become in
educated men when they neglect the study of it. But
from all this evidence we gather that Giotto's intellect
was great, and that his strides towards the truthful
suggesting of nature were enormous. His attempts too
at expression are wonderful for his age, see his " Presenta-
tions/'the figures are almost natural notwithstanding their
crude drawing ; he got some of the charm and life of the
children around him. We read that in some of his pic-
tures, he took his models direct from nature, as also did
Dante in his poetry, but like Dante he attempted at times
the doctrinal in his pictures, as in the " Marriage of St.
Francis and Poverty/' he tried in fact what many moderns
are still trying to do, and daily fail to do, namely, to teach
by means of their pictures — a fatal error. Doctrinal sub-
?'ects are unsuitable for pictorial art, and will never
ive. Who cares now for Giotto's " Marriage of St.
Francis and Poverty " ? but who would not care for
a landscape or figure subject taken by Giotto from the
life and landscape of his own times ? — it would be
priceless. Owing to circumstances, we hear that he
had to put " much of his art at the service of the
Franciscans/' and though not a slave to them, yet we read
this disgusted him with the monkish temper. In 1337
Giotto died, but he had done much. Without Kepler
there might have been no Newton, so without Giotto
there might have been- no Velasquez.
The guilds. Artists at this time belonged to one of the seven higher
of the twenty-one guilds into which Florentine crafts-
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 51
men were divided, namely, that of the surgeons and
apothecaries (medici and speziali). Here art and science
were enrolled in the same guild, and so were connected,
as they always will be, for the study of nature is at the
foundation of both, the very first principle of both. To-
gether they have been enslaved, persecuted, and their pro-
gress hampered ; together they have endured ; and now
to-day together they stand out glorious in their achieve-
ments, free to study, free to do. The one is lending a
hand to the other, and the other returns the help with
graceful affection. Superstition, priestcraft, tyranny,
all their old persecutors are daily losing power, and will
finally perish, as do all falsehoods.
We thus leave the art of the Middle Ages, as we left Summary,
the catacombs, with a wish never to see any more of it.
One feels the deepest sympathy for great intellects like
Giotto, and his greatest followers, whose lots were cast
in times of darkness, and we cannot but respect such as
struggled with this darkness, and fought to gain the road
to nature's fountains of truth and beauty. But at the same
time, though we may in these pictures see a graceful pose
here, a good expression there, or a beautiful and true bit of
colour or quality elsewhere, yet we cannot get away from
the subject-matter of many of the pictures, which, alle-
gorical and doctrinal as they are, do not lie within thf*
scope of art, and above all one cannot in any way get
rid of the false sentiment and untruthfulness of the
whole work. Such works will always be interesting to
the historian and to the philosopher, but beyond that,
to us they are valueless, and we would far rather possess
a drawing by Millet than a masterpiece by Giotto.
When abroad, and being actually persuaded of their
great littleness, we have been moved with pity for the
victims we have met, victims of the pedant and the guide-
book, who are led by the nose, and stand gaping before
middle-age monstrosities, whilst some incompetent pre-
tender pours into their ears endless cant of grace, spiri-
tuality, lustrous colouring, mellifluous line, idealism, et id
genus omne} until, bewildered and sick at heart, they return
borne to retail their lesson diluted, and to swell the number
E 'J.
52 Naturalistic Photography.
of those who pay homage at the shrine of pedantry and
mysticism. Had these travellers spent their short and
valuable time in the fields of Italy, they would have "learnt
more art/' whatever they may mean by that term of
theirs, than they ever did in the bourgeois Campo Santo
or dark interior of Santa Croce or Santa Maria Novella.
Alas ! that the painters of the Middle Ages were unable
to paint well. Had they been able to paint, as can some
of the moderns, and had they painted truthfully the life
and landscape around them, there is no distance some
of us would not go to see a gallery of their works :
works showing men and women as they were, and as
they lived, and in their own surroundings. There at
once would have been the pictures, the history, and the
idyllic poetry of a bygone age ; and what have we now
in their place ? Diluted types of repulsive asceticism, sen-
timental types of ignorance and credulity, pictures
hideous and untrue and painful to gaze upon, lies and
libels on our beautiful world, and on our own race. And
whom have we to thank for this ? Religion — the so-
called encourager of truth, charity, and all that is
beautiful and good.
EASTEEN ART.
Before beginning the renascence we must glance
through Mohammedan, Chinese, and Japanese art.
MoHam- With Mohammedan art we have little to do, as it was
medau entirely decorative. It is seen at its best in the
Art- Alhambra, and was not the outcome of any study of
nature. The Arabian mind seems to have been unable
to rise beyond a conventional geometrical picture-writing.
Such minds are seen to-day in all countries amongst the
undeveloped. Quite recently we have seen some of the
best modern negro work from the West Coast of Africa ;
there too was the love of geometrical ornamentation as
strong as in the Arabian art. We repeat, this artistically-
Art speaking low standard of development is often seen
the°PW- among the people of to-day, and though highly educated
listines. in all else, in art they are uneducated, in short they
are survivals ; and the mischief is, that they judge pic-
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 53
tares by their survival decorative standard ; they look
for bright colours placed in Persian-rug juxtaposition,
and talk of " glorious colouring/' It never seems to
occur to them what art really is, and what the artist has
tried to express, and how well he has expressed it ; and
they never refer their " glorious colouring " to the in-
fallible standard — nature; but seem to imagine there
are abstract standards of colour and form. " Glorious
colourings" are oftener than not meretricious lies
dressed out in gaudiest, vulgarest apparel, and when
compared with nature these " colourings " will be found Water-
veritable strumpets. Look carefully at many of the colours-
much-vaunted water-colours, and then carefully study
the same scene in nature, and if many of those water-
colours please you afterwards — well, in matters artistic,
you have the taste of a frugivorous ape. But apply this
test to the water-colours of Israels or Mauve, and you
will see they interpret nature. But they have painted
chiefly in oils, and wisely so, as there is more to be
expressed by oil-painting, and we know of few, if any,
great men who confine themselves to water-colour as a
medium. But it serves the turn of a host of men —
painters, but not artists, who, with their pretty paints,
make pot-boilers, of which the form and idea are often
stolen — stolen, perhaps, from a photograph. Do such ever
study nature ? No. They sit at home, and coin vulgar
counterfeits with no more of nature in them than the
perpetrators have of honesty. It is time that it was
clearly and distinctly understood that the man who
copies a photograph is as despicable as the man who
copies a painting, and it is very certain neither will ever
be respected by his contemporaries, or remembered by
his successors. Yet the " cheap " work of these men
sells well, and the gulled public talk glibly over them of
" strength " and " tone " and " colouring," and what
not. Nature is so subtle and astonishing in her facts
that but few even of those who do paint directly from
her can come anywhere near her, whereas, those who do
not study her at all, who do not paint cor am ipse, fake
and fake, and by faking they lie, and set the example
54 Naturalistic Photography.
to others to lie, and, if not fought against, this sort of
thing would speedily take us back to the art of the
Middle Ages, when we should be under the tyranny of
Croesus, instead of Clericus.
Picture- It is, then, the absolute duty of every picture-buyer,
buyers. who has any regard for truth, and any interest in the
future of art, to learn to study nature carefully, and to
buy only that which is true and sincere, and let the
pink and white school of dishonesty die of inanition.
In short, it is high time that educated people ceased
to judge painting as they often do, by the standard of
coloured rugs. This talk of " colour " is one of the stum-
bling-blocks of the weak-kneed in art. Colour is good
so long as it is true, and no longer. A Persian rug, or
Turkey carpet, is not the standard of colour whereby to
judge pictures, and only those in the mental state of
the frugivorous ape or the Arab craftsmen can think
so.
CHINESE AND JAPANESE AET.
China and In China and Japan things were very different. Fol-
Japan. lowing Mr. Anderson's invaluable work, the " Pictorial
period Arts of Japan," we find that their history of pictorial art
begins about A.D. 457. Mr. Anderson thinks, however,
that art was only actually planted in Japan with the in-
troduction of Buddhism in the sixth century. Then it
begins badly, for it was under the influence of religion,
and in fact we read that the earliest art consisted of
Buddhism. Buddhist images and mural decorations. This religious
influence, together with a servile imitation of the Chinese
masters, so enslaved art, that no development of import-
ance took place till the end of the ninth century.
The Looking at the plate of the <e Ni O," — a wooden
" Ni o." statue — considered the greatest work of the time, we
can see the artist had really struggled to interpret
nature, and no doubt studies were made from the nude,
for the work on the anatomy could not otherwise have
been so well expressed ; but, good as it is, it run0 in the
Michael Angelo spirit, is exaggerated, and lacks entirely
all the greatness of the Greek sculpture. This work —
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 55
the greatest of what Mr. Anderson has called the first
period — shows that there had been a struggle towards
the expression of nature.
The second period, we learn, ends with, the fourteenth Second
century, and is parallel, therefore, with the European Penod-
medieval period. On comparing plates of the Japanese
work with that of the same period in Europe, we are
forced to give the palm to the Japanese artists, they
were, in fact, vastly superior, In looking at the plate
of " The Death of Kose No Hirotaka" we cannot but
feel there was much more respect for nature in Japan
than there was in Europe at that time, notwithstanding
the fact that Buddhism bore the same relation to art in
Japan as Christianity did in Europe. We read also that
in the twelfth century there was one, Nobuzane, who Nobuzane.
had a brilliant reputation for " portraits and ether
studies from Nature." The specimen of Nobuzane's
work is admirable in expression, he has caught the living
expression of his model, but the rest is conventional.
We are told that the Chinese renascence began about Chinese
1275, and that the painters of this movement were renas-
naturalistic, " Ink sketches of birds and bamboos, por- c
traits and landscapes were the subjects chosen," and
though these were only a kind of picture-writing, yet
the movement led the artists more and more to study
nature.
Coming now to Mr. Anderson's third period, from the Third
end of the fourteenth century to the last quarter of the period,
eighteenth, we find that Meicho seems to have been to Meicho.
Japanese art what Giotto was to European art, and at about
the same period. We read further on that in the early part
of the fifteenth century the revived Chinese movement
referred to made its influence felt in Japan. An ex-
ample given by Mr. Anderson of Shitibun's idealized
landscape painting, while far from satisfactory or even
pleasing, is, we venture to think, superior to the work of
Giotto. Therein is shown some power, and there is not
the childishness which is visible in Giotto's work. Much
more naturalistic, powerful, and pleasing are the works of
Soga Jasoku, fifteenth-century Chinese school. These
56 Naturalistic Photography.
landscapes show the artist had a feeling for nature, and
although he attempted in the upper plate (Plate 16) what
we consider to be beyond the scope of art, yet in
the lower the master-hand shows itself. There is atmo-
sphere in the picture. Close observation of nature re-
sulted in a grasp of subtlest movement and expression.
Soga Witness the "Falcon and Egret" by Soga Chokuan
Chokuan. (sixteenth century), where the power shown in depicting
the grasp of the falcon's talon as it mercilessly crushes the
helpless egret, is very great. Then look at the paintings
of birds in any of our books, and see how wooden, how
lifeless they are, compared with even the sixteenth-
century Japanese representations of bird life.
Sesshiu. Sesshiu, we are told, was another great painter, and
the founder of a school (1420 — 1509). This great man, we
are told, " did not follow in the footsteps of the ancients,
but developed a style peculiar to himself. His power
was greatest in landscape, after which he excelled most
in figures, then in flowers and birds/' and later on, we are
told, in animals. He preferred working in monochrome,
and it is said asserted " the scenery of nature was his
final teacher/''
soTol Then came the Kano School, all of whose artists
evidently struggled for Naturalism, and had great power of
expression of movement but not of form. The leader, we
are told, was an eclectic, and painted Chinese landscapes
in Japan, so that he must have neglected nature, and his
works belong to the so-called imaginative or unnatural
school. The best men of this period were decidedly im-
pressionists, and their chief aim seems to have been to
give the impression of the scene and neglect the details,
and it is perfectly marvellous how well they succeeded in
depicting movement by a very few lines. The "Rain
Scene " by Kano Tanyu is a fine example of this.
We read that the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
were periods of decadence ; we conclude therefore that in
Japan art reached its highest state during the second
period, under Shiubun, Soga Jasoku, Sesshiu and Tanyu,
who were all students of nature, and several of whom
would have been called impressionists had they painted
in these days.
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 57
We are told that Matahei tried to found a naturalistic Matahei.
school, whose followers should go direct to nature for
their subjects, but the movement did not receive any
hearty impulse. However it was taken up afterwards by
a series of book-illustrators. Next we read of Kdrin Korin.
whose " works demonstrate remarkable boldness of in-
vention, associated with great delicacy of colouring, and
often .... masterly drawing and composition/' It
is quite marvellous to see the work of this seventeenth-
century artist.
Winding up his account of the third period, Mr.
Anderson says, " But three-quarters of the eighteenth
century were allowed to pass without a struggle on the
part of the older schools to elevate the standard of their
art, and painting was beginning to languish into inanition
when the revolutionary doctrines of a naturalistic school
and of a few artisan book-illustrators brought new aims
and new workers to inaugurate the last and most
characteristic period of Japanese art."
Mr. Anderson says, "The fourth and last erabeganabout Fourth
thirty years before the close of the last century, with the period,
rise of the Shijo naturalistic school of painting in Kioto, Shijo
and a wider development of the artisan popular school in scho01-
Yedo and Osaka, two steps which conferred upon Ja-
panese art the strongest of those national characteristics
that have now completed its separation from the parent
art of Amia."
He goes on to say "that the study of nature was ad-
mitted to be the best means of achieving the highest
result in art by the older painters of China and Japan,
but they limited its interpretation/'
We are told that Maruyama Okio was the first painter okio.
who seriously endeavoured to establish naturalistic art
(1733 — 1795). He preached radical ideas in art at Kioto,
the centre of Japanese conservatism, and gathered a
school around him. In summing up this school, Mr.
Anderson remarks, " The chief characteristics of the Shijo
school are a graceful flowing outline, freed from the
arbitrary mannerisms of touch indulged in by many of
the older masters ; comparative, sometimes almost ab-
solute, correctness in the interpretation of the forms of
Naturalistic Photography.
Hokusai.
Japanese
art at the
British
Museum.
The
Japanese
C o minis -
art.
animal life ; and lastly, a light colouring, suggestive of
the prevailing tones of the objects depicted, and full
of delicate harmonies and gradations." Their natural-
istic principles do not, however, seem to have fully de-
.veloped, and their works show ignorance of the scientific
facts of nature, except, perhaps, in the painting of plants,
birds, and animals. Yet the work has a verve which
renders it very fascinating.
One great man, Hokusai, appears as the last of the
race purely Japanese and uninfluenced by European
ideas, as all the Japanese artists are now.
So we find that through various phases the Japanese
developed to impressionistic landscape-painting, and no
doubt when they have got more scientific knowledge,
they will make for themselves, by their wonderful origi-
nality and patience, a position in art which will surpass
all their past efforts.
Since writing this section, a collection of Japanese and
Chinese art has been opened at the British Museum,
which the student must by all means study, for there he
will see works of most of the masters cited in these notes.
In connection with this subject our readers may have
seen the very interesting report on Art by the Japanese
Commission that visited the galleries and schools of
Europe ; wherein the conclusion of the commission on
the best European art is very interesting, — Millet being
the greatest painter to their mind. They think, too, that
Japan will soon be able to show the world something
better than anything yet accomplished, which we very
much doubt.
We feel, however, that wonderful as Japanese art has
been, yet there is a great gulf between it and the best
Greek and modern art. To us Japanese art is the pro-
duct of a semi civilized race, a race in which there is
strong sympathy with nature, but a very superficial
acquaintance with her marvellous workings. In short,
we feel the Japanese need a deeper and more scientific
knowledge of nature, and that their work falls far short
of the best European work. At the present day there is
a craze for anything Japanese, but like all crazes it will
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 59
end in bringing ridicule upon Japanese work ; for their
work, though fine for an uncivilized nation, is absurd in
many points, and this stupid craze by indiscriminate
praise will only kill the qualities to be really admired.
The earliest authentic records of Chinese painting date Chinese
about A.D. 251. The earliest painters were painters of arti
Buddhist pictures. Mr. Anderson mentions as one of the
best known of the early masters, one Wu-Tao-Tsz', whose Wu-Tao-
animals were remarkable. He thinks that the art of sz '
China of to-day is feeble compared with that which
tiourished 1100 years ago. We are informed too that
the " artistic appreciation of natural scenery existed in
China many centuries before landscapes played a higher
part in the European picture than that of an accessory,"
and judging from the specimens he gives in his book of the
work of the Sung Dynasty (960 — 1279 A.D.), the Chinese
artists had a great feeling for landscape. We are told that
the painters of the thirteenth century " studied nature from
the aspect of the impressionist," and their subjects were all
taken from nature, landscape especially delighting them.
In the fifteenth century we read " decadence began by
their neglect of nature and their cultivation of decorative
colouring, calligraphic dexterity, and a compensating dis-
regard for naturalistic canons/' We are told, and can
readily believe it, that in painting of bird life they were
unequalled save by the Japanese, and that down to 1279
the Chinese were at the head of the world in painting,
and their only rivals were their pupils, the Japanese.
Korean art seems also to have degenerated since the
sixteenth century.
Thus we ever find the same old story. China, when she
painted from nature, was unequalled by any nation in the
world ; when she neglected nature, as she does now, she
fell to the lowest rank.
THE RENASCENCE.
This is a period of a return to the study of nature, of a Renas-
carrying out of the feelings which seemed to be develop- cence-
ing even in Giotto's time. No longer now was the artist
60 Naturalistic Photography.
to be separated from nature by the intervention of the
Church, and though natural science was not advancing as
fast as art was, still a growing regard for nature was the
order of the day. This feeling first showed itself strongly
The Van in the Netherlands, with the brothers Van Eyck. We
Eycks. are told that the Van Eycks " mixed the colours with the
medium on the palette and worked them together on
the picture itself, thus obtaining more brilliant effects
of light as well as more delicate gradations of tone,
with an infinitely nearer approach to the truth of
nature/'
The Van Eycks regarded nature lovingly, and tried
truthfully to represent her, and though many of their
works were of sacred subjects, yet they were evidently
studied from nature with loving conscientiousness ; and
so successful were they that to this day the picture by
Portrait of one °f the brothers (a portrait of a merchant and
his wife), in the National Gallery, remains almost unsur-
passed. It is well worth a journey to the National
Gallery on purpose to see it, and we trust all those who do
not already know the picture will take the trouble to go
and study it well. It is wonderful in technical perfec-
tion, in sentiment, in truthfulness of impression. Note the
reflection of the orange in the mirror, with what skill it
is painted. In fact the whole is full of life and beauty, —
the beauty of naturalism. It is a master-piece good for
all time, and yet it is but the portrait of a merchant and
his wife. No religious subject here inspired John Van
Eyck, but a mere merchant family, yet in many ways the
picture remains, and will remain, unsurpassed. Such
powerful minds as the brothers Van Eyck of course
influenced all art, and they had many followers ; but it
does not seem that these followers had the insight into
nature that characterized the Van Eycks, and the work
falls off after the death of the brothers, whose names
represent, and ably represent, all that was best of the
fifteenth century.
Quinten In the sixteenth century Quinten Massys was the
Massys. greatest and most naturalistic painter. He was said to
be the " originator of a peculiar class of genre pictures,
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 6r
being in fact life-like studies from the citizen life of
Antwerp." Here was an honourable departure from
conventionality. His followers, however, having no mind
to see how he was so great, were led away from the study
of nature, and where are they now ? Their names we all
know, but who cares to see their works ? Massys, the
greatest painter of this period in the Netherlands, was
content to take his subjects from the life of his own times,
as all great men have been, from the Egyptians down-
wards.
Turning now to Germany, we shall see what the best men Germany,
there thought of naturalism. The movement towards the
study of nature seems to have begun in the methods of
engraving as practised by the goldsmiths, who were
trained artists. The earliest plates we find are of subjects
illustrating the life of the times, a hopeful augury for
Germany, which was fulfilled by the work of the master,
Albert Durer. We are told he had " unlimited reverence Albert
for nature, which made him one of the most realistic
painters that have ever existed." What strikes us most
after an examination of his plates at the British Museum,
is the wonderful strength and direction with which the
man tells his tale. His engravings are, of course, without
tone, and when he does natural landscapes, as was often,
the case, this lack of tone is a serious fault; but for
draughtsmanship he is marvellous, and it is with joy we
learn that such a master said, ' ' Art is hidden in nature,
those who care have only to tear it forth." Every one
interested in art, and who is not already well acquainted
with Durer' s work, should make a point of going to the
Print Room in the British Museum, and studying care-
fully all examples of his work. They will, perhaps, at the
same time, notice what struck us, namely, that one of the
best draughtsmen on Punch's staff has evidently been a
great admirer of Durer.
Woltmann and Woermann, speaking of Durer's land-
scapes illustrative of his travels south of the Alps, say
that " he reveals himself as one of the founders of the
modern school of landscape painting."
His " Mill " is remarkable. His etchings are mostly
62 Naturalistic Photography.
of familiar subjects of every-day life. The great danger
of a man like Durer is the bad effect of his influence in
later times, for inferior men imitate his faults and not
his merit, as is always the case with imitators, and they
forget that though Durer was a genius, yet did he live to-
day he would probably work very differently and interpret
different subjects. An artist's time and environment
must always be reckoned with.
Evolution There are so many people who cannot understand the
principle of development in art,andcannot distinguish, and
appreciate, and value artists according to their periods, and
as steps in development, but are now-a-days led by them,
holding them up as models for modern painters, whereas
they are but the undeveloped efforts of earlier times.
There are numbers of young men who paint better than
Durer ever did, but who lack Durer' s genius ; just as au
undergraduate may know more science than Galileo, or
more mathematics than Newton, but yet be incomparably
less great than either Galileo or Newton. A work of art,
however, is only valuable for its intrinsic merits, and
much as we feel the value of Durer, Michael Angelo,
Raphael, and others in their own time, for many of
their works as works of art, qua art, we care but little
now, but as historical documents they are priceless.
It may be asked how Durer, the Van Eycks, and
others can be called <f naturalists," when they painted so
many religious pictures. Of course the one explana-
tion of this is that they painted conscientiously from
living models and natural landscapes, and not from
what is called their " imagination/7 The influence
of the times on these painters could not but be
tremendous, but if a man must perforce paint an
" imaginative" picture, its artistic value must always be
in proportion to the truth of the picture ; and, therefore,
what is good in the picture is the naturalism of it. All
the rest seems to our mind — for how could Durer or any
one else paint the Virgin Mary ? — uninteresting. For
Durer and the men of his day there was, of course, every
excuse, but to-day there is none ; and if painters will
persist in painting — from their imagination — woolly land-
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 63
<
scapes, peopled by impossible men, women, and animals,
they will pay the penalty of such vivid imagination — by
quick and well-merited consignment to oblivion. The
public call such men learned. Learned, forsooth !
when Lempriere or the poets have supplied the idea.
" There is something great behind a picture," is another
favourite expression ; well, so there is behind many an
impostor's work, but that greatness belongs to another
man.
An artist looks at the art of the picture, a sentimen-
talist at the subject alone ; to him a badly-painted subject
may bring tears to the eyes, to an artist the same subject
will probably bring a laugh. What is the sense of copy-
ing our predecessors ? And even as copyists, these
painters of u imaginative " works fall immeasurably
below their models. Botticelli towers yet like a giant over
Blake and Rossetti, yet we know he was very far from
perfect.
The next great German was Hans Holbein the younger. Hans
He had advantages over Durer, for he was born when the Holbein,
feeling for nature was strong, and thus started with a
clear mind, and arrived at achievements never yet sur-
passed. Hans Holbein stands out as a master for all
time. His portraits are wonderful. He, again, threw all
his energy into the study of nature, and his works are
chiefly representative of the life of his own times, portraits
of merchants and fellow-citizens. There is the full-
length portrait of a gentleman in the National Gallery,
whose name has not come down to us ; yet is the interest
less great for that ? The dead Christ at Basle too is
wonderful, as every one (with good observation, be it
always said) who has seen a naked dead body, will
affirm, but the anatomy of the skeleton in Holbein's
"Dance of Death" would make a first year's medical
student laugh. It must have been drawn from the
imagination.
Much of Holbein's best work was done in London, and
is at present in England, and we cannot leave this part of
the subject without begging our readers to take every
opportunity of seeing the work of this wonderful
64 Naturalistic Photography.
master, opportunities which, alas ! will be rare enough,
who was a naturalistic painter of the first quality.
Turning to Switzerland, we find no name worth men-
tioning; and here we would ask those who trace the
effects of sublime mountain scenery on the character
Swiss art. of men, why there has been no Swiss art worth mention-
ing ? Of course the explanation is simple — because
art has nothing whatever to do with sublime scenery.
The best art has always been done with the simplest
material.
In Spain and Portugal at this time was being felt
the influence of the naturalism of the Van Eycks. In
France the Fontainebleau School was struggling towards
nature, but no genius arose. But in Italy there arose a
Da Vinci, giant, Leonardo Da Vinci. Never has there been such
an instance of the combination of scientific knowledge
and artistic capacity in one man. In the Louvre is his
best work, the portrait of Monna Lisa, a master-piece,
but in our opinion a master-piece eclipsed by other
master-pieces. Of this great man we are told that " he
constantly had recourse to the direct lessons of nature, say-
ing that such teaching at second hand made the artist,
not the child, but the grandchild of nature ! " Again we
read that " Leonardo was wholly in love with nature,
and to know her through science and to mirror her by
M. Angelo. ar* were ^ne aims an(^ en<^ °f n^s lif6-" Michael Angelo
is the next great name we come to. Woltmann and
Woerman say that te the mightiest artist soul that has
lived and worked throughout Christian ages is Michael
Angelo Buonarroti." Now this is a literary dogma to which
we are totally opposed, and so we are to all the pedantic
criticism which follows, about " strong and lofty subjec-
tivity," " purified ideal/' and what not. It is such writing
as this that misleads people/ Let Michael Angelo be com-
pared with the standard — nature — by any student of
nature, and Michael Angelo will fall immediately. Wolt-
mann and Woermann tell us, " he studied man alone, and
for his own sake/' the structure being to him everything.
This is what we always felt to be the fault of Michael
Angelo, i.e. that he was rather an anatomist, and often a
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 65
lover of pathological specimens, than an artist, although
he was a great sculptor. The action of the muscles in his
figures may not go beyond the verge of the possible
when taken separately, and as one would test them with
an electric current, but we do insist that when taken as
a harmonious whole, the spasmodic action of some
muscles as expressed by him would have prevented the
exaggerated actions of others by antagonizing their effect.
Michael Angelo's work has always given us the feeling
that he had a model, on which, with an electric current,
he tested the action of each muscle separately, and then
modelled each one separately whilst the circuit was
joined ; in fact that his works are amateur scientific studies
and not works of art ; and herein is his weakness, he
passes the bounds of nature. WoltmaDn and Woermanri
say first of all he does go beyond the bounds of nature,
and that therein lies his greatness, and then they flatly
contradict themselves, and say an anatomist has informed
them that he does not go beyond the bounds of nature,
and they quote this as a merit. Our opinion, also that of
a student of anatomy, is that he goes beyond the bounds
of nature, and exaggerates nature, and so spoils his work
completely. He is far below the Greeks. His influence,
too, has been hurtful, for he has kept all but very inde-
pendent and powerful intellects within his traditions.
Eaphael 4 and Correggio we will quickly dismiss, Raphaei
though we are fully aware of the £70,000 reputation of and Cor-
the one, and the literary reputation of the other.
Raphael does not appeal to us, with his sickly senti-
mentality, his puerile composition, his poor technique,
and his lack of observation of nature. Many of the
figures in his pictures, standing some feet behind the
foremost, are taller and larger than those in front. We
feel sure he had no independence of mind. He was a
religious youth, with no great power of thought, and time
will give him his true place. But as a taxpayer we must
enter a mild protest against the ineptitude of authorities
who pay such heavy prices for pictures such as the
4 M. Charcot has recently shown that Raphael's demoniacs are
all false and untrue.
P
66 Naturalistic Photography.
Raphael referred to. There was a small picture of a
head — the head of a doctor — by an unknown hand,
hanging near the Raphael, which, as a work of art, is
infinitely its superior, but it was done by an unknown hand.
(These pictures have since been re-hung.) For that
£70,000 what a splendid collection of good work by men
of the present day could have been purchased, a collection
every single picture of which might easily be superior to
all the Raphaels in the world as works of art !
Del Sarto. To the same period belongs Andrea del Sarto, a
naturalistic painter of great power. He had more
feeling for nature than most of the men of his time, and
his breadth of treatment and truthfulness of colouring are
admirable. Of course he painted religious pictures, but
from the naturalistic point of view they are wonderful.
The student must study the portrait in the National
Gallery painted by him.
The next and last great master of this period is Titian,
another of the few entitled to the name of genius. His
portraits are his best works. Michael Angelo is reputed
to have said, f ' This mau might have been as eminent in
design as he is true to nature and masterly in counter-
feiting the life, and then nothing could be desired better
or more perfect." Titian's works show that he had much?
more love for nature than Michael Angelo ever showed,
and we think it a pity for Michael Angelo's sake that he
did not take a leaf from Titian's book instead of criticiz-
ing his power of design. His landscape backgrounds
show a feeling for nature far above anything painted up'
to that time. After his day art in Italy fell into evil
ways, and no Italian name stands out even to this day.
The study of nature was neglected, illogical traditions
slipped in, and though some writers on painting talk of
" Naturalists/' in the period of decadence, citing Cara-
vaggio and others, we would fain know what they mean
by the term "Naturalists/' for the painters they cite
were no students of nature, as is shown by their works,
which are more realistic than naturalistic, they being as
much students of nature as are the " professional " photo-
graphers of to-day, whose ideas of nature are sharpness
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 67
and wealth of detail. Canaletto's pictures look like bad The
photographs, and that he used a camera obscura is well cam
known, for Count Algarotti has told us as much. He °
includes Kibera and other Tramontane masters in the
list of those who used tho camera obscura. Ribera Kibera.
however, is no small painter, although he is not a
great master. The passages in some of his works are
masterful, as in the dead Christ at the National Gallery.
FEOM THE RENASCENCE TO MODERN TIMES.
We shall now glance over the works of the great Preamble,
artists throughout Europe from the time of the Re-
nascence period downwards, and see how and what
influence Naturalism had on them, and we shall inquire
whether the loving truthfulness to and study of nature
and adhesion to the subjects of every-day life was not the
secret of the success of all who stand out as pre-eminent
during this period. The simplest method will be to take
separately the countries where art has flourished.
Beginning with Spain, we find at the outset from Spain,
history that there was but little hope for art. Religion en-
chained art, and that terrible stain on ignorant Spain, the
Inquisition, gave rise to the office of " Inspector of Sacred
Pictures." This office was no sinecure, for it controlled
all the artists' movements, even prescribing how much of
the virgin's naked foot should be shown. Comments are
needless, for how could art flourish under such circum-
stances? One name, however, comes at last to break
"through all rule, and in 1599, at Seville, was born
Velasquez. Velasquez, though moving from his youth Velasquez,
up in the most refined society of his native town, had the
might of genius to see that the falsely sentimental work
of his predecessors was not the true stuff, and he, like all
great workers, made Nature his watchword. He is re-
puted to have said he " would rather be the first of vulgar
painters than the second of refined ones/' and though he
began by painting still life straight from nature, he finally
became in his portraits one of the most refined, truthful,
and greatest of painters the world has ever seen.
Though greatly influenced by the religious tendencies of
i 2
68
Naturalistic Photography.
the time, we find him often painting the life around him,
and we have from his brush water-carriers, and even
drunkards ; but he finally reached his greatest heights
and the exercise of his full powers in portraiture. All
who have a chance, and all who have not should try and
create one, should go to the National Gallery and study
the remarkable portrait of Philip of Spain. Rarely has
portraiture attained such a level as in this example, and
what was the oath this painter took ? " Never to do
anything without nature before him." The next name,
great in some ways, but not to be compared with
Murillo. Velasquez, is Murillo ; and when was he great ? Was
it in his sickly sentimental religious pictures ? No,
certainly not. It was in such pictures as the Spanish
Dulwich peasant boys, such as can be seen in the Dulwich
Gallery. Gallery. This gallery is open to the public, and quite
easy of access, and should not be neglected. The last
Fortuny. Spanish name of note is that of Fortuny, a Catalonian, who
is often mistaken for a Frenchman, since he lived in Paris
some years ago. Fortuny is deserving of much praise as
having been the first to shake off the slavery of " geome-
trical perspective." His best pictures were homely and
festal scenes, chiefly interiors, which he painted as he
saw them without any preconceived ideas of perspective.
For this new departure, and on account of his work,
Fortuny deserves all praise. Since his death, in 1874, no
Spanish painter of note has come to the fore, but art in
that country languishes in prettiness, false sentimentality,
and works done for popularity ; the epliemeridoe of art.
GERMANY.
Germany seems to have neglected the lessons taught her
by Durer and Holbein, and the mystics seize her and carry
her away from nature, and, therefore, from art. Since
the days of Holbein no really great man has arisen.
Kambacli. Kaulbach, who has been well described as " all litera-
ture," is praised by some, but he does not seem to have
had even poetic ideas. Nature to him was nothing, but
Makart. the petty doings of erring man were everything. Makart
Heftner. was meretricious and small, and Heffner's pictures are
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 69
like bad photographs in colour, just the class of photo-
graphy we are now writing against. Had he been a
photographer, he would never have risen above the
topographical,, as he has never risen above the topo-
graphical in painting. Greater is the Hungarian, Mun- Mun
kacsy ; but is he an immortal ? We doubt it.
In Russia, Verestchagin is the only name that has made
any stir, but he, like Heffner, sees Nature topographi-
cally, and the only emotion caused by his " show " was
called up by the oriental rugs.
FLEMISH ART.
Rubens and Van Dyck we mention only to show we have
not overlooked them. The work of both shows more regard £)^ck.a
for " getting on " and the " ancients " than for nature : it
is lacking in feeling and in truth. Van Dyck is often wood
itself. Teniers the younger as an artist is a long way Terriers
ahead of either of these men, and in some ways he goes J.nd ^aa
very far. Van Ostade is often good also. His portrait
of a man lighting his pipe, a small picture to be seen at
the Dulwich Gallery, is a masterpiece of painting, and as
fine as anything of the kind done up to this period. This
little gem is the work of a lover of nature and an artist.
It is quite a small canvas, about 10 x 6, with no " sub-
ject," nothing but a man lighting his pipe ; yet it is
perfect, and far surpasses all the sentimentalities of
Raphael, or the tours de force of Rubens. The student
must see this picture without fail.
ENGLISH ART.
The English painters of note begin with Hogarth, H°Sartl1-
though the bad work of Lely and Kneller is cited as
English, because executed in England, yet neither of
these two men was English, and no lover of art would be
proud of them if they were. Hogarth, then, was the
father of English painting, and he began on good healthy
lines, for he was a naturalist to the backbone, choosing
his subjects from his own time ; and though he affected to
point a moral in his pictures, still there is the grip of
reality and insight into essentials in his work which mark
him as a great painter. The reader will probably have
70 Naturalistic Photography.
seen his work at the National Gallery ; if not, he should
do so at once.
Wilson. We pass over Wilson, for in his work is not apparent
any love of nature, but only a feeling for classic-
Reynolds. jsm> The next name is that Of joshua Reynolds.
He was a mannerist, and, though successful in his own
time, is very mortal. Close on his knightly heels came
Gains- one of the true immortals, Thomas Gainsborough, one of
borongh. the best portrait-painters the world has ever seen. His
landscapes, though better than any up to his time, are
not good, and his reputation rests chiefly on his power
in portraiture, in which he was certainly a master.
Naturalism breathes from his canvas ; he has seized
the very essence of his sitters' being, and portrayed them
full of life and beauty. See his portrait of Mrs. Tickell
and Mrs. Sheridan in the Dulwich Gallery; you will never
forget the charm and the beauty of the ladies, wherever
you go afterwards. Mrs. Siddons, in the National
Gallery, too, is wonderful. Study well these two, and
then go and gaze on a portrait by Reynolds, and we
doubt not you will have learnt something of the gulf that
separated the two painters. Gainsborough was, to our
mind, the first immortal in English art, and fit to rank
with Van Eyck, Holbein, Da Vinci, Titian, and Ve-
Kauffman lasquez. Leaving " the Kautfman " and Fuseli to those
Fuseli W^° can admire them, we pass 011 to poor George Mor-
Morland lan(^ a ger>ius m hi8 own 'branch of art. This man
studied and painted from life, and his pictures bear
testimony that he did so, and notwithstanding the draw-
backs caused by his unfortunate temperament, his name
lives and grows more respected every day, for his study
was nature, and so his work will always be interesting.
We now come to a great and deservedly well-known name
Bewick. — that of Thomas Bewick, the engraver on wood. Here
we have a man working in a humble way, humble that is
as compared with painting or sculpture, yet loving and
studying nature in every detail, and following her in all
her mystery and charm, only daring now and then to add
sc me quiet fancy of his own, and yet he lives and his
name grows greater every day. A true naturalist and a
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art, 7 1
real artist was he, and his fame will be lasting. "When
Wilson is archaic, Bewick will be held up for admiration,
so powerful is the effect of the honest study of nature in
his work. His birds and quadrupeds we all know ; but
if any reader should not know them, he should at once
get a copy and study the cuts in it. Mr. Quaritch has,
we believe, recently issued a reprint of the book.
Wood-cutting has degenerated. Men of little training
and no artistic feeling took it up, and slowly but surely engraving.
the art decayed until it became purely mechanical, and
so it has remained in England. Now it bids fair to be
superseded by photo-mechanical processes, as it will un-
doubtedly be entirely superseded directly a really artistic
process of reproduction is discovered for printing with the
type. In the United States, however, wood-engraving
took a fresh start, and brought photography to its aid,
and our opinion is that the effect obtained in photographs
printed on albumenized paper became the effect which
the wood-cutters aimed for, and the result is a print of
wonderful detail and beauty, but for our taste it is too
polished and neat, the effect of overlaying is far too
visible, and, in short, it does not render nature truly,
and though far surpassing anything of the kind done in
England, it is, as a work of art, altogether eclipsed by
Bewick's work, the reason being that Bewick only took
wood-engraving as a medium for the expression of the
beauties of nature, every line in his blocks being full
of meaning. But the hydra head of commercialism showed
itself, and wood-engravers with little or no feeling for or
knowledge of nature set to work turning out blocks like
machines. Photography will keep these artisans from
falling utterly away from nature, yet such work is harm-
ful and of no artistic good to us, though it may please
the public. Had there been no constant returns to nature
(as there must always be in some measure when a photo-
graph is used) decay would be sharp and speedy, but photo-
graphy bolsters up the dying art. Lately several wood-
blocks have been produced cut from photographs, wherein
all the beauty of the photographs has been utterly lost by
the engraver, and the results are bastard slips of trade ;
72 Naturalistic Photography.
but we shall have more to say on this point later on.
One thing at any rate photography can claim : that is so
long as it can be practised, art can never slip back to
the crude work done in some eras of its decadence.
Photography has helped many of these feeble wood-cutters
immensely, and the epicier-critic calls these works
" precious." It is extraordinary how men will deceive
themselves.
Now we come to a branch of art which is essentially
English, namely, painting in water-colours. It is not
meant by this that water-colour is a new medium, or that
the English water-colourists were the first to use the
medium, for the tempera paintings were but water-
colours, and Albert Durer and others used it consider-
ably ; but what is implied is that the English were the
first to adopt it largely and develop it, though it was
reserved for the modern Dutchmen and Frenchmen to
show its full capabilities. The painter in water-colour
has not, of coarse, the same control over his medium as he
has in using oils, and the work when finished even by
the best artists, has an artificial look that belies nature. But
to see really true water-colours the reader must not look
for them in English galleries. No Englishman ever
came so near to nature — to the subtleties of nature — in
water-colour as do the modern Dutch and French painters.
The reader would do well to go to Goupil's exhibitions
of modern Dutch and French painters, which are held
from time to time, and keep a look-out for water-colours,
and he should carefully study them at the Paris Salon.
Prophecy is always risky and of little count, but we
would like to venture a prophecy that water-colours will
never take a very prominent place in art, because no
great genius will ever be content with the medium.
Of the bulk of English water-colours of to-day there is
not one word of praise to be said, and the student in art
matters will do well to avoid all exhibitions of this work
until he has carefully studied the best work in art, and
until he has a greater insight into nature ; and then let
him go to the various water-colour exhibitions, and if
he does not receive a mental shock, we shall be greatly
surprised. There is but little nature in them, indeed but
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 73
little anything except pounds, shillings, and pence. The
best of them are nauseous imitations of Turner, and the
whole of them show an entire ignorance of the simplest
phenomena of nature, which would be startling did we
not remember that most of them are painted from " notes "
and ** memory." These remarks do not of course apply
to such work as is done by a few modern painters, such
as Mr. Whistler, but these paint in oils first and water-
colour afterwards. The first man worth considering in
this branch of art is Girtin, who was naturalistic as far Girtin.
as he could be, and had he not died at such an early
age (under thirty) the probability is that Turner would
have been eclipsed by him. Of Turner we shall speak
later on. The name of David Cox rises above the D. Cox.
men of bis time; but, after all, his is not the name of an
immortal. He aimed well, however, for he tried to
paint the life and landscape of his time. Much has been
written about De Wint; but if we go to the basement of De Wint.
the National Gallery and study De Wint, and then go to
Norfolk and study the landscape there, we shall find
Mr. De Wict is but a sorry painter. One thing, how-
ever, may be said in his praise. He painted out of doors
— not in his studio — and was no doubt a lover of nature.
His peasants are not the fearful travesties of Hill,
Barret, and Collins. Lewis and Cotman and Vinceiio
have, however, done some better things than De Wint.
Returning to oil painting, we must pass over the long
list of names, including Presidents of the Koyal Academy,
whose names are now all but if not quite forgotten, for
their peasantry of the Opera Bouffe, their landscapes
after Claude, their works of the imagination can now in-
terest no one, and never did interest any but the painters
themselves and an uneducated public.
Then we come to Turner, that competitor in painting. Tamer.
To use a colloquialism — " There is a great man gone
wrong." Had he but lived to-day, he might have been
an immortal; but he does not live, and his lease of fame
is not for so long a time as is generally imagined. It
has had an artificial afflatus through the writings of a
" splendidly false" critic, and, curiously enough, the
critic, like the artist, has had insight enough to see the
74 Naturalistic Photography.
true purpose of art, namely, that the artist should be true
to nature, and should be an interpreter of the life and
landscape of his own time ; and, curiously enough, the
critic, like the artist, does not know what nature is.
The critic has taken Turner as nature unalloyed, and
hence the whole of that gigantic work of his is built on
sand. The critic never had much, if any, weight with
the best artists. Even Turner himself was amused with
the reasonings of his eulogistic logic ! and gave it out
as much as a man can give out about his eulogist, that
all the tall talk about his pictures was rubbish. But
Turner was sincere according to his lights. To say of his
earlier pictures that he painted in rivalry or imitation, if
you like, of Wilson, Poussin, and Claude, is to say they
are bad, as they undoubtedly are. This spirit of rivalry
never seems to have deserted Turner, for in his will he
left directions bequeathing one of his pictures to the
Academy, on condition it should be hung side by side
with a Claude. The spirit of this is, of course, patent.
He thinks he has beaten Claude, and that is enough.
No great genius would have descended to that. Art
was to him an unending competition, and the result was
that nature was neglected ; and though he revelled in
the life and landscape of his own times, yet the small
spirit of competition was his ruin. Had he humbly, like
Constable, had faith in his tenets, and lovingly and
modestly clung to nature, his fame might have been im-
mense and everlasting. His later pictures are, of course,
the eccentricities of senility, and the false colourings seen
by a diseased eye, as has been lately shown, and are as
unlike nature as one could expect such work to be. But
let us take his " Frosty Morning " at the National
Gallery. Look well at it, aud what do you find ?
Falsity everywhere, and most of the essence and poetry
of a frosty morning completely missed. The truest
picture by Turner that we know is a little aquarelle at
South Kensington — " A View on the Thames/' Here,
then, when we get Turner true to the truth which he felt
in himself, and not competing (that we know of), what
do we find ? We find him immensely behind De Hooghe
in a truthful and poetic expression of nature, as is well
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 75
possible for so great a man. The Liber Studiorum
should also be carefully studied, noting the falsities ; trees
drawn by rule, figures not drawn at all, the total disregard
of the phenomena of nature, sometimes even the evidence
of several suns in one picture. There is no truth of tone; no
atmosphere ; the values are all wrong ; all the charm and
subtlety of nature completely missed. Go to De Hooghe or De
Clays after this, and what a difference ! Here are no mere-
tricious adornments, but more nature and less of erring,
feeble man and his mannerisms. Turner is not the man
to study, and if you cannot f' understand him " well and
good. Many artists cannot and do not wish to, for there
is nothing to understand, and many French painters of
great ability jeer at his very name. With what relief
we turn from Turner to Constable and Crome. These
two East Anglians are giants in the history of English Crome
painting. All should study Constable's works at the
National Gallery and South Kensington ; and his life by
Leslie is well worth reading, as showing how much of a
naturalist in theory he was. The best example of his
work that we know is a little river scene, with some
willows, which we saw at South Kensington Museum.
His work is not, however, perfect. You feel that there
is no atmosphere in his pictures. This is due to their being
out of tone. He had not the knowledge of nature that
characterized De Hooghe, and was not always faithful to
his creed : hence his failings. For though we read in
his life such passages as these : — " In such an age as this,
painting should be understood, not looked on with blind
wonder, nor considered only as poetic inspiration, but a3
a pursuit — legitimate, scientific, and mechanical." . . .
" The old rubbish of art, the musty, commonplace,
wretched pictures which gentlemen collect, hang up,
and display to their friends, may be compared to Shak-
speare's ' Beggarly Account of Empty Boxes/ Nature
is anything but this, either in poetry, painting, or
in the fields." ..." Observe that thy best director,
thy perfect guide is nature. Copy from her. In
her paths is thy triumphal arch. She is above all
other teachers." ... a Is it not folly, said Mr. North-
cote to me in the Exhibition, as we were standing before
76 Naturalistic Photography.
's picture, for a mau to paint wliat lie can never
see ? Is it not sufficiently difficult to paint what he
does see ? This delightful lesson leads me to ask, what
is painting but an imitative art — an art that is to realize,
not to feign. Then some dream that every man who
will not submit to long toil in the imitation of nature,
flies up, becomes a phantom, and produces dreams of
nonsense and abortions. He thinks to save himself under
a fine imagination, which is generally, and almost always
in young men, the scapegoat of folly and idleness." . . .
" There has never been a lay painter, nor can there be.
The art requires a long apprenticeship, being mechanical,
as well as intellectual." . . . " My pictures will never be
popular," he said, "for they have no handling. But I
see no handling in nature." . . . Blake once, on looking
through Constable's sketch-books, said of a drawing of fir-
trees, " Why, this is not drawing, but inspiration ! " and
Constable replied, ff I never knew it before ; I meant it for
drawing." ..." If the mannerists had never existed,
painting would have been easily understood." ..." I
hope to show that ours is a regularly taught profession ;
that it is scientific, as well as poetic; that imagination
alone never did, and never can, produce works that are
to stand a comparison with realities." ..." The dete-
rioration of art has everywhere proceeded from similar
causes, the imitation of preceding styles, with little
reference to nature." ..." It appears to me that pic-
tures have been overvalued, held up by a blind admiration
as ideal things, and almost as standards by which nature
is to be judged, rather than the reverse." ..." The
young painter, who, regardless of present popularity,
would leave a name behind him, must become the patient
pupil of Nature " — yet Constable was not always true
to himself.
Crome, who was, in our opinion, a better painter than
Constable, was like him a naturalist, and true to his faith.
There is an amusing scene in his life, which we will quote.
" A brother of the art met Crome in a remote spot of
healthy verdure, with a troop of young persons. Not
knowing the particular object of the assembly, he ven-
tured to address the Norwich painter thus : ' Why, I
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 77
thought I had left you in the city engaged in your school/
1 1 am in my school/ replied Crome, ' and teaching my
scholars from the only true examples. Do you think/
pointing to a lovely distance, ' either you or I can do
better than that ? ' "
Crorne has expressed his view of art in the follow-
ing remarks, which we read in his life : — " The man
who would place an animal where the animal would not
place itself, would do the same with a tree, a bank, a
human figure — with any object, in fact, that might occur
in Nature ; and therefore such a man may be a good
colourist or a good draughtsman, but he is no artist. "
At the National Gallery is to be seen a very good
specimen of his work, and one well worth studying.
Vincent, another East Anglian, did some wonderful work,
quite equal to Van der Veldes'.
We now pass over the names of Callcott, Nasmyth, Calloott,
Miiller, and Maclise, none masters, though they have S^f:iytl1'
been called " great colourists," whatever that may mean, and
A great colourist should be a true colourist, and Maclise.
Miiller is almost chromographic in originality in this
respect.
Creswell, Linn ell, and Cooke, are names that stand Creswell,
out at this period, and the greatest of them is Cooke;
his painting of " Lobster Pots/' at South Kensington,
being wonderfully fresh and true ; but none are poets ;
they have but little insight into nature, though
Linnell at times shows the true feeling. A long
list of well-known names follows, such as Hilton, Hay-
don, Etty, and Eastlake, but none are masters, and we only
mention them to caution against them. Of considerable
power were Wilkie, Stansfield, Mulready, Leslie, Land- stansn'eld,
seer, and Mason, but none of them was really good, Mulready,
although much has been written and said in praise of Leslie>
their works. They are all false in sentiment, and all a^
lack insight into the poetry of nature. In technique Mason.
Wilkie and Landseer are often strong, and they will Wilkie and
always appeal to a certain class of people. Mason's Landseer-
work is a fine example of the folly of introducing the asou-
so-called " imaginative " into landscape. Take his
" Harvest Moon/' when and where did ever men exist
78 Naturalistic Photography.
with such limbs ? the whole picture smacks of the model
and of the " stage idealism ;" there is no nature there,
but a laughable parody of it. The next really great
F. Walker, name in English art is that of Frederick Walker, a
naturalist, and above all an artist who had a great grip
of and insight into nature. But in his work the tradi-
tions of the idyllic peasants of the golden age lingers,
and we find his ploughman merrily running along with
a plough as though it were a toy cart ; and what a
ploughman ! he never saw a field in his life. This is a
grave fault, and takes away from the greatness of
Walker, yet notwithstanding this his name will always be
a landmark in English art. The reader will be able to
study one of his works in the National Gallery. The date
of Walker's death brings us down to the actual present.
Regarding living English painters we will remain dis-
creetly silent. It must be remembered that English art is
young, beginning- as it practically does in the eighteenth
century, for the miniature-painters cannot count for
much, and we must therefore not expect too much. Great
men, especially great artists, are rare as Koh-i-noors.
England can boast of a few, such as Gainsborough,
American and Constable and Cn me. Of American art there is but
Art- little to say. No name stands out worthy of record till
Whistler. J. M. Whistler appears, and he, though an American by
birth, can hardly be called an American painter, for the
life and landscape of his own country he neglects, as
also do Sargent and Harrison, two strong painters, both
French by education. Whistler's name rises far above any
artist living in England, his portrait of his mother and
those of Carlyle and Sarasate are works good for all time
and worthy to be ranked with the best. Mr. Whistler's
influence, too, has been great and good. As a pioneer
he led the revolt against ignorant criticism by his attack
on Ruskin. Vide "Art and Art Criticism, Whistler
v. Ruskiu." His life in England has been a long battle
for art, and though many do not approve of all his
methods, and still less of his brilliant but illogical " Ten
o'Clock," his work and influence have been for good.
Another great step in advance, introduced by Mr.
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 79
Whistler, has been the reform in hanging- pictures ;
though he has not been allowed tt> carry out his plans
thoroughly, yet he has managed his exhibitions much
more artistically than any others in the country. In
landscape his night-scene at Valparaiso is marvellous, and
we doubt whether paint ever more successfully expressed
so difficult a subject. But even as Homer nods, so
does at times Mr. Whistler, and sometimes "impress-
sions " in oil, water-colour, and etching appear with his
name, an honour of which they are unworthy. Yet
so long as art lives will Mr. Whistler live in his
Carlyle, his portrait of his mother, Lady Campbell,
and some smaller works. Mr. Sargent's Carnations gargent.
and Lilies must be fresh in our readers' minds. We
will only say of it that we never saw the actual physical
facts of nature so truthfully and subtly rendered.
It is indeed a picture whose title to admiration will be
lasting, and if the reader has not already seen it or,
having seen it, has listened to ignorant critics, and
passed it over as being " ugly," let him go to South
Kensington and view it again, for the nation is its for-
tunate possessor. Let him look well at it, and consider
what it is. It represents a garden at the time of day
when the sunlight is fading but has not quite gone —
crepuscule in fact, and with the dying light of day is re-
presented the artificial light of Chinese lanterns. This
is indeed a masterpiece. Mr. Harrison's "In Arcady " Harrison,
is wonderful in its effect of sunshine through trees, though
the picture is marred by the low type of the models in-
troduced and by the painting of the figures. Had it but
been pure landscape it would have been a wonderful
piece of work. Never have we seen the effect of
noontide heat so well rendered. This, then, brings us to
the end of American art, and it is to be hoped that men
strong as these will go back to their own country
and paint the life of their own land and time. William
Hunt is a man much thought of in America, but we Hunt,
have never seen any of his paintings, though his book
shows him to be a naturalist to the heart, and the
reader will do well to read it.
So Naturalistic Photography.
Here, then, we must leave England and America, only
remarking that things look bad for the education of the
American public when the best Americans stay away,
and when rich sausage-makers buy Herbert's works
with which to educate themselves, and when catalogue
compilers take over boat-loads of Eaglish water-colours
with which still further to lead them wrong. America
wants no such education as can be given by Herbert's
senilities or English water-colours. She wants a band of
earnest young men, who, having learned their technique
in the besfc schools in the world, namely those of Paris,
shall return to America and paint the scenes of their
own country, and therein only lies the hope for American
art.
DUTCH ART.
The first mighty name of the modern period is that of
Rembrandt Van Ryn. Holland, by her bravery, had
thrown off the Spanish yoke, and with it the crushing yoke
of Catholicism, and stood free to follow her own bent.
As a result of this freedom a body of Naturalists arose
who did more for modern art than any body of painters
in the world. Rembrandt, though a giant and fit for the
company of the immortals, Van Eyck, Velasquez, &c.,
was not perfect, for sometimes the power of tradition
lurks in his work, and he forces his portraits by warm
colours in the background, an artifice which was not at
all necessary, and which Mr. Whistler has done without.
There are a number of his works in the National Gallery,
and a good one in the Dulwich Gallery, where is also a
great Velasquez, so that the reader should not fail to
go there. Rembrandt was inspired by the simple life
around him, portraits and interiors satisfied him. It is
a significant fact that the greatest painters, Durer, Da,
Vinci, Velasquez, and Rembrandt have been content to
paint the life of their own times and not to draw upon
their imagination. The learned painter, it cannot be too
often repeated, is he who is learned in all the resources
of his art, and we question very much whether one great
reason why so few great painters have arisen is not that
artists as a rule are so poorly and narrowly educated.
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 81
At any rate, the opposite holds good, that the most
highly and soundly educated artists, men who moved and
held their own in the best intellectual societies of their
time, were naturalists. But to return to Rembrandt.
Perhaps his mastery, his grip of nature, show forth as
much in his etchings as in his paintings. He, like all
great etchers, and there are few enough, used etching Etchings,
only within its legitimate limits, that is, as a method of
expression by line, in a simple, direct and brief manner.
AJI etching by a master may be looked upon in the same
light as an epigram,1 sonnet or ode by a poet. Many of
Rembrandt's etchings can be seen in the British Museum,
and should be thoroughly well studied ; after which study,
pick up some of the unmeaning work of Seymour Hadeii
or any other modern etcher, except Mr. Whistler and
Rajon,2 and you will, without doubt, distinguish the differ-
ence. Most modern works are good examples of how not
to etch. Line after line is put in without any meaning at
all; there is no evidence of the study of nature in the
work and the subjects are trivial and commonplace. One
of the greatest evils commercialism has done to art is to
ruin modern etching, by having pictures of the old
masters copied slavishly by the etcher, and elaborated and
worked up, so that one wearies of them. Such work can
scarcely be said to rise to the dignity of fine art at all,
and Rembrandt, we think, would rise in horror from his
grave, if he could see his paintings reproduced by etchers.
Any reproduction of a picture is unsatisfactory and does
not become fine art at all, but is only useful to publish
reflections of the mind whose work it is intended to repre-
sent, and for our part we think a good photo-etching does
this better, because more faithfully, than any other pro-
cess. It is difficult to imagine the mind that can set
itself to work for months, even years, at an engraving or
etching from another man's work when the world is so
full of pathos and poetry, and subjects abound on all
sides. No great man was ever found in this category.
1 Epigram here being used in the old Greek sense.
2 Now dead.
G
82 Naturalistic Photography.
Durer and Rembrandt etched, and Mr. Whistler etches
from Nature direct, not impertinently — there is no other
word for it — tampering with other men's work. But
the public will buy these reproductions, and an artificial
value is thus given to them, and the dealers will of
Print- course encourage whatever pays. One etching by
sellers. Rembrandt himself is worth all these reproductions of
pictures by engraving, etching, mezzo-tint, or photo-
etching, because it is an original work of art, the out-
come of the loving study of nature. Not long ago a
letter appeared in one of the literary tc weeklies," com-
plaining of the stamping of photogravures by the
Print-sellers' Association. The obvious answer to this
print-seller's letter is, of course, that with the works of
living painters, the style of reproduction rests with the
painter, and if the artist is satisfied with photo-etching,
what has any one else to say — painters are the best judges
of these things. Very few painters we know would
entrust the reproduction of their pictures to etchers or en-'
gravers, or would countenance the publication of another
man's view of their work. We have seen photographs of
"Whistler's Sarasate, but never engravings of it. With bad
paintings on the other hand, the engraving of them has
often made the painter's name as well as the engraver's.
We could cite an example of a living painter who owes his
reputation chiefly to the engravings of his works, and
poor things they are even when embellished by the pro-
cess. At the time this discussion was raging amongst
the philistines, it was gravely asserted that " engravings
always rose in price/' and this was given as a reason for
buying them. Have the engravings of Mr. Landseer's
pictures risen in price ! Ask the poor subscribers to the
first copies. Will the engravings of Dore's works rise in
price ? Quien sabe ? If the reader is under any such
erroneous idea, let him attend a few sales of engravings
in London, and he will see proofs of etchings and en-
gravings knocked down for a few shillings.
Leaving with regret the great Rembrandt, we pass over
several smaller but often-quoted names, the most influential
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 83
name we come to is Van Ostade, another naturalist of great Van
power, of whom we have already spoken. Next we come Ostade-
to De Hooghe. This is the man who first really gripped De
thoroughly and expressed truly on canvas the mystery and Hooghe.
poetry of the open air. There are two specimens (court-
yards) of this wonderful painter's work at the National
Gallery. They are an education in themselves, and are
well worth long and careful study for hours, indeed there
are few pictures more worthy of study. There they hang,
fresh as nature and beautiful as paint can express, good,
valuable for all time — why ? Because tbe painter has
known how to give the sentiment of plein air. There
they hang true and lovely, pictures of Dutch life in the
seventeenth century. No history can come up to them
in historic value, none can be so true.
Cuyp we will pass over with few words. A great Cuyp.
second-rate man he undoubtedly was, but his hot colour-
ing smacks of the imagination rather than of nature.
Paul Potter and Ruysdael also are men with undulv
great reputations ; they are both false in sentiment, and
they handled nature with impertinence. Any careful
observer can see that Ruysdael played with the lighting
of landscapes as did Turner, and of course it is well
known that he was not particular as to painting his
landscapes on the spot. There is no nature in him,
it is all Ruysdael, Ruysdael, Ruysdael, eternally Ruys-
dael.
Hobbema at times verged near the truth and greatness, Hobbem
as for instance in the painting of a road with trees, in
the National Gallery, which our readers will do well to
study; but he is insincere and untrue all through and
was not a naturalist. In sea painting, Yan der Velde yan der
the younger is wonderful in his truth and love of nature. Telde.
Good specimens of his work can be seen in the National
Gallery.
Coming down to our own times, the elder Israels etands Israels.
out as a giant, a distinguished master. We have only
been able to see a few of his pictures, but those show
us the master. Hopeful, indeed, is the art of Holland
G 2
84
Naturalistic Photography.
and Belgium with such men as Artz, Mauve,3 Maas
M. Maris, Mesdag, Boosboom, and others. The reader
will often have opportunities of seeing works by these
men at the French Gallery, the Hanover Gallery, and
Goupil's, and he should take every opportunity of study-
ing their works most carefully.
FEANCE.
And now, lastly, we come to France — France where
art has in modern times reached its highest level. France
has in modern times always been the leader of civilization
in Europe, and even now she is in the van of modern
progress, our intellectual mother. We may have a finer
literature to show, in Germany science may be more pro-
found, but in all that is greater than literature or science,
that is in solving the problem of being and throwing off
the yoke of religious and political despotism, France has
become the leader. Practical, energetic, and thrifty, the
French with all their faults, still remain in many ways
the first nation of the world. France and the French
have more of the Ancient Greek's esprit than any other
nation has or ever has had. In all the humanizing
influences that distinguish brute man from civilized
man, the French are to the fore, but in histrionic, glyptic
and pictorial art, she is unapproachable, and still reigns
Queen of the Arts, in these branches.
Passing over Nicolas Poussin, Le Brun and other
lesser names, whose works are not those of masters, we
arrive at Claude Lorraine, who may claim to have an
inkling of the truth and whose work shows a distinct
advance on Poussin, but who after all is no master because
not loyal to nature, and therefore his already doubtful
reputation will go on diminishing. The first name
that really stands forth as great in French art is that of
Watteau. Watteau. Watteau, however, cannot be ranked among
the Immortals, for though his technique was marvellous,
and his power of drawing unsurpassed, he like all his
3 Now dead.
1'oussiu
and Le
Brun.
Claude
Lorraine.
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 85
contemporaries, artists and otherwise, neglected nature,
living as they did in the artificial times of Louis XIV.
There is a picture in the National Gallery which well ex-
plains what we mean. Then name after name is handed
down to us, but in vain do we look for a master among
them. Boucher and Greuze still have admirers, but they Boucher
are not great painters, because they did not study nature &nd
or at least did not succeed in painting her, as it is very
easy to see from their works. Delacroix strove to rise Deia-
from the artificial influence of the time, but he was not croix.
strong enough to become a master. It was reserved for
Ingres to make a real advance. He, though imbued to Ingres,
some extent with the old spirit of classicism, was a deep
lover of nature, and the story of the struggle for the
mastery between those two opposing tendencies is the
story of his art and life. Though he rises above all pre-
vious painters of his country, he cannot be ranked with the
masters. With Ary Scheffer there was a retrogression
which in its turn was counteracted by Delaroche. It was
Delaroche who afterwards said an artist would one day Dela-
have to use photography. Still, in vain do we look for a roche-
genius, and until Constable's pictures exhibited in 1 824
in Paris, aroused the French as to the real aims of art,
110 really great master appears. But when practical
France saw, she immediately took up naturalism. Then
we have first Decamps, who took up the newly revived Descauips.
ideas, but failed, and Rousseau made the real departure —
the poetry and mystery of nature roused in him an
ardent sympathy, and all honour to him for struggling on
at Barbizon, in the face of the neglect and contumacy of
the Salon. But Rousseau, hero though he was, never Rousseau,
rose to be a mighty painter, and his works fall far
behind those of the best painters of to-day, but as a
pioneer his name will always be remembered, and though
he failed, he at least took Nature as his watchword.
After Rousseau came Corot, a master good for all time. Corot.
His early works show signs of the classical spirit, from
which he had not yet shaken himself free, thus we some-
times see in his early works, peasants strangely habited and
86 Naturalistic Photography.
reminding one of the seventeenth century or ancient
Greece, which is of course ridiculous; but his later work is
true and great. Full of breadth and feeling for the subtle-
ties and poetry of nature, he has never been surpassed.
Examples of his work in England can sometimes be seen
in the French Gallery, the Hanover Gallery and at
GoupiFs, but it must be remembered that great as Corot
is, there is much of his work that is bad. Another great
Daubigny. painter is Daubigny, a contemporary of Corot's, and though
not such a subtle observer as Corot, still he is a painter
whose work has had great influence and will live though
Troyon. ft nas been surpassed by younger men. Troyon was
another who like Corot loved and studied and painted
from nature, but he lacked the insight into nature that
Corot had, and his work is not as true as that of his
contemporary.
Millet. At length, however, we arrive at an Immortal name,
that of Jean Frai^ois Millet. This great man must not
be confounded with two Jean Frai^ois Millets who
lived years before, and who were not artists at all though
painters. Everything about J. F. Millet the Great, is
worthy of study. Let the student seize every chance of
studying his works, chances which will, alas ! be rare
enough as many of his best pictures are in America and
most of the others in France. His pastels and water-
colours are not very good, but his etchings which (repro-
duced) can be seen in the British Museum, are valuable
for strength and power. Here is a directness of expres-
sion never surpassed. Before leaving him we will quote
a few passages from his letters : —
" I therefore concede that the beautiful is the suit-
Millet- able. . . . Understand that I do not speak of absolute
beauty, for I do not know what it is, and it seems to
me only a tremendous joke. I think people who think
and talk about it do so because they have no eyes for
natural objects ; they are stultified by * finished art/
and think nature not rich enough to furnish all
needs. Good people, they poetize instead of being poets.
Characterize ! that is the object.
" When Poussin sent to M. de Chantelon his picture of
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 87
the e Manna/ he did not say, ' Look, what fine pate !
Isn't it swell ? Isn't it tip-top ? ' or any of this kind
of thing which so many painters seem to consider of
such value, though I cannot see why they should, He
says : ' If you remember the first letter which I wrote
to you about the movement of the figures which I pro-
mised you to put in, and if you look at the whole picture
I think you will easily understand which are those who
languish, which are filled with admiration, those who
pity, those who act from charity, from great necessity,
from desire, from the wish to satiate themselves, and
others — for the first seven figures on the left hand will
tell you all that is written above, and all the rest is of the
same kind ! '
" Very few painters are sufficiently careful as to the
effect of a picture seen at a distance great enough to see
all at once, and as a whole. Even if a picture comes
together as it should, you hear people say, 'Yes, but
when you come near it is not finished ! ' Then of another,
which does not look like anything at the distance from
which it should be seen, c But look at it near by ; see how
it is finished ! ' Nothing counts except the fundamental.
If a tailor tries on a coat, he stands off at a distance
enough to see the fit. If he likes the general look, it is
time enough then to examine the details ; but if he should
be satisfied with making fine button-holes and other acces-
sories, even if they were chefs-d'oeuvre, on a badly-cut coat,
he will none the less have made a bad job. Is not this
true of a piece of architecture, or of anything else ? It is
the manner of conception of a work which should strike
us first, and nothing ought to go outside of that. It is
an atmosphere beyond which nothing can exist. There
should be a milieu of one kind or another, but that
which is adopted should rule.
" As confirmation to the proposition that details are
only the complement of the fundamental construction,
Poussin says, ' Being fluted (pilasters) and rich in them-
selves, we should be careful not to spoil their beauty by
the confusion of ornament, for such accessories and inci-
dental subordinate parts are not adapted to works whose
88 Naturalistic Photography.
principal featnres are already beautiful, unless with great
prudence and judgment, in order that this may give
grace and elegance, for ornaments were only invented to
modify a certain severity which constitutes pure archi-
tecture/
" We should accustom ourselves to receive from nature
all our impressions, whatever they may be, and whatever
temperament we may have. We should be saturated and
impregnated with her, and think what she wishes to
make us think. Truly, she is rich enough to supply us
all. And whence should we draw, if not from the
fountain-head? Why for ever urge, as a supreme aim
to be reached, that which the great minds have already
discovered in her, because they have ruined her with
constancy and labour, as Palissy says ? But nevertheless,
they have no right to dictate for mankind one example
for ever. By that means the productions of one man
would become the type and the aim of all the productions
of the future.
" Men of genius are gifted with a sort of divining-rod ;
some discover in nature this, others that, according to
their kind of scent. Their productions assure you that
he who finds is formed to find; but it is funny to see
how, when the treasure is unearthed, people come for
ages to scratch at that one hole. The point is to know
where to find truffles. A dog who has nofc scent will be
but a poor hunter if he can only run at sight of another
who scents the game, and who, of course, must always be
the first. And if we only hunt through imitativeness, we
cannot run with much spirit, for it is impossible to be
enthusiastic about nothing. Finally, men of genius have
the mission to show, out of the riches of nature, only
that which they are permitted to take away, and to show
them to those who would not have suspected their pre-
sence, nor ever found them, as they have not the neces-
sary faculties. They serve as translators and interpreters
to those who cannot understand her language. They can
say, like Palissy, ' You see these things in my cabinet/
They, too, may say, ' If you give yourself up to nature,
as we have done, she will let you take away of these
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 89
treasures according to your powers. You only need
intelligence and good will/
" It must be an enormous vanity or an enormous folly
that makes certain men believe that they can rectify the
pretended lack of taste or the errors of Nature. On what
authority do they lean ? With them who do not love
her, and. who do not trust her, she does not let herself
be understood, and retires into her shell. She must be
constrained and reserved with them. And, of course, they
say, ' The grapes are green. Since we cannot reach
them, let us speak ill of them/ We might here apply
the words of the prophet, ' God resisteth the proud, and
giveth grace to the humble/
" Nature gives herself to those who take the trouble
to court her, but she wishes to be loved exclusively. We
love certain works only because they proceed from her.
Every other work is pedantic and empty.
" We can start from any point and arrive at the sub-
lime, and all is proper to be expressed, provided our
aim is high enough. Then what you love with the
greatest passion and power becomes a beauty of your
own, which imposes itself upon others. Let each bring
his own. An impression demands expression, and espe-
cially requires that which is capable of showing it most
clearly and strongly. The whole arsenal of nature has
ever been at the command of strong men, and their
genius has made them take, not the things which are
conventionally called the most beautiful, but those which
suited best their places. In its own time and place, has
not everything its part to play ? Who shall dare to say
that a potato is inferior to a pomegranate ?
" Decadence set in when people began to believe that
art, which she (Nature) had made, was the supreme end ;
when such and such an artist was taken as a model and
aim without remembering that he had his eyes fixed on
infinity.
" They still spoke of Nature, but meant thereby only
the life-model which they used, but from whom they got
nothing but conventionalities. If, for instance, they had
to paint a figure out of doors, they still copied, for the
90 Naturalistic Photography.
purpose, a model lighted by a studio light, without ap-
pearing to dream that it bad no relation to the luminous
diffusion of light out of doors — a proof that they were
not moved by a very deep emotion, which would have
prevented artists from being satisfied with so little. For,
as the spiritual can only be expressed by the observation
of objects 'in their truest aspect, this physical untruth
annihilated all others. There is no isolated truth.
" The moment that a man could do something masterly
in painting, it was called good. If he had great anato-
mical knowledge, he made that pre-eminent, and was
greatly praised for it, without thinking that these fine
acquirements ought to serve, as indeed all others should,
to express the thoughts of the mind. Then, instead of
thoughts, he would have a programme. A subject would
be sought which would give him a chance to exhibit
certain things which came easiest to his hand. Finally,
instead of making one's knowledge the humble servant
of one's thought, on the contrary, the thought was suffo-
cated under the display of a noisy cleverness. Each eyed
his neighbour, and was full of enthusiasm for a manner."
Bastien- Bastien-Lepage we had judged from reproductions,
Lepage, j^ we gn(^ iateiy ? on seeing some of his work, that
we had all along misjudged him, thinking him a much
greater painter than he really is. This study of Bas-
tien-Lepage has been a revelation to us of the quite
'misleading and dangerous power of reproductions of a
painter's work in black and white. All the black and
white reproductions that we have seen of this painter's
work give the impression of much greater work than the
originals really are, and we would caution all our readers
against judging of any painter's or sculptor's work by a
reproduction by any method, from etching to cheap
wood-cutting, for they may be woefully misled. We
feel sure these reproductions — no matter of what kind
— will have a very harmful effect on art, and will give
quite wrong opinions of work ; and they are, no matter of
what kind, whether etching, engraving, photo-etching,
woodcut, or photograph, to be strongly condemned. Bas-
tien-Lepage is not even always strong in drawing, and his
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 91
sentiment is often false, untrue, and brutal, and not nearly
so fine as Courbet's sentiment, yet Courbet's preceded
him ; he was but a follower, where Courbet was a leader.
Of the older living painters, Jules Breton and Lher- Breton
mitte stand out as strong men ; but Breton has long ago *^
been passed, and Lhermitte is not the man he was, but
some of Lhermitte's work will live always. There is a
remarkably fine Lhermitte in the Luxembourg, which
every one should try and see. Both are naturalistic
painters. Of other living painters much might be written,
for they, in our opinion, represent the acme of painting
and its highest development. We feel that we never saw
painting done to perfection until we saw the Paris Salon,
and we strongly recommend all readers of this book, after
they have studied the pictures and sculptures here referred
to, and have some insight into nature, to make without
fail a yearly pilgrimage to the French Salon, where they
will see painting at its highest development, though of
course there is much bad work in the Salon, as at other
exhibitions.
The marvellous pastel work, aquarelles, and charcoal
drawings will all show them how immeasurably behind
France, England is in all the pictorial arts. Englishmen
do not know what drawing is — therein lies the cause of
their failure. This very year we went to the Academy
the day after seeing the Salon, and what a fall was there !
Of living French painters the work the student should
carefully study is that of Meissonier,4 Cabanel, Carolus
Duran, Pelouse, Protais, Detaille, Perrandeau, Doucet,
Petitjean, Busson, Landelle, Appian, Cazin, Harpignies,
La Touche, Lansyer, Le Koux, C.M.G., Abraham,
Anthonissen, Moreau de Tours, Nys, No billet, Marinier,
Michel M. Japy, Carne, Vallois, Jan-Monchablon, Joubert,
Boucher, J. F., Cabrit, Durot, Poithevin, Beauvais,
Den ant, Dufour, and many others whose names we forget
for the moment, but, be it said, all naturalistic painters
to a marvellous degree.
This brings us to the end, so we will leave painting
with France in the van and Holland and Belgium closely
4 Now dead.
Naturalistic Photography.
Niccola
Pisano.
following and America and England floundering in the
rear of these three, for we are no believers in the tall talk
of the greatness of the immediate future of English paint-
ing, though there is good hope since an earnest and
sincere band of young artists has arisen in England
whose watchword is " Naturalism."
SCULPTUEE.
With sculpture the same old story greets us that we
meet with in the history of painting. After the master-
pieces of Greece come the puerile conventionalities of
the Early Christians. But as we have hitherto done so
shall we continue — that is, we shall discuss the masters
only, and the first we come to is Niccola Pisano. Though
his work shows that he was still imbued with the spirit
of classicism, yet he struggled to throw off the paralyzing
conventionality of servile imitation, and tried hard to get
back to nature, and some of his sculptures in Pisa are
wonderful for expression. He was the pioneer where
followed the great Donatello. Pisano's son worked in
the same direction as his father, and has left some won-
derful architectural monuments and sculptures, but his
fame rests chieny on his architectural works, with which
we are not here concerned. Andrea and Nino Pisano
made great strides towards truth and naturalness, and
so paved the way for the great man to come. They were
Ghiberti. immediately followed by Ghiberti, who spent many years
of his life in working at the well-known mighty doors of
the baptistery at Pisa. These great gates, however, show
no subtlety of the sculptor's art. Tonality there is none ;
the whole is rather a kind of emblematic picture-writing
than sculpture, but Ghiberti says he spent his time in
" studying nature and investigating her methods of
work," so that even though he did not succeed, nature
was his watchword. But all these sink into insignificance
before the mighty name of Donatello. Like all true and
great artists, Donatello appreciated the limits of his art,
made naturalism his watchword, and followed his prin-
ciples with sincerity. Whilst we are now writing, the
wonderful low relief of St. Cecilia, which is on view at
Andrea
and Nino
Pisano.
Donatello.
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 93
Burlington House, is fresh in our mind. There is the
work in dark marble, looking as fresh, beautiful, life-
like, and artistic, as it did the day it left the artist's
hand. What simplicity, what truth of impression, and
what subtle tonality is there seen ! Those who remember
this masterpiece may have noticed the way in which the
outline of the neck is raised, and how untrue it looked
close to ; but at a distance the impression was perfect, and
the suggestion of shadow most beautifully rendered. That
the modelling of the mouth is feeble is obvious, but where
is perfection ? Casts of this work can be had for a mere
trifle from Bruciani, Covent Garden, and we strongly
recommend those who have not seen the original to get
one, for a suggestion of such work is better than a gallery
of trash. There is another fine specimen of Donatello's
work in low relief at South Kensington, but in that there
is the mark of the allegorical, and it just misses the dis-
tinguished and simple character of the St. Cecilia. We do
not care for his Judith and Holof ernes, though it is one of
the most noted of his works, and owes its renown more
to its historical association than to its artistic qualities.
Where Donatello relied on nature, however, his work is
unsurpassed for truth and subtlety. It was natural that
such a great man should have many followers, but, like
most imitators of genius, they copied his bad points and
none of his good ones, for these they could not attain to,
not being geniuses themselves. The wonderful medals
of Vittore Pisano or Pisanello must not be forgotten, as
they are well worthy of study. The student can get casts
of most of these for a trifling sum, and we strongly
recommend him to buy a few casts of Pisanello' s medals. D „
The work of the Delia Eobbia family is so well known R0bbi».
that we must touch upon it, although for most of it
we care little or nothing, the medium, a glazed terra-
cotta, being unnatural. Lucca, the greatest of the family,
worked, however, at first in marble. Here and there in
his work one meets with a beautiful face, and often with
fine expressions, but the whole lacks simplicity and
fineness. He was more a decorative artist than a
sculptor.
Q4 Naturalistic Photography.
M. Angelo. Of Michael Angelo we have spoken. Benvenuto
Cellini. Cellini, a name well known, was a master in gold- work-
ing, but hardly a sculptor. Many lesser names follow,
but no immortal is again seen in Italy ; for though Canova
Canova. made a name of some sort, he was no master. After
Michael Angelo came imitation and decline. Neglect of
nature, together with patronage, killed the spark of art,
and so thoroughly killed it that even writers on art who
had no art-training were listened to, as Winckelmaun and
Lessing, but their work only produced an artificial
Thorwald- afflatus, as Canova and Thorwaldsen proved, for both
sen. were small men, false in sentiment, and with little or no
insight into nature. We say this advisedly, after seeing
much of Canova's work and nearly all that of Thor-
waldsen. There is no nature in their works, but
in addition to a classical sentiment a puerile realism
which is still in vogue in Italy to-day in such work
as a Pears delights in, " You Dirty Boy " and other
trivialities. England, Spain, Holland, and America seem,
up to the present, not to have produced a single sculptor,
but, in our humble opinion, the young sculptors of Eng-
land will lead the way in the twentieth century, and the
world may look for the advent of an immortal master
and for work which will surpass the Greeks. At present
Modern France leads the way, and has some strong men in
French Jouffrey, Aube, Falguiere, Rodin; but there, too, the
tendeDcy seems to be towards a fumbling realism and
petty motif. There is much talk of French sculpture
being in advance of French painting. We do not believe
it, and we feel that England is at present the only country
Future of where there is any distinct and original school of
English sculpture, with such modellers as Gilbert and Onslow
:u pture. jior(^ and with such a sculptor as Havard Thomas, to
say nothing of younger men, the outlook is very bright
Final indeed.
advice. ^n(j now we must end the chapter with the final advice
to the student to study deeply all good examples of the
great artists whose work we have noted, and to leave all
others alone. By and by the student will find that he is
in a position to compare the good with the bad, then
Naturalism in Pictorial and Glyptic Art. 95
will it be time enough for him to look at the second-rate
work, much of which contains fine passages here and
there and special merits of its own ; but these cannot
be appreciated until the student has considerable know-
ledge, and that is only to be obtained by a serious study
of nature and of the work of the best masters here cited.
Finally, we think we have shown that " Naturalism "
has been the watchword of all the best artists, and that,
after all, there are but few artists in any age. Many
painters and modellers and sculptors there be, but artists
are few indeed. One point which has impressed us in „
, . , T ,• , • n • i Barometer
tJbe inquiry into naturalistic art is the curious regularity Of natural-
with which so-called ' ' imaginative " painters have ap- ism.
peared and made reputations for themselves in the
after-glow, so to speak, of the setting sun of natu-
ralism. It would appear that painters who have lived
in an age of strong men have got fairly staggered by
the good naturalistic work of their age, and have instinc-
tively felt that, being no match for the great masters on
their own lines, that their only way to fame and fortune
is by eccentricity, and in assuming a superior tone of
culture by the production of allegorical or classical
inanities. The uneducated of their own generation,
thoroughly tired of a naturalism whose aim they have never
understood, hail with delight any novelty or new departure,
and they praise puerility and falseness of colour as colour,
false drawing as idealizing, conventional composition as
original, the conventional and modern treatment of dra-
peries beneath which no anatomy is discernible as an
idealized and poetic treatment of drapery, and finally,
in the subject of the picture they often mistake senti-
mentality for sentiment and sentiment for poetry. Thus
these weaker men rise to fame, and many follow where
they lead. But the generation which gave them fame
dies, and a new generation, which has forgotten the
triumph of the naturalistic masters of the past generation,
wearies of thein,andnaturalistic work is again appreciated.
The story of art seems to us like the mercury in a baro-
meter, ever oscillating upwards and downwards, ever up
towards the acme of naturalism, and ever down towards the
96 Naturalistic Photography.
abyss of conventionality and classicism. If we mentally
map out the readings of this barometer on a chart, we shall
find naturalism triumphant as the apex of each curve,
whilst in the ascending curve will be found the strugglers
towards naturalism, and in the descending curve the
fallers away from naturalism. On the apices of these
curves will be found triumphant the masters, such as the
The sculptors of the Egyptian lions, the sculptors of the As-
masters. Syrian lion-hunts, Pheidias, Van Eyck, Durer, Holbein,
Da Yinci, Titian, Velasquez, Donatello, Rembrandt, De
Hooghe, Corot, Millet, Gainsborough, and Whistler.
97
CHAPTER III.
PHENOMENA OF SIGHT, AND ART PRINCIPLES DEDUCED
THEREFROM.
HAVING thus demonstrated that the best artists have
always tried to interpret nature, and express by their art
an impression of nature as nearly as possible similar
to that made on the retina of the human eye, it will be
well to inquire on scientific grounds what the normal
human eye really does see.
Our contention is that a picture should be a transla- The arg
tion of a scene as seen by the normal human eye. That ment.
the impression will vary with individuals, there is no
doubt, for the artist will see subtleties never dreamed of
by the commonplace or uneducated eye, and his aim
will, of course, be to portray those subtleties in his
picture, and hence one source of individuality in a work,
another being in the way in which it is done. Our
task now shall be to examine into the physical, physio-
logical and psychological properties of sight, and
to arrive at a conclusion, in so far as science allows
us, as to how the normal eye does see things. The
student will do well to read Chapter II. of Book III. of
Dr. Michael Foster's "Text Book of Physiology/' as
well as the matter on the eye in Ganot's Physics, before
going any further in this chapter, for we do not wish to
go over ground which has been occupied previously, onr
aim being to give a view from the artistic standpoint of
the physical, physiological, and psychological properties
of eyesight. We will, then, proceed to consider how well
we see external nature, that is, within what limits, for
we never see her exactly as she is, as we shall show.
To begin with, then, the retinal nerves are strictly Optic
reserved to respond to the vibrations of ether — nerves.
H
9 S Naturalistic Photography.
called light. If the student has ever had a blow on
his eye, he has probably seen " stars/' because every
stimulus to this pair of nerves makes us see things,
and not feel them. Now each sense has certain limits
between which it can detect subtle vibrations, but be-
yond which all is blank. The more refined the organiza-
tion of the person, the greater will be the number of
vibrations he can distinguish. Thus 399,000,000,000
vibrations in a second produce in us the sensation of
light, above this the vibrations appear as spectral colours
until the number 831,000,000,000,000 is reached ; to an
increase in the number of vibrations above that number
the optic nerve does not respond. Now the eye is an
optical apparatus fixed between the brain and the
ether, not that we may perceive light, for we could do
that without the eye, but that we may distinguish objects.
The glyptic and pictorial arts are founded entirely on the
sense of sight as music is founded on the sense of hearing.
In the pictorial arts, then, we must clearly distinguish
between the physical, physiological, and psychological
properties of sight.
Le Conte's -^e Conte divides the scientific, i.e. physical and physio-
division, logical data, into : A. Light ; B. Direction of Light ; C.
Intensity; D. Colour; and the psychological data into
Binocular vision, size, solidity, and depth. Following up
Le Conte's scheme, let us begin, then, to discuss briefly
the scientific data, that is, considering the apparatus
purely from the standpoint of physics and physiology.
Light. A. LIGHT.
I. Physical characters of the eye as an optical instru-
ment.
If a ray of light passes through a small hole into a
darkened room (pin-hole camera), an image is formed of
the object or objects without. The condition of a good
definition of the image is that "all the rays from each
point on the object must be carried to its own point on
the image." If this hole be enlarged, this coudition is
impossible, and the light spreads over certain areas
called diffusion areas or diffusion circles. In other
Phenomena of Sight, &c. 99
words, widely divergent rays and contiguous rays become
mixed. To admit more light a lens is used in the
eye, and by the photographer, for although it is possible
(by pin-hole camera) to take pictures without a lens, the
light so admitted is necessarily so limited that the ex-
posure needed is too long. The lens, however, helps
us by admitting more light, and at the same time
giving better definition, but it also introduces many
disadvantages and sources of error. Now a theoreti-
cally perfect physical image has been described by
physicists as being both bright and sharp in definition,
but the theoretically perfect image does not exist ; for,
apart from other considerations, the lens which we use to
get microscopic sharpness, cuts off light, and the sharper
the image is rendered by stops, the less brightness do
we get. Thus we pee the lens introduces scores of errors
as well as desirable qualities.
In the human and photographic lenses the chief faults
are : —
Dispersion. All refraction or bending of light by a
lens is accompanied by dispersion. This error is corrected 81on;
in opticians' lenses to a great extent. In the human
eye, however, this fault is in some degree present, as
can be proved by looking at a lighted street lamp
through a violet glass, when a red flame will be seen
surrounded by a bluish-violet halo. What, then, is the .
effect of dispersion on our theoretically perfect image ?
It is slight blurring of the sharpness of outline, since
the size and position of the optical images thrown by the
differently bent rays is not the same.
A lens having a spherical surface bends the rays so Spherical
that they do not all come to a focus at the same point. "1
What is the effect of this on our theoretically perfect '
image ? Again it is slight blurring of the sharpness of
outline. It is said the spherical aberration in a perfectly
corrected optician's lens is less than that in the lens of
the human eye. This must be remembered in connection
with our later remarks. In the lower animals, spherical
aberration is nearly absent. Their vision therefore is
more periscopic, and therefore more like that of an
optician's lens.
H 2
TOO Naturalistic Photography.
Astigma- This defect can be avoided in the optician's lens,
but it exists in, and is a serious fault of, the human
eye.
Helmholtz considers the amount of spherical aberra-
tion unimportant as compared with this defect. Astigma-
tism is the result of imperfect symmetrical curvature of
the cornea and of imperfect centering of the cornea and
lens. This defect is found in most human eyes.
Astigmatism prevents the eye seeing vertical and
horizontal lines at the same distance perfectly clearly at
once. The defect in centering also causes irregular
radiation, so that, as Helmholtz says, " The images of an
illuminated point as the human eye brings them to focus,
are inaccurate/' What is the effect of those defects on
the " perfect image " ? Dimness of outline and detail
in the textures of objects seen.
Turbidity. The optician's lens is made of pure glass, the media of
the human eye are not clear, but slightly turbid, so that
Helmholtz says, " The obscurity of dark objects when
seen near very bright ones depends essentially on this
defect. This defect is most apparent in the blue and
violet rays of the solar spectrum ; for then comes in the
Fluores- phenomena of fluorescence to increase it/' By fluo-
cence. rescence is meant the property which certain minutely
divided substances possess of becoming faintly luminous,
so long as they receive violet and blue light. The bottles
filled with solution containing quinine, which look blue
in the chemists' windows, owe their colour to this fact, as
also does the blueness of " London " milk. These defects,
combined with entoptic impurities which are constantly
floating about in the humours, all help to detract from
the brightness and sharpness of the " perfect image."
Blmd This is a portion of the retinal field with no cones or
rods, and therefore insensitive to light. This causes a
gap in the field of vision. " This blind spot is so large
that it might prevent our seeing eleven full moons if
placed side by side, or a man's face at a distance of only
six or seven feet,'' says Helmholtz. In addition to this,
there are lesser gaps in the retinal field, due to the
cutting off of light by the shadows thrown by the blood
Phenomena of Sight, &c. 101
vessels. Any one who has examined the retinal field
with an ophthalmoscope knows what this means.
In addition to this the macula lutea is less sensitive to Macula
weak light than other parts of the retina. The effect of lutea.
all these imperfections is to blur and dull the perfect
image. The serious defects due to the blind spot are
not noticed, according to Helmholtz, because tc we are
continually moving the eye, and also that the imperfec-
tions almost always affect those parts of the field to which
we are not at the moment directing our attention." The
italics are ours. Here, then, is another great difference
between the eye and the optician's lens.
The focus of the eye in a passive state is adjusted to Focussing
the most distant objects. It focusses for nearer objects
by contracting the ciliary muscle which pulls tight the
zonule of Zinn and so curves the crystalline lens. It can
focus thus up to within five inches of itself, but the
changes of focus are almost imperceptible to the eye
beyond twenty feet. Now a theoretically perfect eye
might form perfect images of objects at infinite distances
when there were no intervening objects. But as has
already been shown, the eye is very imperfect, and its
images are not therefore perfect, and it could not form
theoretically perfect images, even if the atmosphere were
pure ether and nothing else, for there are other facts
in nature which prevent this ; thus we cannot see a sharp
image of the sun with the naked eye on account of its
dazzling brightness.
This central spot is a most important factor in the Fovea
study of sight and art. For though the field of vision ce
of the two eyes is more than 180° laterally, and 120°
vertically, yet the field of distinct vision is but a fraction
of this field, as we can all prove for ourselves. Now
the field of distinct vision depends on the central spots
for the reason that the central spot differs anatomically
from the rest of the retina by the absence of certain
layers which we need not specify here. The absence
of these layers exposes the retinal bacillary layer
to the direct action of light. Helmholtz says "all
other parts of the retinal image beyond that which falls
IO2 Naturalistic Photography.
on the central spot are imperfectly seen/' so that the
image which we receive by the eye is like a picture
minutely and elaborately finished in the centre, but only
roughly sketched in at the borders. But although at
each instant we only see a very small part of the field of
vision accurately, we see this in combination with what
surrounds it, and enough of this outer and larger part of
the field, to notice any striking object, and particularly
any change that takes place in it." If the objects are
small, they cannot be discerned with the rest of the
retina, thus, to see a lark in the sky, Helmholtz says it
must be focussed* on the central spot. Finally he says,
" To look at anythiug means to place the eye in such a
Direct and position that the image of the object falls on the small
indirect region of perfectly clear vision. This we may call direct
vision. vision, applying the term indirect to that exercised with
the lateral parts of the retina, indeed with all except the
central spot." Again, he says, "Whatever we want to
see we look at and see it accurately ; what we do not
look at, we do not as a rule care for at the moment, and
so do not notice how imperfectly we see it." Now all
this is most important in connection with art, as we shall
show later, we must beg the student therefore to hold it
fast.
It will be seen from all this that a perfect periscopic
image is never seen by the eye of man, though in some
of the lower animals the matter may be different.
B. DIRECTION OP LIGHT.
Law of Le Conte says, " The retinal image impresses the retina
projection. jn a definite way ; this impression is then conveyed by
the optic nerve to the brain, and determines changes
there, definite in proportion to the distinctness of the
retinal ima'ge, and then the brain or the mind refers or
projects this impression outward into space as an external
image, the sign and facsimile of an object which produces
it." Not only does this hold good of external images, but
in certain diseases retinal impressions arising from
spending within are projected outwards, thus ghosts are seen.
points, &c. "From Miiller's law/' Le Conte further says, "it is
Phenomena of Sight, &c. 103
evident that each point — every rod or cone — in the
retina has its invariable correspondent in the visual field,
and vice versa."
Le Centers law of visible direction states that, " Where Lay of
the rays from any radiant strike the retina the impression direction
is referred back along the ray line (the central ray
of the pencil) into space, and therefore to ifcs proper
place."
From these laws we understand why we see things in
the relative positions which they occupy in space.
All the previous remarks are applicable to monocular
vision.
C. INTENSITY.
A quotation from Helmholtz will best illustrate this Intensity.
point. He says, " If the artist is to imitate exactly the
impression which the object produces on our eye, he
ought to be able to dispose of brightness and darkness
equal to that which nature offers. But of this there can
be no idea. Let me give a case in point. Let there be
in a picture-gallery a desert scene, in which a procession
of Bedouins, shrouded in white, and of dark negroes,
marches under the burning sunshine; close to it a bluish,
moonlight scene, where the moon is reflected in the
water, and groups of trees, and human forms, are seen
to be faintly indicated in the darkness. You know from
experience that both pictures, if they are well done, can
produce with surprising vividness the representation of
their objects ; and yet in both pictures the brightest
parts are produced with the same white lead, which is
but slightly altered by admixtures ; while the darkest
parts are produced with black. Both being hung on
the same wall, share the same light, and the brightest as
,well as the darkest parts of the two scarcely differ as
concerns the degree of their brightness.
How is it, however, with the actual degrees of bright-
ness represented. The relation between the lightness
of the sun's light, and that of the moon, was measured
by Wollaston, who compared their intensities with that
of the light of candles of the same material. He thus
IO4 Naturalistic Photography.
found that the luminosity of the sun is 800,000 times
that of the brightest light of a full moon.
An opaque body, which is lighted from any source
whatever, can, even in the most favourable case, only
emit as much light as falls upon it. Yet, from Lambert's
observatioDS, even the whitest bodies ouly reflect about
two-fifths of the incident light. The sun's rays, which
proceed parallel from the sun, whose diameter is 85,000
miles, when they reach us, are distributed uniformly
over a sphere of 195 millions of miles in diameter. Its
density and illuminating power is here only one-forty-
thousandt h of that with which it left the sun's surface ;
and Lambert's number leads to the conclusion that even
the brightest white surface on which the sun's rays fall
vertically, has only the one-hundred-thousandth part of
the brightness of the sun's disk. The moon, however,
is a grey body, whose mean brightness is only about
one-fifth that of the purest white.
And when the moon irradiates a body of the purest
white on the earth, its brightness is only the hundred-
thousandth part of the brightness of the moon itself ;
hence the sun's disk is 80,000 million times brighter
than a white which is irradiated by the full moon.
Now, pictures which hang in a room are not lighted
by the direct light of the sun, but by that which is
reflected from the sky and clouds. I do not know of
any direct measurements of the ordinary brightness of
the light in a picture-gallery ; but estimates may be
made from known data. With strong upper light, and
bright light fn m the clouds, the purest white on a picture
has probably l-20th of the brightness of white directly
lighted by the sun ; it will generally be only l-40th, or
even less.
Hence the painter of the desert, even if he gives up
the representation of the sun's disk, which is always very
imperfect, will have to represent the glaringly lighted
garments of his Bedouins with a white which, in the
most favourable case, shows only the l-20th part of the
brightness which corresponds to actual fact. If he
could bring it, with its lighting unchanged, into the
Phenomena of Sight, <ff<r. 105
desert near the white there, it would seem like a dark
grey. I found, in fact, by an experiment, that lamp-
black, lighted by the sun, is not less than half as bright
as shaded white in the brighter part of a room.
On the picture of the moon the same white which has
been used for depicting the Bedouins' garments must be
used for representing the moon's disk, and its reflection
in the water ; although the real moon has only one-fifth
of this brightness, and its reflection in water still less.
Hence white garments in moonlight, or marble surfaces,
even when the artist gives them a grey shade, will always
be ten to twenty times as bright in his picture as they
are in reality.
On the other hand, the darkest black which the artist
could apply would be scarcely sufficient to represent the
real illumination of a white object on which the moon
shone. For even the deadest black coatings of lamp-
black and black velvet, when powerfully lighted, appear
grey, as we often enough know to our cost, when we
wish to shut off superfluous light. I investigated a
coating of lamp-black, and found its brightness to be
about one-hundredth that of white paper. The brightest
colours of a painter are only about one hundred times as
bright as his darkest shades.
The statements I have made may appear exaggerated.
But they depend upon measurements, and you can control
them by well-known observations. According to Wol-
laston, the light of the full moon is equal to that of a
candle burning at a distance of twelve feet. Now, assume
that you suddenly go from a room in. daylight to a vault
perfectly dark, with the exception of the light of a single
candle. You would at first think you were in absolute
darkness, and at most you would only recognize the
candle itself. In any case, you would not recognize the
slightest trace of- any objects at a distance of thirteen feet
from the candle. These, however, are the objects whose
illumination is the same as that which the moonlight
gives. You would only become accustomed to the dark-
ness after some time, and you would then find your way
about without difficulty.
io5 Naturalistic Photography.
If now, you return to the daylight, which before was
perfectly comfortable, it will appear so dazzling that you
will, perhaps, have to close your eyes, and only be able
to gaze round with a painful glare. You see thus that
we are concerned here not with minute, but with colossal,
differences. How now is it possible that, under such
circumstances, we can imagine there is any similarity
between the picture and reality ?
Our discussion of what we did not see at first, but
could afterwards see in the vault, points to the most
important element in the solution ; it is the varying
extent to which our senses are deadened by light; a
process to which we can attach the same name, fatigue,
as that for the corresponding one in the muscle. Any
activity of our nervous system diminishes its power for
the time being. The muscle is tired by work, the brain
is tired by thinking, and by mental operations ; the eye
is tired by light, and the more so the more powerful
the light. Fatigue makes it dull and insensitive to new
impressions, so that it appreciates strong ones only
moderately, and weak ones not at all.
But now you see how different is the aim of the artist
when these circumstances are taken into account. The
eye of the traveller in the desert, who is looking at the
caravan, has been dulled to the last degree by the
dazzling sunshine ; while that of the wanderer by moon-
light has been raised to the extreme of sensitiveness.
The condition of one who is looking at a picture differs
from both the above cases, by possessing a certain mean
degree of sensitiveness. Accordingly, the painter must
endeavour to produce by his colours, on the moderately
sensitive eye of the spectator, the same impression as
that which the desert, on the one hand, produces on the
deadened, and the moonlight, on the other hand, creates
on the untired eye of its observer. Hence, along with
the actual luminous phenomena of the outer world, the
different physiological conditions of the eye play a most
important part in the work of the artist. What he has
to give is not a mere transcript of the object, but a
translation of his impression into another scale of sen-
Phenomena of Sight, &c. 107
sitiveness, which belongs to a different degree of im-
pressibility of the observing eye, in which, the organ
speaks a very different dialect in responding to the
impressions of the outer world.
In order to understand to what conclusions this leads, Fechner's
I must first explain the law which Fechner discovered law-
for the scale of sensitiveness of the eye, which is a
particular case of the more general psycho-physical law
of the relations of the various sensuous impressions to
the irritations which produce them. This law may be
expressed as follows : — Within very wide limits of bright-
ness, differences in the strength of light are equally distinct,
or appear equal in sensation, if they form an equal fraction
of the total quantity of light compared.
Thus, for instance, differences in intensity of one-
hundredth of the total amount can be recognized with-
out great trouble, with very different strengths of light,
without exhibiting material differences in the certainty
and facility of the estimate, whether the brightest
daylight, or the light of a good candle be used/'
Herein, then, are contained the limits with which we
can work, and the physiological reasons why we can render
a fairly true impression of a scene in nature.
The only constant factor, then, is the ratio of luminous
intensities, — that is, the picture must be as true as
possible in relative tones or values. Obviously a picture
of bright sunlight should look brighter in a moderately
lighted room than the surrounding room, that is, its first
impression on the observer should be as if he were
looking at a landscape beyond the walls, through the
frame.
From these remarks it will be seen how utterly im-
possible it is to render truly a bright sunlight scene, for
if the values be true, starting from the top of the scale,
the highest light, when you get to the middle tints, they
are too black already, and the picture is out of tone and
false. Obviously the right way is to start from the
lower end of the scale, the darks, and get them as true
as possible, and let the lights take care of themselves ;
but more of this anon.
loS Naturalistic Photography.
D. COLOUR.
Colour. As photographers, the matter of colour exercises us
but indirectly, still the subject should be understood, on
account of its bearing on painting. " Colour perception,"
says Le Conte, " is a single perception, and irresolvable
with any other. It must, therefore, have its basis in
retinal structure/'
Helmholtz divides the vibrations of ether known as
light into three degrees. He says the longest and
shortest rays do not essentially differ in any other
physical property, except that we distinguish them from
the intermediate waves." Thus the ear can receive at once
many waves of sound or notes, and they remain distinct,
but notes of colour do not keep distinct in the same
way, "so that the eye is capable of recognizing few
differences in quality of light," says Helmholtz, and can
only perceive the elementary sensation of colour by
artificial preparation. He also says, the only bond
between the objective and subjective phenomena of colour
may be stated as a law thus, " Similar light produces under
like conditions a like sensation of colour. Light, which
under like conditions, excites unlike sensations of colour
is dissimilar ;" what we want in art, then, is the appearance
of the phenomena. The illumination of the sun's rays
cannot be weakened without at the same time weakening
their heating and chemical action ; this is a point to be
remembered in exposure.
Colour is, of course, excited by the length of the
waves and their frequency, red being the longest and
slowest, and they diminish in length and increase in
frequency in the order of the spectrum through
orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, to the shortest
waves, which produce the effect of violet, the whole
combined forming white. Now Hering has shown that
there are only four primary colour sensations, though he
at one time included black and white, thus making six.
The four are red, yellow, green, and blue, which are
reduced by him to two complementary colours, red and
green, and yellow and blue. In our present state of
knowledge the Young -Helmholtz theory of three primary
Phenomena of Sight, &c. 109
colour sensations for red, green, and blue seems prefer-
able as a working hypothesis, though it seems incom-
patible with anatomical and physiological facts.
All objective differences between colours, according Difference
to Helrnholtz, may be reduced to differences of tone, ol
difference of fulness (saturation), and difference of
brightness. These are the three colour constants.
By tone, or hue, he means in fact difference of colour
as in the spectral colours. He here refers to the vibration
on a tonic scale. Fulness or purity is greatest in the pure
tints of the spectrum, and becomes less in proportion as
they are mixed with white light. All compound colours
are less full than the simple hues of the spectrum.
Brightness or luminosity is strength of light, or amount
of illumination. It is measured by the total amount of
light reflected to the eye.
In nature black and white must be included among
the primary colours when quality is spoken of, as light
acts on black and white.
All differences of tone, therefore, are the result of
combinations in different proportions of the four primary
colours.
Among the defects of the eye in seeing colour,
Helmholtz says, " All are red blind at the innermost
portion of the h'eld of vision, all red colours appear
darker when viewed indirectly."
The furthest limit of visible field is a narrow zone,
in which all distribution of colour ceases, and there
only remain differences of brightness. Probably those
nervous fibres which convey impressions of green light
are alone present in this part of the retina. The yellow
spot makes all blue light appear somewhat darker in the
centre of the field.
All these inequalities are known and more or less
rectified by constant movement. As the eye becomes
fatigued by bright light, so that it cannot at first answer
to delicate stimulus, so it can become partially fatigued
for certain colours.
Fatigue weakens the apparent illumination of the
entire field of vision.
no Naturalistic Photography.
The colour of illumination of a picture, too, varies
greatly by effect of local colour.
What is constant in the colour of an object is not the
brightness and colour of the light which it reflects, but
the relation between the intensity of the different-coloured
constituents of this light, on the one hand, and that of the
corresponding constituents of the light which illuminates
it on the other. For example, white paper in full moon-
light is darker than black satin in daylight, or a dark
object with the sun shining on it reflects light of exactly
the same colour, and perhaps the same brightness, as a
white object in shadow. Grey in shadow looks like
white.
Brightness of local colour diminishes with the illumina-
tion or as the fatigue of the retina is increased. In sunshine,
local coloursof moderate brightness approach the brightest,
whereas in moonlight they approach the darkest. Pic-
tures to be seen in daylight do not admit of difference of
brightness between sun and moon. As colours increase
in brightness, red and yellow become apparently stronger
than blue. Painters make yellow tints predominate when
representing landscape in full sunshine, while moonlight
scenes are blued. Helmholtz says : — " Differences of
colour which are actually before our eyes are more easily
apprehended than those which we only keep in memory,
and contrast between objects which are close to one
another in the field of vision are more easily recognized
than when they are at a distance. All this contributes to
the effect. Indeed, there are a number of subordinate
circumstances affecting the result which it would be very
interesting to follow out in detail, for they throw great
light upon the way in which we judge of local colour ;
but we must not pursue the inquiry further here. I will
only remark that all these effects of contrast are not less
interesting for the scientific painter than for the physiolo-
gist, since he must often exaggerate the natural pheno-
menon of contrast in order to produce the impression of
greater varieties of light and greater fulness of colour
than can be actually produced by artificial pigments/'
Again, when turbidity is composed of fine particles its
Phenomena of Sight, &c. 1 1 1
appearance is blue, as the mists seen in autumn hanging
round coverts, but it is whiter than the aerial blue because
of the colour of the covert behind. When this turbidity
is absent the colours are brighter, hence the fierce blue
on bright sunshiny days with easterly winds. This
matter of turbidity must not be forgotten in portrait
work; it is this which helps to give relief, hence the
absurdity of all photographers' devices, the object of which
is to minimize this turbidity. In addition to these is the
ever-changing effect of atmosphere on colour, that subtle
medium with which the enchantress Nature produces
ever-changing effects, and its chief effect on colour is to
lower it in brightness. Atmosphere greys all tilings, hence
on a misty day all the colours are greyed — we have, in
fact, a " grey day."
Another point which must not be forgotten is that with
bright illumination bright objects become more like the
brightest, and with feeble illumination dark objects be-
come more like the darkest. This is a very important
matter, for it means that in bright sunshine the lightest
greys are lost in white, whilst in dull weather the darkest
greys are lost in black, hence the falsity of having deep
blacks in brightly-lighted landscapes, and as has been
shown, these are untrue, and the result of ignorance and
of faulty manipulation. As Helmholtz has it, " The dif-
ference of brightness and not absolute brightness; and
that the differences in them in this latter respect can be
shown without perceptible incongruity if only their
graduations are imitated with expression."
E. BINOCULAR VISION — PSYCHOLOGICAL DATA.
Single Image.
The remarks already made would apply equally well to °°" a
man if he were a one-eyed animal, but we find there are
other considerations to take into account since man is
two-eyed. Now the phenomena of binocular vision cannot
be treated of with such accuracy as the physical and
physiological facts already discussed. In this subject w<*
1 1 2 Naturalistic Photography.
shall follow Le Conte. It is obvious there is a commoi
binocular field of view for the two eyes. Now Dr. L(
Conte shows us that we see all objects double, excep
under certain conditions. When we look directly at any
thing, then we see it clearly, but all things nearer t<
us than the object looked at and beyond it, are seer
double, or blurred and indistinct. This is the case in life
as can be proved.
He goes on to tell us that we see things singly wher
the two images of that thing are projected outward t(
the same spot in space, and are therefore superirnposec
and coincide. Objects are seen single when theii
retinal images fall on corresponding points — that is
objects lying in a horizontal circle passing through th(
point of sight and the central spots are seen single. No"fl
" all objects at the same or nearly the same distance, bui
a little to the right or left, or above or below, are alsc
either seen single, or else the doubling, if any, is usuallj
imperceptible." This surface of single vision is called the
horopter.
There are, then, two adjustments, the focal and th<
axial, the one an adjustment for distant vision, the ofchei
for single vision, and connected with these is the adjust'
ment of the pupil, which contracts and expands, not onlj
to light, but also to distance and nearness of the object
Therefore, three adjustments take place when we look ai
anything. Connected with these laws are the laws o
direction and corresponding points. Thus we see oui
perfect image can only exist in one place at once, thai
all between the eye and the object and beyond the objed
is indistinct, and that the further off an object is the mon
luminous does it appear. Two objects, too, may be seer
as one.
F. PERSPECTIVE.
Depth, Size, and Solidify.
Perspec- Tne next question is, " To what is due the appearance
of solidity and depth?"'
Depth, or relative distance, is judged of by a combina
tion of four kinds of perspective.
Phenomena of Sight, &c. 113
1. 'Focal or monocular perspective. — Objects at the point
of sight are sharp, but all objects beyond or within this
distance are dim. Distance is judged partly by the act
of focussing the eye by acting, as we have said, on the lens.
As this power only acts within twenty feet, it is evident
that things can only be in focus in one plane.
2. Mathematical Perspective. — Objects become smaller
in appearance and nearer together as they recede. This
is another aid to the judging of distance. The true ren-
dering of this perspective in photography depends on the
correct use of the lens, as will be explained.
3. Aerial Perspective is the perspective due to the
scattering of light by aerial turbidity, for the atmosphere
always contains floating particles of matter. As the objects
recede this curtain of turbidity becomes thicker and the
distant objects grow dimmer and bluer. This is another
aid to the judging of distance, but any one not accus-
tomed to count on this effect may easily misjudge, as we
have done before now to our cost in Switzerland, where a
peak miles away has, at times, seemed to be in the next
valley.
4. Binocular Perspective is due to the convergence
of the optic axes and formation of a single image. Le
Conte says, " The perspective of depth or relative distance,
whether in a single object or in a scene, is the result of
the successive combinations of the different parts of the
two dissimilar images of the object on the scene." Bino-
cular perspective, too, gathers together the imperfect
retinal impressions when the eye sweeps over the field of
view. This only acts within a few hundred yards.
Thus, then, in taking a photograph we must remember
that theoretically speaking, up to twenty feet the picture
can be made sharper all over than beyond that distance ;
for the eye has all these perspectives acting within that
distance.
By size we estimate distance.
Solidity is judged by binocular vision and lighting. Solidity.
When to all these difficulties are added those dependent
on the subtleties of light reflected into shadow, and the
thousand-and-one changes of colour due to the numerous
ii4 Naturalistic Photography.
shadows cast by objects in nature, we get a complexity
which forces upon us how impossible it is for man to copy
nature. A "mere transcript of nature/' which is so
glibly talked of, is, humanly speaking, an impossibility.
No man ever painted a " mere transcript " of nature, or
a truthful copy, any more than a man can make plants or
animals in a laboratory ; but he can, by a picture, give a
truthful impression of nature.
On these data and within these limits, then, must we
work, and here we append a few general principles
deduced from these data, which must guide us in our work.
We have followed them ourselves, and they form the
scientific part of our creed of " Naturalistic Photography."
We have said little upon the drawing of photographic
lenses, as that is discussed in another chapter ; but
of course Naturalistic Photography claims as of vital
importance that lenses be used so as to give the drawing of
objects as they are seen by the eye — in other words, as
they would be drawn by a good draughtsman.
ART PRINCIPLES DEDUCTED PROM THE DATA CITED.
Art We have shown why the human eye does not see nature
Principles. exac^ly as she is, but sees in stead a number of signs which
represent nature, signs which the eye grows accustomed to,
and which from habit we call nature herself. We shall now
discuss the relation of pictorial art to nature, and shall
show the fallacy of calling the most scientifically perfect
images obtained with photographic lenses artistically true.
They are not correct, as we have shown, and shall again
show, but what is artistically true is really what we have all
along advocated; that is that the photographer must so use
his technique as to render a true impression of the scene.
The great heresy of ' sharpness ' has lived so long in
photographic circles because firstly the art has been
practised by scientists, and secondly by unphiloso-
phical scientists, for all through the lens has been con-
sidered purely from the physical point of view, the far
more important physiological and psychological stand-
points being entirely ignored, so that but one-third of the
truth has been hitherto stated.
Phenomena of Sight > &c. 1 1 5
To begin with, it must be remembered that a picture is a ;Ynat a .
representation on a plane surface of limited area of certain pic
physical facts in the world around us, for abstract ideas
cannot be expressed by painting. In all the works in the
world the painter, if he has tried to express the unseen
or the supernatural, has expressed the unnatural. If he
paints a dragon, you find it is a distorted picture of some
animal already existing ; if he paints a deity, it is but a.
kind of man after all. No brain can conjure up and set down
on paper a monster such as has never existed, or in which
there are no parts homologous with some parts of a living
or fossil creature. We defy any man to draw a devil, for
example, that is totally unlike anything in existence. All
so-called imaginative works fall then within the category
of the real, for they are in certain parts real because they
are all based on realities, even though they may be
utterly false to the appearance of reality. By this we mean
that an ideal dragon may be based on existing animals ;
his form may be a mixture of a Cobra, Saurian, and a
reptile, as is often the case ; so far it may be real, but
then the way in which it is painted may be utterly false,
for the natural effect of light and atmosphere on the
dragon may and probably will be ignored, for there is no
such animal to study from. The modern pre-Raphaelites
are good examples of painters who painted in this way;
they painted details, they imitated the local colour and
texture of objects, but for all that their pictures are as
false as false can be, for they neglected those subtleties
of light and colour and atmosphere which pervade all
nature, and which are as important as form. Children
and savages make this same error, they imitate the local
colour, not the true colour as modified by light, adjacent
colour, and atmosphere. But what the most advanced
thinkers of art in all ages have sought for is the ren-
dering of the true impression of nature.
Proceed we now to discuss the component parts of this
impression.
When we open our eyes in the morning the first thing we Tone and
see is light, the result of those all-pervading vibrations of
ether. The effects of light on all the objects of nature and on
i 2
1 1 6 Naturalistic Photography.
sight have been dealt with in the beginning of this chapter,
it only remains, therefore, to deduce our limits from these
facts. In the first place, from what has been said in that
section it is evident we cannot compete with painting, for
we are unable to pitch our pictures in so high a key as the
painter doe?, and how limited is his scale has been shown,
but by the aid of pigments he can go higher than we can.
It has been shown, too, that it is impossible to have the
values correct throughout a picture, for that would make
the picture too black and untrue in many parts. This fact
shows how wrong are those photographers who maintain
that every photograph should have a patch of pure white
and a patch of pure black, and that all the lighting should
be nicely gradated between these two extremes. This
idea arose, no doubt, from comparing photography with
other incomplete methods of translation, such as line-
engraving.
The real point is that the darks of the picture shall be
in true relation, and the high lights must take care of
themselves. By this means a truer tone is obtained
throughout. Now to have these tones in true relation it
is of course implied that the local colours must be truly
rendered, yellow must not come out black, or blue as white,
therefore it is evident that colour-corrected plates are
necessary. But such plates are useless when the quantity
of silver in the film is little, for the subtleties of delicate
tonality are lost, which are not compensated for by gain in
local colour, and this is a point the makers of orthochro-
matic plates must take into consideration. It will be seen
now why photographs on uncorrected plates (even when the
greatest care and knowledge in using them is exercised)
are not, as a rule, perfectly successful, and why the ordinary
silver printing-paper is undesirable, for it exaggerates the
darkness of the shadows, a fatal error. False tonality de-
stroys the sense of atmosphere, in fact, for the true render-
ing of atmosphere, a photograph must be relatively true in
tone ; in other words the relative tones, in shadow and half
shadow, must be true. If a picture is of a bright, sunlit
subject, brilliancy is of course a necessary quality, and by
brilliancy is not meant that " sparkle" which so delights
Phenomena of Sight > &c. 1 1 7
the craftsman. Of course the start of tone is naturally
made from less deep shadows, when the picture is brightly
lighted, for the black itself reflects light, and all the
shadows are filled with reflected light. It will be seen,
therefore, that it is of paramount importance that the
shadows shall not be too black, that in them shall be
light as there always is in nature — more of course in bright
pictures, less in low-toned pictures — that therefore the
rule of " detail in the shadows " is in a way a good rough-
and-ready photographic rale. Yet photographers often
stop down their lens aod cut off the light, at the same
time sharpening the shadows and darkening them, and
throwing the picture out of tone. It cannot be too
strongly insisted upon that " strength " in a photograph is
not to be judged by its so-called ""pluck" or "sparkle,"
but by its subtlety of tone, its truthful relative values
in shadow and middle shadow, and its true textures.
Photographers have been advised by mistaken craftsmen
to spot out the " dotty high lights " of an ill-chosen or
badly-rendered subject to give it t( breadth." Such a
proceeding of course only increases the falsity of the
picture, for the high lights, as we have shown, are never
high enough in any picture, and if a man is so unwise
as to take a picture with " spotty lights," he is only
increasing his display of ignorance by lowering the high
lights, which are already not high enough. This does
not of course apply to the case where a single spot of
objectionable white fixes the eye and destroys harmony,
but to the general habit of lowering the high lights in a
( ' spotty " photograph. Spotty pictures in art as well as
in nature are abominations to a trained eye, and it is for
that very reason that such subjects are more common
among photographers who are untrained in art matters
than in the works of even third-rate painters. The effect
of the brightest sunlight in nature, for reasons explained,
is to lessen contrast, the effect of a sharply- focussed,
stopped-down photograph is to increase contrast in
the subject and thus falsify the impression. Aa the
tendency of " atmosphere " is to grey all the colours
in nature more or less, and of a mist to render all things
1 1 8 Naturalistic Photography.
grey, it follows that " atmosphere " in all cases helps to
give breadth by lessening contrast, as ifc also helps to
determine the distance of objects. As shown in the
previous- chapter, this aerial " turbidity," by which is
meant atmosphere, takes off from the sharpness of out-
line and detail of the image, and the farther off the object
is, the thicker being the intervening layer of atmosphere,
the greater is the turbidity cceteris paribus, therefore
from this fact alone objects in different planes are not and
should not be represented equally sharp and well-defined.
This is most important to seize — as the prevalent idea
among photographers seems to be that all the objects in
all the planes should be sharp at once, an idea which no
artist could or ever did entertain, and which nature at
once proves to be untenable. The atmosphere in the
main rules the general appearance of things, for if this
turbidity be little, objects look close together, and under
certain other conditions are poor in quality.
Drawing In addition to tone and atmosphere, the diminished
Li^htin drawing of objects as they recede from us (mathematical
perspective) helps to give an idea of distance, but by
choosing a suitable lens, which does our drawing correctly,
we need not regard this matter of drawing, A minor aid
to rendering depth is the illumination of the object, a
lateral illumination giving the greatest idea of relief,
but the photographer should be guided by no so-called
" schemes of lighting," because, for more important rea-
sons, it maybe advisable to choose a subject lighted directly
by the sun, or silhouetted against the sun. All depends
on what is desired to be expressed. For example, an artist
may wish to express the sentiment and poetry of a sun-
set behind a row of trees. Is he to consider the minor
matter that there will be little relief, and it is not a good
" scheme of lighting " ? No, certainly not, otherwise he
must forgo the subject. Nature ignores all such laws.
The only law is that the lighting must give a relatively true
translation of the subject expressed, and that a landscape
must not be lighted by two or more suns. In portrait
work, even, it must be remembered that the aerial lighting
must stand out against the background, for in all rooms
rhenomena of Sight, &c. 1 1 9
there is a certain amount of turbidity between us and
distant object?.
The reason we prefer pictures which are not too bright Ontlielm-
lies in the fact that the eye cannot look long at very bright pression.
paintings without tiring. As a physical fact, too, the most
delicate modelling and tonality is to be obtained in a
medium light. From what has been previously said, it will
now be understood that a picture should not be quite
sharply focussed in any part, for then it becomes false;
it should be made just as sharp as the eye sees it and no
sharper, for it must be remembered the eye does not see
things as sharply as the photographic lens, for the eye has
the faults due to dispersion, spherical aberration, astig-
matism, aerial turbidity, blind spot, and beyond twenty
feet it does not adjust perfectly for the different planes.
All these slight imperfections make the eye's visions more
imperfect than that of the optician's lens, even when
objects in one plane only are sharply focussed, therefore,
except in very rare cases, which will be touched upon
elsewhere, the chief point of interest should be slightly —
very slightly — out of focus, while all things, out of the
plane of the principal object, it is perfectly obvious,
i'r.om what has been said, should also be slightly out
of focus, not to the extent of producing destruction of
structure or fuzziness, but sufficiently to keep them
back and in place. For, as we have been told, "to
look at anything means to place the eye in such a position
that the image of the object falls on the small region
of perfectly clear vision, . . . and .' . . whatever we
want to see, we look at, and see it accurately ; what we
do not look at, we do not, as a rule, care for at the
moment, and so do not notice how imperfectly we see it."
Such is the case, as has been shown, for when we fix
our sight on the principal object or motif of a picture,
binocular vision represents clearly by direct vision only
the parts of the picture delineated on the points of sight.
The rule in focussing, therefore, should be, focus for the Ruie for
principal object of the picture, but all else must not be focussing.
eharp; and even thatprincipal object must not be as perfectly
sharp as the optical lens will make it. It will be said, but in
I2O Naturalistic Photography.
nature the eye wanders up and down the landscape, and
so gathers up the impressions, and all the landscape in turn
appears sharp. But a picture is not " all the landscape/' it
should be seen at a certain distance — the focal length of
the lens used, as a rule, and the observer, to look at it
thoughtfully, if it be a picture, will settle on a principal
object, and dwell upon it, and when he tires of this, he
will want to gather up suggestions of the rest of the picture.
If it be a commonplace photograph taken with a wide-angle
lens, say, of a stretch, of scenery of equal value, as are
most photographic landscapes, of course the eye will have
nothing to settle thoughtfully upon, and will wander
about, and finally go away dissatisfied. But such a
photograph is no work of art, and not worthy of dis-
cussion here. Hence it is obvious that panoramic effects
are not suitable for art, and the angle of view included in
a picture should never be large. It might be argued
Pseudo- from this, that Pseudo-Impressionists who paint the horse's
Impres- head and top of a hansom cab are correct, since the eye can
sionists. only see clearly a very small portion of the field of view at
once. We assert, no, for if we look in a casual way at a
hansom cab in the streets, we only see directly the
head of the horse and the top of the cab, yet, indirectly,
that is, in the retinal circle around the fovea centralis
we have far more suggestion and feeling of horse's legs
than the eccentricities of the Pseudo-Impressionist school
give us, for in that part of the retinal field indirect
vision aids us. The field of indirect vision must be sug-
gested in a picture, but subordinated. But we shall go
into this matter later on, here we only wish to establish
our principles on a scientific basis. Afterwards, in
treating of art questions, we shall simply give our advice,
presuming the student has already studied the scientific
data on which that advice is based. All good art has
sir T- its scientific basis. Sir Thomas Lawrence said, (< Painting
L<3e* is a science, and should be pursued as an inquiry into the
laws of nature. Why, then, may not landscape painting
be considered as a branch of natural philosophy, of
which pictures are but experiments ? "
Fuzziness. Some writers who have never taken the trouble to
Phenomena of Sight, &c. 1 2 1
understand even these points, have held that we admitted
fuzziness in photography. Such persons are labouring
under a great misconception ; we have nothing whatever
to do with any " fuzzy school." Fuzziness, to us, means
destruction of structure. We do advocate broad suggestions
of organic structure, which is a very different thing from
destruction, although, there may at times be occasions
in which patches of " fuzziness" will help the picture, yet
these are rare indeed, and it would be very difficult for
any one to show us many such patches in our published
plates. We have, then nothing to do with " fuzziness/3
unless by the term is meant that broad and ample
generalization of detail, so necessary to artistic work. We
would remind these writers that it is always fairer to read
an author's writings than to read the stupid con-
structions put upon them by untrained persons.
BOOK II.
TECHNIQUE AND PRACTICE.
" Artists are supposed to pass their lives in earnest endeavour to
express through the medium of paint or pencil, thoughts, feelings, or
impressions which they cannot help expressing, and which cannot
possibly be expressed by any other means. They make use of
material means in order to arrive at this end. They tell their story
— the story of a day, an impression of a character, a recollection of a
moment, or- whatever, more or less clearly or well, as they are more
or less capable of doing. They expose their work to the public, not
for the sake of praise, but with a feeling and a hope that some human
being may see in it the feeling that has passed through their own
mind in their poor and necessarily crippled statement. The endea-
vour is honest and earnest, if almost always with a result weakened by
over-conscientiousness or endeavour to be understood. . . .Your work
is exhibited not with the intention of injuring any of the human race.
It is a dumb, noiseless, silent story, told, as best it may be, by the
author to those whom it may concern. And it does tell its story, not
to everybody, but to somebody."
WILLIAM HUNT.
125
CHAPTER I.
THE CAMERA AND TEIPOD.
THE camera as used to-day is a modified form of the The
Camera Obscura adapted to the special end of taking cam€
photographs. It is essentially nothing but a light-tight
box, to one end of which a lens can be adjusted, and to
the other end of which the slide containing the sensitive
plate can be applied and exposed, so that it receives no
light, save that passing through the lens. There are
many patterns and many minor differences in the con- Choice of
struction of these boxes, some few of real value, but the camera-
majority the work of ingenious and speculating manufac-
turers, who hope by some novelty to increase the sale of
their new patents. In all apparatus the student should
choose the simplest and strongest, for in artistic work
lightness per se is no object, nay, it may be harmful,
as leadiog to over-production. In fact nothing should
stand in the way of getting the best results, and though
many of the cameras on the market are light and fitted
with numerous devices which are said to simplify opera-
tions and help the worker, yet such is not really the case,
and these thousand-and-one aids to work are apt to
become deranged, and finally to embarrass the worker at
some critical moment.
In choosing a camera, then, for landscape work, choose
a square one, with a reversing frame, a double swing-
back, and good leather bellows. Let the flange of the lens
be fitted to a square front which can be easily removed and
replaced, and let there be a rising front. It is advisable
to have the camera brass-bound for the sake of its pre-
servation, and if for use in tropical climates the bellows
126
Naturalistic Photography.
Special
considera
tions in
choosing
a camera
Base-
board.
Thumb-
screw.
should be made of Russian leather, as the oil of birch with
which the leather is cured is most distasteful to insects.
In ordering a camera there are a few points which
' experience has led us to consider essential to comfort.
One is that the part of the base-board of the camera
which rests on the tripod head should be strengthened
or made of much stouter material than is usually used.
Another is that the thumb-screw should be of much larger
diameter than is usually the case, and this should be
borne in mind, even in the making of the smaller cameras,
for on a windy day when the camera has a heavy lens on
one end and a loaded double dark slide on the other, the
vibration is often ruinous to the picture during exposure,
while sudden gusts of wind may even crack the wood
round the screw hole. It seems to us a thumb-screw
at least half an inch in diameter should be used, unless
the camera be made to fit into the tripod head, a method
often adopted of recent years, and of course the best way
of all. On more than one occasion we have nearly lost
the camera altogether in the water when trying to screw
it to the tripod when working from a boat on a tide-
way, but by having a part of the base-board made to fit
into a wooden tripod head, this at times most difficult
operation is rendered easy and certain.
The camera should always extend and close by means
of a tail-screw, those opening by means of a rack and
pinion are much more liable to get out of order. Of
course this remark is not applicable to the smallest-sized
cameras. Two small spirit-levels sunk into the tail-piece
of the camera are invaluable ; one will do if made of
the 'right shape. In ordering a camera the two vital
points to be considered are the size including the length
of the bellows. The size of plate you intend working with
determines the size of the camera. We have worked with
all sized cameras, from quarter-plate up to one taking
twenty-four by twenty-two inch plates, and it is only after
long experience and much consideration that we venture to
offer an opinion on the size to be chosen. For ordinary
work, then, we recommend the half-plate size as the mini-
mum, and the ten by eight inch size as the maximum.
The Camera and Tripod. 1 2 7
Perhaps a whole-plate camera (8J x 6J inches) is on the
whole as useful as any. The strength required to do a
day's work with a twelve by ten inch camera is beyond
any but a strong man. It is assumed, of course, that
the pictures of the sizes cited are for albums, port-
folios, or book illustrations. It must be remembered,
however, that the size of a picture has nothing to
do with its artistic value, an artistic quarter -plate
picture is worth a hundred commonplace pictures forty
by thirty inches in size. For producing large pictures for
the wall, however, we consider the camera should be
between fifteen by twelve inches and twenty-four by
twenty-two inches ; we cannot imagine anything larger
than twenty-four by twenty-two inches for out-door
work, and our memory goes back to a marsh road in
Norfolk where we and two peasants had all we could do to
carry a twenty-four by twenty-two inch camera when set
up, from one marsh to another.
The student will of course remember that his camera Square
must be square in order to have a reversing frame fitted,
but that makes no difference to the dark slides. Having
then fixed on the size of his camera, a question re-
quiring the greatest thought, he must next tell the
maker the length of bellows he requires, which is Length,
usually measured from front to back when the camera
is racked out to its full length. As we recommend the
use of long-focus lenses only, as will be seen in the
chapter on lenses, and as no definite law can be laid down
for this length, it is advisable to order a camera four or
five inches longer than the focal length of the lens which
is advertised to cover the next larger-sized plate to that
which your dark slide holds.
And now for a caution against a fallacy still current Size of
in photographic circles, which is that one size of plate is plate-
more suitable for pictorial purposes than another. Let
no such nonsense influence you, the size of the plate has
nothing whatever to do with success or beauty. Every
composition will demand its own particular size and
shape, and though you work with a ten by eight inch
camera or any other size, you will find you will often take
128 Naturalistic Photography.
a nine by four inch or a ten by three inch plate or a dozen
other sizes and cut off all the rest. All fanciful rules
for fixing on the size of a plate for pictorial reasons can-
not be too strongly condemned. Such things must be
left to the individuality of each artist, and every picture-
gallery in Europe gives the lie to all rules for a choice of
size. The artist, must of course, suit his canvas or plate
to his subject, not his subject to his canvas or plate.
Studio For studio, or indoor work, the camera may of course
cameras, ^e heavier for obvious reasons, and a different form of
support is necessary, the one usually adopted being very
convenient for lowering or raising the lens so that the
best point of sight is obtained according to the position
of the model. It seems to us, however, that these
studio cameras and stands are made a great deal too
heavy and cumbersome. For this kind of work a very
necessary part of the apparatus is a hood of some dark
material fixed on to the front of the camera and extending
above and beyond the lens, in order to obviate the effect
of the numerous reflections always present' in a glass
studio. Out of doors this is only necessary when the sun
is shining into the lens ; otherwise it is never needed, for
we have tried it, and have proved that its use has in no
way improved either the truth or the artistic quality of
the negative. In cases where the sun shines into the lens
a hat, a piece of cardboard, a folded newspaper, or any-
thing of the kind, will answer the purpose equally well.
Tripod The tripod head should be preferably of tough wood
head. covered with felt. A metal tripod head is apt to en-
danger the woodwork of the camera, even when covered
Tripods, with leather. The legs should be simple and firm, the
best we know of being made of two pieces of ash or oak
hinged at the bottom, the points shod with iron, and the
legs being stiffened, when in position by a bar of iron
which is secured by a hinge. Every one should have two
pairs of legs at least ; one pair, so that when the camera
is set up the lens may be on a level with the eye of a man
of average height, and one pair shorter, so that the lens
is only three feet from the ground. In addition to these
we always have handy three tough poles eight feet long
The Camera and Tripod. 129
and about the diameter of a broomstick ; these are shod
with iron heels, and have notches cut at the unshod ends.
These are most useful to lash to the long legs when using
them in water-ways. It is as well to have six double- Donble-
backs, for by filling them all at one operation the student backs,
empties a box of plates, and so avoids a chance of mixing
exposed and unexposed plates. The most convenient
method of carrying the plates in all cases up to and in-
cluding the ten by eight size, is to have a bag made which Bags,
will take the camera, three double-backs and the focussing
cloth, and a separate bag for the other three double-backs
which can be left or taken out at pleasure.
A very useful piece of apparatus is a clamp which can Clamp,
be screwed on anywhere, but especially to a boat's gun-
wale, the tanrail of a steamer, a fence, and numerous
other places whence good pictures can often be secured.
Such a clamp can be purchased at most of the dealers'
shops.
Having decided on these matters, we will suppose the Setting up
novice is now provided with camera and tripod. Now for the
f T j -i i j.- T J.J.- A.I camera.
a few details about starting. In setting up the camera on
its tripod) one leg should be placed either between the
photographer's legs or exactly opposite to him, he will
then find he can command the camera easily and alter its
position with a touch. If, on the contrary, the legs are
put up by chance, he will soon find his lens playing all
sorts of gymnastic tricks, one moment looking up aR
if threatening the stars, the next studying with the
deepest interest the ground at its loot.
The manipulation of the rising front is a power need- Rising
ing considerable study, for, by moving it, you can regu- r
late the amount of foreground you wish to include in your
picture. The limit of rise of the front is determined by
the manufacturer, and the limit beyond which the student
must not go is determined by the covering power of
the lens he is using, for he will remember that every
lens only covers a certain circle, the area of the circle
depending on the construction of the lens. The usual
method of describing the covering power of a lens is
to give the measurements of the greatest parallelogram
1 30 Naturalistic Photography.
that can be inscribed in this circle. It will be easily seen
that if the lens we use only just covers the plate, that when
the front is raised, the lower corners will have no image
exposed on them, and the higher the lens is carried, the
more of the lower part of the picture will be cut off. As
the image is upside down, the blank corners will appear in
the sky of the negative. It is then obvious that if the
covering capacity of the lens is greater than needed for
the plate used, the rising front may be used to a much
greater extent than if you only use a lens advertised to
cover the plate you are exposing. It must always be
remembered that if the optical axis of the lens be raised
above the centre of the plate the illumination may be
unequal.
Swing. The effect of the horizontal and vertical swing-back
is identical, as is obvious if the camera be placed on its
side, for the horizontal swing becomes vertical, and vice
versa. If the camera be set up plumb, the effect of
using the vertical swing-back to its extreme limits
(which are determined by the mechanical construction
of the camera) is to lengthen objects in the direction of
their obliquity and to sharpen them. What does this mean
from an art point of view ? It means that as a rule it
throws the whole picture out of drawing, the relative posi-
tions of the planes are altered, the relative definition in the
planes is altered and therefore the relative values, and
therefore as a rule the picture, is artistically injured.
This rule-of-thumb use of the swing-back arose, no
doubt, from the practice of those craftsmen, untrained in
art, whose aim was the production of " sharp " pictures.
The only legitimate extensive use of the swing-back is
when the camera is tilted before an architectural subject,
when it is quite correct to have the ground-glass plumb,
although for our part we deem the tilting of the camera
to be undesirable. The swing-backs can, however, be
used, with the greatest caution, in artistic work, and
their value can scarcely be overrated, but it requires
great knowledge to use them appropriately. The subtle
changes in the drawing and composition of a picture
which can be obtained by an intelligent use of the two
The Camera and Tripod. 1 3 1
swing-backs, make them, to those who know how to use
them, most valuable tools. But if the beginner will
take our advice, he will keep his ground-glass plumb,
and his horizontal swing-back square, and never venture
to alter either until he has thoroughly mastered his
technique, and has some insight into the principles of art.
The use of these swing-backs seems so easy, as of
course it is, when " sharpness" is all the desideratum
and embodiment of the operator's knowledge of art, but
in reality none but artists know their real value. By
their means, the impression of the whole scene can often
be more truly rendered, and things can be subdued and
kept back in the most wonderful manner ; and since we
wish to get a true impression of the scene we are inte-
rested in, not a realistic wealth of detail, it can be easily
understood how invaluable are the swing-backs when
used cautiously. Muvbridere's scalloping horses are in
n c ±1 • &. & i , f ,1 sum and
all of their movements true, but many of these fact<
are never seen by the eye, so quick are they. On
the other hand, the student, if he goes to the British
Museum, can see in the Parthenon Frieze that the
sculptors in some cases carved the legs of the farthest off
of three horses in higher relief than those of the nearer
horses, but if he goes off a few paces and views the carving
in its entirety, he will see the true impression is gained ;
the nearest legs look the farthest off, and so the work is
true in impression, though not true in absolute fact.
And though the use of the swing-back makes the draw-
ing a little false, yet if the lens we shall describe here-
after be used, the falsity is so very slight as to be
hardly noticeable, while it is far more correct than any
human hand guided alone by a human eye can render
it. With art as with science, nothing is absolutely cor-
rect, the personal equation and errors of experiment
must be allowed for, but the results are true enough for
working purposes.
By perforating a thin metal plate with a minute hole, Pin-hole
large enough only to admit a pin's point, and fitting it to
the front of the camera in place of the lens, an image
will be thrown on the focussing screen, as the piece of
K 2
132 Naturalistic Photography.
ground glass at the opposite end of the camera is called.
If the image be received on to a sensitized plate, it will
be impressed on the plate, and can be developed in the
ordinary way. Were it not for the great length of time
required for exposure, it would be a great question
whether any lens at all need be used in photography,
but since the exposures required to produce pictures
without lenses vary roughly from one to thirty minutes,
this method cannot be seriously considered here, for,
as we shall show, within certain limits, the quicker
the exposure the better ; nevertheless, the drawing of
pictures taken in such way would obviously be correct.
In cases where the length of exposure is immaterial,
this method would be a worthy field for experiment.
Accidents The student must be careful to see that the inside of
the camera is a dead black, and that it keeps so. At
times the camera may leak or get out of register, that
is, the plate does not exactly take the place of the
ground glass, in which case he should at once send it to
the maker. Should the student wish at aj*y time to
Test for test the register of his camera, he has only to pin up a
register, printed card and focus it as sharply as possible, using a
magnifying glass, if one is at hand. Then load the
dark-slide with a plate of ground-glass, and after slid-
ing it into position, open the slide (if a double-back)
when the image will be seen on the ground-glass plate,
and its sharpness can be noted. If perfectly sharp, the
camera is in register.
Hand A good form of small camera to be carried in the hand
is a great desideratum for artistic studies. Exquisite
studies of figures, birds, and all sorts of animal life
could be made with such a contrivance, studies admir-
ably suitable for tail-pieces or illustrations to go in with
the text. That there are dozens of patterns of hand
cameras commonly called " detective cameras," we are
well aware, and we have tried some of the best, but we
have found none satisfactory for artistic purposes, and
can therefore recommend none. We may here remark
that the name " detective camera " is, in our opinion,
undesirable, photographers ought not to have it even sug-
cameras.
The Camera and Tripod. 133
gested to them that they are doing mean, spying work
with their cameras, whereas the term <( hand camera "
meets every requirement. Of course the smaller cameras
advertised to be worn on the person are nothing but toys.
The camera we should like to see introduced would be
a very light collapsible camera, which could be easily
carried in the pocket when not in use. It should be
able to take pictures not larger than four and a half by
three and a half inches, and should be fitted with the
Eastman spools, so that any number of exposures could
be made. The lens should be Dallmeyer's long focus
rectilinear landscape lens, fitted with a good shutter.
There should be a light view meter attached to the top.
There is no necessity for a ground-glass screen, for on
the tail-board could be registered various distances, at
which the film is in focus ; and since for artistic purposes
most of the studies would be of objects near at hand, this
arrangement would be effectual.
Many hand cameras are fitted with a camera obscura. View
The handiest view finder for quick exposure work is to finder-
fit a double convex lens of the same focal length as the
working lens to the front of the camera, and turn
up the focussing screen at right angles to the plane of
the top of the camera, when it may be secured by a
small brass catch fitted for the purpose. When the
focussing cloth is thrown over the lens and screen a
temporary double camera is made, and the moving objects
can be watched on the ground glass. With experience
it is possible to judge by simply looking over the top of
the camera.
1 34 Naturalistic Photography.
CHAPTER II.
LENSES.
Optics. WE do not intend to incorporate in this chapter
elementary optics, as the subject is well known to most
educated men, but in case any reader should know no-
thing of light and optics, we recommend him to get
Ganot's Granot's Physics, and thoroughly master at least the
Physics. paT.agraphs of Book VII., on " Light/' that we enume-
rate below.1 This may seem a little formidable, but our
reader will find that with a very simple knowledge of
mathematics he can easily understand all the sections
marked, and it is our opinion that light and chemistry
should be studied directly from systematic text- books
that treat of those subjects. In the Appendix we shall
refer to some additional books which we consider advis-
able for the student to read, but for the present we
strongly recommend him to thoroughly master the parts
of Ganot that we have cited, and to avoid all other
desultory reading until he has doue so.
Far too much time has been given, and far too much im-
portance has been hitherto attached, to the subject of optics
in connection with photography. Much time and expense
would have been saved had the pioneers of photography
1 Namely, paragraphs 499, 500, 501,502, 503, 504, 506, 508— the
Laws of the Intensity of Light, 509 — Photometers, Rumford's and
Bunsen's, 510, 511 -first proof only, 512, 513, 514, 518, 519, 524,
525, 528, 533, 536, 537, 538, 539, 540, 542, 543, 544, 551, 552, 554,
555, 556, 558, 564, 565, 566, 567, 568, 569, 570, 571, 572, 573, 574,
575, 576, 579, 580, 581, 582, 583, 584, 602, 604, 612, 615, 616, 617,
618, 619, 620, 62 L, 625, 626, 627, 628, 629, 631, 632, 634, 635, 636,
637, 639, 640, 641, 645, 646, 650, 652, 655, 656, 659, 661, and 664.
Lenses. 135
had good art educations as well as the elementary
knowledge of optics and chemistry which many of them
possessed, for without art training the practice of photo-
graphy came to be looked upon purely as a science, and
the ideal work of the photographer was to produce an un-
natural, inartistic and often unscientific, picture. It is, in-
deed, a satire on photography, and a blot which can never
be entirely removed, that at the very time the so-called
scientific photographers were worrying opticians to death,
and vying with each other in producing the greatest
untruths, they were all the while shouting in the market-
place that their object was to produce truthful works. At
length, when the most doubly patented distorting lenses
were made to meet their demands, they, with imperturb-
able self-confidence, presented a sharp, untrue photograph,
insisting upon its truth. " A truer picture/' said they,
" than drawing ; " " truer than the eye sees," some said.
In short their picture was absolutely perfect. When a lens
giving a brilliant picture, with all the detail and shadows
sharp, and the planes all equally sharp, was at last
produced, the scientists were in excclsis. But, alas ! they
proved themselves as unscientific as they were inartistic !
Had they but taken up their simplest form of lens and
used it as a magnify ing-glass, they would have seen
immediately that all was not right, and instead of
clamouring for the artistic falsities of " depth of focus/'
" wide-angle views," " sparkle/' and the other hydra-
heads of vulgarity, they might have set to and made the
lens which was required. It was but a simple thing
that was required.
The question then arises — What is the best lens for
artistic purposes ? That lens is Dallmeyer's new long-
focus rectilinear land scape lens. This summer (1888) we landscape
used one of these lenses and were delighted with it. lens-
Why is this the best lens for our purpose ? is the Why this
question that naturally arises. It is the best because ^ lfi
being what is called a long-focus lens, it cannot be so
ignorantly employed as can lenses of shorter focus, there
is no appreciable marginal distortion, and with open
aperture the outlines of the image are softly and roundly
Naturalistic Photography.
Best focal
length to
use.
Experi-
ment for
finding a
rough
rule for
the use of
lenses.
Com-
ments.
False
drawing
producing
false
tonality.
rendered, and in addition the relative values seem to us
to be more truly rendered by it.
This lens then being, as we think, the best for artistic
work, the next question that arises is what focal length of
lens must we use to get the best results. The student will
be told ad nauseam that if he places his eye at the
distance of the focal 'length of the lens from the
photograph he is inspecting, all will be well. Such,
however, is not always the case. He may prove it for him-
self by taking a lens of short focus and photographing any
suitable object placed too near to him, and he may then
place his eye at the distance of the focal length, and if
he be an artist, he will immediately detect that the
drawing is false, and the distance is dwarfed and pushed
together as compared with foreground objects, whilst
in a true drawing the proportions must be true between
the foreground objects and distant objects. This misuse
of the lens is what leads to the production of so many
photographs false in drawing, and it is evident that since
many of these falsely drawn photographs have been and
are a basis for many scientific purposes, the deductions
based upon them will have to be reconsidered.
The next question is, what proportion, as a rule, should
the focal length of the lens bear to the base of the pic-
ture to give approximately true perspective delineation ?
This proportion should be as two to one, that is, the focal
length of the lens should be as a rough working rule twice
as long as the base of the picture. We arrived at the result
by making a series of drawings on the ground glass of
the camera, and comparing them with a perspective
drawing made upon a glass plate. Opticians have arrived
at the same conclusion, for we find this is the rough
rule stated by Mr. Dallmeyer in his "Choice Lenses."
The falsity of the statement that photographs are always
true — a statement that has been in vogue from the
earliest photographic days — is then apparent. It will
now be obvious why some lenses make ponds of puddles,
and otherwise falsify the landscape. This fact would have
long ago been noticed had artists always seen the landscape
from which the photograph had been taken. Another
Lenses. 137
thing which a wide-angle lens, if wrongly used, does, is,
iu the case of a picture with clouds, to draw down and
crowd together the clouds, and define them more sharply
than the eye sees them, so that when the negative is
printed they appear too strong in value, and the whole
picture is thrown out of tone, and is therefore false and
inartistic, even if the lens be correctly used ; this fault
is generally present in pictures taken with these lenses.
It will be seen from our remarks, therefore, that
the only lens we recommend for artistic work is
Dallmeyer's new rectilinear landscape lens. At least two
of these should be obtained of different focal lengths,
one of which is advertised to cover a plate a size larger
than that used by the photographer, and the second to
cover the same sized plate that he uses. In addition a
rapid rectilinear lens as advertised to cover a plate of
the same size as his camera, will be found very useful for
quicker work. For special- purposes, for example in Lenses for
photographing beetles, or fish, or flowers for scientific special
manuals, the linest lenses procurable must be used, and P'
sharpness, brilliancy, &c., are vital qualities in such
cases, for the work desired is diagrammatic and not
artistic, but in these cases also the greatest care must
be taken to use the lenses properly, so that the drawing
is correctly rendered. Ignorant critics and enthusiastic
partisans alike have claimed for photography, as its
chief merit, " truthfulness. " As has been shown, a
photograph may be very false indeed.
Another chimera is that of " composite photography," Corapo-
to which we shall again refer. When Mr. Galton tells us ?lfce ph£"
he uses an ordinary portrait lens for his work, and gives
no other details, that is quite sufficient, in our opinion,
to seriously impair the value of his " composites," even
were there no other considerations.
The only really artistic series of photographic portraits Portraits
we have ever seen, namely, those by Mrs. Cameron, were take^ with
taken with the next best lens to that advocated, namely, rectilinear
a rapid rectilinear lens, but even they would have been lens,
improved by the use of the new lens. We have besides
seen here and there really artistic portraits by others
133
Naturalistic Photography.
Dia-
phragms.
Modified
dia-
phragms.
Intensity
of lens.
(but these were the result of chance, as no second picture
was ever produced by the same worker), and they were
taken by a rapid rectilinear lens. Mrs. Cameron, though
no£ an artist, had knowledge enough to see that the portrait
lenses of the day were undesirable for her work. And
here it may be remarked that a great ignorance of optics
is as harmful as wasting too much time upon its study.
One industrial portrait photographer, who has very
occasionally succeeded in producing- an artistic picture,
prides himself, we are told, on not knowing what lens he
uses. Such a man can never be an artist, for he cannot
know whether his work be true or false. To appreciate
falseness in drawing requires considerable training. An
average judge of photography might discover gross dis-
tortion of limbs, due to violent perspective ; but how
many would notice the false drawing in a face which
is taken with a portrait lens ?
Supplied with his lenses, the student will find
" stops," or diaphragms. The name, " stop," suggests
its use. By making the light pass through a contracted
hole, the weak marginal rays are cut off, and the image is
therefore made sharper all over, spherical aberration is
reduced, and the depth of focus is increased. But though
diaphragms are used to correct an error, yet the ignorant
use of them is as great a source of error. One of the
causes of sharply defined and false heavy shadows in the
much-vaunted " sharp photographs " is due to focussing
sharply, and "stopping down," that is, to using a small
diaphragm. This is the invariable practice of most photo-
graphers.
Some ingenious workers have suggested modifications
in the construction of diaphragms, with a view to im-
proving the picture ; one of these beingapaper diaphragm,
made translucent with castor oil ; but we have not found
any advantage in these novelties. It is, however, a legiti-
mate field for experiment, and translucent diaphragms
might be tried in indoor work and bright out-door effects.
The student will often see in photographic papers that
TT Tf
a lens works at -- or 57;, or some other number. This
o oZ
Lenses. 139
simply expresses the ratio between the working aper-
ture and the equivalent fociis of the lens, and is
obtained by dividing the equivalent focus by the work-
TT
ing aperture. — then means the aperture is one-eighth
of the focal length of the lens referred to. The rapidity
of lenses are compared in this way by squaring the
denominators of the fractions thus obtained; when the
results will give the ratios of rapidity. By "depth of<<r)eP^ot%
focus " is roughly meant the sharp rendering of the c
different planes of a landscape, or any object with more
than one plane in one plane. Needless to say, this quality,
greatly sought for in lenses by photographers, is a thing
to be carefully avoided in artistic work, as we shall
show later on.
By a flare spot is meant a circular spot on the focussing Flare spot,
screen, which receives more light than the surrounding
field ; it is said to be caused by the diaphragms being
wrongly placed. The same effect is produced when the
sun shines into the lens, the light being then reflected
from the brass tubing of the lens, and it is for that reason
that the lens must be carefully shaded during exposure,
when the sun is directly in front of the camera.
The angle of view included by a lens is an important Angle of
consideration,, and we shall refer to this later on ; here view<
we shall only show how this angle may be determined
when the student wishes to do so. The angle
depends on two factors, the length of the base line of
the picture, and the focal length of the lens. This is
practically determined by ruling a horizontal line the
actual length of the base line of the picture, and drawing
from the centre of this line a perpendicular equal in
length to the focal length of the lens. Completing the
triangle, we have in the angle contained by the two sides
of the triangle the required angle, which can be measured
by an angle measurer. Experience shows that if the
base of the picture is greater than or equal to the focal
length of the lens, the angle included will vary between
53° and 90°; but if the base is less than the focal length,
these angles will vary between M° and 19°, or less. It
140 Naturalistic Photography.
will be seen, therefore, that the long-focus lenses give
more suitable angles of view for pictorial purposes.
Hints on Delicate optical instruments, like lenses, must, it is
lenses. needless to say, be carefully protected.
A good lens should be free from scratches, striations,
dull patches, due to imperfect polishing, and veins ; but air
bubbles do not affect its value, for it must be remem-
bered that the shape of the hole through which the light
passes does not affect the image, save only by cutting off
some of the light. Thus, if a wafer be stuck to the
centre of the lens, the image will be found unimpaired.
Dust and dirt, however, though they do not seriously
impair the definition of the image, yet cut off much light,
as will occur to any one when he thinks of the difference
between the light of a room, when the windows are
dirty, and when they are perfectly clean. Lenses
should not be left in bright sunlight, for this causes
a change that slows them, the dark also injures
them in certain cases, for, as all microscopists know well,
darkness causes a change in Canada balsam, with which
lenses are cemented together.
Mr. Dallmeyer insists that lenses should be kept dry
and free from sudden changes of temperature, otherwise
they may tarnish or sweat, as it is called. Any one who
has been troubled with this sweating will never forget
it. Our experience is that the best way to keep lenses is
in small leather, velvet-lined cases. We generally keep
with them a piece of soft chamois leather, or an old silk
handkerchief. No compound of any kind should be used
to clean lenses, if anything appears to be going wrong
with them, they should at once be sent to the maker.
View- A valuable little tool is a view-meter. The handiest
and compactest we have seen is that supplied in teloscopic
form.
141
CHAPTER III.
DARK ROOM AND APPARATUS.
THERE is no need to despair if there is no dark room, no Dark
, . ., .. r, o .c room,
place to build one, no means to pay tor one. borne ot
our most successful plates were developed in a scullery,
and others in the bedroom of a house-boat. In fact, the
sooner the student learns to develop anywhere, the better,
for no one, studying to do artistic work, should leave his
plates till his return homo (if he is away on a journey) ,*
they should without fail be developed the same day on which Develop-
j? 7 incr rule.
they are exposed.
Only for portraiture is a dark room very necessary, Dark
and you cannot do better than build one as suggested rc
by Captain Abney, in his " Treatise on Photography,"
modifying it to suit your taste and means. One thing,
however, you should be careful about, and that is the
ventilation, and money should not be spared on that de-
partment. The dark room can be scientifically ventilated Ventila-
by any good sanitary engineer. We have already, else- tlon-
where, gone into the subject of ventilation of darkrooms,
warning photographers of the pernicious effects of
defective ventilation.1 The best sinks are made of Apparatus,
earthenware, as supplied by Doulton. The lamp should
be large, and give a good light. Ruby glass is, to some, Ruby
injurious to the eyesight, and has been known to produce glaSB*
nausea and vomiting, in which cases cathedral green and
yellow glass should be used. The photographer will
1 " Ventilation of the Dark Eoom " and " Ammonia Poisoning "
in the "Year Book of Photography and Photographic News
Almanac " for 1885-87, and on " Pharyngitis and Photography "
in the " Year Book of British Journal of Photography " for 1887.
T42
Naturalistic Photography.
Dishes.
Light
cover.
Sable
brush.
Chemical
solutions.
Plate
washer.
Drainage
rack.
Travelling
lamp.
Measures.
require at least eight dishes, and at the very start he
should make it a rule never to use a dish save for one
purpose. We consider the best dishes for all purposes
are made of ebonite. They should be bought in a nest,
the smallest size taking the largest plate used by the
operator, and the other seven increasing in size, so
that one fits into the other. This makes them more con-
venient for carriage. The dishes should be marked by
painting on their bottoms. One will be wanted for
developing, one for the alum bath, one for the changing
bath, one for the hyposulphite bath, one for the acid bath
in developing platinotype prints, one for the water bath
in the same process, one for an intensifying bath, leaving
one over for odd jobs.
When it is remembered that hyposulphite of soda is so
" searching " that it has been known to penetrate through
the ordinary so-called "porcelain" dishes and crystallize
on the outside, one may judge how important it is to keep
a separate dish for each operation.
A light wooden board with a handle is most convenient
for putting over the developing dish, in the earlier stages
of developing, especially when using ortho-chromatic
plates, but the student must be careful to keep it on a
shelf by itself. Another requisite is a broad brush of
fine sable hair, say three inches broad, this had better be
kept perfectly dry and clean in a box of its own.
The chemical solutions should be kept in bottles with
glass stoppers, each bottle should have an enamelled
label, so that it can be readily seen in the dark room,
and cannot be destroyed by acids. A zinc washing
trough which holds two dozen plates must be procured.
A simple wooden drainage rack is also necessary. We
have tried several travelling lamps, and have so far found
no satisfactory one. There are several in the market,
and the photographer must choose his own. Two
measuring-glasses at least must be procured, and it is a
good plan to use Hicks' opaque glass measures, as they1
can be so easily read in the dark room. It is as well to
have one minim glass to hold sixty minims, and a large
measure to take the full quantity of developer required
Dark Room and Apparatus. 143
for one plate. A pair of ordinary scales with weights Scales,
(apothecaries'), costing a few shillings, will complete the
list of apparatus required. A few simple printing frames Printing
will be wanted, one of which should be a size larger than frames-
the plate used. A square slab of glass, the size of the Slabs of
plate, and another a few inches larger each way, will be glass'
found the best for trimming prints upon. A razor
or very sharp knife will be found the best tool for this
purpose.
Our student should get all these things of good quality,
and set his face against the syrens who whisper in his
ear that he ought to get this, and ought to have that ; he
does not want anything more than we have told him, a
greater number of things will only embarrass him. We
are perfectly well aware that the most elaborate fittings
have been put up by " amateurs " and " professionals/'
and we are equally aware that these have as yet not led
to the production of a single picture.
144 Naturalistic Photography.
CHAPTER IV.
THE STUDIO.
Studio. ]?OR portraiture a studio is a necessity for obtaining the
best results. We shall very briefly discuss the question
of studios, for we hold that, provided a studio be large
enough and light enough, there is not much else to
consider. We have been in several studios, and worked
for a considerable time in them, one of which we, having
hired, had all to ourselves, so that our remarks are based
on the experience of studios photographic, as well as on
those of painters and sculptors.
Top and The best light is undoubtedly a top light and a side
siae light, light, the side light reaching to within a few feet of the
ground. It is a common fallacy among some portrait
photographers that the side light should reach to the
ground, so that the boots may be lighted. Such an
idea evidently arises from a misconception of the thing
required; the boots are to be subdued as much as
possible, it is the model's portrait we want, not that of
his boots. The studio in this country should, if possible,
iace north, or north-east, the roof sloping at an inclina-
tion of half a right angle. There should be no tall
buildings standing near it, as exterior shadows and
reflections interfere with the purity of lighting.
Building a We do not intend to give specifications for the build-
etudio. jng Qf a studio, for this has been already admirably done,
and we» advise any one proposing to build to consult
?on'™~e- ^ E- L' Wilson's " Photographies/' page 163 et seq. In
cification. our opinion this description leaves nothing to be desired ;
this proviso only being made, that the studio be made
long enough to use a long-focus lens, that shall give
The Studio. 145
us correct drawing. We have not tried Dallmeyer's new
lenses in a studio, but if quick enough they should
be used in preference to all others. Even if these lenses
be not quick enough for studio work, no doubt one will
soon be made that will be quick enough. The glazing Glazing,
should not extend from one end of the studio to the
other ; an unglazed space should be left at each end.
By curtains the length of glazing can always be
shortened. A grey distemper is perhaps the most Walls,
suitable colour for the walls.
Successful portraits can be taken in ordinary sitting- Home
rooms, but we do not think the best results can be P°r."
obtained in this way.
Regarding business arrangements and conveniences,
we have nothing to do with them.
FURNITURE.
The old, and even modern, portrait painters are answer- Furniture,
able for many of the faults to this day committed by
photographers, because they take portrait painters as
models. Lawrence was especially guilty in the use of
conventional backgrounds and accessories. Of photo-
graphic furniture, as generally understood, there should
be none. The studio should be furnished simply, and
with taste, as an ordinary sitting-room. There should
be no shams of any kind, and the furniture should be
chosen with a regard to unobtrusiveness and grace,
rather than to massive beauty. All heavy curtains,
draperies, hot-house plants, and such incongruous lumber,
should be avoided. It should be remembered that what
is wanted is a portrait — the face, or figure, or both — and
all accessories should be subdued. It is very little use
to lay down rules for these things, all must depend on
the individual taste of the photographer.
But, above all, avoid shams and cheap ornamental Objets
objects, such as cheap bronzes, china pots, and Bir- d'Art, so
mingham bric-a-brac. The chairs should be upholstered called>
with some good plain coloured cloth, with no pattern,
and the floor carpeted with matting, or a simply coloured
carpet without pattern. Let simplicity and harmony
146 Naturalistic Photography.
predominate. The room in fact should be a harmony
in some cool colour, and the furniture should not be felt
when in the room. Our advice is, buy your furniture
anywhere, save at a photographic furniture dealer's.
Head- Head-rests must be entirely tabooed. We have taken
rests. many portraits, some with very long exposures, and no
head-rest was necessary. In nine cases out of ten it
simply ruins the portrait from an artistic point of view.
Reflectors. Reflectors, on light stands, should be ready for use ;
but it is obviously erroneous to use large and unwieldy
reflectors. The reflector is really only necessary for the
head and shoulders ; for our object is to subdue all other
parts as much as possible.
Back- All artificial backgrounds should be banished, together
grounds. ^^h mch stupid lumber as banisters, pedestals, and
stiles : they are all inartistic in the extreme. It is a
false idea to represent people in positions they are never
found in — such as a girl in evening dress against a sea-
scape, and all the other hideous conventionalities of
the craftsman's imagination. The background — which
is a matter of vital importance — should be arranged to
suit the sitter, that is, a harmony of colour should be
aimed at. Light fabrics without patterns, or pieces of
tapestry, will serve every purpose, and give most
artistic results. The portraitist should keep a selection
of pieces of fabric of light hues, and a light skeleton
screen can be kept ready, to which to tack them as re-
quired, suiting the colour to the dress of the sitter.
Gradated backgrounds are a mistake, the tonality is much
better shown by having a background of one tint, and
so arranging the light that the modelling and tonality
shall be subtle and true.
Breadth and simplicity are the foundation of all good
work. .The background should never be placed close
behind the sitter, as is customary ; but its distance from
the sitter should be studied with the lighting. As a
rule, it is better to place the background three or four
feet from the back of the sitter. What is required, is that
the head shall melt softly into the background, and yet
retain its modelling.
The Studio. 147
The camera should work with a shutter — the Cadett The
pneumatic shutter for portraiture being as good as any oamera-
we know — and the pneumatic apparatus should have a
very long india-rubber tube attached, for reasons to be
explained later on.
Means may be arranged for taking pictures by artificial Artificial
light, if necessary, though personally we do not care for l?J^™
them. The tonality, though true to the light, has a
false, artificial appearance by day. There are many
methods of making artificially lighted pictures : the best,
in our opinion, are those taken by the electric light. Others
are done by gas, and by magnesium flashes ; a method
quite recently revived as something new, whereas it is very
old. The best of those we have seen were done by the
American " blitz-pulver ; " but the results appeared to us
somewhat artificial. We think artists will always avoid
these artificial lights.
You must remember that in a studio you are taking a Studio
person in a room, and that is the impression you must effects-
try to get in your picture. It is a false idea and an in-
artistic one to endeavour to represent outdoor effects in a A lighting
studio. Studio lighting and outdoor lighting are radi- rule-
cally different, and in a studio you have only to try and
give an indoor effect. This has been the principle of all
'great artists. None but an amateur could fail to notice
the falsity of lighting as seen in outdoor subjects
taken in the studio. On the other hand, in a studio gtu(ji0
you may get any effect of lighting you can for indoor lighting,
subjects, for all such effects are to be seen in a room by
a careful observer. Adam Salomon took many of his Adam
portraits in front of a red-glass window. This is quite Salomon,
legitimate, as is also the arrangement of fabrics for the
background, and the dictating what coloured dress the
sitter shall wear. Let our student work in harmonies
of colour as much as possible, and let him never take
outdoor effects in a studio. Make the room as much
like a comfortable sitting-room as possible, and hide all
the tools of the craft.
L 2
148 Naturalistic Photography.
CHAPTER V.
FOCUSSING.
Focussing, HAVING now seen the principles by which we must be
governed, and the apparatus required, we will briefly
apply them.
How to By- focussing' we understand, bringing the ground-
focahze , J . , ,, B, , . , • «i & .,1 ,1 i
glass into the plane which coincides with the sharpest
projection of the image ; the position of this plane varying
of course according to the focal length of the lens and
the distance of the object from the lens. Presuming, then,
that the camera is in register, and set squarely before the
object to be photographed, as can be determined by the
spirit-levels, let the student proceed 10 focus his picture
as sharply as he can without any stop. He must be care-
ful that the swing-backs are parallel to the front planes
of the camera.
Mental Now the great habit to cultivate is to think in values
focussing11 anc^ masses, that is, you must, in your mind, by constant
practice, analyze nature into masses and values, and if
you constantly practise this at the beginning, you will
find that it becomes a habit, and automatically, as you
look at a scene or a person, you will see on the ground-
glass of your mind the object translated into black and
white masses, and you will notice their relative values.
This habit is absolutely necessary for artistic work, for it
is by this analysis that you will learn to know what is
suitable for pictorial art, and what is not ; for if the masses
and values in a picture are not correctly expressed, nothing
will ever put the picture right. Our own experience has
been that where this analysis has left an impression of a
few strong masses, the picture has always been stronger
Focussing. 149
when finished than otherwise. Now our student, having
sharply focussed his picture with open aperture, must
take his head from beneath the focussing cloth, and look
steadily at his picture ; fixing his eye on the principal ob-
ject in the picture, he should go through this mental
analysis, and at the same time note carefully how much
detail he can see, both in the field of direct and indirect
vision ; and his sole object should be to render truly
the impression thus obtained. He should then look on
the focussing screen, and putting in his largest diaphragm,
and using his swing-backs, and altering the focussing as ,« °fc^ J* °
may be necessary, see how truly he can get this impres- down.",
sion, always remembering that the larger the diaphragm he
uses the better. For this reason he should always begin
with an open aperture, and work down to the smaller-
sizeddiaphragm as needed. By working in this way, he will
soon see what marvellous power and command he has over
his translation, all by the judicious use of his focussing
screen, swing-backs, and diaphragm combined. In focus-
sing he must remember one thing, — never to focus so that
it can be detected in the picture where the sharper focus-
sing ends, and the less sharp focussing begins — as can be
brought about by diaphragms. The sharpness should be
gradated gently. He must also remember that the
ground-glass picture is false and deceptive in its bright- Ground
ness, due to obvious physical facts. This is a point of
great importance, which must not be forgotten when we
are developing. The ground-glass picture, though
greatly admired by the Tramontane masters, and
approved by Canaletto and Ribera, as Count Algarotti
assures us in one of his raptures on the camera obscura,
is not so natural and beautiful as it may appear from the
toy point of view, — it is not what the artist wants, any
more than he wants the pictures of an ordinary camera
obscura, for if these pictures were satisfying in an
artistic sense, every one could, by erecting a camera
obscura, have the satisfaction of his desire, and there
would soon be an end to the pictorial arts, photography
included ; for no one who loved this picture so dearly
would want a camera to take photographs with, but only
150 Naturalistic Photography.
one to look through. The deceptive luminosity of the
ground-glass picture must not be allowed to influence
our normal mental analysis of the natural scene. As we
said before, therefore, the principal object in the picture
must be fairly sharp, just as sharp as the eye sees it, and
no sharper', but everything else, and all other planes of
the picture, must be subdued, so that the resulting print
Rule for i_ if • • • ^ i -j j- i
focussing, shall give an impression to the eye as nearly identical
as possible to the impression given by the natural
scene. But, at the same time, it must be distinctly
understood that so called "fuzziness" must not be
carried to the length of destroying the structure of any
object, otherwise it becomes noticeable, and by attracting
the eye detracts from the general harmony, and is then just
as harmful as excessive sharpness would be. Experience
has shown, that it is always necessary to throw the
principal object slightly (often only just perceptibly) out
of focus, to obtain a natural appearance, except when
there is much moisture in the air, as on a heavy mist-laden
grey day, when we have found that the principal object
(out of doors) may be focussed quite sharply, and yet
appear natural, for the mist scattering the light
softens the contours of all objects. Nothing in nature
has a hard outline, but everything is seen against some-
thing else, and its outlines fade gently into that- some-
thing else, often so subtilely that you cannot quite dis-
tinguish where one ends and the other begins. In this
mingled decision and indecision, this lost and found, lies
all the charm and mystery of nature. This is what the
artist seeks, and what the photographer, as a rule,
strenuously avoids.
As this loss of outline increases with the greyness
produced by atmosphere, it follows that it is greater on
grey days and in the distance; and less on bright,
Example, sunshiny days. For this reason, therefore, the student
must be very careful on bright days about his focussing,
for on such days there is often no mist to assist him, but
still he must keep the planes separate, or he has no
picture. Let us imagine an example : A decaying wooden
landing-stage stands beneath some weeping willows at
Focussing. 1 5 1
the edge of a lake. From the landing-stage a path leads
through a garden to a thatched cottage one hundred
yards distant ; behind the cottage is an avenue of tall
poplars. On the landing-stage stands a beautiful sun-
bronzed village girl in a plain print dress : she is leaning
against the willow and is looking dreamily at the water.
We row by on the lake, and are struck by the picture, but
above all by the dazzling native beauty of the peasant
girl : our eyes are fixed on the ruddy face and we can look
at nothing else. If we are cool enough to analyze the
picture, what is it we see directly and sharply ? The
girl's beautiful head, and nothing else. We are conscious
of the willow-tree, conscious of the light dress and the
decaying timbers of the landing-stage, conscious of the
cottage, away in the middle distance, and conscious of the
poplars telling blue and misty over the cottage roof;
conscious, too, are we of the water lapping round the
landing-stage ; — we feel all these, but we see clearly and
definitely only the charming face. Thus it is always in
nature, and thus it should be in a picture. Let us, how-
ever, still keep to our scene, and imagine now that the
whole shifts, as does scenery on a stage ; gradually the
girl's dress and the bark and leaves of the willow grow
sharp, the cottage moves up and is quite sharp, so that the
girl's form looks cut out upon it, the poplars in the dis-
tance are sharp, and the water closes up and the ripples
on its surface and the lilies are all sharp. And where
is the picture ? Gone ! The girl is there, but she is a
mere patch in all the sharp detail. Our eyes keep roving
from the bark to the willow leaves and on from the cottage
thatch to the ripple on the water, there is no rest, all the
picture has been jammed into one plane, and all the in-
terest equally divided. Now this is exactly what happens
when a deep focussing lens and small diaphragms are used,
the operator (for no artist would do this) tries to make
everything sharp from corner to corner. Let the student
choose a subject such as we have suggested, and put
what we have imagined into practice, and he will see the
result. Yet this "sharp"" ideal is the childish view
taken of nature by the uneducated in art matters, and
15-2 Naturalistic Photography.
they call their productions true, whereas, they are just
about as artistically false as can be. For this reason, too, it
must be remembered that the foreground is not always
to be , rendered sharply. If our principal object is in the
middle distance, let us say, for example, some cottages on
the border of a lake ; oar foreground, consisting we will
suppose of aquatic plants, must be kept down, anl
purposely made unimportant. This is done chiefly by
the focussing and stopping.
, Among the few satisfactory portraits we have seen are,
portraits.8 as we nave already said, those by the late Mrs. Cameron.
In all of these, that fatal sharpness has been avoided ; her
focussing was carefully attended to. The well-known
Newton, miniature painter, Sir W. J. Newton, one of the first vice-
presidents of the Photographic Society of Great Britain,
distinctly advised that all portraits should be thrown a
"little out of focus.'' The falsity of focussing a head
sharply is shown by the fact that by doing so freckles
and pimples, which are not noticed by the eye, stand out
most obtrusively, indeed a case is on record, where an
eruption of small-pox was detected in its earliest stage by
the lens, while nothing at all could be detected by the
eye, though this was but partly due to the lens. This
false focussing has brought in its train another huge
falsity — retouching — of which we shall speak more fully
hereafter.
Sharp focussing, too, by making objects tell too
strongly, throws them out of tone, and so ruins the
picture. When sharpness is obtained by stopping down,
the diaphragm cuts off light, injures normal brilliancy,
exaggerates shadows, and so throws the picture out
Scientific of tone. Of course, if the object in view is to produce a
diagrams. diagrain for scientific purposes, such, for instance, as
photographs of flowers fora work on botany, or offish for
a work on ichthyology, or of butterflies for a work on ento-
mology, the most brilliant illumination possible should be
aimed at, and the focussing should be microscopically sharp,
for such works are required to show the structure as well as
the form. But, above all, the drawing should be correct,
and this is obtainable only by the correct use of lenses,
Focussing. 153
which, as we have pointed out, has not always been
the case. If, on the other hand, the operator wishes
to produce pictures of flowers, butterflies, fruit, fish,
&c., the same rules hold good as for any other picture, flowers.
As an example of the treatment of flowers, the student
will do well to study Mr. Fantin's paintings of flowers.
We have never yet seen flowers, fruit, or still life artis-
tically rendered by photography, though we have seen
some diagrams to all appearances perfect, but in which
the drawing must have been a little false. We have seen
it stated by craftsmen who have produced diagrams of
microscopic and other objects, that they were untouched
(and rightly so), and that, therefore, these diagrams were
artistic and true to nature. Of course, from what has been
already said, it is obvious they were not necessarily true
to nature (though, perhaps, none the less useful for that),
and the statement that they were " artistic" arises of course
from a total misconception as to what that word means.
Here, then, we must quit this subject, and we hope that
we have impressed upon the student the fundamental
necessity for exercising much thought and judgment and
care in focussing, stopping down, and using the swing-
backs, for these three all work together, and are quite as
important as the questions of exposure and development.
Of course there is no absolute state of " sharpest
focus," but when we use the word " sharp " we mean the
sharpest focus obtainable by any existing photographic
lens when used in the ordinary way.
154
Naturalistic Photography.
CHAPTER VI.
EXPOSUEE.
Ways of
exposing
" Instan-
taneous
shutters."
Quick
exposures
" Instan-
taneous."
Classifica-
tion of
exposures,
A PLATE can be exposed in three -ways, that is, by
removing the cap and replacing it, when the exposure is
made ; by folding the camera cloth and placing it over
the lens (the cap having been removed), before the
shutter of the dark-side is drawn, and then quickly
withdrawing and replacing the cloth and sliding back
the shutter ; and thirdly by using a mechanical aid, called
a shutter.
The first method needs no comment save that the
cap should be withdrawn in an upward direction. The
second method has been of invaluable service to us,
and is much practised by Scotch photographers. By
this means very rapid exposures can be made, and yet
detail obtained in dark foreground masses. The third
method is so well known that hundreds of mechanical
contrivances, called " instantaneous shutters," have been
invented. We have always done all the work we could
by quick exposures, and here we may at once say that
for artistic purposes " quick exposures " are absolutely
necessary where possible. We do not say ' ' instantaneous
exposures," because it is high time that this unmeaning
word should be relegated to the limbo of photographic
archaics. Is it not obviously illogical to call exposures
of Tffo- of a second, and of one second, both instantaneous ?
— yet such at present is the custom. ' ' Instantaneous "
means nothing at all, for a quicker exposure can be
obtained by the second method we have described than
with some shutters. It is in fact difficult to classify
exposures, for obviously the classification must be based,
Exposure. 155
cceteris paribus, on the time the plate is exposed, arid
this, especially in quick exposures, is not to be measured
save by special apparatus, which of course is of no
rough working use. We offer as a suggestion the
following rough working classification for describing
exposures. We would define as
QUICK EXPOSUEES,
Uncapping and capping lens as quickly as possible. Quick
Snatching velvet-cloth away and replacing it as quickly exP°sures.
as possible. All shutter exposures which cannot be timed
by the ordinary second-hand of a watch; a note being
added in the case of shutter exposures, giving make of
shutter, and stating whether it was set to quickest,
medium, or slow pace.
TIME EXPOSURES.
All other exposures might be called time exposures, it Time
being understood by this term, that the exposures were exP°sures-
long enough to be counted by the second-hand of an
ordinary watch. A note could always be added giving
the number of seconds the plate was exposed.
We are perfectly aware this method would give only
approximately rough statements of the times of exposure,
but that is all that is wanted for ordinary work, for after
all, except in delicate scientific experiments, the times
given to exposure must always vary greatly, for expo-
sure, as we shall show, can never be reduced to a science.
On the other hand, in cases of delicate scientific work,
it may be required to measure exactly the length of the
exposure, and this is easily done with the proper appa-
ratus, as applied by Mr. Muybridge and others. Our
nomenclature is intended for the use of ordinary operators,
so that they may describe more accurately than they now
do the exposure given to a particular plate ; and it is at
any rate more accurate than any nomenclature now in
use, for, as we have shown, by the camera cloth method a
quicker exposure can be made than with many shutters
working slowly. The fundamental distinction, it seems to
1 56 Naturalistic Photography.
us, for everyday work is, whether the time of exposure is
measurable by the seconds-hand of an ordinary watch or
not, and that is the point on which our nomenclature is
based. Hence, when we use the term " quick exposures "
... . in this work, we mean it as already defined. The shutters
shutters, themselves should, we think, be called " quick exposure
shutters/' or simply " exposure shutters," instead of
instantaneous shutters. We will say but few words on
" shutters/' as these mechanical aids to exposure are called.
Theoretically, the best shutter is that which allows the
lens to work at full aperture for the longest time,, and which
causes no vibration or alteration of the position of the
apparatus during exposure. The mechanism should be
simple and strong, and the whole small in bulk. Mr. T.
R. Dallmeyer's new central shutter, in our opinion, best
fulfils these requirements. Another important matter
is the correct position of the shutter, and this, theoreti-
cally again, is behind the lens, providing the aperture be
large enough to prevent any of the rays of light admitted
by the lens being cut off. But in practice, a shutter work-
ing in the diaphragm slot of the lens answers best, and
the very worst way of all is to work the shutter on the
hood of the lens.
All portraits should be taken by shutter, and by
Quick quick exposure, if possible; in fact, we feel sure a
exposures, first principle of all artistic work in photography is quick
exposure. There is nothing to be said for time exposures,
although we are fully aware how much has been written
on their advantages, and the beneficial effects on the
resulting negatives. We, however, have never seen
these wonderful gains, and for quality we have seen very
rapidly exposed plates result in negatives which will
hold their own in quality against any, whilst in every other
respect, there is everything to lose in " slow " or time ex-
posures. There are cases, of course, when time exposures
are admissible, and even necessary, as in certain grey-
day landscapes, but when dealing with figures or
portraits in good light, let the exposure be as quick as
possible, ere the freshness and naturalness of the model
Toe lost.
Exposure. 157
From what has already been said, the student can Variation
understand that the exposure will vary with the atten- of ex-
dant circumstances. When he considers that there are pos
several factors to be considered in determining the length
of exposure, such as the lens used, the diaphragm, the hour
of day, the season of the year, the constantly varying
conditions of light, the subject and the plate used, — he
will see how hopeless it is to lay down any rule for the
time of exposure, but it will be as well to consider the
effects of these factors, and thus briefly to indicate to
the student what he must especially study.
We have already shown how the rapidity of different The lens
lenses may be compared. This factor, then, can be a£d ^'
determined, but after all it is of little practical value. p ragm-
It is no doubt necessary when a new lens is used, and
every photographer may, when using a lens for the first
time, have to work out its ratio intensity, but as most
workers know their lenses, this factor is hardly worth
considering, for by practice the operator easily determines
their intensities.
These are by far the most important factors with Meteoro-
which we have to deal in exposure, and as they are as lo^?1
variable and uncertain as nature herself, so must expo- tions.
sures vary and be uncertain until meteorology shall
be perfected. Even the perfect actinometer which we
are promised will not settle the matter, for there are so
many subtle conditions to consider besides the mere
chemical power of light. For instance, for artistic
reasons of light and shade, it may be absolutely necessary
to work against the readings of the theoretical perfect
actinometer. That a perfect actinometer may be of use
in scientific photography we do not doubt, but that is a
matter which concerns only scientific specialists.
A few examples showing the protean aspects of nature,
and the difficulties of dealing with it, will illustrate our
meaning. Bouquet has calculated that the sun at an Bouquet,
altitude of 50° above the horizon is 1200 times brighter
than at sunrise. If we, then, apply the ordinary chemical
law, that the chemical action is proportionate to the
illumination, noon would be the time to give the least
158 Naturalistic Photography.
exposure ; but such is not our experience, for the period
of greatest intensity is often an hour or so before or after
noon, because the angle of reflection is more favourable
to us in England. Again, another factor to be considered
is the presence of clouds ; white clouds needing less ex-
posure, as they reflect light to a powerful extent. Again,
in sunrise and sunset light we have to consider refraction,
the warm colours predominating. Another point to
consider is our altitude, for there is less atmosphere
in high altitudes ; therefore, as any Alpine traveller
knows, the sun acts more powerfully on the peaks than
in the valleys. Dr. Vogel tells us that the light of the
blue sky is chemically active and powerfully so. It
will be seen, then, from previous remarks, why winter
light is so feeble. Bunsen has worked out the chemical
power of light, and expressed it in degrees thus : —
12 (noon). 1p.m. 2p.m. 3p.m. 4p.m. 6p.m. 6p.m. 7p.m. 8p.m.
June 1 38° 38° 38° 37° 35° 30° 24° 14° 6°
Deo. 21 20° 18° 15° 9° 0° 0°
Thus at noon on June 21st the light is nearly twice
as powerful as on December 21st, and when we couple
with this fact the moisture generally found in the atmo-
sphere at mid-winter, we see how deceiving are appear-
ances. Again, it is acknowledged by many that the light
in autumn is one and a half times as great as it is in
spring ; but we cannot act on tbis knowledge alone for
outdoor work, for the conditions of vegetation are quite
different, for, as Tyndall has shown, " in delicate spring
foliage the blue of the solar light is for the most part
absorbed, and a light mainly yellowish-green, but
containing a considerable quantity of red, escapes from
the leaf to the eye : ... as the year advances the crimson
gradually hardens to a coppery red."
Another complication is the east wind. It certainly
sweeps away the moisture from the air and dries every-
thing up, giving all things a black hue, and bringing
them up closer to view, at the same time dwarfing
distant objects ; and while an east wind does all this by
taking away moisture from the atmosphere, the actinic
value of light is at the same time lowered. On the other
Exposure. 159
hand, after rain, the light acts quickly, probably owing to
the numerous reflections from moist leaves, and from the
fact that they do not absorb so much light under these
conditions. That the warm colours require a longer
exposure than others is too well known to need dwelling
on. The presence of water in the foreground, on the
other hand, necessitates a shorter exposure : even the
amount of sky included in the picture will affect the
length of exposure. The existing temperature, too,
strongly affects the negative.
It is perhaps necessary here to state that there is No rule for
no set key or scheme of lighting to work by. Some exP°sure-
untrained persons have preached that no photograph
should be taken when there is no sun, or that sunlight is
the best time for taking a photograph : such statements
are as absurd as childish, one might as well ordain that all
music should be played in one key. As beautiful
pictures are to be obtained on the grey dull days of
November as in sunny June. We remember once reading
a statement that all paintings were of sunshine subjects.
We quite forget by whom this extraordinary statement
was made, but at any rate the writer must have been
very ignorant of his subject ; he could never have heard
of half the great pictures of the world ; but surely the
name of Rembrandt might have occurred to him. A
photograph must be true in sentiment, and true to the
impression of the time of day, just as a picture must be.
There are some subjects which in sunshine look beautiful,
and which on grey days are worthless, and vice versa.
Therefore, here again there is no rule, each subject must
be judged by itself.
The rapidity of plates can be measured by an instru- Sensito-
ment called a sensitometer. That one in general use is m
made by Warnerke. But this sensitometer, like many
so-called scientific things in photography, seems to us
very unscientific, for the light cannot be uniform; for, as
is well known, the light given from phosphorescent
paint varies in intensity with the temperature. Since
writing this, we have been informed that this has been
proved to be the case by Dr. Vogel, who, in addition,
1 60 Naturalistic Photography.
brings against this sensitometer serious errors of ex-
periment, due to yellow glass being employed. Dr.
Nicol, too, has stated that the screens sent out vary in
density.
exposure ^e nave seen now *ne rapidity of a lens is determined ;
tables. beyond, then, the comparing the relative rapidities of
lenses, all tables of exposures are fallacious and unscien-
tific. Can absurdity go any further than some of the data
of some of these so-called scientific tables : " Panoramic
View/; " Living objects out of doors/' &c. ? Briefly, what
is the difference of exposure required on a living ass and
on a dead donkey, both out of doors ? But seriously, let
the student be not led away by such chimeras, for there
can be no tables of exposures until the scL 400 of
meteorology is as fixed a science as mathematics ; and any
attempt to work by exposure tables will end in dismal
, failure. If our word is not sufficient to convince any
reader, let him note what two eminent scientists think of
these tables. Dr. Vogel says, in one of his works,
" There is no rule which determines the length of time
a photograph has to be exposed to the light \" and
Captain Abney has told us he considers such tables
absurd and unscientific. It is with his sanction that we
quote him on the subject. Exposure must be judged
by circumstances : no artificial aids will help. For-
tunately for us, plates allow of considerable latitude of
exposure.
But as in all good things, simplicity goes hand in
hand with perfection. We have advocated quick expo-
sures as absolutely essential to artistic work, and it
follows, therefore, that in making quick exposures there
is less liability of going wrong ; so the two work hand in
hand. He who exposes slowly misses the very essence
of nature, and it is this very power of exposing so
quickly that gives us a great advantage over all other
arts. The painter has to resort to all sorts of devices to
secure an effect, which perhaps only lasts for half an
hour in the day. Not so with photographers, if we see
and desire to perpetuate an effect, it is ours in the
twinkling of an eye, and thus in a really first-rate photo-
Exposure. 161
graphy there will always be a freshness and naturalism
never attainable in any other art. And here we would
state definitely that the impression of these quick expo-
sures should be as seen by the eye, for nothing
is more inartistic than some positions of a galloping
horse, such as are never seen by the eye but yet exist in
reality, and have been recorded by Mr. Muybridge. Here,
then, comes in the artist, he knows what to record and
what to pass over, while the craftsman, full of himself
and his dexterity, tries to take a train going at sixty
miles an hour, and lo ! it is standing still, or he expends
his energy in taking a yacht bowling along abeam because
that result is more difficult to obtain than to take it
goin^e^way from him, and he calls it natural and there-
fore artistic. Of course such performances are born of
ignorance and vanity. Hundreds of such things have
been done in the past, hundreds will be done in the*
future, and they will sell, but only to be finally destroyed.
No photographer has yet done a series of marine pictures ;
here and there one sea-picture has been done which has
oftener been the result of chance than of art. As for the
ordinary photographs of yachts, they are mere statements
of facts that merit no artistic consideration.
Here, then, we must leave the question of exposure.
It is, perhaps, the most important and the most difficult
of all photographic acts. In the studio the matter is
simpler than out of doors, because the light is not so
much affected by reflections and various meteorological
conditions ; in landscape work, on the other hand,
exposure becomes a most difficult problem, yet long
experience can bring an intelligent man to give compara-
tively correct exposures, so that the resulting picture may
be developed to obtain the exact impression that he re-
quires, still, eve-i after years of experience, he will at times
find himself baffled and humiliated by failure.
It is in exposures that intuition acts as it does in all
intellectual matters, and he who can seize on the right
exposure at once by instinct is the photographer born, and
unless, after some practice, the student can do this, there
is little hope that his work will ever rise above mediocrity.
M
1 62 Naturalistic Photography.
CHAPTER VII.
DEVELOPMENT.
Study of BEFORE entering on the subject of development, it is
chemistry, necessary to tell the student that if he does not already
understand the principles of chemistry, he should lose no
time in doing so, and as aids to such understanding he
cannot do better than get Roscoe's " Lesson's in Elemen-
tary Chemistry/' * and Abney's "Photography with
Emulsions/' and master the chapters mentioned in the
footnote, ignoring the rest for the time. Also let him
buy Bloxham's " Laboratory Teaching/' For a few
shillings he can purchase apparatus enough to do qualita-
tive analysis. This he will be able to do by following
Mr. Bloxham's directions, omitting, perhaps, testing with
the blow-pipe. If he has the time and means, he will do
well to do some quantitative analysis, working, say with
water, since it is of such immense importance to the
photographer. He will find a knowledge of chemistry
as interesting as useful, and the power of observation
and accuracy acquired by the study will be invaluable
in subsequent stages of his work. We refer the student
to works on chemistry by specialists, because we think
it is a mistake to swell the bulk of our book by an expo-
sition of chemical principles. We caution the student,
Roscoe's Chemistry : —
Lessons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17,
18, and potassium, sodium, and ammonium in lessons 19,
22, 23 ; chromium and uranium in lesson 25 ; mercury,
silver, and platinum in lessons 26, 27, and 28.
"Photography with Emulsions :" —
Caps. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 22, 24, and 31.
Development. 163
however, who intends to take up photography as an art,
to have nothing to do with plate-making. That manu- Plate-
facture can only be done satisfactorily by experts con- makmg-
stantly employed at it, and it is as reasonable to expect
a painter to prepare his own colours, and make his own
canvas, as to insist upon a photographer making his own
plates. Some people have tried to propagate the false
idea that a picture taken on a plate of the exhibitor's own
making has a special kind of merit, but obviously this is
only true when the object is an " Emulsion process com-
petition." In judging of the merits of a picture, no facts
should be taken into consideration, save the arfc expressed
by the picture. Still the student should know the
methods by which his plates are prepared, and that his Plates,
chemistry will teach him, and when he has found plates
which suit him, let him keep to them. We have worked
with fourteen different kinds of plates, and have found
most of them good, though each requires different treat-
ment. One piece of advice is, however, necessary, always
buy your plates direct from the makers, unless you can
rely upon your dealer. Some plates are, of course, much
quicker than others, and this point the beginner must care-
fully bear in mind, making his exposures accordingly. He
must not forget, however, that there are brands of plates
which are " starved " of silver ; these he should avoid,
and it would be well if a vigilance committee were vigilance
appointed in every society to test batches of plates occa- °om-
sionally, and report on them in the photographic journals, mittees-
thus showing up the fraudulent manufacturers. Assuming,
then, that the student has carefully studied the chemistry
of development and has fixed on a satisfactory brand of
plates, we will proceed to give him a few practical hints,
but before we do so we must get rid of an obstacle in his
path, and that is the wet-plate process.
If the student were to ask ten middle-aged photo- Wet-plate
graphers whether they prefer a wet plate or a dry process,
plate negative, nine out of ten would, without doubt
answer, <f Oh, a wet-plate negative."" If the student is
curious and asks, why ? he will get a vague answer, in
which the words " bloom " and " beauty " play con-
M 2
1 64 Naturalistic Photography.
spiruous parts, the adjectives reminding him of an
advertisement for patent balms for the skin. The fact
is, not knowing the first principles of art, photographers
have raised for themselves false gods, and they are still
worshipping them. Let us at once and most emphati-
cally state that wet plate negatives do not give so true
an impression of nature as a gelatino-bromide plate, nor
are - the results so artistic. We have seen much of the
best of Mrs. Cameron's work, and she obtained from
collodion and silver some of the best results ever obtained
from wet plates, for she had artistic insight, yet even in
her work the tonality is not so true, and the te quality"
and freshness is not so fine as can be obtained from
gelatino-bromide negatives. The work by this process is
hard, and incapable of expressing texture correctly, while
the general impression is more or less artificial. This is
fortunate for us, for the slowness of the wet-plate process
would seriously handicap it, even if the artistic result
were better than that of dry plates. The inadequacy of
collodion plates is emphasized when we look at the work
of the craftsmen who used them, and whose ideal was
sharpness and "bloom." Such work will be found most
unnatural and inartistic. Surely many of the false ideas
current amongst photographers arose from the evolution of
the art. Daguerreotypes, the first photographs, were shiny,
and most of the subsequent processes followed in their
wake, until one clear-sighted photographer, Blanquart-
Evi ard, tried to combat the evil tendencies. Considering,
then, the poor artistic quality of collodion plates and their
slowness in exposure, there is absolutely nothing to be
said in their favour for art work. It is decided, then, that
our student/ will work with gelatino-bromide plates.
We venture to state briefly certain hints founded on
bcred in the chemistry and practice of development, which the
develop- student must have at his fingers' ends, for let him remem-
ir)£- ber that the vital question of tone depends on development.
That exceedingly nice question of getting the tones in
approximately true relation, which gives all artists so much
work, gives him who uses photography as his medium no
less thought, and it is on account of the plasticity of the
Development. 165
process of development that we can at once take our stand
and repudiate the ignorant assertion that photography
is a mechanical process. Of course there are fifty other
reasons why it is not merely a mechanical process, to
mention one more of which will be enough, i.e. the variety
of exposures ranging between the YFOO" °^ a secon<i (as
with Muy bridge's work), and a couple of hours as in taking
an interior. Developing is really what modelling is to
the sculptor, and as art guides the modeller's hand, so it
must the photographer's who wishes to obtain pictures,
and the art value of the work of both men will be pro-
portionate to the art knowledge and insight of the workers.
Now you can understand how absolutely necessary to pic-
torial photography is a knowledge of art. Where photo-
graphers are devoid of all art knowledge, their aim is to
get "pluck," "nice gradation," "vim," " snap," " sparkle,"
" brilliancy," to use only a few of their strange and
cheap terms, and, according to them all these loosely
named qualities must be present equally in a sunny pic-
ture and in a grey day picture, if ever they dare to
expose a plate on a grey day. It is all such talk that
has brought photography down to be called a merely
mechanical process, which of course it becomes in the
hands of those who can and do give " pluck " and
" sparkle " to every negative, regardless of effect. It
never occurs to these that each picture is a problem in
itself, and needs different management from beginning to
end. They aim for their " sparkle" from the moment of
exposure to the end of development, and obtain all the
other qualities described so eloquently by their cheap
adjectives, by their unvarying development.
Now let the student, keeping all this in mind, carefully
commit to memory these hints, for they are of vital
importance.
Placing the plate in water before using the developer Hints.
is equivalent to weakening the developer.
By first immersing the plate in the pyrogallic acid
solution with no restrainer or alkali, the subsequent
development is slowed, and greater contrast obtained.
When pyrogallic acid is added in excess, too great
1 66 Naturalistic Photography.
density and fog result. By adding pyrogallic acid,
greater density and contrast are obtained.
If the high lights are getting too dense,, before the
detail in the shadows is well out, take the plate out of
the developer and let the details develop up with the
amount of solution contained in the film, and then re-
place it in the developer for density, if necessary.
Develop plates coated with quick emulsions to a
greater density than others.
Where there is much black and white in the picture,
as in photographing sculpture against black velvet,
weaken the pyrogallic acid. The alkali brings up the
detail, and in properly exposed pictures increases den-
sity. In excess it causes fog. The rate at which the
picture is to be developed can be governed by the
restrainer, which also checks detail and increases den-
sity. For long exposures the restrainer should be freely
used, whilst for quick-exposure work its use should be
very limited.
Too much hyposulphite in the developer tends to
solarization. Although its value in the alkaline deve-
loper has been denied, we are of opinion that in certain
cases it is invaluable; it accelerates development in dark
shadows, rendering the reflected light in the shadows as
nothing else can. Captain Abney recommends its use
in the ferrous oxalate developer only, but we are well
assured of its value in conjunction with the alkaline
developer in all cases of very rapid exposure.
The action of the developer is of course increased by
the alkali, and slowed by the oxidizing agent, but the
tonality is affected unless it be well governed by the
restrainer.
If a picture flashes out quickly, add the restrainer and
plenty of water. If it comes up very slowly, mix a new
developer containing half as much restrainer as the
normal and twice as much alkali.
The quicker the action of the developer the less
marked the relative tones; this is most important to
remember; the pyrogallic acid should never be ex-
tremely strong, never perhaps so strong as recommended
Development. 167
in the standard formulae. We must remember, then, Method,
that we have our three necessary factors for develop-
ment, the oxidizer, the alkali, and the restrainer, all of
which we can modify at will. On our minds, too, we
have, or should have, a vivid impression of the picture
translated into black and white ; we remember what we
wish to emphasize, and what to subdue, so that the re-
sulting picture shall be true intone and impression. We
proceed then to mix our developer accordingly, remem-
bering first that the temperature of the developing-
room makes a difference, and remembering that the
photographic image exists on the film to a degree pro-
portionate to the actinic value of the light which fell
upon it. Therefore, if it is a brightly-lighted landscape
in sunshine, taken with a full exposure, we must get a
picture in a high key, but be it remembered in such a
picture the light greys will be lost in the whites, as has
been already shown ; on the other hand, if it is a very low-
toned effect, the dull greys will be lost in the blacks. We Slow
must never forget to develop all 'plates slowly, let this devel°P-
, , „ r , / i • i i ji ment.
be our ever-present rule, for by developing slowly, the
student has far more command over his work, and
that is what every artist seeks. No haphazard work,
but complete control, so that we can mould the picture
according to our will. And here we must again remind
the student that he can never get scientifically correct
gradations from high light to deep shadow, therefore he
must.be prepared to get only the true impression, and as
a fundamental law, let him remember to watch over the
truth of the lowest tones.
It must not be forgotten that Nature is ever varying, Meteoro-
and that the chemicals will act differently under different conditions
conditions of temperature, mixture, electrical conditions, to be
&c., &c., and the worker must learn to modify them ac- adhered to
cordingly; thus weaker solutions should be used in "
summer and on mist effects. In fact, the more one
sees into photography, the more difficult does the matter
become, for every picture is, from start to finish, a new
problem. Artistic work is not nearly so amenable to
rules as is laboratory work, where the conditions are
1 68 Naturalistic Photography.
generally more constant and better determined. Even
the state of the weather at the time of exposure has
great influence. The careful observer will soon see, in
going over a collection of first-rate negatives, developed
by the same hand and developer, that they all differ in
quality, each one has phvsical characteristics of its own,
which are the combined resultant of these protean con-
ditions of Nature, and that such is the case is yet another
proof of the individuality of a photograph per se, apart
from any other reasons.
Another very important point is the fact that the
light does not act on the film proportionately -to the
length of exposure ; the greatest action occurs at the
earliest part of the exposure, as can be proved, in a rough
way, by exposing a plate on different subjects for the
same length of time. This fact alone at once and ob-
viously creates a fatal objection to composite photo-
graphy. It is a fact which must be constantly remem-
bered in relation to tonality. It has been stated that
an under-exposed plate can be improved by being kept
(undeveloped) for several months, the idea being that
the action having once begun will continue, but this is
not our experience with gelatine plates, though we have
observed something of the kind in working with carbon
tissues. Instead of keeping his exposed plates, our
advice to the student is develop your negatives as soon as
possible after exposure, never later than the day on which
they are takt-n, and for these reasons. First, and chiefly,
of because you should develop your negative whilst yet the
exposure, mental impression of what you are trying for is fresh.
You have, we will hope, analyzed your subject and
thought it all out in black and white masses, and by de-
veloping while that analysis is still vivid to you, you
stand a very much greater chance of getting a true
thing. Secondly, of course, you are on the spot to take
another negative if the first prove a failure. For complete
success, this is the only way, and even if it entail carrying
about a cumbersome dark tent, the practice will in the
end bring its own reward, and it must be insisted upon
as the best method of working. The astounding habit
Development. 1 69
which some industrial photographers indulge in, of
sending their operators all over the country, while they
themselves stay at home to develop the work of those
and other operators, accounts in a great measure for the
numerous parodies of Nature which deck the shop-
windows. This is truly mechanical work, and we are
prepared to say that no one, save by mere chance, can
produce perfect artistic work, who does not develop his
own plates on the spot. Then, again, the student of photo-
graphy who wishes to produce artistic work must not
hurry or over-produce. Onepicture produced in a month
would be well worth the time and trouble spent on it.
We once asked an eminent landscape painter how many
.plates he would be content to produce in a year if he
were a photographer, His answer was, " Twenty first-
rate things would be good," and that meant working all
the year round. We recommend that saying as one
worthy to be remembered. The poet Gray purchased
immortality by one short poem ; many historians and
novelists, now forgotten, have written as many volumes
as there were verses in that one poem of Gray's, yet
few would prefer the oblivion of the prolific ones to the
name that Gray has won.
But we must go back to developing, and we come Ferrous
now to the question of,. (t What developer to use ? " In oxalate
our opinion the ferrous oxalate developer is unsuited to
artistic work. At one time we used it for negatives and
positives. For negatives we do not think it gives the
quality which can be obtained with the alkaline developer
nor does it allow of the same control, which is, of course,
a very grave fault. For positives, on the other hand,
where the conditions are better known, and where
absolute purity of film is required, it is very useful, but
as we are not concerned with positives here, we will not
go further into the matter.
We must impress upon the student the necessity of Chemi-
always using fresh and pure chemicals, and to secure ca s>
such, it is wise to procure them from a good chemist.
Re-sublimated pyrogallic acid should always be used,
and re- crystallized sulphite of soda, and, above all, be
1 70 Naturalistic Photography.
sure the water is pure. For all operations where
chemical action results, none but pure non-aerated
water should be used, preferably, boiled, distilled water,
for the air and other impurities in ordinary water may
be most harmful, as any one who has studied the analysis
of water and air knows well.
Let the developers (the stock solutions) be mixed with
boiling or distilled water, for this will aid in preserving
them. The alum and hyposulphite solutions should
be mixed with cold boiled distilled water, the alum bath
being a saturated solution.
Perhaps the simplest advice we can give as to the
particular developer to be used is to take as the normal
Standard developer one mixed according to the formula sent out
3 °Per< with the plates which the student has chosen to work
with, but the student must not use it in the exact pro-
portions given by the maker. Let the student mix up
the stock solutions as told, varying the constituents as
the case in hand demands. If he has carefully and
thoroughly read his chemistry, and if he remembers the
hints we have given him, he will have no difficulty in
following out the directions.
He should, as a rule, never use more than two-thirds of
the amount of pyrogallic acid recommended ; let him be
very careful how he uses the restrainer, and let him add
the ammonia only in small quantities, unless the expo-
sure has been very rapid. As a rule let him work with
weak developers. We could easily give a dozen or even
fifty formulae for developers, but the student would be
no wiser if we did, only more confused. Every photo-
grapher fancies his own particular formula, but we have
no belief in any special favourites; we have worked
with many, and find the results depend altogether on
the quantities used and the manner of developing rather
than on the constituents. Take, then, the formula re-
commended by your plate-maker, but use it, as we have
said, with judgment. Begin with a sufficiency of pyro-
gallic acid (according to the subject), use little restrainer,
except in over-exposure, and add the ammonia slowly,
adding a few drops from time to time as required. In
Development.
short, make, it your rule to use weak developers, and
develop slowly. If you think you are likely to have
under-exposed, add ten to twenty drops of a one per
cent, solution of hyposulphite of soda, using no restrainer.
Some unscientific persons imagine that development can
be reduced to a science, and that absolute quantities of
each solution must be used. One might as well expect
a physician always to prescribe the same doses. Each
picture requires a developer of its own ; that should
never be forgotten. We have tried hydrokinone instead
of pyrogallic acid ; a given quantity of hydrokinone does
the work of double that quantity of pyrogallic acid,
but it has no advantages, so far as we can see,
except for the development of under-exposed plates.
For very rapid work we recommend the carbonate-
of-potash developer, as green fog does not result. The
formula we use is Dr. Eder's : —
A. ty Pure dry mono-carbonate of potash . 90 parts Eder's
Water ._ . 200 , potash
B. Pyrogallic acid . . ... .12
Sulphite of soda . . . . .25
Citric acid 1
Water 100
developer.
Before using-, mix forty to sixty drops of A with
three ounces of water, and the same quantity of B. We
generally use more water than that recommended in the
formula.
Now it win be remembered that in bright sunny effects
brilliancy, and therefore density, is needed; the gamut
of light and shade is not so extended as in some subjects,
for the shadows are bright with reflected light, but the
whole must be brilliant and in a high key. In our
opinion Dr. Eder's potash developer gives this better
than any other. For snow scenes, on the other hand,
where there are often very black heavy shadows, we re-
commend, as we have done before, the developer given
by the maker of the plates, used in a weak solution.
No photographer need hope to obtain perfect results Local
and exactly what he wishes, without resorting to local develop-
treatment ; and here once more the knowledge of the m
172 Naturalistic Photography.
artist steps in and places him at an advantage over the
craftsman, but no one without sound art-knowledge
should attempt this local development. On the other
hand, with a thorough knowledge of the tonality of his
subject, the artist can, by local development, so modify
his work that he will be able to obtain wonderfully true
results. Let us imagine such a subject as a dark tree in the
foreground of a landscape with a bright delicate distance.
No manner of development will bring these into true rela-
tion unless local treatment is resorted to. Unfortunately,
directions cannot be given for this work, for each subject
will of course require special treatment ; the rationale of
the practice, however, is founded on the genera! chemi-
cal principles of photography. For use in local develop-
ment, then, it is always wise to keep a series of small
paint-brushes at hand. All three developers may thus
be used locally with great effect. During local develop-
ment, the plate should constantly be re-plunged into the
developer, so that the local development may not show.
We strongly recommend the student always to develop by
artificial light, for by this method he will have a more
regular standard to judge of the quality of his negative
than if he trusts to the varying strength of day-
light.
The best way of judging of the tonality of a negative
is to hold it up from time to time before the light of the
developing-room ; correct judgment on this matter can,
however, only be obtained by long experience. The stu-
dent will be told in the printed directions — supplied with
many plates — that if the image does not come up in 10 or
15 seconds, the plate has been under-exposed. This is
not our experience, and, as a rule, the image takes longer
to show than the time named. We prefer to judge by
the way the image conies up. If the highest lights come up
very sharply denned and turgid, then the plate is under-
exposed, but if they come up delicately, and detail begins
to appear gradually over the various parts of the plate,
all is well. But all this will only become familiar by ex-
perience. By constant habit the student will mentally
run over the facts of the problem before him, as does a
Development. 173
physician, and proportionately to his skill will lie apply
the right remedy at the right time.
After development the plate should be well washed, After
and then placed in an alum bath. Alum acts as a treatment
, , 11,1 _c i i of plate,
scavenger, and clears up all the remains 01 the de-
veloper. Next the plate should again he well washed,
and put in the hyposulphite bath. This bath should be
constantly renewed, for as soon as it becomes well dis-
coloured it is inadvisable to continue its use. It should
not be made stronger than 1 to 5, 1 to 10 being the best
proportion. Taking the plate from the fixing bath, you
should wash it very thoroughly, and re-plunge it into a
fresh alum bath, leaving it for a few minutes, then again
wash it, and put it into a plate- washer, the water of which
should be frequently changed. It can then be placed in
a drying rack, and left to dry gradually in a dry room,
where no dust is raised.
It is, in our opinion, always well to expose two plates Duplicate
on each subject, -for the operator can thus, in a second plates,
plate, correct any error he may detect in the first. This
is our own invariable rule, and the practice, apart from
the better results obtained, has taught us better than any
other method could have done, how wonderfully the plate
can be brought under the operator's will. It is hardly
necessary to say the first plate should be examined after
development, by daylight, before proceeding to develop
the second. Once having seen a beautiful thing in
nature, the enthusiastic student will determine to get it
perfectly f if it takes fifty plates and as many days to do
it in.
We strongly advise those desirous of doing artistic Study of
work to begin by studying tone, expose (always giving tone'
two exposures to each subject) on selected subjects,
especially fit for the study of tone ; for example, a figure
in a white dress against a white background, another in
a black dress against a black background, and then a
white dress against a black background, and a -black
dress against a white background; some white flowers
against a sheet of white paper; yacht-sails against the
sky ; faces against the sky ; black velvet in bright sun-
1 74 Naturalistic Photography.
shine, and on a grey day; yellow flowers (with ortho-
chromatic plates) on a white background. In short, the
student should think of all the possible harmonies and
discords that can be found indoors and out of doors, and
he should, before taking a plate, make a mental trans-
lation of the subject into black and white, and put on
paper roughly, with a piece of charcoal, what he expects
to get, by drawing rough masses in tone of the subject.
He should at first think nothing whatever of composition,
or the more poetical qualities of a picture ; but simply
study tone, and by this he will learn thoroughly exposures
and development. Let him eschew all requests to take
portraits, dogs, horses, parks, and what-nots ; but let him
always study tone. When he has mastered tone, and
with it exposure and development, he knows the most
difficult part of his technique and practice, let him then
proceed to picture-making. In this early stage let him
take anything and everything that is a study of tone, and
let him take it anyhow, no posing, no arrangement, and
when he knows his metier thoroughly let him destroy all
these early plates ruthlessly. We strongly advise him to
give away no prints of early work, or he will most surely
rue the day when he did so. In our opinion a year is not
too much in which to work in this way, both in doors and
out of doors, in studios and out, with shutter and without,
before there is any attempt to take a portrait or picture
of any kind.
Accidents In working with gelatine plates various unavoidable
and faults- accidents and faults will crop up, some of which can,
however, be remedied. Such cases we will now go into.
Under- Gives chalky whites and sooty blacks, ergo no tonality,
tre' ergo worthless. No remedy, destroy at once.
Over- Gives thin negatives. What a thin negative is, is a
Lre* matter of opinion, and must be settled by a comparison of
the print with the impression of nature which it is wished
to obtain. For many effects thin negatives are in-
valuable, and the student must not take the ordinary
photographer's opinion as to his negatives ; but only that
of an artist, for, as has been shown, low-toned prints are
unrecognized by the ordinary craftsman, his aim and
Development. 175
object is never to produce such things, these he desig-
nates by all sorts of names, whereas they may be, by their
tonality, infinitely truer than his " sparkling " falsehoods.
In short, it all depends on what the student wishes to
express. Some of the best work done has been produced
from negatives made purposely thin, which have at the
same time been true in tone, and full of breadth. The
density of a negative can be increased by intensifying the intensifi.
negative ; but it must not be forgotten that intensification cation,
does not, in our opinion, correct the tonality, this is a
matter of great importance which has been overlooked.
From this it will be seen that a negative that requires
intensification is worthless for artistic purposes, and had
better be destroyed at once. But as intensification may
be required for some particular object, we must caution
the student against the ordinary perchloride of mercury
and ammonia intensifier. In many cases it acts well
enough, in many others it acts unevenly and in patches,
and in all cases it is not permanent. The best intensifier Dr. Eder's
we know of is Dr. Eder's, whose formula we give — intensifier.
iy Uranium nitrate . . . . .15 grs.
Potassium ferricyanide . . .15 p:rs.
Water 4 J
Wash the plate thoroughly after fixing, so that no
hyposulphite remains, and immerse in the intensifier. It
works up the scale from the lower tones, which is an
advantage over any other. To remove all the hyposul-
phite of soda it is well to treat the plate before using the
intensifier, as Captain Abney directs. A drachm of a
20-vol. solution of peroxide of hydrogen should be mixed
with 5 oz. of water, and the plate soaked in it for half an
hour, and then washed.
The student will find that for certain effects he may Fog.
intentionally produce a slight fog over his plate, as has
often been done with very good results ; but if his plates
are unintentionally fogged, they are ruined. Fog is due
to light having had access to the plate, either during
manufacture, during exposure, or during development.
By developing an unexposed plate it can be proved
1 76 Nat lira Us tic Photography.
whether it was fogged during the manufacture, as In that
case the plate turns black. If the fog- is caused by a
leaky camera the edges of the plate, which are generally
clear glass, are not fogged, for they have been hidden
behind the rebate of the dark slide. Light coming
through the dark slide shows itself in lines or patches,
and is not general. If all these sources have been
eliminated, the dark room must be suspected. This is
tested by putting a plate in the slide, drawing the shutter
out half way, and exposing the plate for a few minutes to
the developing light. If the exposed half fogs, then the
dark room is to blame.
Red fog. We have only met with this phenomenon once, and that
Green fog. was in developing a uranium plate. This is green by
reflected light, and red by transmitted light. It is
generally deposited at the corners of the plate and round
the edge.
Yellow Are rarely met with, and are yellow and brown by
ft" r n reflected light-, whereas stains are coloured only by trans-
mitted light. The student can easily distinguish between
fogs and stains in this way. We have been very suc-
cessful experimentally with Captain Abney's method of
clearing off green fog. He recommends the following
solution to be used alter fixing : —
ty Ferric chloride 50 grs.
Potassium bromide 30 errs.
Water iv 3
The plate should be well washed after this treatment,
and developed up with the ferrous oxalate developer.
But such plates are not always saved artistically by
the method, for the tonality may be thrown out, and the
texture of substances is nearly always damaged.
Frilling. Is due to the expansion of the gelatine, and will rarely
occur if the plate be put in the alum bath before fixing.
The gelatine can be made to contract by soaking in
methylated spirits of wine.
Blisters. Are. of rare occurrence, and will dry out if the plate
be carefully handled and washed in alum, as directed.
Development. 177
They may be treated locally with methylated spirit,
which causes the gelatine to contract.
The best reducer we know of is Dr. Eder's. He recom- Dense
mends the use of — A., one part chloride of iron to eight nesatives-
parts of water. B., two parts neutral oxalate of potash to
eight parts of water. A well-known authority on photo-
graphic matters, Dr. H. W. Vogel, says, " Both solutions
keep a long time without deteriorating. Immediately
before using, equal parts of A. and B. are mixed, forming
a bright green solution, which keeps well for several
days in the dark, but decomposes in the light. Of this
mixture a little is added to a fresh and strong solution
of ' hypo/ In difficult cases 1 part ( hypo ' and J to I of
iron solution are employed. The plate to be reduced is
placed in this solution. The image weakens quickly and
uniformly. The plate is taken out and washed just before
the desired reduction is reached, because the action
continues during the washing, gradually diminishing
under the stream from the tap. This reducer acts on
plates developed either with * pyro ' or ( oxalate/ and
does not destroy the details in the shadows like cyanide.
There is also less tendency to frill than with the cyanide
bath/'
Reducers, like intensifiers, should not be resorted to,
unless in case of a very valuable negative, for it must
never be forgotten that, though the printing density is
reduced, the tonality is not corrected.
Due to the developer, are easily removed by Edwards' Yellow
clearing solution, which we have found most effectual — stains.
^t Sulphate of iron | iii.
Alum . . . . ..31.
Citric acid . . . . . . . 3 i.
Water O i.
Are due to dust in camera or slide, or to using the Trans -
<c hypo " bath too long. If the spots have sharply denned parent
edges, they are due to air bubbles forming at the begin- 8P°ts-
ning of development.
This is a bug-bear we have had little experience of, Halation,
though we have taken many interiors. The only occasion
N
1 78 Naturalistic Photography.
on which we met with it was once when the plate was over-
exposed on a stained glass window, containing much blue
in it. If a large stop be used, and the exposure kept
as short as possible, our experience is that no halation
need occur. If, however, the student fears it, and there
is always a danger of it where any bright lights act
on the film, he should, with a squegee and some glyce-
rine, apply a piece of some dark tissue to the back of the
plate ; this is easily stripped off before development.
Defects All plates should be kept in a dry place, and whilst
dam*0 travelling it is as well to keep them in tinfoil. The
effect of damp is to produce patches, which either do
not develop at all or develop unequally.
Removal This is easily done by putting the plate into hot me-
8 ' thylated spirit, and rubbing the varnish off with cotton
wool.
Sea air. It has been said that sea air affects gelatine plates,
this has not been our experience.
Dirty The backs of the negatives which are generally dirty,
should be cleaned by scraping, and then rubbing up with
a rag moistened in hot water, or preferably, methylated
spirit. The negatives should be kept in a dry place, in
grooved cardboard boxes. Wooden boxes should not be
used for storing either plates or negatives.
Marblings. Are due to a dirty fixing bath ; or to an uneven action
of the developer arising from not rocking the plate, or
to adding the alkali to the developer in the dish and not
thoroughly mixing them before putting in the plate.
The clearing solution removes some of these.
Prolonged Due to the alum bath being used before " fixing" in
pla*es from which the developer has not been thoroughly
washed. It can be remedied by washing and swilling
the plate in water just rendered alkaline by ammonia,
and then fixing as before. We once had a plate which
took several hours to fix even after this treatment.
Limpet- We have had these appear in a few negatives some
shell months after development. We know of no remedy for
the defect ; nor do we know the cause, but believe it to
be due to hyposulphite of soda left in the film.
Deposit cm rphis ig sometimes met with after the imperfect washing
Development. 1 79
out of hyposulphite of soda ; or sometimes whilst the
negative is in the fixing bath, if it has been in the alum
bath previously, and not thoroughly washed. Sulphur
is deposited. The remedy is obvious.
Coloured metallic-looking patches appear at times Metallic
near the edges of the plate, which may, or may not, be Patclies-
accompanied with fog. We have often observed these
patches in plates which have been kept a long time.
There is no remedy if they are unaccompanied by fog,
but if fog is present, the ferric-chloride solution will
generally remove them.
On the back of the negative show as dark lines in the Scratches
film.
Rarely, we have met with small patches which seem Unde-
to have refused to develop : they are generally circular. y^Pfd
^I^-AI xi 1 £ i islands.
Captain Abney says they are due to the use or chrome
alum in the emulsion. There does not appear to be any
remedy for this accident.
In one batch of plates we were greatly troubled by Dull spots
these faults, one of the plates being covered with pits and Pits-
as thickly as if it had been peppered with a pepper-box.
Captain Abney says they are due to the use of gelatine
which contains grease. They ruined a whole series
of fine negatives for us once. These complete the
enumeration of the accidents likely to occur during
development.
We shall now presume that the student has thoroughly Varnish-
dried his negatives, after having developed them. Before inS-
storing them, however, he must varnish them, to protect
them from scratches, and especially from damp, for
gelatine, being very hygroscopic, easily absorbs moisture.
At times, when warming an apparently perfectly dry
negative over a flame, preparatory to varnishing it, a
slight steam can be seen to arise, due to the evaporation
of the moisture in the film. This moisture in the gelatine
would of course in time lead to decomposition, and ruin
the image ; for these reasons, then, all negatives should
be varnished. Before " varnishing " each negative should
be carefully brushed over with a cameFs-hair brush. Now
it is obvious that many of the varnishes used are more or
N 2
i So Naturalistic Photography.
Dr. Carey ]ess non-actinic, as Dr. Carey Lea has proved ; he, there-
ni^h8 r" f°re> recommends the following : —
^ Bleached lac 3 x.
Picked sandarac . . . . . . 3 v.
Alcohol J xii.
Let the lac dissolve in the alcohol, then filter, first soak-
ing the filter paper with alcohol. Pour slowly, and if
necessary at the end add 1 5 more of alcohol to enable
the rest to pass. Next add the sandarac to the filtrate
and refilter, using of course a fresh filter.
Warm the plate gently, and, holding it in the left-
hand bottom corner between the thumb and finger, pour
a pool of varnish on to the plate that will cover about
one-third the area of the plate, then let it run to the right-
hand top corner, then to the left-hand top corner, then
to the thumb, and finally drain off at the right-hand
bottom corner into a filter. Then place it on a drainage
rack, till just set, when re warm by the fire, otherwise it
does not set hard and smooth.
Boiler Since paper negatives and a roller slide were suggested
by Fox Talbot, and made fit for use by Blan quart- Evrard,
several ingenious persons have been trying to improve
upon these early attempts. From time to time, during
the last fifty years, various workers have announced old
ideas as new discoveries, nor have these been confined to
roller slides and paper negatives, but extended to many
other photographic processes. That no one can claim any
originality of discovery on this head since Talbot and
Evrard is obvious ; only perfected methods can be
claimed. There have been many of these introduced,
but none worth discussing until that offered by the
Messrs. Walker and Eastman. They have perfected
Talbot's and Evrard's work, and though they have
numerous imitators, their work is facile princeps.
Paper Now the student will naturally expect us to give an
es' opinion on these paper negatives. For many photo-
graphic processes they are of course invaluable, but for
artistic work our opinion is that they are not equal to
the ordinary method. These remarks apply equally to
Development. 1 8 1
the various flexible films which have lately been intro-
duced.
For hand cameras, we should think, film negatives
would be very useful, and for small studies such as they
produce, would do well ; but then such are not pictures.
A picture must be perfect in all points, and for this
reason the films will not as yet answer. They do show
grain, say what people will ; we have examined dozens
of the very best, and that is our opinion. Besides
this, they are liable to the defects common to paper,
such as transparent spots, and the defects common
to films, such as markings and stains, and in addition
to all this there is the liability to injury of the nega-
tive after development, in the subsequent processes
of oiling and stripping, if stripping films be used. The
quality, too, of the picture is not equal to that of an ordi-
nary negative. Why it is so we cannot explain. What the
future of these processes may be we do not pretend to
say, but for the present we feel assured that the finest
quality of work is to be obtained on a glass support.
For ordinary touring purposes no doubt the roller-slide
and flexible films have every advantage, but with any but
the art side of the question we have nothing to do. In
artistic work, all hap- hazard results or accidental effects
must be carefully eliminated. Lightness, printing from
either side, and a good retouching basis are no considera-
tions for the artist, he wants none of these things.
There still remains, however, a very important point Ortho-
from the art point of view, as regards tonality, for as the °^™™
student who has read his chemistry knows, the different graphy.
parts of the spectrum act differently on the different ha-
loids. The effect of this has been to destroy true tonality,
thus a yellow flower comes out black if taken on ordi-
nary plates. To remedy this dyes have been used which
absorb the weakly acting rays, and thus has been made one
of the greatest advances in photography, both scientifically
and artistically. This ortho-chromatic photography has
engaged the attention of experts, and Abney, Vogel,
Eder, Ives, Bothamley, and Edwards are hard at work
upon it now, besides many amateur scientists. We have
1 82 Naturalistic Photography.
been for some time experimenting in this direction for
artistic purposes, having begnn with Tailfer's plates
before any others were introduced into the English
market. For the photographing of pictures Messrs. Dixon
and Grey conclusively proved the superiority of the process
by their exhibits at the Exhibition of the Photographic
Society of Great Britain, in 1886. But the matter is diffe-
rent when landscapes and portraits from, life have to be
considered. It is with the wonderful protean aspects of
nature that we have to deal when working from nature,
and we feel the question is not one to be entirely settled in
the laboratory. Our method is always to work out of doors,
noting, as far as possible, the conditions and judging the
results by the prints, and though such experiments are
far from conclusive, we can at present say that the
ortho- chromatic plates are nearly correct in the rendering
of tonality, but not perfect, the reds overrun the other
colours, and are too strongly rendered. In fact, the reds
and greens are not perfectly rendered, and even if the
correct values of the spectrum are rendered in a labora-
tory, this will not and does not give the relative tones
of nature. This is the point which must be remedied.
Undoubtedly ortho-chromatic photography alone will be
used in the near future, but just at present it is not cut-
and-dried enough for all practical purposes. The student,
however, must use these plates. They are- supplied by
B. J. Edwards ; and Dr. Vogel's eoside of silver plates
can be bought of Gotz, 19, Buckingham Street, Strand.
So far the truest tonality that we have seen has been
obtained on Dr. Vogel's plates, and in addition his land-
scape plates require no yellow screen to be used with
them, which is a tremendous advantage.
Thus it will be seen that in every operation the art-
knowledge of the operator will tell. For example, let
us suppose a camera set up with the lens fixed, before a
beautiful landscape composed on the ground-glass screen
by an artist, then let us imagine that two photographers
proceed to take plates of the picture. After the very first
operation of focussing, stopping and adjusting the swing-
backs ; a mighty gulf will separate the two pictures ; the
Development. 183
gulf widens as the exposure is made, and finally in the
developed plates they are no longer the same thing.
One may be a sharp, common-place fact, false in many
parts, the other may be full of truth and poetry.
Let a print be taken from each plate and presented
to an artistically uneducated craftsman and to an artist,
the craftsman will go into raptures over the sharp
craftsman picture, the artist will do the same over the
artistic picture, but the artist will not look for a moment
at the craftsman's ideal, and this little matter any one
can prove for himself. Let the student, then, strive to
earn the artist's praise, and let him ignore the craftsman's,
and value his opinion on these matters at the same price
he would value his opinions upon any other subject where
taste and refinement are called into question.
iS4
Naturalistic Photography.
CHAPTER VIII.
RETOUCHING NEGATIVES.
Defini- RETOUCHING is the process by whicli a good, bad, or in-
re" different photograph is converted into a bad drawing or
touching.
Working
up in
im no-
ch. ome,
oils, &c.
painting.
Theoretically, retouching may be considered admis-
sible, that is if the impression can be made more true
by it. There are, perhaps, half a dozen painters in the
world who could do this, but no one else. Nature is far
too subtle to be meddled with in this manner. We
have discussed the question with many artists, and their
verdict is the same as ours. It is the common plea of
photographers that photography exaggerates the shadows,
but we think it has been shown that if photography is
properly practised, no such exaggeration of shadows
takes place, and if it did, retouching would only add to
the falsity in another way. This retouching and paint-
ing over a photograph by incapable hands, by whom it
is always done, is much to be deprecated. The result is
but a hybrid, and is intolerable to any artist. One fatal
fact in all painted photographs, and one which for ever
keeps them without the realm of art, is that the
shadows, being photographic, are black and not filled with
reflected colour as in nature and as in good oil painting.
The same remark applies to mechanically-coloured
photographs. Such abominations, from an art point
of view may, however, be useful in the trades, for pat-
tern plates and such things. Consider for a moment
the habit of working up in crayon, monochrome, water-
colour and oils. What does it mean ? and how is it
done ? In some establishments the practice is for a
Retouching Negatives, 1 8 5
clerk to note down certain of the sitter's characteristics,
such as " hair light, eyes blue, necktie black ; " these
remarks are senfc with a photograph, generally an en-
largement, to the artist ! He, in a conventional and
crude manner, makes necessarily a travesty of the por-
trait, and for these abominations the customer pays from
5Z. to 20Z. Consider the utter sham and childishness of
the whole proceeding, and remember that a portrait
painter of the greatest ability can only paint with the
model actually before him, yet these workers-up, who are
riot artists at all, can paint from memoranda made by a
clerk. It is astonishing to think there are people in the
world foolish enough to pay for such trash. Even the
very best oil painting done in such a way is but trash, and if
the photographic base is so destroyed or covered over that
none of it shows, it must then be judged on the grounds
of monochrome drawing or painting as the case may be,
and a sad thing it is when judged on these grounds. It
may be said, " But painters paint posthumous portraits/' Posthu-
Yes, they do, confiding public, but they paint them as ™™aits
sculptors model posthumous busts, but they do not call and busts.
them works of art. We know several artists who are
compelled by necessity and the vanity of human nature
to execute these posthumous portraits, and we know, too,
how they value such work. But it must not be forgotten
what a gulf separates able artists from the third-rate
" workers-up " for photographers. Moreover, true artists
never attempt posthumous portraits on the top of a
photograph, but simply use the photograph as a guide
for modelling, light and shade, &c., a quite legitimate
use, both for painter and sculptor. The Photographic Phot. Soc.
Society of Great Britain is to be congratulated on the Great
stand it has made in the matter by not hanging any of B
these abominations on their walls, and it is to be hoped
they will stand firm and never admit coloured photo-
graphs of any kind until the great problem of photo-
graphy in natural colours be solved.
We have amongst photographers to-day persons who " High
pride themselves on their skill in taking out of a photo- A^'0
graph double chins, wrinkles, freckles, and all the cha- graptiers.
1 86 Naturalistic Photography.
racter of a face, and who call themselves, we believe,
" high art photographers," mere flatterers of mankind's
weaknesses are they, not even honest craftsmen. And
not only do they thus mutilate portraits, but with their
Chinese white and Indian ink will they, with all the con-
fidence of the uneducated, touch up a landscape or a face
with no model before them. Of tonality of course they
never beard, and Nature they never knew. It was once
our lot to judge the pictures at a Cambridge photogra-
phic exhibition, and we were not a little staggered by
the audacity with which one noted "London firm" had
touched up and worked upon an opal enlargement of
Niagara Falls. The picture was very true and beautiful
before those vandals had got hold of it, but, great Ceesar !
what a sight it was afterwards, with its impasto of Chinese
white, and its shiny gum polished, India ink deepened
shadows ! In short, a more meretricious production it
has seldom been our lot to inspect, and this thing was
exhibited by an University undergraduate ! If such is
the taste of an educated man, what can one expect from
the rest of the world ! Let, then, the student avoid all
these meretricious productions as he would all vulgari-
ties, such as eating his peas with his knife. No first-
rate artist will allow his prints to be retouched ; he would
Origin of never be able to bear the look of them afterwards. That
retouch- foe idea of retouching springs from a wrong theory is evi-
dent, the improper use of lenses gave false drawing, and
people were in artistically and sharply photographed, so
that wrinkles, warts, freckles, and even the port s of the
skin showed, and then arose the demand for a retoucher to
correct all that, and one error led to another, although,
without doubt, the false work of a retoucher is much
truer than the false work of an uneducated operator.
Certainly people do not see, at the distance a photograph
is taken from, the wrinkles, spots, and other small ble-
mishes, and they are too uneducated to see the falseness of
tone which retouching engenders. Of all the photogra-
phers who talk glibly of art, we warrant scarcely one is
able to distinguish between a bust carved by a stone-
mason, one carved by a mediocre sculptor, and one carved
Retouching Negatives. 187
by a master, in fact we have proved this, and yet they
talk, talk, write, and lecture on art ; while to an artist
the difference between each o£ those three busts is as
great as the difference between a mountain, a hillock,
and a marsh. The public see the warts and spots and
call them false, the greater falsity of tone and retouch-
ing they cannot distinguish. An etcher once remarked
to us, " How is it photographers seem to do everything
to make photographs anything but photographs ? " And
such is the case; the matchless beauty of a pure and
artistic photograph does not satisfy their vulgar minds,
and yet such is the only kind of photograph at which
artists will look.
It is now fifty years since Daguerre publicly announced Artists on
Niepce's discoveries, and on the scientific and industrial yetouch-
side, photography has results to show nothing short of u
marvellous, but what has it to show on the artistic side ?
Of the thousands who have practised photography since
1839, and who are now dead, how many names, stand
out as having done work of any artistic value ? Only
three. One a master, who was at the same time a sculp-
tor, namely, Adam Salomon ; one a trained painter, but
without first-rate artistic ability, Bejlander ; and one, an
amateur, — Mrs. Cameron. Beside these three there is
no name among the numerous dead photographers worth
a mention. And have matters improved ? Well may
it be asked by those who have the good of photography
at heart, whether it will always be thus. We hope
not ; but if it is to be otherwise, some radical change
must be made, and the blind no longer lead the
blind. We have said, then, that of all the thousands
of craftsmen who have practised photography and are
dead, three names only stand out as having produced
works to which we can apply the title artistic. Now
let us see what those three have to say to the matter of
retouching.
Mr. Adam Salomon, though he strengthened certain Adam
parts of his negatives by artificial means, which in the Salomon-
hands of an accomplished artist like himself, was ad-
missible, condemned retouching altogether. He says,
1 88 Naturalistic Photography.
" Eschewing retouching with brush or pencil on the
film, risking the further deterioration of the negative, I
make light finish the task it has, from want of time, or
bad quality, insufficiently done, and in such a manner
that no hand can hope to rival its delicacy and precision,
and this is the only plan that a lover of his calling can
justifiably pursue." So we see that a highly-trained
sculptor, like Adam Salomon, dared not retouch, but
only sunned down violent contrasts at first, and then
printed in all the picture, so that it could not be de-
tected ; yet Adam Salomon, in our opinion, could have
quite legitimately worked on his negatives, being as he
was a highly-trained artist.
lander Rejlander, not being a painter of great ability, but
having a painter's training, tried all metiiods until he
arrived at the legitimate scope of photography, then he
came to the conclusion that retouching was inadmissible,
and it must be remembered that Rejlander was more
capable of retouching truthfully than any retoucher has
been since, and yet he says, "I think the practice of
retouching the negative a sad thing for photography.
It is impossible, for even very capable artists, to rival or
improve the delicate, almost mysterious gradations of
the photograph. Magnify the photographic rendering
of, say, the human eye, with a strong lens, and it is
found to be almost startling in its marvellous trut'T.
Magnify the retouched image, and it will look like
coarse deformity. It ceases to be true. I have some-
times seen a touched photograph which looked very
nice, but it possessed no interest for me ; I knew it
could not be trusted. I have been charged with sophis-
ticating photographs because I combined and masked
and sunned prints. But there is a great distinction
between suppressing .and adding; I never added. I
stopped-out portions of the negatives which I did not
require to form my picture; I sunned down that which
was obtrusive, and where one negative would not serve,
1 used two or more, joining them with as much truth as
I could. But I never attempted to improve negatives.
1 never believed that I could draw better or more truly
Retouching Negatives. 189
than Nature. I consider a touched photograph spoiled
for every purpose." This, then, was Rejlander's verdict,
and though from this we gather he had not yet thrown off
the fallacy of combination-printing, yet he subsequently-
abjured that also. Even when he did use combination-
printing, he practised it in a manner never equalled by
his imitators, for like all imitators they have copied the
bad qualities and left all the genius behind.
Mrs. Cameron, the last and least of the three, had Mrs. J.
knowledge and feeling enough also to eschew retouching, ^am-ron.
none of her work is retouched, just as she had know-
ledge enough to use a rapid rectilinear lens, although
working in the wet-collodion days, for she evidently saw
what escaped so many other workers, that the drawing
was truer with that lens than with the quicker portrait
lenses.
When it comes, by the means of retouching, to straight-
ening noses, removing double chins, eliminating squints,
fattening cheeks, and smoothing skins, we descend to
an abyss of charlatanism and jugglery, which we will
not stop to discu s. That such things pay and please
vain and stupid people, no one denies, but so do contor-
tionists please a certain public, so do jugglers and
tight-rope dancers, and such like, but all that is not
art.
There are various practices of doctoring the negative Doctoring
by using paint and other mediums on the backs, or by negatlves-
grinding the backs of the negatives. These are, in our
opinion, all unnecessary and harmful, the remarks on
retouching apply equally well here. Such artifices may
easily deceive and even please the uneducated, but the
artist only sees them to despise and condemn them.
The technique of photography is perfect, no such botchy
aids are necessary, they take the place of the putty of
the bad carpenter.
Of course, spotting does not come under the head of Spotting,
retouching. The spotter does not attempt to modify
structure or tone, but merely to render an unavoidable
and accidental " blemish " less patent. All spots should be
tilled with red paint mixed with a little gum and water,
190 Naturalistic Photography.
but care must be exercised in this operation, to put on
only just enough paint to fill the hole.
Our parting injunction, then, to the photographer who
would be an artist, is, avoid retouching in all its forms ;
it destroys texture and tone, and therefore the truth of
the picture.
CHAPTER IX.
FEINTING.
HAVING his negative, the next thing our student will want The
to do is to print from it ; but before doing so, it will be process,
necessary to decide upon the process he will use.
This is a question of great moment, and one which will
here be considered on purely artistic grounds. When silver
first we began photography, we printed in all sorts of prints,
ways ; but silver printing, on account chiefly of its un-
pleasant glaze, was soon discarded. Then we prepared
some ordinary drawing paper, and printed on that, till
one day we saw an album of views printed in platinotype. Platino-
Their beauty acted like a charm, and straightway we took ^P6'
to platinotype. Still we felt that for portraiture, a red
colour gave a truer impression. So we tried carbon, and ar on'
practised it when necessary. Even now, when we look
back on those days, we remember the intense pleasure
carbon printing gave us. In the year 1882, when we first Piatino-
exhibited at Pall Mall, we sent four platinotype prints, types.
and two silver prints. At that exhibition there were only
three other exhibits in platinotype. Immediately after
that exhibition we determined to give up all methods of
printing except platinotype, and we have since steadily
by example and precept advocated that process. When
we were brought into contact with artists, and learned
something of art, we knew the reason of what we had
instinctively felt to be true. And now, after much ex-
perience and careful examination, in many cases in
company with able artists, of all the printing papers and
processes to-day employed, we emphatically assert that
the platinotype process is facile princeps. We should
192 Naturalistic Photography.
maintain this, even if platinotypes were no more per-
manent than silver prints, but here again, as in all good
things, simplicity of manipulation goes with excellency,
for there is no doubt that platinotypes are permanent, they
will last in good condition as long as the paper on which
they are printed. This fact alone would finally place the
process at the head of the list. Since the introduction of the
platinotype process various papers have been introduced
into the market, with unglazed surfaces, for which the
quality of permanency has been claimed. Several of
these are old methods re-dressed, as the gelatino-bromide
and chloride papers. But are these papers permanent ?
At any rate they do not give any truer tonality than silver
prints, and this is a fatal drawback. We have examined
hundreds of prints on gelatino-bromide and chloride
paper, and they all give false tonality as compared with
Fading platinotype. The gelatino-bromide paper like all silver
af prints. print^ whether matt or glazed, is false in tonality, the
blacks are too black, and the whole picture lowered in
tone. Then, again, as to the question of permanency, it is of
course incontestable that silver prints fade, and as regards
the gelatino-bromide paper, experiment has not proved
it to be permanent. This is what a chemist, Mr. A.
S^ill r n ^piller, says in the Year Book of Photography and
gelatine-11 Photographic News for 1888 ; writing on "Bromide versus
bromide albumenized paper,'' he says, " From the above consi-
prints. derations it may fairly be conceded that under the same
conditions a bromide print will most likely remain intact
longer than an albumenized paper print; but more than
this, I am afraid, with the evidence at present at hand,
we are not in a position to state. In offering this, it
must be understood, that only under equally favourable
circumstances is the bromide process likely to yield
results more permanent than that on albumenized paper,
for just as a gelatine plate or silver print fades when the
' hypo ' fixer has been imperfectly removed, so again in
the bromide process, if insufficient washing after fixing
be resorted to, the resulting photograph cannot be
expected to last long."
Such was the opinion of every photographer who
Printing. 193
had thought the matter out, but we give Mr. Spiller's
opinion since it is that of a specialist in chemistry. In
conjunction with a noted landscape-painter we went care-
fully into this question of the different printing- processes,
for a book we were conjointly engaged upon was to b©
illustrated by photographs from our negatives. We soon
determined, on artistic grounds, that there was nothing
that could compete with platinotype. Before deciding,
however, we wrote to a leading producer of gelatino-
bromide papers, asking him if he could guarantee the
permanency of prints on this paper. When the answer
came it was evasive and unaccompanied by any guaran-
tee. These gelatino-bromide papers are to be met with
under different names, and though for certain trade or
industrial purposes they may be invaluable, for artistic
purposes they are inferior to platinotype. Carbon, though
superior to silver printing, is still inferior to platinotype,
for even when the glaze is got rid of, the method of the
formation of the image, being sculpturesque, gives a
falsity of appearance and an unnatural running together
(like melted wax) of portions of the detail.
There is, then, in our opinion, for the art student, but
one process in which to print, and that is the platinotype
process discovered by Mr. Willis. Every photographer Mr. Willis,
who has the good and advancement of photography at
heart, should feel indebted to Mr. Willis for placing
within his power a process by which he is able to produce
work comparable, on artistic grounds, with any other
black and white process. We have no hesitation in
saying that the discovery and subsequent practice of this
process has had an incalculable amount of influence in.
raising the standard of photography. No artist could rest
content to practise photography alone as an art, so long
as such inartistic printing methods as the pre-platino-
type processes were in vogue. If the photo-etching pro-
cess and the platinotype process were to become lost arts,
we, for our part, should never take another photograph.
But here it is necessary to warn the student against
the remarks of the platinotype company and many of
their admirers, who maintain that for good prints
o
194
Naturalistic Photography.
Cold
process.
Ferro-
Prussiate
printing
process.
"plucky" negatives are necessary; and then follows the
old story about " fire," " snap/'' " sparkle/' and Co. As we
have already despatched that gang", we will spend no more
time over their funeral. For low-toned effects, and for
grey-day land scapes, the platinotype process is unequalled,
but the " fire/' " snap/' ( ' sparkle " company think such
effects bad, weak, muddy, and what not. Of course, the
student will listen to nothing of this, but try for himself,
and when he wants advice, let him ask it of good artists.
We once showed a grey- day effect to a clerk at the
Platinotype Company's Office, having previously had the
opinion of some first-rate painters upon it; the clerk
looked at it critically and said, " Yes, very nice ; but look
at this," and he took us to a frame hanging in the same
room and pointed to a commonplace view, taken with a
small stop in bright sunlight — a view, we believe, of a
church or something of that kind ; there was his ideal of
what a platinotype should be. The print in question was
about fit for a house-agent's window. No ! Platinotype
prim ers do not seem to know what a good thing they have.
Their paper is as suitable and as beautiful for soft grey-
day effects as for brilliant sunshiny effects, and it is to
be hoped they will soon have their eyes opened to this fact,
and cease to encourage the false notion that good, ergo
plucky, sparkling, snappy negatives are those required
for the use of the paper. The process, however, is not
perfect, the only perfect printing process being photo-
etching, as we shall show presently ; but of all the
processes for printing from the negative it is the best ; of
all the typographic processes it is the best; and it is
better than many of the copperplate processes.
Since writing this chapter, Mr. Willis has introduced a
great improvement in his process, by which the print can be
developed with a cold solution; but what is far more impor-
tant, artistically speaking, the development can be con-
trolledjfor the developer can be applied with a brush, so that
parts can be intensified or kept back at will, and "sinking-
in " is avoided. This is a great and distinct advance.
The Ferro-Prussiate printing process, of course, does
not concern us, blue prints are only for plans, not for art.
Printing. 195
Oar printing process, then, is to be platinotype and
platinotype only, and as there is no use in swelling this
work with facts already published, we advise every stu-
dent to get full directions from the Platinotype Company,
29, Southampton Row, High Holborn, London, and to
study them carefully. It is advisable to arrange the Hints for
printing so that you are not compelled to keep the paper
any time ; get it fresh when required, therefore, and only
as much as you require for immediate use. Before put-
ting it in the box, drive all the moisture out of the
calcium-chloride by heating it on a shovel, or old tray,
over the fire, and dry the box thoroughly before the
fire. Dry also all the printing frames thoroughly before
a fire, also the rubbers, the use of which must not be
neglected. Be sure you mix the baths and developer with
pure boiled distilled water only, or else you will be apt to
find a fine powder on the prints.
Be very careful not to place the prints in water between
the washings. Above all, never use your dishes for any
other purpose. Some photographers, living in the country,
complain that they cannot get upheat to boil a large enough
quantity of developer for 12 x 10 prints. We found an Lamps,
excellent heating apparatus in the tin spirit lamps with
treble wicks, supplied by Allen of Marylebone Lane,
with his portable Turkish baths. With two of these
lamps we had no difficulty in heating a developer for
24 x 22 prints. The dish can be supported by blocks
of wood at the four corners, and raised to the height
required by other blocks, or a tripod. The prints when
taken from the washing water should be dried on a clean
sheet, and are finally improved by pressing with a warm
iron. For spotting, India ink is the most suitable Spotting.
medium. This, it is said, is permanent, and any shade
can be got, but good India ink, like many other articles
of trade, is a rare thing.
There are different kinds of paper sold by the Platino- Texture of
type Company for printing, and the printer will of pa]
course choose the texture of paper that suits his subject.
Delicate landscapes and small portraits should be printed
on the smooth papers, while for strong effects, large figure
o 2
Naturalistic Photography.
subjects, and large portraits full of character, the rough
Colour. papers are more suitable. The charcoal grey tint of or-
dinary platinotypes is apt to become monotonous in book
illustration, and it is as well to vary it occasionally by using"
the sepia tints; these are quite suitable for landscapes
and certain figure subjects. Directions are given by the
company for producing1 this colour. A great desideratum
is a red colour for portraiture, and it is to be hoped that
Mr. Willis will see his way to producing a paper on
which prints in what is called "Bartolozzi red" can be
obtained. Eed, though it does not give such true ton-
ality, gives a truer impression of flesh and texture, just as
sepia often gives a truer impression of certain kinds of
landscape. But of course these tints must be used with
judgment, and no one but a vandal would print a landscape
in red, or in cyanotype. Having now disposed of the
question of the printing process to be used, we must dis-
cuss some of the details incidental to printing.
Tignet- Whoever introduced the practice of vignetting was no
tin£- artist, and the " dodge " was evolved from a misconcep-
tion of the aims of art, or for commercial purposes. Its
origin is obvious, the idea was taken from one of the
incomplete methods of artistic expression, such as chalk
drawing. In such methods the artist has a perfect right
to leave the background untinted, or only to shade round
the head so as to give it relief, but with a perfect
technique like photography, vignetting is useless, nay
inartistic and false, as it destroys all tonality. We
get by this method a softly delicately lighted head,
against a sparkling background, the two are incompa-
tible, and not only that, but the photographer who
vignettes is deliberately throwing away a most effective
aid to perfect impression, namely, the relief effected by
the reflected light from his background, and when you
add to this the conventional shape of the vignetted head
and shadows, the result is feeble in the extreme. Here,
then, is another false god which has for years held
sway. We ask the student, did he ever see a vignette
painted by Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Holbein, Velasquez,
Gainsborough, or Frank Hals ? Such men knew too
well the value of a background to throw it away ; they
Printing. 197
could not have painted a vignetted Lead. Look at their
chalk drawings, and the case is very different; there they
were dealing with an incomplete method, and kept
rigidly within their bounds. In our early photographic
days, we learned printing from an industrial photo-
grapher, who did an extensive business in vignetted
heads, and it was a source of great amusement to us to
watch the mechanical application of the vignettes by the
" head " printer. This is of course another source of the
mechanical appearance of ordinary photographs; for by
vignetting fifty different heads a certain uniformity must
result, as in a regiment dressed in uniform, with of
course the fatal result, the loss of all individuality,
character, and of course art. The few photographic
portraits that we have seen worth studying were
certainly not vignetted. Mrs. Cameron did not vignette,
she knew better. That people demand vignettes and
pay for them is nothing to us, let photographers sell
them as they do scraps and chromographs, and other
fancy articles, if it please the childish and vulgar,
but let them not be called works of art, for on the con-
trary they are certain indices of bad taste. Vignetting
might be admissible in certain decorative cases in book
illustration, as when a landscape decorates an initial
letter, but in pictures for framing, never.
The simplest application of this method is the printing Combina-
of a cloud into a landscape from a different negative. tio.n .
Though it is far preferable to obtain the clouds on pri
the same negative, and this is quite easy in ortho-
chromatic photography, it is, if you use great judgment,
admissible to print in clouds from a separate negative,
but this requires an intimate knowledge of out-door
effects, and the clouds must be taken in a particular
way. Printing in clouds is admissible because, if well
done, a truer impression of the scene is rendered. But Cloud
the ordinary way of taking cloud negatives is much negatives.
to be condemned. The practice is to point the
camera to the zenith if need be, to focus sharply, to
to use the smallest stop, develop and select for final use
according to the lighting, indeed, not always being
very particular on that point. But, by elevating the
1 98 Naturalistic Photography.
camera a point of sight is taken different from that
employed in taking the landscape ; by focussing sharply,
often using a lens drawing falsely, the clouds are rendered
false in tone and false in drawing. All this an artist detects
in a moment, a craftsman, never. The first necessity,
then, in taking cloud negatives is that the point of sight
shall be the same as that chosen for the landscapes ; the
second that the clouds shall be so focussed and developed
that their tonality shall remain true ; and the third and
most important point, that the cloud form shall be harmo-
nious with the landscape. The very simplest truths of
nature are daily ignored by photographers in the works
they exhibit. There are often three, or even four suns in
one landscape, or at least the evidence of them ; mighty
cumuli float over lakes where there is no ripple, and yet
there is no reflection ; or, as we have seen, reflections of
clouds have been printed in where there are ripple marks ;
or heavy nimbi lighted from one direction are placed over
cirro-cumuli lighted from another direction ; or, again, a
setting sun sinks to rest over wave-broken water that
reflects glints of light from exactly the opposite direction.
How to The best way, then, if a cloud negative is wanted,
clouds. is t° take it at the same time as the landscape and
from the same point of view, getting as much as possible
the same impression as seen in nature. The ex-
To print posure must of course be by a shutter set quickly.
in clouds. We think the best way of printing in clouds so
obtained, is to take a piece of damp tissue paper
the size of the negative, gum it round the edges to
the back of the negative, then with some blacklead
and a stump blacken the sky out when the paper is
dry, carefully following the contours of those objects
•which stand in relief against the sky with a lead pencil.
In this way you can with marvellous accuracy stop out the
sky, and the work being on the back of the negative and
in plumbago, the contours still show the mingled decision
and indecision of nature. The print is then taken,
and afterwards the cloud negative is arranged as desired,
the sky-line being covered with cotton-wool and the rest
of the exposed landscape by a black cloth. No special
printing frames are required for this purpose, only one a
Printing. 199
size or two larger than the negative you are printing from.
Cloud printing, as we have said, is the simplest form of
combination printing, and the only one admissible when
we are considering artistic work. B,ej lander, however,
in the early days of photography, tried to make pictures printing,
by combination printing. This process is really what
many of us practised in the nursery; that is cutting out
figures and pasting them into white spaces left for that
purpose in a picture-book. With all the care in the world,
the very best artist living could not do this satisfactorily.
Nature is so subtle that it is impossible to do this sort of
patchwork and represent her. Even if the greater truths
be registered, the lesser truths, still important, cannot be
obtained, and the softness of outline is entirely lost.
The relation of the figure to the landscape can never be
truly represented in this manner, for all subtle modelling
of the contours of the figure are lost. Such things are
easy enough to do, and when we first began photography
we did a few, but soon gave it up, convinced of its futility.
Rej lander, though he tried it, soon saw the folly of such Rejlan-
play, and he is the only artist we know of who used it. '
Mrs. Cameron and Adam Salomon never indulged in such
things that we know of. Some writers have honoured
this method of printing by calling it the highest form of
photographic work. Heaven help them ! The subject is
hardly worth as many words, for though such " work "
may produce sensational effects in photographic galleries,
it is but the art of the opera bouffe.
In printing, variously shaped masks are used. There Masks.
is no objection to them, but in our opinion they do not in
any way improve the subject, although they do not
necessarily spoil it like vignetting.
Besides all these "dodges," there are machines for
producing imitation enamel portraits in basso-relievo
and cavi-relievo, but all such ideas are false in theory,
and the results inartistic hybrids unworthy of any serious
consideration.
Here, then, we come to an end of the subject of print- Final,
ing, and in our opinion the student should consider
himself fortunate indeed in having so beautiful a method
as the platinotype process with which to work.
2OO Naturalistic Photography.
CHAPTER X.
ENLARGEMENTS.
THE best enlargements made for the trade are made from
very sharply-focussed negatives. In fact, some of the
best enlargers take up the negative from which the
enlargement is to be made, and examine it with a
small magnifying-glass, and if any of the outlines are
woolly they will not promise a good enlargement. This,
then, shows that a small negative must be taken very
sharply if it is to produce a good enlargement ; that is,
it must be taken purely from that point of view, all
artistic considerations being thrown aside. It is obvious,
then, from what we have already said, that this is
undesirable, for every negative should be suited to the
subject.
Enlarging, too, of course increases all falseness in
drawing ; if the drawing in the different planes is wrong
in the small negative, it will be still worse in the large
negative or print.
But, it will be argued, and justly, that sometimes an
enlargement is more artistic than the small picture from
which it was produced. This is sometimes, but rarely,
the case ; and when such is the case, it is the result of
chance. You would never be able to take a negative in
a particular way so that you know for certain it will be
improved by enlarging so many diameters, and therein
lies the inherent defect which unfits this process for
artistic work.
The actual process of enlarging is very simple, either
by artificial light or daylight ; but it is in our opinion a
needless and undesirable proceeding.
Enlargements. 201
We have made many experiments in this direction,
but we have never yet been able to get an enlargement as
fine in quality as the direct photograph. All the little
subtleties which give quality to the work are either lost
or are only obtained accidentally. Not long ago we An
saw a beautiful portrait — an enlargement, the print ^
from the small negative of which was very poor, and
no one was more surprised at the improvement in the
enlargement than the photographer himself, but he could
never make sure of doing the same thing again. Therefore
eschew enlargements. A picture of fine quality, quarter-
plate size, is worth a dozen enlargements 24 x 22.
It is only in certain very limited effects that the Tonality,
tonality will be true after enlargement, and that of
course constitutes another fatal objection.
202
Naturalistic Photography.
CHAPTER XL
TRANSPARENCIES, LANTERN AND STEREOSCOPIC SLIDES.
Transpa-
rencies.
Lantern
slides.
Stereo-
scopic
slides.
FOR industrial and educational purposes transparencies of
all kinds are valuable, and we shalltouch upon them else-
where. With lantern slides our art-student has nothing
to do. A lantern picture is an optical illusion, and lantern
slides are toys when they do not serve lecture purposes.
For lecture purposes they are of course invaluable, but
they have no place in art, neither have stereoscopic slides.
They all rank with the camera obscura, the diorama, and
the panorama.
We say all this because a beginner must be cautioned
against paying any serious attention to these subjects if
his aim be to become an artist. Art is much too serious
for her devotees to trifle with any other subject, and
besides the making of lantern and stereoscopic slides
is apt to have a bad effect on the beginner. His atten-
tion becomes centered on the production of pretty things
— a neat, small, superficial prettiness pervading most of
theworkof goodlantern-slide workers. Conventional com-
positions and Birket-Foster prettiness are the lantern-
slide maker's beau-ideals. Of course these qualities are
very admirable for lantern slides, for without them, they
would have but little attraction ; but they are quite
distinct from, and very, very far removed from, having
any connection with fine art.
We know many artists who photograph and value
photography per s0j but we have yet to meet that one
who deigns to make lantern slides except for the
purpose of making enlargements from which to draw.
It has been said that the appearance of stereoscopic
Transparencies )Lantern& Stereoscopic Slides. 203
pictures is wonderfully true; this is not the case.
There is a lustre, false tonality, and apparent illusion,
which to an artist makes them anything but true. In
short, until photographers do away with much of the
" play " of their art, and look at it seriously, they
cannot hope that highly-trained artists will join in with
them.
For scientific lectures of course lantern slides are in- Lecture
valuable, as we have already said, and for this purpose PurP08es-
they should be untouched ; but we cannot help smiling
when we hear of producers of slides claiming for their
work the title of " artistic," because they are untouched
and true. Absolute truth is not necessarily art, as we
have often pointed out, and as Muybridge's photographs
prove.
Let our student, then, avoid these snares, unless he
wishes to cultivate what Professor Herkomer has aptly
called " Handkerchief-box art."
2O4
Natu ralis tic Photography.
CHAPTER XII.
PHOTO-MECHANICAL PROCESSES.
Photo-
mechani-
cal
process.
Classifica-
tion.
Diagram-
matic
plates.
Art
blocks.
Platino-
types.
FROM our earliest photographic days we always felt that
all a ordinary " printing methods, however good in them-
selves, would finally have to give way to photo-mechanical
methods, as all procepses are called by which the negative
is reproduced. All the photo-mechanical printing pro-
cesses may be divided into two great classes : —
A. Processes in which the aim is to produce diagrams.
B. Processes in which the aim is to produce pictures.
For the first purpose any of the methods are useful :
that is, typographic processes, where the block is set up
with the type in the printing-press ; the collotype process,
where the prints are subsequently mounted on paper, or
interleavedinabook; and the photo-etching process, where
the plates are introduced between the leaves of a book.
It is obvious that when the aim is diagrammatic, bril-
liancy, sharpness, correct drawing, and the truthful render-
ing of texture are the requisites, as in the reproductions
of negatives from nature to illustrate scientific works, books
of travel, &c. In such cases these are the main points to
be considered; and when to these considerations is added
the question of cost of production, it is evident nearly all
the processes worth mentioning which are now in existence
will serve one or other, or all such purposes. But when
the question comes to be considered from an artistic point
of view, the matter is totally different, for it is a sine
qua non in this case that all the artistic quality of the
original photograph be preserved. Cost must not be
considered. From the art point of view alone, then, we
shall briefly discuss these processes. As we said in a
former chapter, of ordinary printing papers the platino-
Photo- Mechanical Processes. 205
type is alone worth considering for this purpose, but for
book illustration a serious objection to its use is its
monotony. For, although there are two colours, the char-
coal grey and the sepia, the gamut of colour is very
limited ; a serious matter this, for our experience leads
us to believe that there is a particular colour and tint
especially suitable to each subject. Another objection
to all ordinary printing papers is the want of relief in the
gelatine film of an ordinary negative, a want which gives
a certain flatness in the resulting print, when compared
with a print from a copperplate where the cavi-relievo is
deeper. Relief in the block undoubtedly |has a great
influence on all results, and in all ths photo-mechanical
processes "depth" is an essential, and the best processes
are those in which the printing-plates have the deepest
surfaces. Another fact which renders platinotype less
valuable than photogravure is that there is always a
certain amount of " sinking in" of the image, as there
is with a painting on canvas; but a painting can be
brought up by varnish, a platinotype cannot.1
Let us, then, examine the various processes, and see
which will serve our purpose.
For artistic reasons we are of the opinion that Collo- £j ne°g" •
tvpes, Woodburytypes, and all such methods, are Woodbury
undesirable ; and this we say deliberately, after long types, &c.
study of the subject, for in supervising and choosing ^able
illustrations for the books which we have illustrated we
carefully examined specimens of nearly all the photo-
mechanical processes extant. We say this, although one
writer on the subject of photo-mechanical processes has
given out the opinion that the ideal process is one in
which the resulting print shouldbe a facsimile of a "silver
print ;" but of course such a remark is artistically wrong,
and is in keeping with the rest of the compilation in
which the statement appears.
For the benefit of the student, then, we say there are but
two processes to be considered for artistic book illustration Typo-
— a typographic block to be printed with the text, and an graphic
processes.
1 This " sinking-in " is now scarcely appreciable with the new
cold- bath process.
206 Naturalistic Photography.
intaglio copperplate. The typographic block has the
whites lowered like a woodblock ; and as it is printed in
the ordinary way, with the type, there is no extra trouble
or cost in the printing. With a copperplate, on the other
hand, the plate must be carefully inked and wiped, and
each print separately pulled by hand, the difference in
time taken by this process, and consequently the cost, is
therefore greatly increased.
After a careful examination of all the typographic pro-
cesses we have no hesitation in saying that there is not
one satisfactory in the market. When the original picture
is not travestied and cheapened by mechanical-looking
crenellations and stipplings, it is marred by obvious hand-
work and by falsity of tonal translation. Any photo-
mechanical process, to be perfect, must, as we have all
along maintained, require no retouching of any kind.
All the typographic blocks, too, are too shallow; hence
in the rough working and pressure of the printing-press
all tonal subtleties are lost in smudges, as the block
becomes clogged with ink. Many of these blocks
serve remarkably well for rough diagrammatic purposes,
but for artistic purposes there is not one we can recom-
mend when the object is to reproduce pictures taken
from nature. For facsimile work they serve the purpose.
A first-rate photo-mechanical block to print with the text
in the ordinary printing-press, which is entirely the result
of a chemical process, is a great desideratum, and it is a
problem which experimenters in this direction will do
well to study. Not only is it that there is no typographic
block adequate, but in addition, when the present process
is employed for diagrammatic purposes, or to satisfy the
pictorial standards of the untrained in art, they are ter-
ribly marred by crude retouchings and daubings with
Chinese white, until such travesties of nature appear that
are only to be equalled by some of the " finishing
artists " of the photographic studio. Yet, bad as these
block processes are, they are infinitely better than the
second-rate woodcuts made from photographs. Day
after day, books appear illustrated with woodcuts done
from photographs, in which the woodcutter has effectually
Photo-Mechanical Processes. 207
ruined all the beauty of the photograph. If the student,
then, should ever be in the position of having to choose
between the facsimile woodcuts of English woodcutters
and photo-mechanical block-work, let him choose the
latter as the lesser evil ; it is better than any except the
American school of facsimile woodcutters. And here it
may be well to note a dishonest practice which is daily be-
coming more common with writers of books of travel who
buy photographs abroad, and unscrupulously have their
books illustrated with them. We know of certain such illus-
trations which are advertised as being prints from wood-
blocks done from sketches by the author. Quite recently
a book of travel appeared illustrated with third-rate
woodcuts purporting to be done from sketches by the
author, which were really done from photographs pur-
chased in the shops abroad. We know of one case where
this was done in England, the photographs pirated being
English photographs. Should such a thing ever happen
to the student, he must, as a duty to the photographic
world, prosecute without compunction, and exact the
utmost penalty of the law. Such dishonesty is one of
the most despicable forms of thieving.
But to return to our subject. As we have said, we Photo-
felt from the first that photo-etching was the ultimate etchin£-
goal to be reached ; that was the final end and method
of expression in monochrome photography. We argued
the matter out with many painters, and they agreed with
us, as did they agree that the process of reproduction must
be the result of chemical changes only — that no retouching
was admissible, or a hybrid would be the result, and a hy-
brid is detestable to all artists, although we have recently
seen writers untrained in art matters advocating a photo-
etched plate as a basis for etching or mezzotinting.
Having decided, then, on these points, we determined to
try the photo-etching processes of the various firms. On
inquiring from the best English and French firms, we
found that but very few, in most cases no landscapes
from nature had been reproduced in this way, although
a few portraits had been done. We carefully examined
the specimens (nearly all specimens of facsimile work) of
208 Naturalistic Photography*
thirteen different firms; in fact, all the firms practising
photo-etching that we could hear of. From this exami-
nation it was evident that however good many of the
processes were for facsimile work, but few were adapt-
able to our needs. Having at last settled on the four
apparently most suitable processes, we began our studies.
Negatives were sent to each of these firms, of whom only
one had ever attempted reproducing a landscape direct
from a negative from nature. The proofs came, and were
in every case most unsatisfactory ; they had all been bar-
barously retouched, all the tonality had been falsified,
faces against the sky were made lighter than the sky, faces
were roughly outlined with an etching-needle, high lights
were scraped away needlessly, and shadows barbarously
deepened with the roulette. Our battles then began,
and we demanded plates free from retouching ; the
voluminous correspondence we had on the subject would
afford amusement. Various firms protested — it couldn't
be done ; it was absurd ; was art the result of a chemical
process ? and Heaven knows what ! However, we per-
sisted with inflexibility, and though we had to accept
in some cases the least visibly retouched plates, we finally
gained the day all round, in so far that all the firms sup-
plied us with plates with no visible retouching. Thus
was instituted a new departure, negatives from nature
were reproduced, through our battlings, with no visible
retouching ; and although a few diagrammatic negatives
had been reprodued here and there before us, we were the
first to start the serious reproduction of negatives from
landscapes and figure subjects which could be regarded
as pictures per se, and not merely as topographical views.
But now the coast is clear, and the stuuent can get his
negatives done without visible retouching by asking for
it. From an examination of these results it was soon
Typogra- evident that one firm, the Typographic Etching Company,
Etching produced plates immeasurably superior to those of any
Com- other firm, and in addition, they would guarantee their
pany's production without retouching.
process. -^QY reproducing negatives taken from nature, then, this
process is perfect^ and we cannot see how any photo-
Photo-Mechanical Processes. 209
engraving process will ever surpass it. Mr. Dawson and Messrs.
Mr. Colls are trained artists, and perhaps therein lies the ®
secret of their success. It is perhaps invidious to select one
firm for special mention, but as the results of Mr. Colls and
the Typographic Etching Company are in every way so
superior when artistically considered, we feel it our duty
to record the fact here for the benefit of the student.
Quite recently there has been much discussion on the
vital question of "Photogravures v. Engravings/* and
some of the English firms have publicly announced that ifc
is necessary to finish their work by hand, while others
privately maintained the same fact. Mr. Colls, late of the
Typographic Etching Company, on the other hand, main-
tains that a plate, perfect in quality, can be produced with-
out the aid of a touch by hand. Further on will be found
a communication on the process by the etcher, Mr.
Colls, who therein states that he can and does produce
his work without any retouching.
The Dawson process renders the light in the shadows
better than any of the other processes, this being effected
by the method of working, and, as a whole, the " quality "
of the work is unapproachable, it beats mezzotint out of
the field in its subtlety and delicacy.
And here we would caution the gentlemen of the press English v.
who have lately written so freely and so mistakenly on p£otogra-
the subject of photogravure, that the best photogravures Vui;e.&
are not produced in France, but in England. Englishmen
dp not seem to know when they possess a " good thing."
We venture to say, without any diffidence, that for the
reproduction of negatives from nature, Dawson's process
is facile princeps, and to assert that for the reproduction
of pictures, some of the English processes are equal to,
if not superior to, the continental processes. This is also
the opinion of several artists who have seen specimens of
the work done in both countries. The process, as worked
in America, does not give results equal to those obtained
in England. For diagrammatic purposes, we consider
nearly all of the English processes possess qualities of
equal value.
Another new departure for which we had some
p
21O
Naturalistic Photography.
Hints for
those
produced
by photo-
etching.
battling was a minor point, but an important one. It
was on the question of lettering. It had been the
practice of many of the firms to engrave in plain lettering
beneath the picture, the name of the firm, and the words
"negative by ," and often in addition the word " copy-
right/' This engraving, as it was usually done, gave a
" cheap3' look to the picture. We felt that the picture
was injured by this procedure, so we insisted that our
name should be cut in the picture, in a quiet manner,
as an etcher would sign his name, and that no ordinary
engraving should appear on the plate. In case, then, our
student should at any time have any of his works repro-
duced, we will give him a few hints, for though the
publisher does the business part, the artist always has
the passing of the plates.
When sending his plates, then, to be bitten, he should
send a well-printed platinotype print with them, a print
having just the effect he wishes for in the copper-plate.
If clouds are to be introduced, the cloud negative should
be sent as well. He will in due time receive a proof,
which he must go carefully over, making any notes on
the margin as to re-biting, &c. If it be retouched or
utterly bad, it must be rejected. Of course, it is here
evident that his art knowledge will come in, for if
ignorant of art, how can he make remarks to the " biters "
who are often artists? He must continue asking for
proofs until he receives a satisfactory one, for no plate
can be forced upon him if he can prove it to be wrong.
If he have real grounds for objection, he will find the
English firms most generous, for they take a pride in
their work. They have, in some cases, made as many as
three plates from a subject for us, with no extra charge,
and this we could never get a French firm to do. When
he approves of the plate, he signs the proof to that effect.
Then comes the great question of " colour," that is the
coloured ink to be used; for one of the great advantages
in photo-etching lies in the number of colours and shades
of colours which can be used. Here, again, his artistic
knowledge comes in, and he will find the effects produced
by different colours are marvellous. Having, then, sug-
Photo- Mechanical Processes. 211
gested his colour and tint, he will receive proofs printed
in them, and he finally decides upon the tint suitable for
each plate, and these are kept as standards on a file.
The matter of printing papers, too, offers great variety
and scope for artistic selection; but here the student
will find he has not a free hand, the publisher often
limiting his choice in that on financial grounds. The
student must see, however, that if India paper be used,
an unsuitable tint be not selected. For example, India
paper may be yellow or white, obviously then, if the
plate is to be printed in bartolozzi red, white India must
be used, and not the ordinary yellow-tinted India. The
student must be careful when sending his platinotype
print, to cut it exactly to the limits he wants the picture
on copper. Copper-plates can be produced in this way
from prints in cases where the negative has been
broken. If the sky is not an important part of the
picture, it is better to have it a flat grey tint, or delicately
gradated. The student, of course, remembering certain
physical truths, as, for example, that still water is, as a rule,
lower in tone than the sky which it reflects, &c. The best
test of relative value of sky and water is to turn the picture
upside down. All these subtleties must be carefully con-
sidered, for a sky lower in tone than the still water re-
flecting it, would, with rare exceptions, be a fatal artistic
error, and enough to condemn the plate. The details
which thus go to make or mar a picture are countless.
This, then, is our experience of the photo-mechanical
processes, and, as we make it a rule never to write on any-
thing we have not full practical knowledge of, we have
asked our friend, Mr. Colls, to write us some particulars
of these processes. We have done this because there are
certain misleading books in the market on the subject,
written by men without such special knowledge as can
only be obtained by a man who has worked at the process
for years and at nothing else, and who is, in addition, an
artist. Mr. Colls is both a specialist and an artist in this W. I-.
work. In our opinion the future artists who practise Colls ou
photography will also photo-etch their own plates, etching
which is greatly to be desired, but since these processes
p 2
2 1 2 Naturalistic Photography.
are at present kept very secret, this knowledge cannot now
be acquired. Nevertheless, we feel that the day is not
far distant when every artist who expresses himself by
photography will also bite his own plates and make his
own blocks, and the prints will be published by print-
dealers as etchings are now. This, in our opinion, is the
only method which can give full artistic satisfaction. A
final important consideration is the number of good
prints which can be palled from each plate. Dawson's
plates, being bitten deeper, will obviously stand more
wear and tear than the others, and will produce a greater
number of good impressions. Mr. Colls thinks that at least
3000 good impressions can be pulled from each plate,
if the steel-facing will last. We append Mr. Coils'
remarks : —
METHODS OF REPRODUCING NEGATIVES FROM NATURE TOR
THE COPPER-PLATE PRESS.
Preamble. « JN giving a description of the various methods that are
employed for reproducing photographs from nature for
the copper- plate press, it is obvious that only those
which are purely ' automatic ' meed be mentioned, as
it is impossible to give a true rendering of those
beautiful forms and delicate gradations of tone, which
we see in nature, by any but automatic means. For so
ever-varying and sudden are her changes, that it is by
photography alone we are able to secure these effects,
and having obtained them, we require a process which
will give us our impressions, and one which will
harmonize with printed matter when required for book
illustration.
" This we have in the Intaglio plate, which gives the
most perfect tonality, and possesses all the richness and
quality of a mezzotint plate, with the same degree o£
permanency.
" For convenience of description the different methods
of producing Intaglio plates may be classed under two
Grown heads — ' Grrown ' and ' Bitten/ I will first mention
aud bitten the < grown/ and will endeavour to point out the
characteristics of the different processes, so that a com-
Photo- Mechanical Processes. 2 1 3
parison may be made between them, with the object of
determining the one best suited for the purpose. In alt
the growing methods the basis of the process consists in
obtaining a gelatinous mould of the subject ; the most
usual and simple way being to develop a carbon print
from a reversed negative on a polished copper-plate
which has been previously silvered, to prevent the copper
which is afterwards deposited upon it adhering ; and to
produce the grain which is necessary to hold the printing
ink. The mould when wet is dusted over with powdered
glass, sand, or the like, previously treated with wax or
stearine, to assist its removal.
" When the mould is quite dry the gritty particles are
removed by gentle rubbing, leaving the gelatine in a
grained state. Plumbago is then rubbed well over the
picture to render the mould conductive, and it is placed
in the electrotyping battery and a stout cast taken.
There is some little uncertainty attending the entire re-
moval of the gritty particles, and great danger that in
making the mould sufficiently conductive in the heavy
portions, the fine work is destroyed by getting blocked
with the plumbago. The former objection has been
overcome by substituting powdered resins, which can
be readily dissolved away without injury to the mould,
and the latter by the introduction of a tissue containing
granular plumbago, which while producing the necessary
grain for holding ink, is one of the best conductors of
electricity, so that no after-treatment is required.
" Similar to this is a process by which the grain is ob-
tained by the action of light on a chemical substance,
which crystallizes under the action of light, the crystals
becoming larger the longer they are acted on by it. A
deposit of copper is then made on the crystalline surface
and a plate obtained.
" By these methods very satisfactory results may be
obtained for certain classes of work where the range of
tone is not great, they are more particularly suited for
reproducing the works of early engravers, old cuts,
etchings, pencil and crayon drawings, and similar work
upon rough or grained surfaces. In fact, when printed
2 1 4 Naturalistic Photography.
upon old paper, as is sometimes done in particular cases,
so closely do they resemble the originals, that the most
expert judge would have great difficulty in detecting the
reproduction from the original; but for reproducing
nature work, where the scale ranges from the highest
lights to the deepest shadows, these methods are not
suitable without much hand- work, which is ruinous to the
faithful rendering of the subject, and the introduction of
the roulette which is used to give the necessary depth does
not improve the appearance, as the depth obtained by it
is heavy, and lacking that transparency which is so
desirable in all classes of work from nature. The great
drawback to these methods is that the grain produced is
upon the surface of the plate, standing up in innumerable
little prickles, and the only way of working up a plate is
with the roulette and scraper (the nature of the grain
being unsuited for re-biting). These, added to the soft
nature of grown copper, as compared to rolled or ham-
mered copper, which is used in the biting methods,
necessitates the greatest care in printing, and usually
require very strong and sometimes forcing inks to give
the necessary strength, and although a plate be steel-
faced it will not hold out for a large number of
impressions.
IC There are other ways of producing a grain upon a
gelatinous mould by re-sensitizing and, when dry, dusting
over the picture brocade powder, either coarse or fine, as
the subject may require ; the mould being previously
treated with vaseline, or a similar substance, to allow of
the powder adhering, and exposing to daylight for a short
time. The powder is then removed, and it is ready for
the battery, after being blackleaded. As all the grow-
ing methods resemble each other so closely, I will not
mention any others, but will proceed with a short
description of the biting processes.
" A polished copper-plate, preferably a hammered one,
is thoroughly cleaned, to remove all traces of grease, and
is dusted over with powdered asphalt or resin, and the
plate heated until the powder becomes partially melted.
A carbon print from a reversed transparency is next de-
Photo- Mechanical Processes. 2 1 5
veloped upon the grained plate and allowed to dry. The
unprotected margin is then painted round with asphalt,
or other resist-varnish, and a wall of bordering wax
placed round the work. It is then ready for biting,
which is done with perchloride of iron, the bare portions
being first attacked; water is then added, and the biting
proceeds to the next tone, and so on, adding water when
required, until the solution has penetrated the thickest
portions of the film. The greatest care must be exercised
during this operation, and a careful watch kept lest the
action remain too long on any part. The biting should
proceed in a gradual manner, so that the values are not
exaggerated. The plate is then rinsed in water, the
bordering wax removed, and the pigment cleaned off
with a little potash ley.
" The biting of a plate resembles very closely the de-
velopment of a dry-plate positive, as the action may be
seen throughout the operation as each successive tone is
reached. There are many variations to the above
method, and each worker has his particular way of pro-
ducing the grain, making the mould, biting, &c., but
they are all based on the one just described. As the in-
troduction of the biting methods as commercially worked
is of more recent date than the grown, less is known of
it, and those who work it most successfully keep it secret,
and were it known there is little likelihood of its being
satisfactorily worked by any but those experienced in
copper-plate work, as long and careful study is necessary
to master those minute details which are so important to
ensure good results. For so delicate are the operations,
that the changes of weather, temperature, &c., play an
important part, and must be attended to.
" One of the great advantages a bitten plate has
over a grown is that the scale is greater than by any
other method, and the nature of the grain admirably
lends itself to re-biting should any parts require deepen-
ing. That is, re-entering the original work by covering
the grained surface with a protective coating, which
resists the action of the acid etching-fluid, and deep-
ening those parts that may require it,- stopping out with
2 1 6 Naturalistic Photography.
resist-varnish any portion where deepening is not
wanted. This at once does away with the roulette, and
the plate still maintains its original character. Ke-biting
is seldom required on a plate from nature, for with care
a plate can be made which needs no after-work whatever,
and when becelled and steel-faced is ready for the press,
notwithstanding the assertion that has been made to the
contrary, which recognizes the process only as a basis
for skilled after-work. It is needless to say tbat in all
mechanical processes the very best negative is required to
work from, for although a great deal may be done in the
biting to counteract any delects in the negative, yet, if the
negative is wanting in any particular, the after-result is
sure to suffer. And here I wish to say that by the
' very best negative ' I do not mean the ordinary photo-
grapher's beau-ideal, but a negative which gives a true
impression of the object photographed, and is full of the
( quality ' and subtlety of nature.
" The grain obtained on a plate which is bitten, differs
materially from one that is grown, inasmuch as in the
former it is below the surface, and in the latter upon it,
as previously described ; consequently its wearing capa-
bilities are far greater.
" Another biting method which possesses the merit of
ingenuity rather than utility, is of converting an ordinary
bromide of silver positive into chloride of silver, by the
action of perchloride of iron and chromic acid. The film
when damp is brought into close contact with the face of
a polished copper-plate. Chloride of silver now rests
upon the copper-plate, more of it in the vigorous or dark
portions, and less of it in the lighter, and by a galvano-
chemical process the chloride of silver decomposes, form-
ing metallic silver and soluble chloride of copper, and
producing depths corresponding to the amount of chloride
of silver present. The energy of the action may be
increased by moistening the film with a weak solution of
chloride of zinc, and a battery current seems necessary to
produce good results. As can be seen, the process is a
very delicate one, admitting of little if any latitude in
workiog, and, unlike the first-mentioned biting process,
Photo- Mechanical Processes. 217
will not permit of any work being put on the positive as
is usually done in the first method for certain work where
the darks are very hard and pronounced, and a great
saving of after-labour avoided.
" It is advisable to say that the work done on the posi-
tive and plate to which I refer is done in connection with
facsimile work, and not with ' nature work/ for in the
reproduction of engravings the deep blacks of the
engravings have to be reproduced, and since in nature
there is no black of this kind we do not have to accentuate
parts of the plates to produce it."
218
Naturalistic Photography.
CHAPTER XIII.
MOUNTING AND FRAMING.
Mounting HAVING our print, the next question is bow shall it be
and ^ mounted and framed. There can, of course, be no laws
for this, but we feel justified in making a few remarks
on this head.
Moun- The best mountant we know of is a weak solu-
tion of fine French glue. It acts better than any
other mountant we have used, and we have tried
several of the formulaa made with starch, arrowroot, and
other compounds. Fine French glue holds firmly and
there is no cockling after mounting. After mounting
the prints are improved by being passed through a press,
but this is by no means necessary. We shall now make
Framing, a few remarks upon framing. In the first place it is
our opinion that all cut mounts are inartistic. Mr.
Whistler, not long since, made some remarks on this
head, which are well worthy of attention. His objections
to cut mounts were that the different tints of the picture,
the gold border, and the cut mount, weakened the edges
of the picture and detracted from its directness and
strength, and this is no doubt true. For this reason we
do not think platinotypes look well mounted on India
paper, the edges are decidedly weakened, and as for
mounting silver prints on India the result is most inhar-
monious. In our opinion then the print should be
mounted upon white paper, preferably Whatman's rough
drawing-paper, and for all pictures less than whole plate
size, we should recommend a margin from three to four
inches. A suitable moulding for these would be a
Mounting an d Framing. 219
bevelled moulding enamelled white. In all cases where Moulding,
the mount shows, it must be remembered that the colour
should harmonize with the print. We saw some prints Mounts,
of Whistler's " Sarasate " mounted on plain black cabinet
mounts, and they looked charming. As in that case, the
picture came out nearly all black, the whole made a har-
mony in black. When the prints are mounted on cards
as in the case of cartes and cabinets, there should be abso-
lutely nothing on the face of the card. The hideousness
of the photographer's name in shining golden letters is
far too common. Nothing could look better for these
small pictures than plain black mounts, with no word or
letter or coloured line or any other embellishment. If the
photographer is such a tradesman at heart that he must
air his medals, let him put all that part of him on the
back of the card. The method of stamping each photo-
graph with the photographer's name is not less fco be
deprecated. For the industrial photographer some
simple but artistic lettering should be chosen, and it
should be printed small in one corner in Indian ink,
which harmonizes with the grey of platinotypes. Any
good die-cutter could supply an artistic stamp, and the
charge, even if a little greater than usual, could not be very
great. Or the photographer might cut out his name artist-
ically in the gelatine film, but we recommend the former
plan. The mounts for cartes and cabinets should have
a margin of at least half an inch all round, as this adds
considerably to the effect.
For platinotypes ranging from whole plate size up to Platino-
15 by 12, we prefer to frame them up closely, showing no tyP68-
mount. The frame we like best for large black and white
work is a pattern we took from a painting by De Hooghe.
These frames are made of mahogany, 2J inches wide, and
bevelled inwards, and have a rather broad slip of English
gilt between the frame and the picture. The mahogany is Frames,
stained black and polished. Pictures of 15 by 12 and up-
wards, should also be framed close up, and for the larger
sizes we prefer gilt frames and simple mouldings with but
little carving. Cambridge frames are simple, but do
not look distinguished. Each picture should have a
22O Naturalistic Photography.
separate frame, and we trust that exhibition committees
will one day see their way to enforcing this rule, which,
besides ensuring a better effect, would prevent much bad
work being hung. Sometimes six prints are hung for
the sake of one or two, because they are all in one frame.
We could scarcely believe, had we not seen it, the fact
that some exhibitors have chronicled on a part of their
frame the medals taken elsewhere by the picture. Such a
proceeding, besides being vain and ill-bred, is apt to
influence credulous judges. One would think it quite
needless to say that this form of advertisement is not
ornamental, nor does it enhance the virtue, qualities, or
beauty of the picture. All artificial methods of mount-
ing and framing are to be avoided. One of these is
Albums, mounting on glass. All albums used for mounting prints
should have plain pages, tinted in harmony with the
charcoal grey of the platinotype. All the vulgar deco-
rations of ships, flowers, &c., which disfigure the photo-
graphic albums of to-day should be rigidly excluded.
The bad taste of the manufacturers of these things is only
another proof of the bluntness of the aesthetic feelings of
producers and buyers alike.
221
CHAPTER XIV.
COPYRIGHT.
THE hazy notions existing among many photographers Copy-
as to how to secure the copyright of their photographs, riSht-
and other details, has led us to make a few remarks on
the subject. In the first place the student is cautioned
to secure the copyright of every photograph worth
keeping, for we presume he will only keep pictures.
This should be done at once ; it is our practice to send the
first rough print at once to the copyright office.
The photographer must write to the Registrar, Method of
Stationers' Hall, Doctors' Commons, E.G., for forms for °.
copyrighting. photographs. These cost one penny each,
and a money order must be enclosed for the amount,
stamps not being accepted. He will then receive the
form as given on the next page.
The student must carefully note the footnote on the On agree
schedule, and be most particular in all cases when he ments-
sells his copyright in any plates to have a written agree-
ment drawn up and signed before he fills in the copyright
schedules. After this proceeding he can fill up the
schedule as directed, and it is, of course, only on these
occasions that he will be required to fill in columns two
and three of the schedule.
The student should carefully study the matter of
copyrighting, for he will find both publishers and pho-
tographers are, as a rule, ill-informed on those parts of
the copyright law to which we now refer.
222
Natiir alls tic Photography.
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Copyright. 223
He fills in then all but columns 2 and 3, as in the
dummy, and returns the form with a shilling, a copy of the
photograph to be registered, and one penny for postage,
when he will receive a receipt. Each photograph must be
separately copyrighted. This \s. \d. protects the photo-
graph for 42 years, or for the author's lifetime and
seven years after death. The author (being a British
subject, or resident within the dominions of the Crown)
is entitled to the copyright of every photograph made in
the British dominions or elsewhere. We shall extract a
few pertinent remarks from an excellent article on copy-
right, which appeared in the " Year's Art of 1887 :" —
The " author " of a photograph seems to be the person
who actually groups the sitters, and f< is the effective
cause of the picture." An agreement is made with
operators to obviate this reading of the law. " A photo-
graph taken from an engraving is ' an original photo-
graph 3 within the section.1" Thus a photographer cannot
copy the photograph of an engraving in which there
exists copyright.
The copyright given by the act is " the sole and exclu- The
• 1 i ' , p • • -i -t nature of
sive ^ right ot copying, engraving, reproducing, and the right<
multiplying the photograph and the negative thereof, by
any means or of any size. The fact that there is copy-
right in a representation of a scene or object does not
prevent other people making an independent representa-
tion of such scene or object, but a photograph of groups
so arranged as to exactly resemble a picture would be an
infringement of the copyright of the picture, for if in the
result that which is copied be an imitation of the picture,
then it is immaterial whether it be arrived at directly or
by intermediate steps/' Photographers should pay great
heed to this clause. For if a photograph or photogravure
be so arranged or grouped as to resemble another already
copyrighted, the law has been infringed. This is a most
wholesome fact, for the veriest fool can go and arrange
a picture after an artist has once shown him how to do it,
for as in all art the originality is to select a beautiful
scene in nature, there lies the difficulty. Kegistra-
The photograph is not protected until it has been tion.
224 Naturalistic Photography.
registered, and if the picture is pirated before registra-
tion there is no remedy except in special cases.
Photographers should then register the first print they
take from their negatives. Making lantern-slides from
copyrighted photographs or photo-etchings is of course an
infringement of the law, and should be severely dealt with.
Replicas. " If a picture or photograph is painted or taken on
commission as the copyright (unless reserved) is in the
hands of the purchaser, the painter or photographer may
not paint or produce a replica/''
Remedies Penalties. " For each offence the offender forfeits to
infrin e ^e Pr°Prie*or °f *ne copyrign^ for the time being, a
ment!^ " sum not exceeding 10L When several copies are sold
together, the sale of each copy constitutes a separate
offence." It will be seen that a photographer could be
ruined if a sale of say 1000 copies could be proved, and
serve him right too.
Forfei- All pirated repetitions, copies and imitations, and
ture. an negatives of photographs made for the purpose of
obtaining such copies, are to be forfeited to the pro-
prietor of the copyright.
Damages. " The proprietor may also bring an action for damages
against persons making or importing for sale unlawful
copies, although the importation is without guilty
knowledge."
Spurious Issuing spurious pictures. — If a photograph be falsely
pictures, gigne^ ^ is an infringement, as it is to make any alteration
in the work and then publish it as original.
It is commonly believed that, unless the word copyright
be on the photograph, it is not secured. This is an error
— as long as the photograph is copyrighted that is all
that is required.
Pecuniary " Pecuniary penalties can be recovered by bringing an
penalties, action against the offending party, or by summary
proceedings before any two justices having jurisdiction
where the offender resides/'
Final In ending this subject, we would impress upon the
advice. photographer that it is his solemn duty to exact the
utmost rigour of the law, should he ever have his work
pirated.
225
CHAPTER XY.
EXHIBITIONS.
EXHIBITING a work of art is publishing it, and the student Eshi
will, when he obtains suitable works, very naturally begin tlon8*
to think about exhibiting them. The subject of photo-
graphic exhibitions is one upon which we have written
many times in the photographic press. Photographic exhi-
bitions are in a most unsatisfactory condition all over the
world.
At present, a society, or a corporation, or a private
firm, for ends of their own, advertise an exhibition, often on
purely financial grounds ; they hope it will pay them,
sometimes it does pay and sometimes it does not. The
method of organizing these exhibitions is to get a list of
patrons, generally a few of the " classes," a few photo-
graphers who are known, but whose fame more often
than not is based on nothing solid, and is ephemeral, and
finally perhaps the names of a few artists may be used to
conjure with. Numbers of medals are advertised and
all works have to be sent carriage paid. The judges are
then chosen, and in nearly all cases they are utterly incom-
petent. No one can judge a work of art unless lie be an
artist. The combined assurance and ignorance of those
who accept what should be considered a serious office, is
laughable and lamentable. Is our exhibiting student
then going to submit his work to men untrained in art ?
If he does, he will find it either unhung, skied, or passed
over in the awards, to make room for the pretty nothings
and false renderings of the craftsmen's ideal. The
Q
226 Naturalistic Photography.
whole judging business is such a blatant farce that the
method of awards at photographic exhibitions is a stock
joke among artists. We have repeatedly been to exhi-
bitions with artists, and on nearly every occasion their
opinion was that many of the most worthy pictures were
passed over. Such a state of things is appalling, and when
with that is coupled the notorious unfairness with which
certain exhibitions are directed, as recent disclosures have
proved, it is indeed lamentable. The tendency of all
exhibitions as at present conducted is to degrade photo-
graphy as an art ; that is our deliberate opinion, after
having for several years watched the system of making
awards and having served on several juries of awards. A
fatal error very common among photographers is to sup-
pose that, because a man is an eminent scientist or a great
authority on leases, he is therefore a fit and proper per-
son to judge pictures. The truth is he is one of the most
unfit, for he is prejudiced, and his scientific knowledge
has a bad influence on his judgment.
Abolition jn our Opinion aii medals should be done away with, all
* distinctions between " amateur " and " professional " re-
moved ; all pictures should be hung on the line, the hanging
committee should be selected from those photographers
who have proved themselves by their works to know most
about art ; and all pictures should be exhibited in separate
frames. If medals must be awarded in order to attract
exhibitors, let the awards be made by artists of recognized
position only. You have only to look at the medals
awarded, to know what to expect ; there is, with one or
two exceptions, not the feeblest suggestion of art in
them, they belong to the class of medals awarded to
Medals as patent ice-cream machines, best refined arrow-root and
works of dog-biscuits. If medals are awarded, each one should
be a work of art, the original having been modelled by a
good sculptor. The student, as a rule then, should pay
no regard whatever to the awards made at exhibitions
by photographers, the only real test of value is when the
awards are made by trained artists, but it is rarely that
even one artist serves on a jury of awards.
If our student must exhibit, we advise him to mark his
Exhibitions. 227
work " Not for Competition." Gambling for medals has Gambling
lately assumed alarming proportions, as the recent com-
ments in the Photographic News prove. It is enough to
disgust all artists, who will of course keep aloof from
photographic circles, as they already do, as long as things
continue as they are. Can the folly of human nature go
further than when we hear of Mr. Guncotton, noted for
his studies in collodion, or Mr. Chromatic, noted for his
patent lens, or Mr. Gelatine noted for his emulsion pro-
cess, assembling in solemn conclave to award medals for
pictures, to judge which, needs years of careful and special
study and wide artistic experience. The student, curious
on these matters, has only to note how different are the
awards when artists give the prizes. Many of our best
workers, we know, will not exhibit, so long as the crafts-
man's ideal is set up as the standard, and the judges are
not artists. In the early days of photography, when Sir Early days
Charles Eastlake, formerly president of the Royal Academy, p^0.
was also president of the Royal Photographic Society, and graphic
when Sir W. J. Newton, the eminent miniature painter Society,
was one of the vice-presidents, there seemed some chance
for photography, and all might have gone well, had not
these artists, as we are informed, been harried and
worried by the ignorant wran^lings of their brother
" photographic artist " (?) judges. Those who were thus
responsible for the resignation of those artists, deserve to
be pilloried to the end of time in photograph1''1 literature,
and such, we are sure, is the feeling of all who earnestly
wish for the good and ad'v cmuement of photography.
This is a painful subject, but we conceive it to be our
solemn duty to warn the student who is anxious to
follow photography as an art, against all these traps. Let
him set out with the determination to work for the
approval of artists, and let him despise the approval or
disapproval of all ignorant of art. As John Constable J. Con-
said long ago, " the self-taught artist has a very igno- stable-
rant master ! "
We hope the reforms regarding exhibitions which we Reforms
have for years advocated, and more fully set forth in a *? exhibi'
photographic journal, in an article entitled " An Ideal
Q 2
228 Naturalistic Photography.
Exhibition/' may some day be adopted, but we cannot
be very sanguine. However, until some such reforms are
adopted, photography must struggle on in darkness, and
the blind will continue to lead the blind ; and all we can
do is to caution others, and ourselves avoid the guidance
of the blind, unless we too wish to be led into the ditch.
229
CHAPTER XYI.
CONCLUSION.
WE have then finished Book II., and we presume that the Advice,
student has now mastered his technique and practice, but
the end is not yet. The student may thoroughly understand
the scientific side of photography, he may have mastered
completely the use of his tools and he may be able to
produce impressions on his plates such as he desires, but
the end is not yet, for now he has to learn the practice
and principles of art, he has to prove whether he can
be an artist, for such is only given to a few. All can
learn to draw, to paint, to photograph, to etch, but they
may remain draughtsmen, painters, photographers,
etchers all their lives, and never become artists. The
history of art shows indeed how few become artists at all,
arid as for those who become great artists, they are as
scarce as great poets. The student then must study
art in some form or other, as well as his own technique
and practice, which lie could learn alone if he followed our
instructions. Art, however, cannot so be learned, and the
student should, if possible, attend some art classes. There
are numerous art schools throughout the kingdom, and
our student cannot do better than enter one of them and
go through a course of drawing. Though no very profound
knowledge is to be obtained at such schools, what is
taughtis better thannothingat all, and after all the student
cannot expect to get the best advice on the matter, that is
given to but the very few and fortunate.
In the next book we shall give what advice we can,
but at the same time our student must study practically
230 Naturalistic Photography.
some branch of art ; unless, indeed, he wishes to become
one of the mighty band of art-ignorant craftsmen, or
unless he is so fortunate as to be cast amongst highly
talented artists, to whom he can easily apply for advice.
For having learned his technique and practice he has but
learned how to speak, he can only show his calibre by
what he has to say and how he says it, just as all the
world can write yet only the highly trained can write
artistically.
In a very few months the student will see, if he is fitted
by nature to become an artist, and if he is not our advice
is give it up, or take up one of the scientific special
branches, and if he is incapable of doing good work there,
he must content himself to play at photography, as too
many photographers do now, but in our opinion the art
is not worth playing at, there are so many more satisfy-
ing games when play is the end and aim.
BOOK III.
PICTORIAL ART.
' He does not sufficiently understand that things are of value only
according to their fundamental qualities, and he still believes that
the care with which a thing is done, even if it is aimless, ought to be
taken into account. In fact it would be a good thing to make him
understand that things exist only to the extent of the stuff they
contain/'
J. FBAN90IS-MILLET.
233
CHAPTER I.
EDUCATED SIGHT.
"V^B are all born mentally blind, but almost immediately Bom
we detect light, as can some of the lowest animals, blmd-
then we learn to distinguish the colours and forms of
objects as we grow older, and there the majority of us
stop, and yet we all think we can see equally well.
That we cannot is a truism, for after being able to
distinguish colours and forms, but very few persons go
on to educate their sight more perfectly. Some of us
may learn to distinguish certain kinds of material, the Trades,
different aspects of these materials under different condi-
tions, and so they learn trades and are excellent judges
of tea, coffee, hosiery and paper. Still higher come the
scientific men who pay more attention to the education of
the sight. They learn to distinguish the microscopic Science,
beings, the life-histories of the lower forms of animal
life, the histology of flowers, the structure of the trees,
the aspects of the skies, the physical and chemical pheno-
mena of the elements, the movements of the planets, so
that in all their walks nature is full of interest to them ;
they find wisdom in a pond, they revel in a marsh, or
they travel to a far country for the sake of rare birds'
eggs, or spend days and nights in their laboratories to
solve new chemical problems, or organize expeditions to
study unusual phenomena of the heavenly bodies ; they
see and love all these things. The man uneducated in
science finds no interest in a drop of muddy water, he
finds nothing wonderful in the vegetation of the country
side, he passes unheeded the rarest birds, and the rain-
234
Naturalistic Photography.
Necessary
to culti-
vate
artistic
faculty.
bow, and storm cloud, and the blazing comet, all alike to
him have no interest, he is blind to them ; or if he sees
them at all, it is as through a glass, darkly.
All this the world allows, and allows that no one save
those who by hard work have trained themselves can see
these things. But mark the stupidity of mankind, he
allows he is blind to the pleasures of science and will
remain so, unless he studies the subject, but when it
comes io art matters, like a weathercock, he shifts
round and thinks he can understand all that without any
training at all, yet he is born as blind and incapable of
understanding art as he is of understanding science until
he has trained himself to understand.
The artist, like the scientific man, begins by studying
closely his subject — nature as a whole — he studies her
in all her aspects, he seeks for harmonies and arrange-
ments in colour and form, for beautiful lines of composi-
tion, and only after long and close observation do the
scales drop from his eyes and he sees a beautiful pose,
even in a child digging up potatoes, or a man throwing
a hammer or running a race, or he sees subtle beauties
of colour in a reed-bed, or poetry and pathos in an old
peasant stooping under a load of sticks, and this is far
more difficult to see than it is to learn to see the scientific
truths, and that is why there are so few real artists and
poets and so many more scientific men. Art, alas, cannot
be learned like science, hard work will not necessarily
make an artist. Most photographers are art-blind, but
they are like the colour-blind old lady who did not know
it, and of course the only hope for them is to be convinced
of their blindness, then perhaps they may do something
towards getting rid of the defect.
The student should now clearly understand why it is so
necessary that this faculty of artistic sight should be culti-
vated and trained, for since it is our fundamental principle
that all suggestions for pictures should come from nature,
we must first see the picture in nature and be struck by
its beauty so that we cannot rest until we have secured
it on our plate ; we must therefore learn to see it in
nature. If we see a beautiful pose, or a beautiful effect
Educated Sigh t. 235
in nature, we should at least make a note of it if we
cannot secure it. A slight sketch made at the time will do.
Therefore, amateur reader, if you have not trained yourself
by study to see these things in nature, blame no one
but yourself, but remember you are blind, blind, blind ;
but there is a remedy, and no surgical operation is
required either.
Study ! You must ever be on the look-out for beauties, Necessity
that is the necessary mental attitude, otherwise they will of study,
never be seen. You must look for a thing if you wish
to find it, and it is only by showing us your finds that
you will prove you have artistic insight, we shall not
believe a word you say about art until we see it in your
work. If you do not study, or if you are incapable, you
will remain blind in spite of your looking, and there will
be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you show to
the world commonplaces which you think are gems, for
the world will soon tell you they are commonplace. We
once knew a person who was colour-blind, who resented
the suggestion as a personal insult, until one evening her
eyesight was tested, when her colour-blindness was
proved.
Let the student then be assured that he is blind, he
cannot see art and nature until he has studied them long
and closely. He may be arrogant enough to think he
knows all about her without study. If that is so, as he
grows older let him refer back to his earlier works, and
if he has progressed meanwhile, let him recall how perfect
he thought those early works at the time he did them,
and then let him lash himself for his folly. A
really good work will always bear looking back at, and
will hold its own however old the artist gets. There No royal
is no royal road to this appreciation of the beauties of road'
art and nature, none but incessant and loving study,
and though the cockney, or sage of the university, who
dwells in towns and learns his art and his nature in the
National Gallery and British Museum, may lecture on
nature and art, let the student avoid him and his
example. Lectures on art at any time are but Dead Sea
fruit.
236 Naturalistic Photography.
The student then must educate his eyesight in order
to see the beauties of nature and art, and to do this he
must study hard, for the true artist wishes to see these
beauties and to record them, that is all, nothing more.
The seers who see deeply, they are the poets ! In
science the original discoverers are the seers, and since
but few can aspire to become seers, nevertheless let the
rest be content to go on studying, for all of us can see
these things with an educated and intelligent eye, and
seeing, understand, and that reward is worth the pains.
237
CHAPTER II.
COMPOSITION.
No chapter of this book has given us so much thought Composi-
as this chapter on composition. tlon-
We could easily, as most writers have done, have given
a digest of Mr. Burnet's laws of composition, but we
have no faith in any " laws of composition." A law, to Laws of
be logical, must hold good in all cases ; now the so-called composi-
" laws of composition," are often broken deliberately by tlon>
great artists, and yet the result is perfect. This is easily
explained, for these so-called laws are mere arbitrary
rules, deduced by one man from the works of many artists
and writers ; and they are no more laws in the true
sense than are the laws of Phrenology or Astrology.
The great question then, which presented itself to us, Our
was this : Will the study of these so-called rules do good problem.
or harm to tbe student ? Will a knowledge of them lead
mui to tne production of conventional work, or will it in
any way help him in his future work ? We had many
earnest discussions on this point with artists, and they
seemed equally uncertain in the matter, though one con-
demned all such laws as absurd and unnecessary. We
most certainly feel inclined to agree with that one
dissentient, but in trying to place ourselves in the position
of the photographic student, with absolutely no know-
ledge of art, we have come to the conclusion that, perhaps,
the student had better study Mr. Burnetts te Treatise on "Treatise
Painting." A cheap edition of this book is published by ?n
Dr. E. Wilson, of 835, Broadway, New York, and every "
student should get a copy of it. It- can be thoroughly
mastered in a week or two, so that not much time will
238 Naturalistic Photography.
be lost. The numerous plates will at any rate be of some
use to the student.
Our ideas Now, from these remarks, it must not be assumed that
on oompo- IT tc •>• » n ••• •
sition. we are no believer in ' ' composition. Composition is
really selection, and is one of the most — if not the most —
vital matters in all art, certainly the most vital in the
art of photography. But the writer maintains there are no
laws for selection. Each picture requires a special com-
position, and every artist treats each picture originally ;
his method of treatment, however, often becomes a "law"
for lesser lights.
It has been assumed by opponents to ' ' Naturalism "
that naturalistic artists ignore composition, and portray
nature " anyhow/' just as she happens to present herself
to them. Nothing could be further from the truth.
None is more careful in selection and arrangement than
the naturalistic painter, at the same time none is less
conventional. Nature is not always suitable for pictorial
purposes, though she is often enough suitable, and it is
when she is propitious that the artist depicts her; hence
the great principle of naturalism, that all suggestions
should come from nature. The object of art training is
to show these propitious moods, anid to enable the painter
to portray them. We prefer, then, the word " selection "
to composition. The matter really stands thus, a good
naturalistic artist selects a composition in nature which
he sees to be very fine.
By composition, as used in this paragraph, is meant
the harmonious and fitting combination of the various
component parts of the picture which shall best express
the picture.
Our best method will be to follow Mr. Burnetts
division of his subject, and offer a running commentary
on the essentials of his work from a photographer's stand-
point, giving our ideas on the subject when they differ
from those of the author of ft A Treatise on Painting/'
" A TREATISE ON PAINTING," by J. BURNET, F.R.S.
Education of the Eye. — Measurement and Form.
Omitting to comment on Mr. Burnetts remarks, we put
Composition . 239
the matter thus, that it is highly desirable for all photo-
graphers to learn drawing, and to learn it intelligently.
Nothing could be more lamentable than the way in which
drawing is taught in our schools, it is worse than useless.
The student should go to some good art school for a few
months, and learn drawing, for in that way are learned the
analysis and construction of objects, and, above all, the
eye is trained to careful observation, which will be
invaluable in the study of tone and selection.
Perspective. Perspec-
tive.
This section the student should read over carefully,
understanding thoroughly the " point of sight " and the
causes of violent perspective. For in photography,
though his lens may be true in drawing, he can as easily
obtain violent perspective as the draughtsman, by placing
the lens too close to his model. Fore- shortening, too,
should be thoroughly understood. Aerial perspective has
been simply treated by us in this work, and the various
remarks of Burnet on this subject must be taken cum
grano salis.
Chiaro-oscuro. Chiaro-
This term, means light and shade. Now the term
" chiaro-oscuro " is very misleading, for it is used by
different artists to mean different things. The whole of
photography depends on the proper management of light
and shade, for our drawing is done for us ; but we prefer
to use the more modern term, "tone/' to express what
we mean by light and shade ; that term we have already
fully explained. Chiaro-oscuro, as we understand it, is
the arbitrary placing of masses of light against masses
of shade to produce certain desired effects ; it is, there-
fore, conventional, and akin to the law which required all
trees to be painted fiddle-brown. It is needless to say
the only way such a conventional chiaro-oscuro can be
obtained in photography is by arranging the objects in
nature, or by retouching, and both are against our
principles. The student, then, must, as we have said,
master " tone/' that is his chiaro-oscuro, his light and
oscuro.
240 Naturalistic Photography.
shade, and he must always remember to look for
Breadth. < f breadth " in his treatment. Breadth is found in all
good work, and it depends in photography not entirely
upon light and shade, but upon the focussing and deve-
loping as well, as we have already indicated. Why
are spotty-lighted, sharply-focussed, brightly-developed
negatives so " noisy " and garish and inartistic ? It is
that they lack " breadth." It must not be thought from
this that no sunny pictures have breadth ; on the contrary,
if the masses are large, and the planes well rendered, and
the tonality true, there can be as much breadth in a sunny
picture as in a grey-day effect. It has been said that
<c breadth" is a device of the painters, but this is mere non-
sense. Let the student look well at a simple stretch of
grass-land bordering a still lake, on a damp, misty eveninsr,
and then he will see breadth. Let him focus that scene as
sharply as he likes, including a portion of sky as well,
and develop and print from it, and he will find breadth,
and he will probably have a clear understanding as to the
meaning of the word.
Mr. Burnet divides chiaro-oscuro into five parts, viz.
light, half-iight, middle tint, half-dark, dark. This
arbitrary division is hypercritical. For working purposes,
light, half-tone or middle tint, and dark, are quite
sufficient; other subdivisions are far too subtle and
numerous to be considered theoretically, and, practically,
truth of tone is only to be learned by long experience
and study, and we believe all the directions given by Mr.
Burnet for producing relief, harmony, and breadth, to be
artificial and useless. An examination of the plates shows
clearly how futile are his deductions, and how untrue in
light and shade, viz. tone, they all are.
Oomposi- Composition.
tton.
Mr. Burnet opens with the statement that " geometric
forms in composition are found to give order and regu-
larity to an assemblage of figures." This is the first
principle on which is built his structure of geometrical
composition. We will omit the dicta of literary men on
Composition. 241
pictorial art which Mr. Burnet is so fond of quoting-, but
which we consider too worthless to do more with than
mention. Let us then apply ourselves to the study of
his thesis.
His first remarks are upon angular composition, and as
he finds that these lead him into conventional methods, he
foes on to say that this conventionality can be rectified by
alance. Even if we would follow thi^ form of composition
our means are limited, for, unlike the painter, we cannot
alter and re-arrange. However, we have no wish to make
" angular compositions/' and consider them false in
theory. Painters, on the other hand, mu^t settle these
matters for themselves; we know how many settle them,
that is by ignoring all such teachings as nonsense. Next
we come to the " circular composition/' which, we are told,
is " applicable to the highest walks of art," wherever
they may be. Soon after this we come upon the truest
remark in the book. "Artists generally prefer the
opinions of untutored children to the remarks of the most
learned philosophers," and we fear most modern artists
prefer the teachings of nature to those of that philosopher
John Burnet, F.R.S. Finally, Mr. Burnet winds up with
the words, " I must also caution the young artist against
supposing that these modes of arrangements are given
for his imitation. I merely wish him to be acquainted
with the advantages any particular composition possesses,
that in adopting any invention of his own, he may
engraft upon it these or similar advantages."
Now this reads very oddly after talking of rules of
composition, for what is the good of a rule if it is not to
be followed ? and it reads very illcgically when compared
with the quotation from Reynolds (Brougham ?), which
goes to back up the excuse for advocating rules as Burnet
gives them, — viz. " to those who imagine that such rules
tend to fetter genius, &c."
In short, the whole work is illogical, unscientific, and
inartistic, and has not a leg to stand on. It is very specious
to say that all compositions are made according to geome-
trical forms, for nothing can be easier than to take arbi-
trary points in a picture and draw geometrical figures
242 Naturalistic Photography.
joining them. The pyramid is a favourite geometrical
form, of composition. Now take any picture, and take
any three points you like, and join them, and you have a
pyramid, so does every composition contain a pyramid, as
does a donkey's ear. But enough of this. The student is
distinctly warned against paying any serious attention to
these rules ; it is, however, as we have said, well that
he should know of them, and we suspect he will learn
something of design from merely looking carefully at the
plates. Of tone he will learn nothing.
With Mr. Burners remarks upon colour we are in no
way concerned.
But the student will say, how, then, can composition be
learned ? Our answer to this is that composition, that
s selection, cannot be learned save by experience and
practical work — there is no royal road to it, no shilling
guide. This subtle and vital power must be acquired if
we are to do any good work, for we are dumb until we do
acquire it. We can no more express ourselves in art
without having mastered composition, than a child can
express himself in prose until he has learnt the art of
writing. It is for this reason that we must learn art
practically, for no written " rules or laws " can be given.
Each picture is a problem in itself, and the art-master
can help the student to solve the problems as they arise,
in that way only can composition be learned. The proof
of this is that young painters who have been through
the schools are very weak in composition, it is only by
continual failures that they acquire the necessary know-
ledge. Let the student trace the development of any
painter's work, and he will find that his early works are
always poor in composition and feeble in motif.
243
CHAPTER III.
OUT-DOOR AND IN-DOOR WORK.
IT is presumed the student has thoroughly mastered and
applied all that has preceded this chapter, especially
the matter of -tone, otherwise it is no use attempting to
make pictures, which means attempting composition.
Presuming then the student is master of the subject
as already treated, we will now proceed to offer some
suggestions on picture-making, but be it distinctly
understood they are only suggestions.
We shall divide the subject into two sections, begin-
ning with out-door work.
OUT-DOOR PORTRAITURE.
Very fine portraits and groups can be taken out of Out-door
doors. In taking such pictures, it is admissible to dictate po*I
the dress of the model, and to arrange tea-parties, sport-
ing, athletic, and other groups. But if the student
intends to make them artistic, he must be very particular
with his types, and see above all things that the senti-
ment is true. For example, it is a fine parody on nature
to photograph a gaunt and self-conscious girl in aesthetic
clothing, for dress it cannot be called, with a tennis-bat
in her hand. For a tennis picture, fine girls, physically
well-formed, should be chosen.
Next the student should choose a simple background, Back-
which with the dress and flesh tints form a harmony or fine groun(i.
study in tone. The model's dress should be v^.ry simple
and well-fitting, such dresses as were worn by Botticelli's
women (dresses quite unlike the modern aesthetic gowns),
being very artistic for women, while flannel shirts or simple
R 2
244 Naturalistic Photography.
white trousers will look well on the men. All mon-
strositiefc and exaggerations of fashion should be avoided,
such as flowers, chatelaines, wasp-waists, high heels, and
dress improvers. The best material for dresses for
pictures is a coarse, limp, self-coloured muslin (butter-
uloth is excellent for the purpose). All jewellery should
dresses, be eschewed, the only decoration of this kind that
Jewellery, photographs simply and well is perhaps a string of
pearls, which looks charming.
The work must be true in sentiment, and the student
must choose an appropriate treatment of the subject.
The portrait being out of doors, we must be made to feel
that fact ; thus; a girl resting from tennis, a girl in a
riding-habit, or better still on horseback, would be
very appropriate. The background must be carefully
selected to be in keeping with the figure, and to help to
tell the story fully and emphatically, and yet it must be
kept subdued.
Groups. Groups are very difficult to treat artistically, and our
never-failing rule is to limit as much as possible the number
Treatment of people in the group. Having now chosen his model and
jf model. arranged other matters, the student must remember to
let his model stand or sit, as he or she likes, and all
suggestions for the pose should come from the model ;
this is a fundamental principle of naturalism. A great
friend of ours, a well-known sculptor, assures us
he would not dare to pose a model according to any
preconceived idea, but he watches the model pose in
different ways, and when he sees a striking and beautiful
attitude he seizes on that and makes a rapid sketch of it.
That is the only true way for the photographer to work,
he must have the camera ready, focussed and arranged,
arjd when he sees his model in an unconscious and
beautiful pose, he must snap his shutter. It is thus very
evident how important is art-knowledge and insight for
all good photographic work, and it is thus evident how
a man who is sympathetic and of a refined temperament
will show his individuality in his work.
el™™ With commercial groups of bands, football teams, &c.,
Groups. the student has nothing to do, and let him never be
Out-door and In-door Work. 245
induced to photograph anything which he does not think
will make a picture. He must have patience also, when
waiting for nature's suggestions ; we have waited a whole
morning, rubber ball in hand, for a suitable grouping of
colts, but we finally got one of the best things we ever
produced. If our photographer be a smoker, let him
light his pipe and take it easy, talking meanwhile to the
model ; at length his chance will come, but it may only
come once, and then he must not hesitate or the picture
may be lost in a moment. It is preferable that all
out-door portraits should be taken on a grey day, or in
the shade if the sun be shining.
There is a wide field open to wealthy photographers for
producing really good pictures of their friends at country
houses. But the student must remember that to produce a
perfect picture takes a long time and can only be achieved
by long and patient practice, coupled with artistic
ability. The hurried representations of shooting, boating,
and family groups, which are so often produced by in-
dustrial photographers, are artistically beneath contempt.
They are mere statements of facts, and as much akin to
art as the directions in a cookery-book are akin to litera-
ture. Photography up to a certain point, and in a
haphazard way, is so easily learned now-a-days that there
is absolutely no merit in producing such work. Such
photographs are only the confessions of untrained and
commonplace minds.
LANDSCAPE.
The student who would become a landscape photo-
grapher must go to the country and live there for long 8C
periods ; for in no other way can he get any insight into the
mystery of nature. All nature near towns is tinged with
artificiality, it may not be very patent but the close
observer detects it. Among fisher-folk this may be seen
in the sealskin cap, in the rustic it shows itself in the hard
billycock hat, in landscape pure it may be seen in some'
artificial forms of the river-banks, or in artificial under-
growths ; the mark of the beast, the stamp of vulgarity,
246 Naturalistic Photography.
that hydra-headed monster which always appears where-
evera few men are gathered together, is sure to be found
somewhere. For this reason then the would-be landscape-
photographer should pack up his things and go to some
'locality with which he is in sympathy, just as a painter
"Out does. Here let him be cautioned against taking part in
ings."" anJ °f those " outings/' organized by well-meaning but
mistaken people. It is laughable indeed to read of the
doings of these gatherings ; of their appointment of a
leader (often blind) ; of the driving in breaks, always a
strong feature of these meetings ; of the eatings, an even
stronger feature ; and finally of the bag, 32 " II-
fordV 42 " Wrattens'/' 52 "Pagei's," &c.
Apply the same sort of thing to painting, and would it
not indeed be ridiculous ? Would it not lower painting in
the eyes of the world if say thirty academicians with a
leader for the day, assembled at Victoria Station with
pastels and boards, or with paint-tubes and small
canvasses, and went by train to some village and there
proceeded to pastel or paint what the leader suggested ;
then would follow the dinner (the best part, no doubt), and
next day how edified would be the world to read in the
daily papers of the most successful outing, the result of
which was the covering of 32 " Rowney," 29 " Windsor
and Newton," and 40 " Newman " canvasses ! All these
" playings " bring photography down to the level of
cycling and canoeing, and yet many photographers
wonder that artists will have no official connection with
photography. We know well that it is for these and
similar reasons that serious artists will not allow their
names to be officially connected with photography, and we
here earnestly appeal to all who really have the advance-
ment of photography at heart to do all in their power to
d?tric °f kring such trivial " play " to an end. Having then decided
to go to the country, let the student think well with which
kind of landscape he is most in sympathy, but let him
always remember this fact that all landscape is not
suitable for pictorial purposes ; he must therefore learn to
distinguish between the suitable and the unsuitable.
Landscapes there are full of charm, pleasant places for
Out -door and In- door Work. 247
a picnic or encampment, but when you come to put
them into a picture, they become tame and commonplace.
Again let the student avoid imitation. If he knows
that an artist has been successful in one place, do not
let him, like a feeble imitator, be led thither also, for
the chances are, if his predecessor were a strong man,
that he will produce commonplaces where the other
produced masterpieces, and thereby confess his inferi-
ority. It is far better to be original in a smaller way
than another, than to be even a first-rate imitator of
another, however great.
For this reason the present method adopted by inar- Photo-
tistic writers of publishing " Photographic Haunts " is graphic
strongly to be deprecated, such guides can but lead to
conventional and imitative, therefore contemptible work.
The fact of the matter is nature is full of pictures, and
they are to be found in what appears to the uninitiated,
the most unlikely places. Let the honest student then
choose some district with which he is in sympathy, and
let him go there quietly and spend a few months, or even
weeks if he cannot spare months, and let him day and
night study the effects of nature, and try at any rate to
produce one picture of his own, one picture which shall
show an honest attempt to probe the mysteries of
nature and art, one picture which shall show the author
has something to say, and knows how to say it, as per-
haps no other living person could say it ; that is something
to have accomplished. Remember that your photograph
is as true an index of your mind, as if you had written
out a confession of faith on paper.
We will now offer a few remarks on the component
parts of a picture.
THE " LINES."
As we have said there can be no rules for the arrange- *« Lines."
inent of lines, yet they are all-important and essential to
the expression of harmony and directness. The student
must cultivate the habit of quickly analyzing the lines of
a picture, and coming to a decision whether they are
harmonious and pictorially suitable. For example, he
248 Naturalistic Photography.
must not have the lines of different objects cutting each
other and forming unpleasant angles, for if he does this
the eye of the observer will never get away from the
geometrical figure, however good the other part of the
picture may be. He should look for repeated line, and
his lines should run into the picture, thus all uncomfort-
ableness is avoided. There is no necessity for balance or the
equal arrangement of masses on either side of the picture,
for this, though it may produce pretty pictures, will never
produce strong ones. Every line must help to tell the
story and strengthen the picture, otherwise it weakens
it.
AERIAL PERSPECTIVE.
It is of vital importance that this be well rendered,
the method for obtaining it having already been shown.
The student must remember that he must give the true
value to the separate planes of the picture, or it is
worthless for reasons already stated. The state of the
weather, has, as we have indicated, a wonderful modifying
effect on this perspective, and must be carefully studied.
TONE..
Of vital importance is the relatively true rendering of
tone as already indicated. This is such a subtle subject
that no directions can be given for it, and the student can
only master the subject by a long and ardent study of
nature. He can test his knowledge by his power of
criticizing pictures away from nature, for their truth or
falsity of tone. The key in which the picture is. pitched
should always be in keeping with the subject rendered.
COMPOSITION.
The objects must be arranged so that the thing
expressed is told clearly and directly, in short, the
student should try to express his subject as it has never
been expressed before. All things not connected with
the subject should be removed, and all but the chief
thing to be expressed should be carefully subdued. The
interest must not be divided, but all must go to help' the
Out- door and In-door Work. 249
expression of the motif of the picture. Thus a white
patch the size of a threepenny piece may ruin a twelve
by ten inch plate, as many a hat, a basket, as many a small
article has done; just as a false foot may ruin an other-
wise fine stanza. Be most careful how you introduce a
detail, it may either make or mar your picture.
The sentiment and detail must always be appropriate or
the result is a travesty. Thus haymakers do not wear new-
fashioned buttoned boots, nor do rustics wear sun-bonnets
and aprons all clean and fashionably cut. But this is only
a superficial matter, the artist must carry appropriateness
much deeper than in mere costume ; for example, a flock
of sheep on a pasture may be made quite false in senti-
ment, if they are driven in away that suggests a march to
the slaughter-house, and they very easily huddle together
in a manner that suggests that final procession. The stu-
dent will now see how subtle all these matters are, and
how little yet how much divides the masterpiece from
mediocrity. Some photographers think naturalism con-
sists only in taking things as they are, and they will
exclaim, if you criticize their work, " Oh ! it was just like
that any way/' True, oh ingenuous one, but it was just
some other way as well, and perhaps that other way
might have given a work of art, whereas this way has
given a bald and uninteresting fact. Selection or
composition is a most subtle matter, and one very difficult
to learn, but let the student persevere, and if he has the
ability he will find that the scales will fall from his eyes
as he goes on.
IMPRESSION.
The impression must be true throughout, and if all the Impress-
preceding components are true the impression will be true. 81
Our student may now have carried out all these things
and yet there may be no picture, his mind may be
commonplace. He may have wasted a good technique on
a commonplace subject, such as a yacht going in full sail,
an express train, some very ordinary dogs or horses, or
some very extraordinary men or women. We are theii
brought to a very important matter, the subject.
250
Naturalistic . Photography.
Art of
feeling
nature.
SUBJECT OF THE PICTUEE.
Subject. The subject must have pictorial qualities, it must be
typical, and must give aesthetic pleasure. The student
must look for elegance and a distingue air in his subject.
You will find that the best pictures will be of those subjects
which hit you hardest in nature, those which strike you so
much that you feel an irresistible desire to secure them.
You must then train your feelings, for, as John Con-
stable said, " the art of feeling nature is a thing almost
as much to be cultivated as the art of reading the
Egyptian hieroglyphics."" You must then, when you have
felt your subject, be resolute and only take in what is
necessary to express your subject ; this is the text of the
artist. E very thing must be harmonious and comfortable,
but that alone will not suffice any more than will the sub-
ject alone. Everything must be in keeping in the picture.
The artist must be in sympathy with his subject,
" entrer dans la meme peau," as the French say. He
must have no preconceived notion of how he is going to
do a subject, but take all his suggestions from nature
and humbly follow them and lovingly portray them.
Pure imitation of nature (even if it were possible) won't do,
the artist must add his intellect, hence his work is an in-
terpretation. To photograph a " flying express " so that
it looks as if standing still is imitation, to render it with
the suggestion of motion by its smoke and steam is an
interpretation. The great question which the student
should ask himself is : My aim, what is it ? If that be
serious and honest, and not feeble and vainglorious, he
is all right. Remember that the aim of art is to give
aesthetic pleasure, and that artists are the best judges of
this matter, and you will find that so good is their train-
ing that they often elevate the meanest things they touch.
The highest expression is that of poetry, and therefore
the best works of art all contain poetry. What poetry is
and how it is to be got is not to be discussed in our
present state of knowledge, suffice it to say that the poet
is born and not made, though the poet's speech may be
improved by training.
Poetry in
works of
art.
Out-door and In-door Work. 251
Thus it will be seen how difficult a matter it is to Qualities
produce a picture, even when we have thoroughly
mastered our technique and practice, for, to recapitulate,
in a picture the arrangement of lines must be appropriate,
the aerial perspective must be truly and sub lily yet broadly
rendered, the tonality must be relatively true, the compo-
sition must be perfect, the impression true, the subject
distinguished, and if the picture is to be a masterpiece,
the motif must be poetically rendered, for there is a poetry
of photography a,s there is of painting and literature.
Never rest satisfied then until these requirements are
all fulfilled, and destroy all works in which they are not
to be found.
That it will be possible for comparatively few to succeed
is evident, but the prize is worth striving for, for even if
we do not all attain to the production of perfect works, we
shall have gained a knowledge of art and an insight into
nature, that will be a never-failing source of pleasure to
us in our daily walks.
FIGUKE AND LANDSCAPE.
By far the most difficult branch of photography is that Figureand
in which figures occur in landscapes. All previous landscape.
remarks apply to this branch, of the art, only here it is
more necessary than ever that every detail be perfect.
This is a branch which we have perhaps studied
and developed more than any other, and yet even now
we feel but a beginner in it. One thing you must never
forget, that is the type ; you must choose your models
most carefully, and they must without fail be picturesque
and typical. The student should feel that there never
was such a fisherman, or such a ploughman, or such a
poacher, or such an old man, or such a beautiful girl, as
he is picturing. It is a great mistake for photographers
to attempt rural subjects unless 'they have lived in the
country for a long time and are thoroughly imbued with
the sentiment of country life. The truth of this axiom is
proved by the falseness of sentiment seen in most
country pictures done by painters even. The student
who lives in town will find good figure-subjects in
252 Naturalistic Photography.
the town, and if he has no sympathy with such life, he
should try such subjects as shooting parties, coursing
meets, riding subjects, and beautiful women. It is fal-
lacious to try and cultivate an unsympathetic field and
is sure to end in mediocrity or failure.
STUDIO PORTRAITURE.
Studio The easiest branch of photography is portraiture in
For- the studio, for all conditions, including even the dress of
traiture. ^ne mo(je^ are in the photographer's hands. The lighting
is also perfectly under control.
Principles The principles of lighting a face are briefly these : A
top light gives the best and subtlest modelling, and gives
lg tmg* more relief than any other lighting. But the aim of
pictorial art is not to give relief to illusion, therefore the
top light effect is modih'ed by a side light and by reflec-
tors. The principle of using a reflector is this : Light
falling at right angles on a plane surface gives the highest
light, then as we turn the reflector through a circle,
we get all gradations up to full dark, when the reflector
is turned right round. This principle must be remem-
bered in lighting the planes of the face. The portraitist
must work as does the sculptor, in planes and tone, that
is, he must quickly make an analysis of the face and
observe the most suitable treatment of the subject, and
then he must focus and develop so as to bring the planes
well out, and they must be broad in treatment and rela-
tively true in tone.
These are the only principles which can be given for
lighting, their application can be learned by study first
on a plaster cast, and afterwards on the living model.
Character The great thing to obtain is the character or expression
or expres- of the model, everything must be sacrificed for this in por-
traiture, and enough of the figure must be taken in to tho-
roughly express the character. Thus the head alone may
do in some cases, in others it will be necessary to include
the hands, in others the whole body. It is needless to
repeat that all portraits should be taken by quick expo-
sures. The best way is for the student to have a very long
Out-door and In-door Work. 253
elastic tube to his shutter, then he can walk about and
talk to the model, and when he sees a good natural pose,
he can expose, and his picture will probably be good.
The present way of posing, using head-rests, &c., is
feeble and archaic, and nearly certain to result in failure.
Another important hint is to place the lens on the
same level as the eye of the model, neither higher nor
lower, especially if large heads are taken. When the
picture is to be full length or three-quarter length, the
head should still receive the principal attention, and
all else be subdued.
We have already treated of arrangements of back-
grounds and dresses in harmonies, and of the absolute
necessity for using only suitable accessories. In addition
all other principles of composition, harmony, breadth,
as already described, must be remembered.
Finally we give a quotation from M. Adam Salomon, Adam
sculptor and photographer : — Salomon.
" Each subject should be treated according to its own
requirements, its own individualism. . . . When the
artist is interested in his work and believes in his art, it
becomes wonderfully plastic, and the materials wonder-
fully tractable in his hands."
254
Naturalistic Photography.
CHAPTER IV.
HINTS ON ART.
Practical
hints.
Prizes for
" set sub-
jects."
Man
originally
vulgar.
Merit of
photo-
graphs.
Pseudo-
scientific
photo-
graphers
and art.
Resolu-
tion.
Point of
sight.
Reni-
brandt
pictures.
" Artist
photo-
graphers."
As practical hints for working cannot be woven into a
continuous text, we will give them separately.
Never compete for prizes for " set subjects/' for work
of this kind leads to working from preconceived ideas,
and therefore to conventionality, false sentiment, and
vulgarity.
Remember that the original state of the minds of un-
educated men is vulgar, you now know why vulgar and
commonplace works please the majority. Therefore,
educate your mind, and fight the hydra-headed monster
— vulgarity. Seize on any aspect of nature that pleases
you and try and interpret it, and ignore — as nature
ignores — all childish rules, such as that the lens should
work only when the sun shines or when no wind blows.
^olus is the breath of life of landscape.
The chief merit of most photographs is their diagram-
atic accuracy, as it is their chief vice.
Avoid the counsels of pseudo-scientific photographers
in art matters, as they have avoided the study of art.
If you decide on taking a picture, let nothing stop
you, even should you have to stand by your tripod for a
day.
Do not climb a mast, or sit on the weathercock of a
steeple, to photograph a landscape ; remember no one will
follow you up there to get your point of sight.
Do not talk of Rembrandt pictures, there was but one
Rembrandt. Light your pictures as best you can and
call them your own.
Do not call yourself an " artist-photographer " and
Hints on Art. 255
make {< artist-painters " and f< artist-sculptors " laugh ;
call yourself a photographer and wait for artists to call
you brother.
Remember why nearly all portrait photographs are Falsity of
so unlike the people they represent — because the portrait p|^ot°:
lens as often used gives false drawing of the planes and portraits,
false tonality, and then, comes along the retoucher to put
on the first part of the uniform, and he is followed by the
vignetter and burnisher who complete the disguise.
The amount of a landscape to be included in a picture Amount of
is far more difficult to determine than the amount of landscape
oxidizer or alkali to be used in the developer. eluded in
Pay no heed to the average photographer's remarks a picture,
upon "flat" and "weak" negatives. Probably he is "Flat"
flat, weak, stale and unprofitable ; your negative mav and ,
T_ % -i -i i i • -i-i -i p • "weak"
be first-rate, and probably is it he does not approve or it. negatives.
Do not allow bad wood-cutters and second-rate process- Bad wood-
mongers to produce libels of your work. cutters.
Be broad and simple. Broad and
Work hard and have faith in nature's teachings. simple.
Eemember there is one moment in the year when each
particular landscape looks at its best, try and secure it at The p
that moment. pitious
Do not put off doing a coveted picture until another moment,
year, for next year the scene will look very different,
You will never be able twice to get exactly the same
thing.
Vulgarity astonishes, produces a sensation ; refinement Vulgarity,
attracts by delicacy and charm and must be sought out.
Vulgarity obtrudes itself, refinement is unobtrusive and
requires the introduction of education.
Art is not legerdemain ; much " instantaneous " work Art and
is but jugglery
Though many painters and sculptors talk glibly
" going in for photography," you will find that very for photo-
few of them can ever make a picture by photography ; graphy."
they lack the science, technical knowledge, and above
all, the practice. Most people think they can play
tennis, shoot, write novels, and photograph as well as any
other person — until they try.
256 Naturalistic Photography.
Faith. Be true to yourself and individuality will show itself in
your work.
Sensa- Do not be caught by the sensational in nature, as a
tional in coarse red-faced sunset, a garrulous waterfall, or a fifteen
nature. , , -, « , •
thousand toot mountain.
Pretti- Avoid prettiness — the word looks much like pettiness,
and there is but little difference between them,
On study- No one should take up photography who is not content
ing photo- to work hard and study so that he can take pictures for
grap y* his own eye only. The artist works to record the beauties
of nature, the bagman works to please the public, or for
filthy lucre, or for metal medals.
J? „ At the University of Cambridge, in our student days,
it was considered " bad form " to give a testimonial to a
tradesman for publication. This is still "bad form;" let
the student, therefore, never let his name appear in the
advertisement columns of photographic papers beneath a
puff of some maker's plates or some printing papers.
fl Good wine needs no bush."
Value of a The value of a picture is not proportionate to the
picture, trouble and expense it costs to obtain it, but to the poetry
that it contains.
" Good Good art only appeals to the highly cultivated at the
first glance, but it gradually grows on the uncultivated,
or the half cultivated ; with bad art the case is other-
wise.
Life of the Give the life of the model in a portrait, not his bear-
model. jng towards you during a mauvais quart d'heure.
Reflec- j)0 not call reflections — shadows ; learn to distinguish
tions and -, , ,
shadows between the two.
Beautiful Always be on the look-out for a graceful movement
poses. when you are conversing with a person, thus you will
learn.
Limits of Keep rigidly within the limits of your art, do not strive
for the impossible, and so miss the possible.
Onrepro- Never judge of the merits of a painting or piece of
J 1?n' sculpture from reproductions.
Quality. Every good work has " quality."
^entn -p0 ;aot mistake sentimentality for sentiment, and senti-
poetry. inent for poetry.
Hints on Art. 257
Spontaneity is the life of a picture. Spon-
Continual failure is a- road to success — if you have J11161^'
the strength to go on.
The colour of a landscape viewed in the direction of Colour of
the sun is almost unseen; therefore turn your back on landscape.
the sun if you wish to see nature's colouring, and you do !
Do not emulate the producers of photographic Christ- ^d^^d
mas cards and "artistic "(?) opals; they are all worthy of ^artistic "
the bagman. opals.
Do not mistake sharpness for truth, and burnish for Finish,
finish.
The charm of nature lies in her mystery and poetry, but Mystery,
no doubt she is never mysterious to a donkey.
It is not the apparatus that does the work, but the man Appara-
who wields it. tus-
Say as much as you can, with as little material as you
can.
Flatter no man, but spare not generous praise to really Good
good work. work<
Lash the insincere and petty homunculi who are work- Vanity,
ing for vanity.
Hold up to scorn every coxcomb who paints " artist- Artist and
photographer " or " artist " on his door, or stamps it on a^fcl!t"
his mounts. . grapher.
Remember every photograph you publish goes out for On pub-
better for worse, to raise you up or pull you down ; do not lishing.
be in haste, therefore, to give yourself over to the enemy.
By the envy, lying and slandering of the weak, the On
ignorant, and the vicious, shall you know you are succeed- Sl
ing, as well as by the sympathy and praise of the just,
the generous, and the ^acters.
When a critic has nothing to tell you save that your " Sharp-
pictures are not sharp, be certain he is not very sharp n<
and knows nothing at all about it.
Don't be led away to photograph bourgeois furnished Interiors.
interiors, they are not worth the silver on the plate for
the pleasure they will give when done.
The greater the work the simpler it looks and the Pkoto-
, o JT graphs as
easier it seems to do or to imitate, but it is not so. historical
-Photographic pictures may have one merit which no recoida.
9
258
Naturalistic Photography.
Art at
home.
Nature
and
pictures.
Science
aud art.
Topo-
graphy.
Art and
culture.
Indivi-
duality.
" Fiddle-
brown "
trees.
Naturalis-
tic works.
On opinion
in art.
Nature
and
sanity.
Busy
insanity.
" Stolen
bits."
other pictures can ever have, they can be relied upon as
historical records.
Art is not to be found by touring to Egypt, China, or
Peru ; if you cannot find it at your own door, you will
never find it.
People are educated to admire nature through pictures.
Science destroys or builds up, and seeks only for bald
truth. Art seeks to give a truthful impression of some
beautiful phenomenon or poetic fact, and destroys all that
interferes with her purpose.
Topography is the registration of bald facts about a
place ; it is sometimes confounded with Art.
The artistic faculty develops only with culture. A
man may be a Newton and at the same time never get
be}rond the chromographic stage in art.
Without individuality there can be no individual art,
but remember that the value of the individuality depends
011 the man, for all the poetry is in nature, but different
individuals see different amounts of it.
Had Constable listened to rules we might have had
" fiddle-brown" trees in our pictures to-day.
Nature is full of surprises and subtleties, which give
quality to a work, thus a truthful impression of her is
never to be found in any but naturalistic works.
The undeveloped artistic faculty delights in glossy and
showy objects and in brightly coloured things. The
appreciation of delicate tonality in monochrome or
colour is the result of high development. The fru-
givorous ape loves bright colour, and so does the
young person of " culture," and the negress of the
West Indies, but Corot delighted only in true and
harmonious colouring.
Nature whispers all her great secrets to the sane in
mind, just as she delights in giving her best physical
prizes to the sane in body. Nature abhors busy insanity.
Do not be surprised if you find " stolen bits " of your
photographs in the works of inferior etchers, aquarellists,
and black and white draughtsmen; it pays them to
steal, while it does not hurt you, for they cannot steal
your " quality."
Hints on Art. 259
Many photographers think they are photographing Nature
nature when they are only caricaturing her. and ph°-
The sun when near the horizon gives longer shadows ^°SraP^
than when near the zenith. shadows.
When writers tell you photography is one thing and photo-
art another, find out who they are, and you shall find graphy
their opinion on art-matters is contemptible, and it is and art>
only their omniscient impudence and fanaticism that
allow them to contradict a sculptor like Adam Salomon,
and a painter like T. F. Goodall, to say nothing of others.
The shallow public like (C clearness/' they like to see the Clearness,
veins in the grass-blade and the scales on the butterfly's
wing, for does it not remind them of the powerful vision
of their periscopic ancestors — the Saurians.
When the vulgar herd jape at photography, stand firm JaPers at
and ask them if their long-eared ancestors did not jape |rai>hV
at water-colour painting and at etching.
Ask of critics only " fair play.5' Much of the criticism Criticism.
of to-day consists in the suppression of the truth of the
author and the advocacy of the falsity of the critic.
Criticism is as yet in the metaphysical stage, but it will
one day become rational and of some worth. Then, critics
will not attempt the huge joke of " placing " people in
order like a pedagogue, e.g. Matthew Arnold between
Gray and Wordsworth, as some wonderful person did not
long ago in one of the reviews ; but criticism will show us
how works of art may serve to illustrate the life-history
of different epochs. The huge farce of " placing "
criticism will be one of the stock jokes of the twentieth
century.
s 2
260 Naturalistic Photography.
CHAPTER Y.
DECORATIVE AKT.
~^T ^ie ^erm " decorative," we mean the ornamenta-
tion of anything constructed for some useful or special
purpose as opposed to the ornamentation whose object
is to please per se. Thus, though both sculpture and
easel pictures are decorative in one sense, they are exe-
cuted with no consideration or regard for other purposes
than to please. As we have before shown, the humblest
of the decorative arts may be raised to the dignity of a
fine art if an artist takes the work in hand and succeeds,
or the work may degenerate into mere craftsman's
work. For decorative purposes, the various methods
are modified and adapted to the important considerations
of the use and fitness of the object or place decorated.
Thus no good artist would paint a finished and studied
landscape on a dado, he would paint the scene flat, and
colour it in appropriate harmony with surrounding
objects, for that is the aim ; and a workman not an artist
would, of coarse, painfully elaborate and finish it so
that it was neither a decorative work nor a painting
Natural- in the ordinary sense. In all good decorative work the
ism in same old story of naturalism holds good ; all the best
^ecoi TQ Decorative work we have seen was suggested by nature,
and though, of course, it is beyond the scope of decora-
tive art to ' ' copy nature," as superficial folk say, yet all
patterns and forms and harmonies should be suggested
by nature. We have seen harmonies of sea-weed and
sand which would have made a beautiful colour scheme for
decorative work. The best decorative work has always
Decorative Art. 261
been suggested by nature ; geometrical patterns being
taken from crystals, microscopic drawings of vegetable
cells, &c.
However, we must omit a general discussion of this Photo-
interesting subject, for we are here only concerned with graPh>' as
its photographic side. We are not aware that this appli- decorative
cation of decorative art has ever received much atten- art.
tion ; and when we mention transparencies and enamels,
we have said all that has been done towards employing
photography decoratively. By enamels, of course, is not
understood those glossed and raised productions on
paper, which by some extraordinary blunder have been
erroneously called enamels.
Now the photographer, who studies and hopes to excel Princi-
at decorative photography, must remember that he must P es'
work on the same general principles as he does in pro-
ducing pictures, that is, he must pay attention, in a
broad way, to the tone of the room, to effects of contrast,
to harmonies, to the effect of artificial lights and of
complementary colours, and above all to naturalism.
Thus a delicate landscape must not be enamelled on a
tea-cup, for it is obviously false in principle to place a
picture on a curved surface. Again, a palmetto leaf
must not be burned into the tiles of a fireplace, the two
are incongruous and incompatible. Taste and a regard
for truth should govern all such work.
We will now briefly enumerate the uses to which
photography might be put in decoration.
FOE PANELLING AND FKIEZES.
Much might be done in this direction by an appro- Panelling
priate choice of subject. For panels bits of landscape J^d
i T J, r . -, -, r n friezes,
of strongly marked types, sea pieces, dead game, and
plants might be admirably, done. By landscapes of
strongly marked type, we mean such things as a dead or
leafless tree overhanging a pond, a pollarded willow in
winter, and like subjects, where the elements are few,
the composition simple, and where there are no subtle
atmospheric effects. For this work the subject must be
262 Naturalistic Photography.
expressed with great terseness and directness, for the form
is what is required, not subtlety of tone or mystery. A
group of dead mallard or teal, or an arrangement of
bulrushes and water-lilies, are all suitable and admirable
Negatives, subjects. Negatives for this class of work should be rather
dense, and in some cases they may be as sharply focussed
as possible, it being remembered that for form (diagram-
matic form) decision is what is required. There are certain
subjects, however, which will bear being only just sug-
gested, such as bulrushes, reeds, &c., which are full of
character in themselves. These objects should be photo-
graphed against flat-tinted backgrounds, the colour chosen
being ruled by the colour of the furniture of the room.
The best method of procedure would be to sensitize the
panel and print directly on to it by the platinotype pro-
bed cess, or perhaps by some of the carbon processes, red
carbon, carbon being especially suitable for this work. The
Platinotype Company give directions for sensitizing
various surfaces, all of which can be obtained from their
offices in Southampton Bow, High Holborn.
Friezes. For friezes, beautiful arrangements could be made of
suitably draped figures of girls, of athletes, and of
animals, the draped figures being in white, taken against
a black background. These subjects printed in red carbon
would look admirable if properly arranged. Enlarge-
ments could be used in these cases, as it does not matter if
the original negatives are made microscopically sharp.
Various subjects and methods of treatment will suggest
themselves to the thoughtful and artistic student.
Tiles. We cannot help thinking there is a field for the
photographic decoration of tiles. For -this purpose, as
they are low down and seen close to, tone pictures might
be used ; but any quality of landscape would not be
admissible for this work. Mr. Henderson's method of
enamelling is fully given in the late Baden-Pritchard's
" Studios of Europe." These tiles would have to be
cautiously used.
Windows. There is little or nothing to be done in the decoration
of windows by photography. Of course, transparencies
will immediately suggest themselves, but they, like
Decorative Art. 263
modern glass painting, are false art. The first requisite
of glass painting is that all the light possible shall
pass through the pane, and that the colours shall be flat.
Modern window-painters overstep the limits of the art,
anl try to render tone as well, the result being bad
artistically and bad decoratively, as utility is affected.
Glass transparencies and opals are, to our mind, worth-
less for decorative purposes, and should not be encouraged.
M. Lafon de Camarsac was the first to apply photo- Enamels,
graphy to porcelain work, in the year 1854. He worked
with colours and produced some marvellous results,
applying gold, silver, and various pigments in this way.
His method was used for producing enamels for jewel-
lery, but, of course, such things could be utilized in
decorative work. But to produce pictures' on tea-cups,
saucers, brooches, &c., seems to us, against all principles
of truth. We think that with great care and taste
this class of work might be artistically utilized in deco-
rative art, but none but an artist must attempt it. So Poitevin's
we shall give Poitevin's method.
A positive on glass is obtained, and a glass plate is
coated with gum sensitized with bi-chromate of potash.
The positive is then placed in contact with the prepared
plate and exposed to the light, the result being in-
visible as in carbon printing. A very fine hair sieve is
now taken, and dry powdered charcoal is sifted over the
coated plate, and it will be found that the charcoal
adheres to the parts acted upon by light. Thus is pro-
duced a delicate portrait in as perfect tone as the origi-
nal. This portrait is temporarily secured by brushing
it over with collodion. The collodion film has now to be
separated by delicate knives, and it brings away with it
the charcoal picture. This film is next placed on a white
enamelled copper plate, which plates are bought ready
prepared, and a fixing paste (that used by ceramic painters
being employed) is spread with a brush over the enamel.
This paste combines with the charcoal image. All is now
ready for placing in the enamelling furnace, when vitri-
fication takes place, and all the organic bodies are
destroyed, the vitrified charcoal image alone remaining.
264 Naturalistic Photography.
We think that with taste even china services might be
decorated by means of photography. At any rate there
is a wide field for any one with taste and feeling.
Wall- We do not know whether or not photography has bean
papersand applied to the manufacture of either of these materials, tut
hangings, ,-j Fr . . -. „ ., T, , , -. ,
there is wide scope for it. It must be remembered, how-
ever, that definite patterns are obtrusive and undesirable.
A rather monotonous geometrical pattern is required, the
suggestion, however, coming from nature. Thus a good
pattern could be obtained from a transverse section oi a
rose-bud, or from various seed-cases, such as those of
the convolvulus and rose. Histological specimens also,
and desmids and diatoms, all suggest beautiful and varied
forms of geometrical patterns. This has often occurred
to us when examining the wonderfully varied and
beautiful forms of the diatom family. It would, it seems
to us, be very easy with multiplying backs to get large
numbers of a 'form on one plate, and then to reproduce
them by cheap photo-mechanical means, and though we
have never yet heard of photographic wall-papers, yet
there is no reason why they should not be manufactured,
if made artistically.
For hangings these same patterns might be woven in
or even printed directly upon the materials, by the platino-
type process. The company who brought forward that
process keep prepared nainsook, why not other mate-
D'Oyleys. rials ? For small things, such as d^Oyleys, an endless
and pleasing variety might be introduced.
In short, photography can and should be made ame-
nable to the principles of decorative art, and employed
legitimately in thousands of ways ; but the student must
never forget that he must rigidly and resolutely keep
within the bounds of his art, which bounds we have
briefly indicated here. Common sense, taste, and study
are his best safe-guards. In all attempts, however, let
him go to nature for his suggestions; she, if he be
humble and patient, will not be less lavish to him than
to the painter. So we find ourselves at the end of this
chapter, and our considerations on photography as
applied to decorative art lead us to conclude that the
Decorative Art. 265
form in which it is at present chiefly applied, i.e. trans-
parencies, is false in principle, and therefore undesir-
able. We felt this long before we studied art at all, and
although we made many opals and transparencies at one
time, we soon gave them up as vanity and foolishness.
Those, however, who with training and artistic feeling
care to explore the undeveloped fields above indicated,
will be sure to find many .new treasures.
L'ENFOI.
PHOTOGRAPHY— A PICTORIAL AR
easier 10 ^ioe as ihs liz^i-earritz z>-.
ker works.
" In such an age as this, painting should be understood, not looked on
with blind wonder, nor considered only as poetic inspiration, but as a
pursuit, legitimate, scientific, and mechanical"
JOHN CONSTABLE.
269
L'ENVOL
PHOTOGRAPHY — A PICTORIAL ART.
WE wish from the first to make it clearly understood as The aim.
to what is our object in comparing photography with the
other pictorial arts. It is not to condemn any of the other
arts as inadequate for artistic expression, for we hold
that good art, as expressed even by a lead pencil, is better
than bad art expressed on the largest of canvases, but
our object is to inquire what position the technique of
photography takes when regarded side by side with the
methods and limits of each of the pictorial arts. The
earliest pictorial expressions of the human mind were, as
we all know, rude rock-scratchings in the form of out- Eock
line. This outline drawing served the earliest nations, scratch -
as it still serves children, to express in a conventional "
. . ,. .. T . ., f \ f . T Outline
way certain limited truths, tor the power or seeing and drawing.
analyzing nature is of recent development, and is even
now far from fully developed. Keeping this in mind, we
must nevertheless not allow ourselves to despise these
efforts of the undeveloped mind. Line drawing, it must
be remembered, has nothing to do with tone. If you
look at a line drawing of a figure by a great master, it sug-
gests to you, in a certain limited way, the real thing, for
the lines bound spaces, hence there is a suggestion of the
solid figure. With almost any medium, even with pen, ink,
and paper, an artist will often draw a subject in outline, to
see " how it will come." Sculptors nearly always do this,
but these men do not consider these outlines as finished
works, but simply as an aid to their work, — mere brief
sketches suggestive of what shall be. Of course, such
notes when done by a great artist become invaluable, as
suggesting great truth of impression. Yet there are men
2 7O Naturalistic Photography.
who seem to stop at this stage, and revel in " beauty of
line," or else they elaborate these drawings until they
pass beyond the legitimate limits of the art by which
they are expressed.
We will now briefly enumerate these arts with their
limitations.
Lead Lead Pencil. — The scale between the white and black
pencil. is verv Hmited, for, as any one who has drawn with lead
pencil will remember, the lowest tones are grey as com-
pared with dead black. They are also shiny because
light is reflected by the plumbago. An artist can,
however, express a suggestion of tone within a limited
scale, and, notwithstanding this limitation, a first-rate
lead pencil drawing may give a far truer impression of
nature than a bad painting, and will accordingly rank
higher artistically.
Pen and Pen and Ink. — The scale in this case is also limited and
ink. there can be no tone, but an artist, by shading can give
an impression of tone, as can be seen in the clever draw-
ings by an artist in the " German Punch." Of course,
as in lead pencil drawings, all subtle tonality is left out,
the lightest tones being lost in white, and the darkest in
black, but the suggestion may be a truthful impression if
well done, and in such cases the work commands the
greatest respect, ranking far higher than inferior work
done with a more perfect technique. Sometimes washes
are added to pen-and-ink drawings to increase the
impression of tone. Here, again, the bad craftsman goes
beyond the legitimate limits of the art, by the pen-
rendering detail, and by the wash-rendering tone, impos-
sibilities except in monochrome work. We have seen
some detestable hybrids of this class, the result of the
misspent energies of amateurs and others.
Chalk. Chalk. — This gives the artist greater scope, for his
scale is greater, and, in addition, chalk is not shiny and
unnatural. This material is generally used for large
work, and is better suited to that purpose, for the line is
not so regular and has more of the decision and indecision
of a natural outline as seen in a figure standing against
a background. By choosing an appropriately colored
Photography— a Pictorial Art. 271
chalk an artist can give a potent suggestion of texture,
and, therefore, of truthfulness. Chalk was formerly much
used for studies, but charcoal has now largely taken its
place.
Lithography. — In this art a peculiar stone is chosen, kitho.
which has an affinity for water and grease. The stone is grap y*J
drawn upon with a greasy, specially prepared litho-
fraphic ink. From this many copies can be taken,
or reproducing chalk drawings the method is worked a
little differently. It is of little use now for original
work, on account of the introduction of the cheaper, more
certain, and more beautiful photographic processes. We
are all only too well acquainted with the outcome of
this process of lithography, chro mo-lithographs, — mon-
strosities which, it is needless to say, do not enter into
the category of the fine arts. Chromo-lithography,
however, has a commercial value, being very useful in
the reproduction of patterns, &c.
Engraving. — This is drawing on metal with a burin in Line en-
a special manner ; that is by pushing the burin away from graving,
the operator. Considerable pressure must be exerte ;
and it is evident that lines cut in this way must be formal,
It is, perhaps, for this reason that it is scarcely ever used
for original work, but only for. copying. The scale in
this case is limited between the black ink and white
paper, and is greater than in the arts above dealt with ;
but there can be no subtleties of tone. Engravers supply
this suggestion of tone by cross-hatching, and so suggest
a natural impression, as can be seen in some of the land-
scapes engraved from nature by Albert Durer. Personally
we are but very little interested in engraving apart from
its historical interest. Artistically, the early work of
Durer, and some of that of the so-called " little masters "
is, in our opinion, the best ever done. All the work —
and there is much of it — which has overstepped the
narrow limits of the art of line engraving is to us dis-
tasteful, because it could have been so much better
expressed by other methods. Engraving with a burin,
even when assisted by dry point work, is always hard,
f ormal, textureless, and without tonal subtlety ; while the
272 Naturalistic Photography.
quality of modern engravings, by which popular editions
of well-known authors are illustrated, is to us positively
unpleasing and false. There is at the present day a
vigorous attempt to bolster up engraving, and give it a
fictitious value, but we feel sure it is doomed. Such a
narrow, limited, untrue method of expression could never
live beyond the day of necessity, when there was no
better mode of expression. That day is already past, as
there exist more complete methods. A good pen-and-
ink work by Du Maurier is, artistically, far better than
any engraving Cousins ever did ; and as for the fearful
travesties exposed for sale in dealer's windows, we can
only wonder who buys them. Perhaps the same mild
imbeciles who collect " old engravings " promiscuously,
not for any art qualities they possess, for the best of them
are bad in many ways, but in order to collect, and appear
learned (?) and artistic (?) to their less gifted (in purse)
brethren. Of all the painters and sculptors we have
known, we have never found one really interested in the
class of engravings we are now describing.
Stippling, or engraving in dots, seems to us a yet
worse device than cross-hatching. It is done with pre-
pared needles, or a toothed wheel called a roulette.
Stippling was by Bartolozzi and others combined with
etching, and a hybrid was produced which, like all
hybrids, was doomed to extinction.
As compared with photo-etching for the reproduction
of pictures, no one but a fanatic would maintain its
superiority. By using orthochromatic plates relatively,
true values or tone, and true texture can be rendered,
and no translator steps in to add to, or subtract from, the
originality of the work. The student will soon find as
he studies nature and the best art together, that line en-
graving is but a sorry method, its artificiality will soon
disgust him, and no one with any real insight into the
mysteries of nature can derive much pleasure from en-
gravings, except, perhaps, from some -of the best of the
simple line engravings, such as some of Durer's works.
Wood en- Wood engraving. — In wood cutting the parts left un-
graving. cut print dark, and those that are hollowed out or cut
Photography — a Pictorial A rt. 273
away do not print at all; thus, the white is cut out
from a dark ground. The workman cuts with special
graving- tools on a block of box- wood, cut sectionally.
Durer's woodcuts are simply drawings on wood, parts of
the wood being cut away, for in this way many could
be readily printed. They were simply fac-similes of
the lines of Durer's drawing, and had no artistic
aim of their own. With Bewick, however, the matter Bewick,
was different. He saw the limits of wood engraving, and
kept resolutely within those limits, like the true artist
he was.
With Bewick the flat black and white spaces were the
limitations, as we consider they are and always will ba
for original work, notwithstanding the American school
of wood engraving, of which we shall have something to
say presently. The scale in wood engraving is limited by
the ink and paper, and the suggestion of tone is got by
representing the light greys as white, and the darker darks
as blacks. There is no subtle tonality in Bewjck's work,
and though there is much suggestion of nature and truth,
the expression is limited. But here, as in other arts,
directly the legitimate limit is overstepped the work be-
comes bad. Bewick, of course, and a few of his pupils, did
original work, but the modern wood engraver, though he
expresses greater subtlety of tone, is, after all, only a
fac-simile worker. In the American magazines the per- American
fection of this fac-simile work is to be seen, and, in our
opinion, this school started with the intention of imitating
the delicacies of photography. That such work is most
useful no one can doubt, but in our opinion it has out-
stepped the proper limits of wood engraving, and therefore
no longer interests us. It must not be.f orgotten, too, that
the works are fac-simile work and not original. In fact, a
good fac-simile wood engraver may be no artist at all.
It serves a certain use certainly, but, judged by artistic
standards, an intaglio copper-plate print produced by
photography is far more satisfactory. Would, however,
that all the art-craftsmen who work in fac-simile, kept up
to the standard of the American engravers, for the feeble
works of this class to be seen in this country in the book and
T
274 Naturalistic Photography.
pnper illustrations of the day are lamentable. They are
travesties of nature ; but what more can be expected when
a block is often cut into separate pieces, and engraved
by different workmen? Lamentable, too, is it that many
a good photograph, brought home by travellers from
abroad, should be botched and ruined by these wood
engravers.
A great deal of cant has been talked lately about the
harm done to engraving by photography. The harm
was done long ago, when artists ceased to practise the
art of engraving as an original art, as was done by
Bewick and some few others, and when the work of cheap
reproduction fell into the hands of craftsmen. If photo-
graphic processes do anything, they will either raise
the standard of fac-simile art-craft by competition, or,
which would be, perhaps, as well, kill it altogether. For
artists in wood engraving like Bewick there is always
room ; and among the first to appreciate such work and
to foster it, will be. the artist who works in photography ;
he will understand the limits of the art, and appreciate
any artist who uses it artistically.
Etching. Etching. — As the public become more educated in art
matters, we find etching rapidly replacing line engraving,
just as we think original photo-etching will in time
replace etchings.
Etching is drawing on zinc or copper with a needle, the
plate being first prepared with a ground, the nature
of which varies with different practitioners. Wax, bur-
gundy pitch, and asphaltum form a common combination
for producing a ground. This ground is often smoked to
produce a uniform surface, and then the artist sketches
on it as freely and lightly as he would on paper. The
lines are afterwards bitten in by immersing the plate in
acid. Some etchers assert that they etch whilst the plate
is in the bath, but we cannot imagine such a method being
very successful, for want of proper control over the work.
Tone is produced by thickness of lines and by cross-
hatching, and also by the printer in the manner of wiping
the plate, I nd finally touches are otten added with a dry
point. In i/ddition separate bitings can be given to a
Photography — a Pictorial Art. 275
plate by " stopping out " the portion not requiring further
biting,with some substance which resists the acid, usually
a varnish. Another method is to silver the plate and cover
it with a white wax ground, so that the etcher gets a dark
line on a white surface. The plate is finally covered
with a thin coating of steel by electricity, this process
being called "acierage." This facing is given to the
plate to resist the wear and tear of printing.
Etching, it will be seen, is far more amenable to the
artist's will than line engraving and wood-cutting. Still
it has its limits, for in it all the subtleties of tone are
wanting, and there is, therefore, imperfect modelling.
The values cannot be relatively truly rendered, nor is tex-
ture well rendered. All this great artists have recog-
nized and have therefore resolutely confined themselves
within the legitimate limits. The masters of etching, as
Rembrandt in the past and Whistler in the present day,
never try for delicacies of tone in their plates, but by line
and cross-hatching, like an artist in pen and ink, they
express themselves, and their works are beautiful and
priceless. But as with all the other arts, so with etch-
ing, inferior men have tried by this method to rival more
complete methods, and the result has been failure. By
complicated line work and by printing flat tones, etchers
are daily striving to express in translation the perfect
technique of painting, and the results are unsatisfactory.
Here, again, we find that the art-craftsmen, the translators
of pictures, and not original artists, are the chief sinners,
and this is a fact to be carefully remembered. A good
etching by Rembrandt or Whistler gives us a satisfac-
tion we cannot well express ; but carefully elaborated
etchings from pictures give us no satisfaction ; on the
contrary, they have gone so far that they compel us to
compare the work with a more complete technique, and
the result is great disappointment.
As mere art-craft for the translation of pictures, photo-
etching will give etching points (points not ot taste but
of artistic facts), and beat it hollow, as any first-rate
judge will allow. The best etchers we have met are
unanimous in condemning elaborated work in etching,
T 2
274 Naturalistic Photography.
paper illustrations of the day are lamentable. They are
travesties of nature ; but what more can be expected when
a block is often cut into separate pieces, and engraved
by different workmen? Lamentable, too, is it that many
a good photograph, brought home by travellers from
abroad, should be botched and ruined by these wood
engravers.
A great deal of cant has been talked lately about the
harm done to engraving by photography. The harm
was done long ago, when artists ceased to practise the
art of engraving as an original art,, as was done by
Bewick and some few others, and when the work of cheap
reproduction fell into the hands of craftsmen. If photo-
graphic processes do anything, they will either raise
the standard of fac- simile art-craft by competition, or,
which would be, perhaps, as well, kill it altogether. For
artists in wood engraving like Bewick there is always
room ; and among the first to appreciate such work and
to foster it, will be.. the artist who works in photography ;
he will understand the limits of the art, and appreciate
any artist who uses it artistically.
Etching. Etching. — As the public become more educated in art
matters, we find etching rapidly replacing line engraving,
just as we think original photo-etching will in time
replace etchings.
Etching is drawing on zinc or copper with a needle, the
plate being first prepared with a ground, the nature
of which varies with different practitioners. Wax, bur-
gundy pitch, and asphaltum form a common combination
for producing a ground. This ground is often smoked to
produce a uniform surface, and then the artist sketches
on it as freely and lightly as he would on paper. The
lines are afterwards bitten in by immersing the plate in
acid. Some etchers assert that they etch whilst the plate
is in the bath, but we cannot imagine such a method being
very successful, for want of proper control over the work.
Tone is produced by thickness of lines and by cross-
hatching, and also by the printer in the manner of wiping
the plate, I ad finally touches are otten added with a dry
point. In addition separate bitings can be given to a
Photography — a Pictorial Art. 275
plate by " stopping out >} the portion not requiring further
biting,with some substance which resists the acid, usually
a varnish. Another method is to silver the plate and cover
it with a white wax ground, so that the etcher gets a dark
line on a white surface. The plate is finally covered
with a thin coating of steel by electricity, this process
being called "acierage." This facing is given to the
plate to resist the wear and tear of printing.
Etching, it will be seen, is far more amenable to the
artist's will than line engraving and wood-cutting. Still
it has its limits, for in it all the subtleties of tone are
wanting, and there is, therefore, imperfect modelling.
The values cannot be relatively truly rendered, nor is tex-
ture well rendered. All this great artists have recog-
nized and have therefore resolutely confined themselves
within the legitimate limits. The masters of etching, as
Rembrandt in the past and Whistler in the present day,
never try for delicacies of tone in their plates, but by line
and cross-hatching, like an artist in pen and ink, they
express themselves, and their works are beautiful and
priceless. But as with all the other arts, so with etch-
ing, inferior men have tried by this method to rival more
complete methods, and the result has been failure. By
complicated line work and by printing flat tones, etchers
are daily striving to express in translation the perfect
technique of painting, and the results are unsatisfactory.
Here, again, we find that the art- crafts men, the translators
of pictures, and not original artists, are the chief sinners,
and this is a fact to be carefully remembered. A good
etching by Rembrandt or Whistler gives us a satisfac-
tion we cannot well express ; but carefully elaborated
etchings from pictures give us no satisfaction; on the
contrary, they have gone so far that they compel us to
compare the work with a more complete technique, and
the result is great disappointment.
As mere art-craft for the translation of pictures, photo-
etching will give etching points (points not oi: taste but
of artistic facts), and beat it hollow, as any first-rate
judge will allow. The best etchers we have met are
uDanimous in condemning elaborated work in etching,
T 2
276
Naturalistic P \otography*
Charcoal.
Mono-
chrome.
and they themselves work within the limits of its
technique. Equally averse are they to the hybrid process
of combining etching1 with photo-etching, a hybrid
only practised by inferior men and appreciated by the
untrained.
We must now leave line work, for though, as we have
shown, very subtle suggestions of tone can be obtained by
the use of cross-hatching, still true tonality and modelling
cannot be obtained by any save more perfect methods.
Directly an artist has a method by which he can express
subtle tonality, he has a great additional power.
Charcoal. — With this method the scale is limited as
the black is not so deep as many other blacks used in the
arts, but by its means delicate tonality can be obtained,
but not the most delicate. The values too in a charcoal
drawing are not true for this reason, because the most
delicate light greys are lost ; neither do we like the tex-
ture it gives. It is not true ; nevertheless the result is
often very fine. We had quite lately the opportunity of
comparing the charcoal drawing of a very fine subject
with nature, and also with a very fine painting of the
same subject, and our opinion is that the charcoal draw-
ing suggested the scene better than any line method
could have done, but the suggestion was very far off the
suggestion offered by the painting.
Monochrome Painting. — A monochrome painting may
be in any colour, but since the scale is so limited, say in
red for example, and the effect, except for portraits, is
so incongruous that no artist dares use it. Indian ink
and sepia are the commonest colours used. Monochrome
painting, did it portray the different colours, would fol-
low the same laws as painting, and would have to be con-
sidered from, the same stand-point. Therein then lies the
difference, a good artist may express much in mono-
chrome, and give the suggestion of nature to a very great
extent, but he is limited by this method. Delicate
tonality and modelling can be obtained, but there is
an unnaturalness of the middle tints and an artificial
look in the textures. Notwithstanding, very fine work
is done in this way, especially by some of the modern
French and Dutch painters.
Photography — a Pictorial Art. 277
Aquatint, as its name implies, is a form of engraving Aquatint,
best suited to reproduce water-colours. The plate
is prepared in much the same way as it is for photo-
etching, the acid biting between the dots of resin.
This method is now rarely used.
Mezzotint. — In this process the plate is roughened all Mezzotint,
over by an instrument called a ' ' cradle " or berceau.
This is really a broad chisel with a cradle-shaped edge, on
which are small rough edges. This is worked by the
hand all over the plate until it is rough enough to hold
iok. The scale in this method is wide, the blacks being
very deep. The tones are formed by scraping away the
ink by the engraver, the highest light being the deep-
est. It gives a very good tonality, and is really the
only rival to photo-etching, but the plate will not last well,
thirty good prints often being all that can be taken from
a plate. The engraver, too, has not sufficient control over
his work. As a rule it is only used for fac-simile work,
and not for original work. It will in our opinion be the
last form -of engraving to succumb to photo-etching. It
is better suited for portraiture than landscape work ; the
mezzotints from Constable's paintings are very feeble and
untrue.
Photography. — Now we come to photography, which Photo-
possesses a technique more perfect than any of the arts SraPny
yet treated of. Photography, in fact, stands at the
top of the tone class of methods of expression ; so
nearly perfect is its technique that in some respects
it may be compared with the colour class. The scale
here, too, is limited, but less so than that of any
other black and white method. Its drawing is all but
absolutely correct, that is if the lenses are properly used, as
has been shown. It renders the values relatively correct if
orthochromatic plates are used, and it renders texture per-
fectly. Its one limitation is that it must always be worked
from models ; but from what we have already said, we con-
sider this no limit of consequence when the end in view is
artistic expression. When, on the other hand, the end in
view is utilitarian, this is, in certain cases, a limitation, but
as we are considering it only as a method for artistic ex-
pression, we do not now consider that side of the question.
278 Naturalistic Photography.
As a facsimile method, it is unrivalled, for some of the art-
craftsmen who have worked in this direction have so per-
fected it that little now remains to be done so far as
copperplate work goes, though much remains to be done
in connection with delicate blocks for the printing-press.
As a recorder of scientific facts and as an adjunct to the
traveller, it has no equal, for nothing need be allowed for
the personal equation of the individual. Its immense
value in all the sciences and arts has been touched upon.
Critics opposed to photography, and they are now-a-days
the old and prejudiced, are fond of citing Mr. P. GK
Hamerton's reasons for not considering photography one
of the pictorial arts. Some of his arguments were per-
fectly admissible when he wrote them, but as he has
not taken the trouble to correct them since, we suppose
he still rests in the fancied security of having slain photo-
graphy for ever. But photography was not killed by Mr.
Hamerton. It could not resist him then, for it was but a
little child, but now that it is well grown and can resist
him it will do so through us here.
Mr. Ha- Mr. Hamerton says when any new art is under con-
merton sideration, we must ask, " Can it interpret nature ? Can
criticised. ^ express emotions ? Can it express fact and truth and
poetry ? Within what limit can it do these things ? and
finally has any one with it expressed human knowledge
and feeling ? Will it record the results of human obser-
vation ? Has it ever been practised by great men, or do
they pay much regard to it ? "
Beginning, then, with question I. : —
Can it interpret nature ? Yes, that at any rate is the
opinion of more than one good sculptor, painter, and photo-
grapher, and plates can be produced which we challenge
any one to prove are not interpretations of nature in the
strictest sense of the word.
II. Can it express emotions ? Yes, and so faithfully
and subtilely that the late Charles Darwin used it to illus-
trate from nature, his work " On the Expression of
Emotions in Man and Animals." Of these photographs
taken by Rejlander, Mr. Darwin writes in the work men-
tioned, " Several of the figures in these seven heliotype
Photography — a Pictorial Art. 279
plates have been reproduced from photographs, instead of
from the original negatives ; and they are in consequence
somewhat indistinct; nevertheless, they are faithful copies,
and are much superior for my purpose to any drawing,
however carefully executed/'
III. Can it express fact and truth ? Yes, and there is
no need fco say any more on this head, except that it can
express fact and truth more perfectly than any other
black and white process. It is not absolutely perfect,
but no art is.
IV. Within what limits can it do these things ? The
answer to this we have shown in this work.
V. Has it ever been practised by great men ? Yes,
and is practised now by many of our greatest living
painters and sculptors, whose names we could
give.
M. Adam Salomon, a sculptor of ability, a Chevalier Adam
of the Legion of Honour, took the photographic Salomon's
world by storm, by his portraits exhibited at the Paris P°rtraits-
Exhibition of 1867, and he continued, to practise it
up to within a short time of his death. Let the best
sculptors and painters be asked how they regard photo-
graphy— especially when they are at work on posthumous
works. Finally we will give here an opinion on photo-
graphy as written by an able landscape painter — namely,
T. F. Goodall.
" Photography has undoubtedly played an important
part in the development of modern art, both in figure
and landscape. In landscapes we are inclined to think
that the influence of photography was for a time hurt-
ful, for this reason, painters were apt to. emulate the de-
tail of the photograph, and lose the breadth of man's
view of Nature in consequence. They did not take into
account the fact that the lens commonly used was a more
powerful mechanism than the human eye, or that it re-
produced at once every detail of a scene with more dis-
tinctness on the plate than the eye would on the retina,
even if the attention was concentrated on one part only
at a time, and that therefore the resulting picture was
not a true representation of Nature, as impressed on the
280 Naturalistic Photography.
mind by human vision. But for artistic purposes tjiis
may be remedied, and it appears to us that photogra-
phers must take the point into consideration if they would
use the camera as a means of artistic expression.
Hitherto the chief aim of the photographer seems to
have been a biting sharpness of detail in the negative,
which is generally quite fatal to the result from an artis-
tic point of view, for in breadth lies the beauty and sen-
timent of landscape. To produce a picture the photo-
grapher must select his lens and adjust his focus, so as
to get an expression as nearly identical with the visual
one as possible, and he must print in such good tone as
will give the closest approximation to the values in nature.
In all these matters the result will depend on the taste
and intelligence of the author, and bear the impress
of his mind. If that be commonplace, his negative will
be so also ; if artistic, so will be his picture. There is
no reason why photography, in capable hands, may not
be made a means of interpreting nature second only in
value to painting itself, destined to supersede all other
black and white methods in bringing an extended know-
ledge of and taste for art to the masses of the people.
The prejudice existing against photography arises from
the fact that hitherto it has been worked merely as a
mechanical process ; but if by results it can show that it
is worthy, it will rank as a fine art. Dr. Emerson was
the first to advocate rationally the claims of photography
to this distinction, and, artists will admit, has by his
subsequent work made good his position so far as his
own productions are concerned, There should be a
great future for photography if followed on really artis-
tic lines. It should be hailed as a most powerful ally
by the modern school of painting, as by means of it
people may be taught to perceive how false are many of
the pictures they believe in, and how much more beauti-
ful and interesting- is truth. From an art-educational
point of view its value can scarcely be overrated ; much
has been done, by photogravure and other processes of
reproduction, to spread a knowledge of pictures, and
there is no reason why the same methods should not be
Photography — a Pictorial Art. 281
used for original work. A good photogravure is to be
preferred to a bad painting or second-rate engraving,
and is incomparably better than the odious chronaos
and wretched prints with which so many walls are
disfigured.
If, instead of being satisfied with mere topographical
views or foreground sketches, the photographer has cul-
tivated artistic feeling, means are at his command for
communicating to others what has impressed himself,
and he may produce work of permanent value. Every-
thing depends on what he finds to say and how he tells
it. If the operator has artistic insight, it will show itself
in his negative, just as it would on his canvas, if he were
a painter. The mechanical and chemical processes, the
practical judgment necessary in timing his exposures, the
skill and knowledge necessary in developing his plates ;
these are his technique; but the art value of the result
will depend on what he communicates to us by its aid.
As long as his ideas of pictorial art are confined in land-
scape to views of churches and ruins, rustic bridges and
waterfalls, or topographical views of the haunts of
tourists, taken from the guide-book point of view,
and in figure to artificial compositions, reminding one of
an amateur theatrical performance, so long will his work
be destitute of artistic qualities, and therefore valueless,
but- if he brings to his work a genuine appreciation of
the picturesque in landscape and figure, and a knowledge
of how so to place a subject on his plate as to convey
his impressions to others, he may produce most beautiful
and meritorious results. He must learn, as the painter
has to do, to distinguish what in nature is really suitable
for pictorial purposes, on account of beauty of form, or
tone, from what merely gives him pleasure by some
quality which, however impressive in nature, it is not
possible to transfer to canvas. A picture being a
design enclosed by four straight lines, can only please
and impress by certain suitable decorative qualities in
the subject. To know what will make a picture is one
of the most difficult secrets in landscape art ; knowing
just how much of a scene to take in, where to begin and
282 Naturalistic Photography.
where to end, decides whether the result will carry a
distinct and complete impression, or be merely a hap-
hazard study."
What great artists elsewhere have thought of photo-
graphy is shown by the following extract from one of J.
F. Millet's letters to his friend Feuardent. After asking
Feuardent to bring him some photographs from Italy,
Millet continues, " In fact, bring whatever you find,
figures and animals. Diaz's son, the one who died,
brought some very good ones, sheep among other things.
Of figures, take of course those that smack least of the
Academy and the model — in fact all that is good, ancient
or modern."
The daily use made of photography by artists is
another proof of the good opinion in which it is held
by them. You could not get these men to say a
word in favour of chromo-lithography, because that is
a hybrid craft with few possibilities. These questions
being disposed of, we will proceed to discuss an asser-
tion of Mr. Hamerton's, that photography is like a re-
flection in a mirror. Now from what we have shown in
this book, means are at the artist's command to influ-
ence the final picture in every stage of its development.
If an artist such as Carolus Duran, say, were thoroughly
versed in photography, and a craftsman, like one of the
numerous operators employed by the large photographic
firms, were to be placed together, say on one of the Nor-
folk Broads for a week, according to Mr. Hamerton's
reflection theory, they would both return with work of
the same quality, differing only in points of view ; for
Duran's reflections would be the same as the crafts-
man's, point of view always excepted. A theory that
allows such an absurd application needs little comment,
one remark only will we put forward. In what igno-
rance of optics Mr. Hamerton has allowed himself to
remain ! when every one knows that a reflection in a
mirror is a virtual image, and does not exist. By pushing
this theory to its logical conclusion, a monkey with a
camera could produce as good pictures as Mr. Hamer-
ton could make with the same instrument.
Photography — a Pictorial Art. 283
In " Thoughts on Art " Mr. Hamerton speciously com-
pares photography with painting. Why not compare it
with etching ? It can never be compared with paint-
ing until photography in natural colours is an accom-
plished fact. Mr. Hamerton, after speaking of the
limited scale of light in all art, goes on to say, " But look
at poor photography's scale compared with the scale in
painting/' Just so, but it has a much greater scale than
any other black and white method, far greater than the
scale of his pet etching. Why did he not state this ?
Why did he ignore it? Further on Mr. Hamerton
enunciates that if we expose for the glitter of the sea,
everything on the bank will be without detail. It is
unnecessary to say this is not so, and any good photo-
grapher can easily prove this statement. Of course the
only excuse for these untrue statements is that such
marvellous strides have been made in what is called
" instantaneous photography" since Mr, Hamerton com-
mitted his last criticisms to paper (in 1873), that pro-
bably he does not know that photographs can now be
taken at midnight by a flash of light in a fraction of a
second, and with very fair results, as any one can
prove for himself. Mr. Hamerton finds too that the sum
of detail in good topographical drawings is greater
than that in a good photograph. Well, Mr. Hamerton
may do so, just as some people see green as red, but all
good photographers will laugh at the statement, and we
challenge Mr. Hamerton that we will produce a greater
sum of detail in a photograph of a set subject than he
will by any amount of drawing, and consider it no
great feat either. But this has nothing to do with
the artistic value of photography, or with its comparison
with painting. Mr. Hamerton is here comparing it with
architectural drawing.
Mr. Hamerton next says the drawing of mountains is
false in photography. If that were so in 1860, it was Mr.
Hamerton' s fault for ignorantly using his lens, for, as we
have shown, lenses are true perspective delineators if
correctly used.
Finally Mr. Hamerton, in 1873, sums up his objections
284 Naturalistic Photography.
to photography from the purely artistic point, as
follow : —
L <( It is false in local colour, putting all the lights and
darks of natural colouring out of tone." With the aid of
orthochromatic plates it does no such thing, as any
reader can prove for himself by getting a chromograph
with yellow, red, blue, or any other bright colours, photo-
graphed by Mr. Dixon, of 112, Albany Street, London.
II. " It is false in light, not being able to make those
subdivisions in the scale which are necessary to relative
truth." This is not so. It is false in light so far as all
art is false in light, but photography can make more
subtle distinctions in the scale than any other known
black and white method.
III. " It is false in perspective, and consequently in
the proportions of forms." It is not. This remark con-
victs Mr. Hamerton of ignorance of optics and the proper
use of photographic lenses. Vide Cap. II.
IY. "Its literalness, incapacity of selection, and
emphasis, are antagonistic to the artistic spirit." Photo-
graphy is not literal, as the flexible technique shows ; it is
capable of selection almost to any extent, though, of
course, it is incapable of leaving out a tree, and putting
in an imaginary man. What an incapacity for emphasis
means, we neither know nor care to know.
Following in Mr. Hamerton's steps other critics have
raised their objections to photography, and these we shall
discuss briefly.
"A. photograph," it has been said, " shows the art of
nature rather than the art of the artist." This is mere
nonsense, as the same remark might be applied equally
well to all the fine arts. Nature does not jump into the
camera, focus itself, expose itself, develop itself, and print
itself. On the contrary, the artist, using photography as
a medium, chooses his subject, selects his details, gene-
ralizes the whole in the way we have shown, and thus gives
his view of nature. This is not copying or imitating
nature, but interpreting her, and this is all any artist
can do, and how perfectly he does it, depends on his
technique, and his knowledge of this technique; and the
resulting picture, by whatever method expressed, will be
Photography — a Pictorial Art. 285
beautiful proportionately to the beauty of the original and
the ability of the artist. These remarks apply equally
to the critics who call pictures "bits of nature cut out."
There is no need to slay the slain, and give any further
answer to the objection that photography is a mechanical
process, if there were, it would be enough to remind the
objectors that if twenty photographers were sent to a
district of limited area, and told to take a given composi-
tion, the result would be twenty different renderings.
Photographs of any artistic quality have individuality as
much as any other works of art, and of the few photo-
graphers who send artistic work to our exhibitions, we
would wager to tell by whom each picture is done.
Of course, the ordinary art-craftsman has no indi-
viduality, any more than the reproducer of an archi-
tectural or mechanical drawing. But where an artist,
uses photography to interpret nature, his work will
always have individuality, and the strength of the
-individuality will, of course, vary in proportion to his
capacity.
Photography has been called an " irresponsive
medium." This is much the same as calling it a
mechanical process, and, therefore, disposed of, we
venture to think. A great paradox which has to be
combatted, is the assumption that because photography is
not " hand-work," as the public say, — though we find there
is very much "hand- work and head- work-in it — therefore,
it is not an Art language. This is a fallacy born of thought-
lessness. The painter learns his technique in order to
speak, and as more than one painter has told us, " paint-
ing is a mental process," and as for the technique they
could almost do that with their feet. So with photography,
speaking artistically of it, it is a very severe mental pro-
cess, and taxes all the artist's energies even after he has
mastered his technique. The point is, what you have to
say, and how to say it. It would be as reasonable to
object to a poet printing his verse in type instead of
writing it in old Gothic with a quill pen on asses' skin.
Coupled with this accusation, goes that of want of origi-
nality. The originality of a work of art, it should be need-
less to say, refers to the originality of the thing expressed
286 Naturalistic Photography.
and the way it is expressed, whether it be in poetry, pho-
tography, or painting, and the original artist is surely he
who seizes new and subtle impressions from nature,
" tears them forth from nature," as Durer said, and lays
them before the world by means of the technique at his
command. That one technique is more difficult than
another to learn, no one will deny, but the greatest thoughts
have been expressed by means of the simplest technique —
namely writing.
As we have shown, all arts are limited, some in one
way, some in another, two limitations of photography
are that it "cannot express an intention" and "it must
take whatever is before it." We shall endeavour to
answer these objections, which we frankly allow are the
only serious objections to be brought against it. "It
cannot express an intention." This, at first sight, seems
an insuperable objection, but on reflection it is no real
objection at all when the object of photography is ar-
tistic expression. As we pointed out in Book I., it is'
our opinion that all the best art has been done direct
from nature, and that no " intention " requires expression.
No artist worthy of the name ever drew a picture evolved
from his inner consciousness ; if it is a brief note to see
how a thing will come ; it is either from nature, or from
his remembrance of nature. The photographer then must
compose on his ground glass or in nature, or if he wants
to see how it will come, he too can draw the lines on his
ground glass. But the great point is, such drawing is
perfectly unnecessary for artistic purposes; only for
architectural uses is it necessary, for the architect must
draw a plan of his building before it can be built. This
distinction has either been overlooked or speciously sup-
pressed by Mr. Hamerton. But then we have nothing
to do with architectural drawing ; and if in this instance
photography cannot help the architectural draughtsman,
yet there are hundreds of instances in scientific studies
in which nothing can help so well as photography, for ex-
ample, in astronomy, spectral analysis, bacteriology, &c.,
&c. Finally, we are not aware that sculpture can help
the architectural draughtsman. The second objection that
Photography — a Pictorial Art. 287
the camera will take everything- before it, is not of any
vital importance. It only makes the field to select from
more limited, and gives the artist greater credit when
he does a good thing. And if we are true to one of
our principles, namely, that the subject should so strike
the artist that he wishes only to reproduce it, it is no
objection at all, for a subject with an eyesore marring it
would not, or should not, appeal to the artist sufficiently
to make him wish to reproduce it. We will also give
the opinion of a painter on this point. Mr. Goodall
writes : — " These two subjects serve well to illustrate
how unnecessary it is to alter the natural arrangement
of things in order to make a picture. Although they
are literal transcripts, it is hard to find a line in them
which could be altered with advantage. The designs
presented by nature ready made, always interest us far
more than the artificial compositions of painters who pick
and choose, arrange and alter, the material around them
in constructing their pictures. When a picture is patched
together, as it were, a bit here and a bit there, whatever
the gain in composition, there is always a more than
corresponding loss in those little subtleties which give
quality to the work. If the beauty of a subject in nature
does not appeal to the painter with sufficient force to
make him wish to paint it exactly as it is, he had better
leave it alone altogether, and seek some other that does.
A man must be moved too deeply by something to
dream of improving it by alterations, before he can
possibly paint a really good picture." But has not this
very limitation its advantages as well as its disadvantages ?
There can be no scamping or dishonest work, and the
artist must always go to nature. Had the ancient Greeks
known and handed down photography — and a sculptor
friend of ours is inclined to think they did have something
of the kind — there would not have followed the terrible
decadence in art which came after them owing to the neg-
lect of nature, as we have shown. Again, an immense power
which photography possesses over any other art is the
rapidity with which an effect can be secured. The
painter is limited to a portion of the day — his effect is
288 Naturalistic Photography.
only present at certain times, or his model tires ; but the
artist working with photography, when he sees his effect
is right, can secure it in the twinkling of an eye. This
advantage over all the other arts far outweighs the limi-
tation of the field of selection.
It has been said, te The camera sees far more than the
eye takes in at any given moment, and sees it with an
impartiality for which there is no parallel in the human
vision." This objection has been answered in the body
of the work ; it only holds true with bad work, and with
that we are in no way concerned.
A kindly critic, who did us the honour of reviewing
us in the Spectator, said if our " contention were true,
painting would have said its last word, and sculpture
would no doubt soon be superseded by some mechanical
contrivance, which would be to clay and mai^ble what the
camera is to plane surfaces." Now we must break a lance
with this reviewer and gentleman ; we wish all reviewers
deserved the last title. We fail to see why painting
should have said its last word — for our contention is
true — pace our reviewer. The great fact of colour
alone places true painting as a method of expression
far above any other method. When photographs can be
taken in natural colours, then will be the time to discuss
the probable dying groans of painting. As to sculpture,
it seems to us useless to discuss the merits of " probable
mechanical contrivances ; " when they are invented the
time will come to discuss them. At present the only
comparison that can be made is that between a cast of,
say, a hand from life, and a modelled hand. When this
comparison is made, the " cast from life " will be found
poor and mean — it is not a true impression. The
modelled hand may be so, if the sculptor is good. It is
of course needless to point out that the principle of tone
holds in sculpture as in painting, but the cast from life
cannot have subtleties of tone for a very obvious physio-
logical reason, namely, reflex action. If you touch a
hand with a foreign substance, reflex action is set up,
and there is an alteration in the heights and depths of
the modelling, and the play of light gives a different
Photography — a Pictorial Art. 289
impression. Now, when a living hand is covered with
plaster a rough model is obtained — a model of its struc-
ture merely, and all the subtleties of tone are lost. Those
subtleties would, however, all be given in a photograph,
for nothing is touched, and a true impression is rendered
of the hand. What more hideous travesty of nature is
there than a cast taken from a dead subject — the cast
being merely an exaggeration of the faults in a cast
taken from life ?
Here, then, we must leave photography at the head of
the methods for interpreting nature in monochrome, and
we feel sure that any one who comes to the study of
photography with a rational and an unbiassed mind will
admit there is no case to be made out against it as a
means of artistic expression. This much has been
allowed by very many of our friends, who are at the
same time accomplished artists — etchers, painters, and
sculptors.
The student must remember, then, that a first-rate
photograph, like a first-rate pencil drawing1, pen-and-
ink drawing, etching, or mezzotint, is far and away
superior to a second-rate painting. The greatest
geniuses in art will admire the one and will not tole-
rate the other ; but the student must also remember that
a false tf picture " is worse than nothing.
The student should acquaint himself with the best
specimens of the various pictorial arts mentioned in this
chapter, and he can do this with little difficulty by ob-
taining a ticket for the print-room at the British
Museum; while in the provinces there are no doubt good
specimens at the local galleries. Cambridge, we know,
is very rich in Rembrandt's work. The masters in each
department whose work we recommend for study are — Some
In Lead Pencil— Harding and Bonington in Engand,
and Ingres in France. arts.
Pen and Ink. — Titian, Albert Durer, Rembrandt,
Fortuny, Eousseau, abroad ; and among Englishmen —
Leech, Caldecott, I)e Maurier.
Chalk. — Da Vinci, Andrea del Sarto, Rembrandt,,
Raphael, Titian, Constable and Millet.
2 go Naturalistic Photography.
Lithography. — Harding.
Chrome-lithography. — Greg.
Line Engraving. — Albert Durer, and Cousins.
Wood Engraving. — Bewick, Thompson, and Linton.
Facsimile Wood Engraving. — " The Century/' Scrib-
ner's, and Harper's Magazines.
Etching. — Rembrandt, Millet, Meryon, Raj on, and
Whistler.
Facsimile Etching. — Brunet-Debaines.
Charcoal . — Lhermitte.
Monochrome Painting. — Mauve and Eossi.
Mezzotint. — Turner's and Lupton's reproductions of
some of the plates of Turner's " Liber Studiorum,"
Smith's reproductions of Sir Joshua Reynolds' pictures,
and Lucas' plates after Constable.
Photography. — Adam Salomon, Rejlander, and Mrs.
Cameron.
Photogravure in facsimile. — A. Dawson, W. Colls, and
Scamoni.
Final. j^ must not be forgotten that water-colour drawing
and etching have both been despised in their time by
artists, dealers, and the public, but they have lived to
conquer for themselves places of honour. The promising
young goddess, photography, is but fifty years old.
What prophet will venture to cast her horoscope for the
year 2000 ?
APPENDIX.
" Very few poets get their inspiration from nature. The majority of
them have read other poets, and they use the same ideas, clothed in
different language. The painter has to go directly to nature, or he is
a mere copyist. He cannot paint his picture like somebody else. He
must tell his own story if he has any to tell. Please to look out of
the window ! You'll get something different from what you get out
of books, for it never has been seen before ! "
W. HUNT.
APPENDIX I.
WE are continually receiving letters from correspondents asking Books on
us to recommend them some books on art. art.
Now we can deeply sympathize with these earnest fellow-
workers, for at one period we wasted much time in vexation
of mind in reading the works of " self-appointed preachers,
who knew many things save their subject." When we en-
deavoured to learn something of art we put the very same ques-
tion to our teachers, and the answer came, " There is nothing
worth reading ; some good things have been written by painters
but they are old now, for art has developed greatly of late years,
one thing only we can advise you, don't read anything not
written by a practical man."
When we came to consider the writings of artists, we found
that but very little had been written by them, and we can only
repeat to the student, with the full conviction of experience,
that he must read nothing save that written by practical artists.
The technique and practice of art can be taught in studios, Technique
and its principles can be scientifically recorded, but the poetry ^ 0/art.
of art cannot be taught, only hints can be thrown out. The
poetic qualities which make an artist as distinguished from the
craftsman are born in a man and cannot be acquired by any
amount of training. It is for this reason we must suppose that
artists have, as a rule, thrown out suggestions and hints rather
than enunciated any laws: these hints and suggestions, then,
coupled often with the rhapsodies of literary men, form the body
of all writings on art.
The only books we know of from which the student will ^e°c°0^.
derive some benefit are Leslie's " Life of John Constable." mended.
William Hunt's " Talks about Art." — This excellent little
book is often contradictory and illogical, but nevertheless we
heartily recommend it.
294
Appendix.
Mioto-
4'raphic
lil)rarics.
Books
recom-
mended.
In the body of this work we spoke of recommending a few
books which every photographer should have in his library,
and if he has no library he should at once make a modest
beginning. The library is, to the intellectual man, the armoury
wherein are kept the arms which he must wield in the battle
for truth.
Every photographic society in the world, worthy of the
name, should collect all journals, pamphlets, and books
bearing on photography, as well as all books illustrated by
photography and photographic processes. Scrap-books should be
kept in which are pasted all newspaper and magazine articles
on photographic subjects. Photography is but young, and
there is plenty of time to make such a collection complete. If
all the numerous societies subscribed, it might be worth while
to reprint whole volumes of rare journals.
The numerous photographic societies in this country could
easily get library subscriptions, or even organize entertainments
amongst their members and friends to procure the necessary
funds for a library.
The Camera Club has set an admirable example in this direc-
tion which will no doubt be followed. Among the books we
should recommend the student to begin with are —
Captain Abney's Treatise on Photography, Longman and Co.
Professor Tyndall's Lectures on Light, Longman and Co.
Dr. Lommer's Optics and Light ") international
Dr. Vogel's Chemistry of Light and Photography j fS;e
The late Mr. Sawyer's ABC of Carbon Printing. The
Autotype Company.
Dr. Eder's Modern Dry Plates, Piper, Carter, and Co.
Dr. Ganot's Physics, Longman and Co.
Professor Koscoe's Lessons in Elementary Chemistry, MHC-
millan.
The late Professor Bloxham's Laboratory Teaching, Mac-
millan. \
Messrs. Hardwich and Taylor's Photographic Chemistry,
Churchill.
Mr. Jerome Harrison's History of Photography , Triibner and
Co.
Dr. Wilson's edition of Burnet's Treatise on Painting.
This book can be obtained of Messrs. Lund and Co., St. John
Street, Bradford.
The late Mr. Baden Pritchard's Photographic Studios of
F.urope, Piper, Carter, and Co. •
Appendix. 295
Mr. Bolas' Cantor Lectures on Photo-mechanical Processes,
Piper, Carter, and Co.
Mr. Hodgson's Modern Methods of Book Illustration. — Mr.
Hodgson's was the first book on photo-mechanical processes,
and it still remains one of the best.
Dr. Liesgang's Manual of Carbon Printing, Sampson Low
and Co.
Messrs. Welford and Sturmey's Photographer's Indispensable
Handbook. Ilitfe and Son.
Mr. Chapman Jones' Science and Practice of Photography.
Iliffe and Son.
Traite Encyclopedique de Photographic, par Dr. Charles
Fabre. Paris, Gauthier-Villars.
APPENDIX II.
SCIENCE AND ART.
(A Paper read at the Camera Club Conference, held in the
rooms of the Society of Arts, London, on March 26th,
1889.)
Mu. PRESIDENT, LADIES, AND FELLOW-PHOTOGRAPHERS, —
Before beginning this paper I would fain ask of you two
things, — your attention and your charity, but especially your
charity. The reception which you accord me, ladies and
gentlemen, assures me you will give both, and I thank you
beforehand.
Since all mental progress consists, as Mr. Herbert Spencer
has shown, for the most part in differentiation, — that is in the
analysis of an unknown complex into known components, —
surely it were a folly to confuse any longer the aims of Science
and Art. Eather should we endeavour to draw an indelible
line of demarcation between them, for in this way we make
mental progress, and Science and Art at the same time begin
to gather together their scattered forces, each one taking under
its standard those powers that belong to it, and thus becoming
integrated, and necessarily stronger and more permanent ; for
evolution is integration and differentiation passing into a
296 Appen dix.
coherent heterogeneity. Now, I do not mean to premise that
this confusion between Science and Art exists everywhere, — it
does not. But I feel sure that it exists largely in the ever-
increasing body of persons who practise photography. The
majority of them have not thoroughly, nay, not even adequately,
thought the matter out. It is obvious then, according to the
teachings of evolution, that, if we are to make progress, this
differentiation must be made, thoroughly understood, and
rigidly adhered to by every practitioner of photography. Each
one must have his aim clearly stamped upon his mind, whether
it be the advancement of Science or the creation of works whose
aim and end is to give aesthetic pleasure. Proceed we now to
analyze the difference between the aims and ends of Science
and Art.
Let us first approach the subject from the scientific stand-
point.
Assuming that we have before us a living man, let us
proceed together to study him scientifically, for the nonce
imagining our minds to be virginal tablets, without score or
scratch. Let us proceed first to record the colour of his skin,
his hair and eyes, the texture of his skin, the relative posi-
tions of the various orifices in his face, the number of his limbs,
the various measurements of all these members. So we go on
integrating and differentiating until we find that we have
actually built up a science, — ethnology. If we pursue the
study, and begin to compare different races of men with each
other, we find our ethnology extends to a more complex anthro-
pology.
We next observe that the eyelids open and close, the lips
open, sounds issue from the mouth, and our curiosity leads us
to dissect a dead subject, and we find that beneath the skin, fat, f
and superficial fascice there are muscles, each supplied with
vessels and nerves. We trace these vessels and nerves to their
common origins, and are led to the heart and brain. In short,
we find the science of anatomy grows up under our hands, and
if we go on with our studies we are led into microscopy. Then
we begin to ponder on the reasons why the blood flows, on the
reasons why the corrugator supercilii and depressores anguli
oris act in weeping, the musculus superbus in practical arrogance,
and the levator anguli oris in snarling or sneering. So we go
on studying the functions of all the organs we find in our man",
and lo ! we are deep in physiology; and if we go deeply enough
we find the thread lost in the most complex problems of organic
Appendix. 297
chemistry and molecular physics. And so we might go on
studying this man ; and if our lives were long enough, and if
we had capacity enough, we should he led through a study of
this man to a knowledge of all physical phenomena, so wonder-
ful and beautiful is the all-pervading principle of the conservation
of energy, and so indestructible is matter. As we proceeded
with our studies we should have been observing, recording,
positing hypotheses, and either proving or disproving them. In
all these ways we should have been adding to the sum of know-
ledge. And in the greatest steps we made in our advancement
we should have made use of our constructive imagination, — the
highest intellectual power, according to recent psychologists.
The results of these investigations, if we were wise, would
have been recorded in the simplest and tersest language possible,
for such is the language of Science. It is needless to point out
that in these records of. our studies, as in the records of all
scientific studies, too many facts could not possibly be registered.
Every little fact is welcome in scientific study, so long as it is
true. And thus the humblest scientific worker may help in the
great work ; his mite is always acceptable. Such is, alas ! not
the case with that jealous goddess, Art : she will have nothing
to do with mediocrity. A bad work of art has no raison-d'&re ;
it is worse than useless, — it is harmful.
To sum up, then, " Science," as Professor Huxley says, " is
the knowledge of the laws of Nature obtained by observation,
experiment, and reasoning. No line can be drawn between
common knowledge of things and scientific knowledge; nor
between common reasoning and scientific reasoning. In strict-
ness, all accurate knowledge is Science, and all exact reasoning
is scientific reasoning. The method of observation and ex-
periment by which such great results are obtained in Science is
identically the same as that which is employed by every one,
every day of his life, but refined and rendered precise."
Now let us turn to Art, and look at our imaginary man from
the artistic standpoint. Assuming that we have learned the
technique of some method of artistic expression, and that is
part of the science we require, we will proceed with our work.
Let us look at the figure before us from the sculptor's point
of view. Now what is our mental attitude 1 We no longer
care for many of the facts that vitally interested us when we
were studying the man scientifically ; we care little about his
anatomy, less about his physiology, and nothing at all about
organic chemistry and molecular physics. We care nothing for
298 Appendix.
his morality, his thoughts, his habits and customs, — his socio-
logical history, in fact ; neither do we care about his ethno-
logical characters. If he be a good model, it matters little
whether he be Greek, Italian, or Circassian. But we do care,
above all, for his type, his build, and the grace with which he
comports himself • for our aim is to make a statue like him, a
statue possessing qualities that shall give aesthetic pleasure.
For the raison-d'dre of a work of art ends with itself; there
should be no ulterior motive beyond the giving of aesthetic
pleasure to the most cultivated and sensitively refined natures.
The first thing, then, we must do is to sit in judgment on our
model. "Will he do for the purpose ? Are his features suitable 1
Is he well modelled in all parts 1 Does he move easily and
with grace ? If he fulfils all these conditions we take him.
Then we watch his movements and seize on a beautiful pose.
Now with our clay we begin to model him. As we go on with
our work we begin to see that it is utterly impossible to record
all the facts about him with our material, and we soon find it
is undesirable to do so, — nay, pernicious. We cannot model
those hundreds of fine wrinkles, those thousands of hairs, those
myriads of pores in the skin that we see before us. What,
then, must we do? We obviously select some, — the most
salient, if we are wise, — and leave out the rest.
All at once the fundamental distinction between Science and
Art dawns upon us. We cannot record too many facts in
Science ; the fewer facts we record in Art, and yet express the
subject so that it cannot be better expressed, the better. All the
greatest artists have left out as much as possible. They have
endeavoured to give a fine analysis of the model, and the Greeks
succeeded.
It is beside the question to show how Science has exercised
an injurious influence upon certain schools in art; but that
would be very easy to do. At the same time, the best Art has
been founded on scientific principles, — that is, the physical
facts have been true to nature.
To sum up, then, Art is the selection, arrangement, and re-
cording of certain facts, with the aim of giving aesthetic pleasure ;
and it differs from Science fundamentally, in that as few facts
are compatible with complete expression are chosen, and these
are arranged so as to appeal to the emotional side of man's
nature, whereas the scientific facts appeal to his intellectual
side.
But, as in many erroneous ideas that have had currency for
Appendix. 299
long, there lurks a germ of truth, so there lurks still a leaven of
Art in Science and a leaven of Science in Art ; but in each
these leavenings are subordinate, and not at the first blush
appreciable. For example, in Science the facts can be recorded
or demonstrated with selection, arrangement, and lucidity ; that
is, the leaven of Art in Science. Whilst in Art the physical
facts of nature must be truthfully rendered j that is, the leaven
of Science in Art.
And so we see there is a relationship between Science and
Art, and yet they are as the poles asunder.
II.
We shall now endeavour to discuss briefly how our remarks
apply to photography. Any student of photographic literature
is well aware that numerous papers are constantly being
published by persons who evidently are not aware of this radical
distinction between Science and Art.
The student will see it constantly advocated that every detail
of a picture should be impartially rendered with a biting accu-
racy, and this in all cases. This biting sharpness being, as
Mr. T. F. Goodall, the landscape-painter, says, " Quite fatal
from the artistic standpoint." If the rendering were always
given sharply, the work would belong to the category of
topography or the knowledge of places, that is Science. To
continue, the student will find directions for producing an un-
varying quality in his negatives. He will be told how negatives
of low-toned effects may be made to give prints like negatives
taken in bright sunshine ; in short, he will find that these
writers have a scientific ideal, a sort of standard negative by
which to gauge all others. And if these writers are questioned,
the student will find the standard negative is one in which all
detail is rendered with microscopic sharpness, and one taken
evidently in the brightest sunshine. We once heard it seriously
proposed that there should be some sort of standard lantern-
slide. My allotted time is too brief to give further examples.
Suffice it to say, that this unvarying standard negative would
be admirable if Nature were unvarying in her moods ; until
that comes to pass there must be as much variety in negatives
as there are in different moods in Nature.
It is, wre think, because of the confusion of the aims of
Science and Art that the majority of photographs fail either as
scientific records or works of art. It would be easy to point
out how the majority are false scientifically, and easier still to
300 Appendix.
show how they are simply devoid of all artistic qualities. They
serve, however, as many have served, as topographical records
of faces, buildings, and landscapes, but often incorrect records
at that. It is carious and interesting to observe that such work
always requires a name. It is a photograph of Mr. Jones, of
Mont Blanc, or of the Houses of Parliament. On the other
hand, a work of Art really requires no name, — it speaks
for itself. It has no burning desire to be christened, for its
aim is to give the beholder aesthetic pleasure, and not to add to
his knowledge or the Science of places, i.e. geography. The
work of Art, it cannot too often be repeated, appeals to man's
emotional side ; it has no wish to add to his knowledge — to his
Science. On the other hand, topographical works appeal to his
intellectual side ; they refresh his memory of absent persons or
landscapes, or they add to his knowledge. To anticipate criti-
cism, I should like to say that of course in all mental processes
the intellectual and emotional factors are inseparable, yet the
one is always subordinated to the other. The emotional is
subordinate when we are solving a mathematical problem, the
intellectual is decidedly subordinate when we are making love.
Psychologists have analyzed to a remarkable extent the intel-
lectual phenomena, but the knowledge of the components of the
sentiments or the emotional phenomena is, as Mr. Herbert
Spencer says, "altogether vague in its outlines, and has a
structure which continues indistinct even under the most
patient introspection. Dim traces of different components may
be discerned ; but the limitations both of the whole and of its
parts are so faintly marked, and at the same time so entangled,
that none but very general results can be reached."
The chief thing, then, that I would impress upon all be-
ginners is the necessity for beginning work with a clear dis-
tinction between the aims and ends of Science and Art. When
the art-student has acquired enough knowledge — that is,
Science — to express what he wishes, let him, with jealous care,
keep the scientific mental attitude, if 1 may so express it, far
away. On the other hand, if the student's aim is scientific, let
him cultivate rigidly scientific methods, and not weaken himself
by attempting a compromise with Art. We in the photographic
world should be either scientists or artists ; we should be aiming
either to increase knowledge, — that is, science, — or to produce
works whose aim and end is to give aesthetic pleasure. I do
not imply any comparison between Science and Art to the
advantage of either one. They are both of the highest worth,
Appendix. 301
and I admire all sincere, honest, and capable workers in either
branch with impartiality. Bat I do not wish to see the aims
and ends of the two confused, the workers weakened thereby,
and, above all, the progress of both Science and Art hindered
and delayed.
III.
Next I shall discuss briefly the ill-effects of a too sedulous
study of Science upon an Art student.
The first and, perhaps, the greatest of these ill-effects is the
positive mental attitude that Science fosters. A scientist is
only concerned with stating a fact clearly and simply ; he must
tell the truth, and the whole truth. Now, a scientific study of
photography, if pushed too far, leads, as a rule, to that state of
mind which delights in a wealth of clearly-cut detail. The
scientific photographer wishes to see the veins in a lily-leaf and
the scales on a butterfly's wing. He looks, in fact, so closely,
so microscopically, at the butterfly's wing, that he never sees
the poetry of the life of the butterfly itself, as with buoyant
wheelings it disappears in marriage flight over the lush grass
and pink cuckoo-flowers of May.
I feel sure that this general delight in detail, brilliant sun-
shiny effect, glossy prints, &c., is chiefly due to the evolution
of photography : these tastes have been developed with the art,
from the silver plate of Daguerre to the double-albumenized
paper of to-day. But, as the art develops, we find the love for
gloss and detail giving way before platinotype prints and photo-
etchings.
The second great artistic evil engendered by Science, is the
careless manner in which things are expressed. The scientist
seeks for truth, and is often indifferent to its method of ex-
pression. To him, tf Can you not wait upon the lunatic 1 " is
as the late Matthew Arnold said, as good as, " Canst thou not
minister to a mind diseased1?" To the literary artist, on the
other hand, these sentences are as the poles asunder, — the one
in bald truth, the other literature. They both mean the same
thing; yet what a3sthetic pleasure we get from the one, and
what a dull fact is, "Can you not wait upon the lunatic?"
There are photographs and photographs ; the one giving as
much pleasure as the literary sentence, the other being as dull
as the matter-of-fact question. The student with understanding
will see the fundamental and vital distinction between Science
and Art as shown even in these two short sentences.
302 Appendix.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, I do not think I can do better
than finish this section by quoting another passage from the
writings of the late Matthew Arnold.
"Deficit una mihi symmetria prisca. — ' The antique sym-
metry was the one thing wanting to me/ said Leonardo da
Vinci, and he was an Italian. I will not presume to speak for
the American, but I am sure that, in the Englishman, the want
of this admirable symmetry of the Greeks is a thousand times
more great and crying than n any Italian. The results of the
want show themselves most glaringly, perhaps, in our archi-
tecture, but they show themselves also in our art. Fit details
strictly combined, in view of a large general result nobly con-
ceived : that is just the beautiful s>jmmetria prisca of the
Greeks, and it is just where we English fail, where all our art
fails. Striking ideas we have, and well-executed details we
have ; but that high symmetry which, with satisfying delightful
effect, contains them, we seldom or never have. The glorious
beauty of the Acropolis at Athens did not arise from single fine
things stuck about on that hill, a statue here, a gateway there.
No, it arose from all things being perfectly combined for a
supreme total effect."
CONCLUSION.
And now I must finish my remarks. I have not perhaps
told you very much, but if I have succeeded in impressing upon
beginners and some others the vital and fundamental distinction
between Science and Art, something will have been achieved.
And if those students who find anything suggestive in my paper
are by it led to look upon photography in future from a new
mental attitude, something more important still will have been
attained. For, in my humble opinion, though it is apparently
but a little thing I have to tell, still its effect may be vital and
far-reaching for many an honest worker, and if I have helped a
few such, my labour will have been richly rewarded indeed.
INDEX.
ABNEY, CAPTAIN, F.R.S., 13, 160,
182.
• 's fog-clearing solution,
176.
hyposulphite of soda
eliminator, 175.
on exposure, tables,
160.
" Photography with
Emulsions," 162.
" Treatise on Photo-
graphy," 294.
Abolition of medals, 226.
Accidents and faults in dry
plates, 174.
to the camera, 132.
Adam Salomon, 147, 252.
on retouching,
187.
's portraits, 279.
^Eolus, 254.
Aerial perspective, 248.
After-treatment of plates, 173.
Agatha.rchos, 34.
Aim of " Naturalistic Photo-
graphy," 8, 29.
Albums, 220.
Alkaline developer, 170.
"Amateur "and "Professional"
photographers, 12.
American art, 78.
wood engraving, 273.
Amount of landscape to be in-
cluded in a picture, 255.
Analysis, 17.
Ancient Greek and Italian art,
33.
Anderson's " Pictorial Arts of
Japan,'' 54.
Angelo, Michael, 64, 93.
Angle of view, 139.
" Antiques " for tourists, 39.
Apelles, 36.
Apollodoros, 35.
Apotheosis of Homer, 41.
Apparatus, 141, 257.
Appendix, I., 293.
II., 295.
Aquatint, 277.
Aristotle, 23.
Art, 17.
among the Philistines, 52.
and culture, 258.
and legerdemain, 255.
and photography, 5.
at home, 258.
blocks, 204.
criticism, 39.
division, 10.
principles, 114.
of feeling nature, 250.
" Artist photographer," 254,257.
Artistic, 18.
" Artistic opals," 257.
" Art- Science," 18.
Artificial light, 147.
Assyrian art, 32.
bas-reliefs, 33.
lion hunt, 33.
Astigmatism, 100.
304
Index.
Astronomical photography, 2.
Atkinson, Dr., 22.
Atmosphere, 115.
BAD wood engraving, 255.
Backgrounds, 146, 243.
Bags, 129.
Balance, 248.
Barometer of Naturalism, 95.
Baseboard of Camera, 126.
Bastien-Lepage, 90.
Beautiful poses, 256.
Bewick, 70, 273.
Binocular vision, 111.
Biting process, A second, 216.
Bitten plates, 212, 214, 216.
Blind spot, 100.
Blisters, 176.
Bloxham's "Laboratory teach-
ing," 162.
Bolas' " Cantor Lectures," 295.
Books on art, 293.
• recommended, 294.
Boucher, 85.
Bouquet, 157.
Boy and thorn, 41.
Branches of Photography, 8.
Breadth, 18, 240, 255.
Breton, Jules, 91.
British Museum, 40.
Brown fog, 176.
Bruciaui's plaster casts, 93.
Brunn, 35.
Buddhism, 54.
Bunsen, Professor, 158.
Burnet's "Treatise on Paint-
ing," 238:
— — " Laws of Composi-
tion," 238.
Burns, Eobert, 24.
Busy Insanity, 258.
Byzantine art, 46.
Cadett's studio-shutter, 146.
Callcott, 77.
Camera, 125.
, choice of, 125, 126.
clamp, 129.
, hand, 132.
Camera, length of, 127.
, register test for, 132.
, size of, 126.
, square, 127.
, studio, 128, 146.
Camera obscura, 66, 149.
Cameron, Mrs, 152, 164, 189.
Canova, 94.
Caracalla's bust, 40.
Carbon printing, 191.
Catacombs, 45.
Cellini-Benvennto, 93.
Chalk drawing, 270.
" Character " in portraiture,
252.
Charcoal drawing, 276.
Charlemagne, 47.
Chemicals, 169.
Chemical solutions, 142.
Chemistry and Photography, £.
Chiaro-oscuro, 35, 239.
Chinese Art, 54, 58.
renascence, 55.
Choice of district to work; in,
246.
lens, 136.
Christmas Cards, 257.
Cimabne, 49.
Classification of Exposures, 154.
Clays, 75.
" Clearness," 259.
Cloud negatives, 197.
Cold process in platiuum print-
ing, 194.
College of Photography, 13.
Collotypes, &c., 205.
Colls, W. L., 209.
on Photogravure,
211.
Colour, 18, 108.
, differences of, 108.
of Platinotype prints,
196.
of landscape in sun-
shine, 257.
Combination printing, 197, 199.
Commercial groups, 244.
Commodus' bust, 41.
Composite photography, 137.
Index.
305
Composition, 237, 238, 240, 248.
Constable, 75, 227, 268.
Constable's dicta on art, 75.
Contents of " Naturalistic Pho-
tography," 8.
Cooke, 77.
Copper-plate printing, 210.
Copy of schedule for copyright-
ing, 222.
Copyright, 221.
Cordianus' bust, 40.
Corot, 85.
Correggio, 65.
Cover for developing dish, 142.
Cox, David, 73.
Creative artist, 19.
Creswell, 77.
Criticism, 29, 259.
Critics, 259.
Crome, Old, 75,76.
Cuyp, 83.
DAGUEEEE and the French
Academy, 1.
Dallmeyer's new long-focus
lenses, 135.
Damages for infringement of
copyright, 224.
Dark room and apparatus, 141.
, ventilation of, 141.
Darwin, Charles, on photo-
graphs, 278.
Daubigny, 86.
Da Vinci, 27, 64.
Dawson, A., 209.
Decoration, D'Oyleys, 264.
of hangings, 264.
wall papers, 264.
windows, 262.
Decorative art, 260.
enamels, 262.
panels and friezes,
261, 262.
: r- tiles, 262,
Defects in gelatine plates due
to damp, 178.
De Hooghe, 75, 83.
De la Croix, 85.
De la Eoche, 85.
Del Sarto, Andrea, 65.
Delia Eobia, 93.
Dense negatives, 177.
Deposits on the film, 178.
« Depth of focus," 139.
Descamps, 85.
Desideratum, A great, 206.
Developing rule, A, 141, 168.
Development, 162.
byjdftififcial light,
meteorological
conditions in, 167.
'—, method of, 167.
-, slow, 167.
De Wint, 73.
Diagrammatic blocks and
plates, 204.
Diaphragm, 138.
Direct and indirect vision,
102.
Direction of light, Law of, 102.
Dirty backs of negatives, 178.
Dishes, 142.
Dispersion of light, 99.
Dixon and Gray's Orthochro-
matic Photography,
284.
Doctoring negatives, 189.
Donatello, 92.
Double-backs, 129.
Drainage rack, 142,
Drawingof photographic lenses,
118, 136.
Dull spots and pits on nega-
tives, 179.
Dulwich Gallery, 68, 69, 70.
Duplicate plates, 173.
Durer, Albert, 23, 61.
Dutch Art, 80.
EARLY Christian Art, 44
Easel pictures, 35.
Eastern Art, 52.
Eder's, Dr.,Intensifier, 175.
, "Modern dry plates.
294.
potash developer, 171.
reducer, 177.
306
Index.
Educated fight, 233,238.
Edwards's, B. J., clearing solu-
ti n, 177.
orthochromatic
plates, 182.
yellow screens,
182.
Egypt, Ancient, works to be
studied, 31.
Egyptian art, 30.
artists, 32.
lions, 81.
Emerson on '• Ventilation of the
dark room," 141.
's " Ammonia poison-
ing,'3 141.
" An ideal photogra-
phic exhibition," 227.
" Photography ; a
pictorial art," 9.
" Pharyngitis and
Photography," 141.
Emperors' School, 46.
Engineering and Photography,
3.
English Art, 69.
sculpture, 94.
v. French photogra-
vure, 209.
Enlargements, 200.
Enlarging and tonality, 201.
Enquiry into JSTaturalism in Art,
28.
Etching, 81, 274.
Eupompos, 36.
Evolution in Art, 61.
Exhibitions, 225.
Experiment for forming a
rough rule for use of
lenses, 136.
Exposure, 154.
, method of, 154.
, variation of, 157.
Exposures, classification of, 154.
, lens and stop in, 157.
, meteorological con-
ditions in, 157,
, no rule for, 159.
, quick, 154, 155, 156.
Exposures, tim^, 155.
, shutter, 156.
, tables of, 160.
Expression, 252.
FABIUS, 38.
Fa.ling of prints, 192.
Failure, 257.
Falsity of photographic por-
traits, 255.
Fantin's flowers, 152.
Fechner's Law, 107.
Ferro-prussiate printing paper,
1P4.
Perron s-oxalate developer, 169.
Fiddle-brown trees, 258.
Figure and landscape, 251.
Fine Art, 19.
Finish, 257.
Flare-spot, 139.
"Flat and weak" negatives,
255.
Flemish Art, 69.
Fluorescence, 100.
Focussing, 101, 148.
, example of, 150.
, mental attitude in,
148.
f rule for, 119, 150.
- the eye, 101.
Fog, 175.
Forensic medicine and photo-
graphy, 4.
Forfeiture of pirated works, 224.
Fort tiny, 68
Foster's, W. Michael, Physio-
logy, 97.
Fovea Centralis, 101.
Frames, 219.
Framing, 218.
French (Modern) Art, 84.
Frilling, 176.
Fuseli, 70.
Fuzziness, 120.
GAINSBOROUGH, 70.
Gambling for medals, 227.
Ganot's "Physics," 134.
Gelatino-bromide paper, 192.
Index.
307
Gelatino-chloride paper, 192.
Geography and photography, 3.
German (Modern) Art, 61, 68.
Ghiberti, 92.
Gibson Gallery, 43.
Giotto, 49.
Girtin, 73.
Glass slabs, 143.
Glazing a studio, 145.
" Good Art," 256.
Goodall, T. F., on colour, 18.
, on composition,
287.
, " Mere trans-
scripts of Nature," 26.
,on photography,
297.
Good work, 257.
Gothic Art, 48.
Greek and Grseco-Roman sculp-
ture, 39.
and Italian Art, 33.
chiaroscuro, 35
coins, 42.
- landscape art, 38.
painting, 34.
perspective, 35.
scene-painting, 35.
vases, mosaics, and stone
paintings, 38.
Green fog, 176
Green plates, 252.
Greuze, 85.
Ground-glass pictures, 149.
Groups, 244.
Grown plates, 212.
Guilds, The, 48, 50.
HALATION, 177.
Hamerton on Photography ,278.
Hand cameras, 132.
Hardwich and Taylor's "Pho-
tographic Chemistry,"
294.
Harrison, 78, 79.
',$, J., "History of Pho-
togr^phy," 294.
Head-re 4s, 146.
Heffiicr, 68
Helmholtz, Professor, 103, 108,
109, 110, 111.
Henderson's enamels, 262.
Hering's theory, 108.
Hick's opaque measuring-
glasses, 142.
" High Art," 20, 185.
Hints on copper-plate printing,
210.
Hints on development, 164, 165.
lenses, 140.
photo-etching, 210.
pictorial art, 254.
platinotype printing,
195.
Historical value of Assyrian
bas-reliefs, 33.
History of Greek painting, 34.
Hobbema, 83.
Hodgson's " Modern methods of
book illustration," 294.
Hogarth, 69.
Hokusai, 58.
Holbein, Hans, 63.
Homer's bust, 41.
Hood for camera, 128.
Horizon line, 44.
Horse of Selene, 42.
Hunt's, W., "Talks on Art,"
79, 124, 292.
Hydrokinone developer, 171.
IDEAL, 20.
Idealism, 29.
Imaginative, 22.
Impression, 118, 249.
Impressionism, 22.
Impressionists, Modern, 120.
Impressions v. absolute fact.
131.
Index, 303.
Individuality, 258.
Indoor work, 243.
Industrial arts and photography.
4.
Industrial division, 11.
Ingres, 85.
Intensification, 175.
2
;o8
Index.
Intensity of lenses, 138.
light, 103.
Interiors, 257.
Interpreting nature, 22.
Introduction, 1.
Israels, Josef, 83.
Ivan the Terrible, 47.
JAPANESE Art, 54, 58.
-, 1st Period, 54.
, 2nd Period, 54.
, 3rd Period, 55.
1 4th Period, 57.
at British Mu-
seum, 58.
Commissioners,
58.
Japers at photography, 259.
Jewellery, 244.
Justinian, 46.
KAXO SCHOOL, 56.
Kauffman, 70.
Ivaulbach, 68.
Korin, 57.
LAMP for developing-room, 195.
, travelling, 142.
Landscape, 245.
Landseer, 77.
's lions, 31.
Lantern slides, 202, 203.
Law of projection, 102.
corresponding points, 102.
visible direction, 103.
Laws of composition, 237.
Lawrence, Sir Thos., 120.
Lea, Carey, Dr., 180.
Lead-pencil drawing, 270.
Le Brun, 84.
Le Conte's, Prof., Division, 98.
Lenses, 134.
for special purposes, 137.
recommended, 135.
U Envoi, 266— 269.
Leslie, 77.
's "Life of Constable,"293.
Lewes, G. H., 20.
Lhermitte, 91.
Libraries and Photography, 4.
Liesgang's '' Manual of Carbon
Printing," 295.
" Life " of the model, 256.
Light, 98.
Lighting of picture, 118.
Limits of art, 256.
Limpet-shell markings, 178.
" Lines," 247.
Line Engraving, 271.
Linnell, 77.
Lithography, 271.
Little Masters, 271.
Local colour, 22.
development, 171
Lommer's, Dr., " Optics and
Light," 294.
Lorraine, Claude, 84.
Low-Art, 22.
Ludius, 38.
MACLISE, 77.
Macula lutea, 101.
Makart, 68.
Man and vulgarity, 254.
Marblings in negatives, 178.
Masks, 199.
Mason, 77.
Massy s, Quintin, 60.
Masters, 96.
Masters of the minor arts, 289.
Matahei, 56.
Material for dresses, 244.
Measuring-glasses, 142.
Medals, Art, 226.
Mediaeval Art, 47.
, glass paintings, 48.
, guilds, 48, 50.
, miniaturists. 47.
Medical and Biological Photo-
graphy, 3.
Meicho, 55.
Melanthios, 36.
Merit of photographs, 254.
Metallic patches on negatives,
179.
Meteorology and Photography,
3, 157.
Index.
309
Meteorological conditions and
development, 167.
Method of copyrighting, 221.
reproducing nega-
tives, from nature for
copperplate process,
212.
Mezzotint engraving, 277.
Microscopy and Photography,2.
Military and Naval Photo-
Millet, Jean Francois, 44, 86,
232.
's dicta on art, 86.
Miniatures, 46.
Modern French School of
Painting, 43, 91.
— Sculptors,
94.
Modified stops, 138.
Mohammedan Art, 52.
Monarchies of Western Asia, 32.
Monochrome Painting, 276.
Morland, 70.
Mosaics, 45, 46.
Mouldings, 219.
Mountants, 218.
Mounting, 218.
Monnts, 219.
Miiller, 77.
Miiller's Law, 102.
Mulready, 77.
Munkacsy, 68.
Murillo, 68.
Muy bridge's canteringhorse, 42.
photographs, 161.
Mystery of Nature, 257.
NASMYTH, 77.
National Gallery, 60, 63, 65, 66,
67, 69, 73, 77, 80, 83.
Naturalism, 22.
in Art, 28. ^
• — in decorative Art,
260.
Naturalistic photography, 259.
work, 258. '
Nature and photography, 259.
pictures, 258.
Nature and sanity, 258.
Nature of a copyright, 223.
Negative finishing, 179.
Negatives for decorative work,
262.
Nero's bust, 40.
Newton, Sir W. J., 152.
Nicpl, Dr., on sensitometer, 160.
Ni 0, The, 54.
Nobuzane, 55.
Nude, 54.
OKIO, 57.
On breadth and simplicity,. 255.
— copyright agreement, 221.
— " form,'; 256.
— " going in for photography,"
255.
— impression andf act, 11 8, 131.
— opinions on art, 258.
— publishing, 257.
— reproduction, 256.
— studying photography, 256.
— success, 257.
Optic nerves, 97.
Optics, 134.
Original Artist, 24.
Origin of retouching, 186.
Ortho-chromatic Photography,
181.
Out-door portraiture, 243.
work, 243.
" Outings," 246.
Outline drawing, 269.
Over-exposure, 174.
Over-production, 169.
PALEOLITHIC stone scratching!?,
269.
Pamphilos, 36.
Paper negatives, 180.
Paris Salon, 91.
Parrhasios, 35.
Parthenon Frieze, 42.
Pausias, 36.
Pecuniary Penalties for in-
fringing copyright,224.
Pen and Ink drawing, 270,
Perspective, 35, 112, 239.
3io
Index.
Perspective, four kinds of, 112.
Pertinax's bust, 40.
Phenomena of sight and art
principles deducted
therefrom, 97.
Photographs as historical re-
cords, 257.
" Photographic," 24.
haunts, 247.
• • Libraries, 294.
Society of Great
Britain, 185, 227.
"Photographies,'' Dr. Wilson's,
144.
Photographing Clouds, 198.
Photography, 277.
and Art, 259.
• a pictorial art,
269.-
applied to deco-
rative art, 261.
Photo-etching, 207.
Photo-mechanical printing pro-
cesses, 204.
classification
of, 204.
Pictorial Art, 230.
Picture-buyers, 53.
Pin-hole photography, 131.
" Pisanello," 93.
Pisano, Andrea, 92.
, Niccola, 49, 92.
, Nino, 92.
, Vitture, 93.
Plate-making, 163.
Plates, 163.
Plate- washer, 142.
Platinotypes, 205.
for book illustra-
tion, 205.
, framing of, 219.
" sinking in " of,
205.
spotting, 195.
• ; , texture of, 195.
Platinotype Company, 195.
, new cold
process, 194.
Poetry in works of art, 250.
Point of sight, 254.
Poitevin's method of enamel-
ling. 263.
Polygnotos, 34.
Portraits taken with rapid recti-
linear lens, 137.
Portraiture, 243, 252.
in studio, 252.
Posthumous portraits and busts.
185.
Poussin, 84.
Practical Hints, 254.
Preface, V.
Pre-Eaphaelites (modern), 25.
Prettiness, 2o6.
Principles of studio lighting,
252.
of Decorative art, 261.
Printing, 191.
frames, 143.
clouds, 198.
papers, 191.
Prints, 191.
, carbon-, 191.
, gelalino-chloride, 192.
, gelatine- bromide, 192.
, permanency of, 192.
, platinotype, 191.
, silver, 191.
, tonality of, 192.
Print-sellers, 7, 81.
Pntchard's, Baden, " Studios of
Europe," 262.
Prizes for " set subjects," 254.
Procrastination, 255.
Prolonged and patchy fixings,
178.
Protogenes, 37.
Pseudo-scientific photographers
and art, 254.
Psychological data of sight, 111.
QUALITY, 24, 256.
of greatness, 257.
Qualities of a picture, 251.
of good lenses, 140.
Queer judges, 227.
RAPHAEL, 65.
Index.
Realism. 24.
Red-carbon process for decora-
tive work, 262
Red fog, 176.
Reflections and shadows, 256.
Reflectors, 146.
Reform in exhibitions, 227.
Registration of photographs,
223.
Rejlander, 0., 199.
, on combination
printing, 199.
, on retouching,
188.
Relative tone or value, 2o.
" Rembrandt pictures," 254.
Rembrandt's etchings, 81.
paintings. 80.
Remedies for infringement of
copyright, 224.
Removal of varnish from nega-
tives, 178.
Renascence, European, 59.
Replicas, 224.
Resolution, 254.
Retouching negatives, 184.
, Adam Salomon on,
187.
• — . Cameron, Mrs., on,
189.
, Definition of, 184.
, Rejlander on, 188.
Retrospect of Photography, 2.
Reubens. 69.
Reynolds, Sir J., 69.
ou rules, 241.
Rhetoricians, Roman, 39
Rhyparographi, The, 37.
Ribera, 66.
Rising front of camera, 129.
Roller slides, 180.
Roman Art, 38.
Roscoe's "Lessons in Elemen-
tary Chemistry," 162.
Rousseau, 85.
Ruby glass, 141.
SABLE-HAJK brush, 142.
Sargent, 78, 79.
Sawyer's, J. R., " ABC of Car-
bon Printing/' 294.
Scales, 143.
Scene-painting, 34.
Science and Art, 295.
division, 11.
Scientific diagrams, 152.
photographic work to
be reconsidered, 136.
Scratches on plates, 179.
Sculpture, 92.
Sea-air and dry plates, 178.
Sensational in nature, 256.
Sensitometer, Warneke's, 159.
, Dr.Vogelon, 159.
Sentiment, 25, 256.
and poetry, 256.
Sentimentality, 25.
Sesshiu, 56.
Setting up the Camera, 129.
" Sharpness," 257.
Shijo School, 57.
Shiubun, 55.
Sight, 7.
Size of plate, 127.
Slabs of glass, 143.
Slow development, 167.
Soga chokman, 56.
Jasoku, 55.
Soul, 25.
South Kensington Museum, 74,
77, 79, 93.
Spanish (modern) Art, 67.
Spherical aberration, 99.
Spiller, A., " on permanency of
gelatine-bromide prints,"
192.
Spirit-Levels, 126.
Spontaneity, 257.
Spotting negatives, 189.
prints, 195.
Spurious pictures, 224.
Standard developer, 170.
Stansfield, 77.
Stereoscopic Slides, 202.
Stolen bits, 258.
" Stopping down," 149.
" Stops," 138.
St. Peter's Statue at Rome, 45.
3I2
Index.
Studio, 144.
, building, 144.
, camera, 128, 146.
, Dr. Wilson's specifica-
tions for, 144.
effects, 147.
furniture, 145.
glazing, 145.
lighting, 147.
, objets d'art, 145.
, principles of lighting,
144, 252.
, rule for lighting, 147.
, top and side light, 144.
walls, 145.
Study of Chemistry, 162.
Tone, 173.
Subject of a picture, 250.
Sun and shadows, 259.
Supplementary poles, 129.
Surveying and Photography, 3.
Swing-backs, 130.
, use of, 130.
Swiss Art, 63.
TABLE of contents, ix.
Taine's " La philosophe de 1'avt
Grec," 43.
Teaching of Art, 294.
Technical criticism, 43.
Technique, 26, 123, 293.
and practice, 123.
Teniers, 69.
Terminology, 17.
Textures of printing papers, 195.
Theban- Attic School, 36.
Theon of Samos, 37.
ThirteenthCentury Sketchbook,
49.
Thorwaldsen, 94.
Thumb-screws, 126.
Timanthes, 35.
Timomachos, 38.
Titian, 66.
Tonality and development;, 164.
Tone, 26, 115, 248.
Topography, 258.
Torso at British Museum, 41.
Trajan's bust, 40.
" Transcript of Nature," 26.
Transparencies, 202.
Transparent spots in negatives,
177.
Travelling-lamps, 142.
" Treatise on Painting,"237, 238.
Treatment of model, 244.
Tripod he-ad, 128.
Tripods, 128.
Trovon, 86.
Turbidity of media of the eye,l 00.
Turner, 73.
's " Frosty Morning," 74.
Tyndall, Prof., 158.
Tyndall's " Lectures on Light,"
12, 294.
Typographic blocks, 205.
Etching Company,
208.
UNDER exposure, 174.
Undeveloped Islands, 179.
VALUE of a picture, 256.
Van der Velde, 83.
Vandyck, 69.
Yan Eyck, The brothers, 59.
's portrait, 60.
Vanity, 257.
Van Ostade, 69, 82.
Varnish, Dr. Carey Lea's, 180.
, removal of, 178.
Varnishing a negative, 179.
Velasquez, 67.
Verestchaxin, 68.
View-finder, 138.
maker, 100.
Vigilance committees for plates,
163.
Vignetting, 196.
Vogel, Dr., 177.
, on chemical action
of sky, 158.
, exposure tables,
160.
» Warneke's sensi-
tometer, 159.
altochromatie
plates, 182.
Index.
3[3
Vulgarity, 255.
WALKER, F., 77.
Walker and Eastman films, 180.
AYater-colours, 53, 71.
Watteau, 84.
Welfordand Sturmey's " Photo-
grapher'slnrlispensable
Handbook," 295.
Wet-plate process, 163.
Whistler, J. M., 16, 78.
• , on mounts, 218.
, " Art and Art
critics," 78.
Ten o'clock,"
78.
Wilkie, 77.
Wilkinson's " Ancient Egyp-
tians,'* 32.
Willis, W., Jun., 193.
Wilson 69.
Wilson's, Dr. E., " Bnrnet's
Treatise on Painting,"
•237, 294.
Wilson's, Dr. E., " Photogra-
phies," 144.
Woermann, Dr., 28.
Woltmann, Dr., 28
Wo »'l-engraving, 71, 272.
Work and faith. 255.
" Working up" in oils, &c., 184.
Wu-Tao-Tsz, 59.
"YEAR'S ART for 1887," 223.
Year-book of Photography and
Photo News Almanac,
1885-87, 141.
and British
Journal Almanac,
1887, 141.
Yellow fog, 176.
Yellow stains on negative, 177
Young Satyr at British
Museum, 41.
ZEUXIS, 35.
THE END.
UJTI7BESITI
LONDON :
PRINTED BY GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, LIMITED,
ST. JOHN'S HOUSE, CLEKKENWELL ROAD.
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photographer to obtain, ^nd to study, Emerson's books."— Mr. W. J. Harrison in "The
International Annual of Anthony's Photographic Bulletin'1 for 1888.
DR. EMERSON'S WORKS.
Life and Landscape Series.
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tised editions all plates and blocks will be at once destroyed.
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"GATHERING WATER-LILIES."
(Copyright.)
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LIFE AND LANDSCAPE ON THE NORFOLK
BROADS.
By P. H. EMERSON, B.A., M.B. (Cantab.), and T. F. GOODALL.
Illustrated with Forty Plates from Nature, mounted on plate paper,
size 17 x 12 inches. Edition de luxe, limited to 100 copies, bound in
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and text printed on finest white paper. Price £10 10s. Ordinary
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and text printed on fine white paper, limited to 750 copies. Price £6 6s.
This Work contains a valuable Essay on " Landscape," including Pho-
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by all Photographers.
(SAMPSON Low & Co., Ld., St. Dunstan's House, Fetter Lane, E.G.)
Opinions of the Press.
" We feel grateful to Dr. Emerson and Mr. Goodall for a most fascinating volume. There is
something singularly characteristic and attractive in the scenery of the Norfolk Broads, as there
is much that is peculiar and picturesque in the manners of the primitive p .pulation. . . . The
series of illustrations seem to embrace and exhaust the whole range of local subjects. We are
b
qua
that watery world, where the tumble-down cottage of the fisherman or the fowler hangs over the
.
taken through wildernesses of wood and water, t rough sedgy solitudes, haunted by shy water-
fowl, along winding river-reaches with wherries under sail. We are landed in quaint nooks of
rushy creek ; we see the lonely farmhouse, with its sedge-thatched and straggling outbuildings,
standing somewhat apart between marsh and cloudland ; or the sequestered hamlet huddled
round the little church, with the rude spire which is a landmark for leagues along the water-ways.
We are shown the amphibious people following their multifarious occupations, with their
farming, and their fishing, and their strange fashions ot fishing. . . . The set of landscapes which
c ose the vo'ume are excellent as works of art, and they give an admirable idea ot the somewhat
melancholy charms of the scenery, when it does not happen to be lighted up by brilliant sun-
shine."—TAe Times.
"Good wine needs no bush, and the Norfolk scenery needs no praise; but one may blamelessly
sing in praise of good wine and the singing be but good, and write of or photpgraph Norfolk
meritoriously. This Messrs. Emerson and Goodall have done, and done well, for which they
deserve much thanks."— Saturday Review.
"The life depicted in this charming series of photographs is still redolent of the past. The wide
e pause of flowery pasture-land, the smooth and pellucid waters, the picturesque cratt, and the
hardy good-humoured Broadsmen with their nets and meaks, are admirably represented, while the
descriptive letterpress will recall many of his, own experiences to the reader familiar with East
Anglian waters."— Morning Post.
" Dr. Emerson has in this work appMed the art of photography in so triumphant a manner, that
the fitful bree/.es are clearly caught on the water, and seen playing amongst the heads of the
reeds. . . . We can vouch for their wonderful fidelity to Nature. Nothing like it has ever been
published."-TAe F,eid
" ' Lite and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads ' is a book of unique artistic interest . . . The
prevailing tone of the pictures is restfnl and subdued. There is much of quiet cloudy sky and
long evening light. And the general impression left by the illustrations, even when representing
the characteristic industries of the Norfolk work-a-day world, is singularly free from anything
approaching to hurry and turmoil The claims of photography to rank among the true means of
artistic production were never better exhibited than in this series of studies. . . . They leave no
possible doubt of Dr. Emerson's manipulatory skill, or of the tasteful discrimination of the fellow
art-workers." — The Globe.
" ' Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads ' is the name of a really beautiful book. . . . The
text is descriptive, and pleasantly descriptive, of the scenes reproduced from nature. . . . We have
seldom, perhaps never, seen such successful studies of landscape made by any mechanical
process. • . •" — Daily New?.
" It is enough to know that they are exquisitely beautiful. It has sometimes been contended that
photography is not art. That view has had to be modified. It has been shown that in the hands
of artists photography can be used with admirable effect. If proof of this be required, it will be
found in this volume- There is nothing of the wooden stiffness of the old photographs about the
pictures. . . . Some of them might be reproductions in monochrome of Corot's pictures. Light
and shade are exquisitely managed. Every picture is arranged with the truest taste- . . . Then all
the plates are redolent of the spirit of the scene."- Scotsman.
"The volume of Plates from Nature ' which Messrs. Emerson and Goodall have just published
to illustrate ' Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads' is an extraordinary achievement in
photography. . - . Messrs. Emerson and Guodall have now taken them up, and mirrored their
river highways and their shy retreats alike with a uniform success, which must have been the
result of extraordinary skill and patience. - . . The peasants and watermen gave, it is clear, much
information about life on the Broads, which the authors have occasionally worked up into very
interesting letterpress."— Pall Mall Gazette.
" That beautiful series of forty plates, with their accompanying letterpress, illustrating ' Life and
Landscape on the Norfolk Broads,' are an unanswerable refutation of those who say there is no art
in photography. Mr. P. H. Emerson, B.A., and T. F. Guodall have been round the fens with
camera and note-book to some purpose. . . . There is every quality in many of them of thoroughly
good pictures. ... No episode or incident seems to be inaciessible to these skilful artists."— Daily
Telegraph.
" They have studied the Broads in all seasons and in all aspects, in the full light of the cloudless
summer mornings, and in the autumn evenings when the light grows dim, and the result is forty
plates in platinotype, of great variety, of singular interest, and of remarkable beauty. . . . Both
the authors of the illustrative text are accomplished writers, and their articles are of unusual
merit." — The School Board Chronicle.
" ' Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads' is an epoch-making book: because such perfection
of photography, such perfection of reproductive processes, and such perfection of artistic feeling
have never before been brought together."— Amateur Photographer.
" Now and then in the past we ha*e seen occasional photographs such as Dr. Emerson now
presents, but to him is due the credit of endeavouring to form a real and truthful school of photo-
graphic representation-"— Photographic News.
" Thus we have fishermen and women engaged in all the phases of labour which the water-
wastes of Norfolk afford, and all happily unconscious that they are standing for their portraits—
none of them starinsr into the camera in ordinary photographic fashion, but all pursuing their
avocations in an unaffected and natural niflnner. This is a rare excellence, which is deserving of all
praise, and the value of the plates as truthful illustrations of the ordinary work and demeanour of
the people is greatly enhanced by the judgment and skill manifested in this particular. . . . The
letterpress which accompanies the plates is not the least entertaining part of the book."—
Manchester Guardian.
PICTURES FROM LIFE IN FIELD AND- FEN.
By P. H. EMERSON, B.A., M.B. (Cantab.).
Being Twenty Plates in Photogravure reproduced from Dr. Emerson's
Original Negatives by Messrs. Dawson & Co., Boussod, Valadon & Co.,
Walker & Boutall. and the Autotype Co., together with au Introductory
Essay on Photography and Pictorial Art. The Plates are enclosed in a
handsome Portfolio. Edition de luxe, limited to 50 numbered copies,
Plates on India paper, size 20 X 16 inches. Price £5 5s. Ordinary
Edition, limited to 550 copies, with Plates on fine plate paper, same size.
Price £3 3s.
N.B. — The Author reserves the right of publishing separately, on plain.
paper, any one of these Plates until the edition is completed, after that
all plates will be destroyed.
(GrEO. BELL & SONT, York Street, Covent Garden, W.C.)
Opinions of the Press.
" His compositions remind us more of paintings than of any mechanical reproductions of Nature.
'Sunrise at Sea,' ' The Barley Sele,' 'The Faug >t-Cutters,' ' At Plough," A Winter's Morning,'
and ' The Mangold Harvest,' are all well chosen and cleverly arranged compositions, and they show
us that it is by no means so impossible to cclhibine in photography the human figure and natural
landscape, and to tell a simple pictorial story, as is commonly believed. We congiatulate
Mr. Emerson on this achievement : his work, at all events, deserves that praise which is due to
those who try to raise the art to which they are devoted, and to carry it a step farther than is
usually considered necessary. It is something to have carried photography a step farther in the
direction of art, and Mr. Emerson is fairly entitled to claim this praise."— Spectator.
" He has spoken, as well as taken, twenty original negatives, and has done both to good
purpose. A man must have penetrated into the inner circle of the lives of our East Anglian
peasantry before he could have the chance of witnessing some of the scenes which he so
sympathetically represents . . . Many will look at the beautiful series of plates in photogravure,
and be charmed with the skill with which they have been manipulated. We find our highest
pleasure in approving the caiefulness with which the real types have been selected and the
'.environment' made appropriate."— The Field.
"Dr. Emerson's verv handsome folio of twenty plates of varied subjects, mostly found in the
above county, is useful as showing what care in grouping, and tact and judgment in selecting
points of view, will do towards producing effective pictures when the photographer combines the
qualities referred to."—Jrtist's Record.
" Dr. Emerson . . . has been the teacher of a new school of art photography and he has now
a lu-ge following, many of whom are endeavouring to do work as good and true to the 'school ' as
the examples that are before us. ... As a source of study for amateur photographers and as a
drawing-room book we highly recommend • Life in Field and Fen ' to all our readers. As
specimens of reproductions of photographs the plates are beyond praise, and the book is beauti-
fully printed and got up in a most artistic manner."— Amateur Photographer.
" How far photography can go is well shown in this ca.efully prepared defence of it as an art."—
AtheinBum.
"When we say that Dr. Emerson has so used his camera as to truly represent Nature, we say
the highest. . . . Having with rare judgment steered clear of doubtful and, to the camera,
impossible subjects, Dr. Emerson has given us some delightful photographic pictures, which not
only represent, but also interpret Nature. . . Dr. Emerson evidently intends to form a school in
photography, and has resolved to show photography at its best."— Photographic News.
"Dr. Emerson, the producer of this fine portfolio of photogravures, represents to some extent a
new effort to get home once more to Nature, and he enters into the battle as a photographer. . . .
His seascapes are exquisite. . . . ' A Suffolk Dyke' (a charming [study ot river and Suffolk fen)
and ' Breydon Water,' sea-fog coming up (a sweet picture, full of all the feeling of the place;. . . .
The work is of a very choice character."— t>ch<n,l noard chronicle.
"Exquisite photographs exquisitely reproduced."— Pall Mall Gazette.
" They are in themselves of artistic merit as regards grouping and selection. Some of them, such
as ' The Poacher' and the ' Dame's School,' are distinctly dramatic, and they are produced with
much care and nicety by the automatic etching process." -Daily Telegraph.
" It is marvellous how completely Dr. Emerson appears to have mastered the difficulties which
have alit ended the use of the camera. No painter could have produced anything more charmingly
true to Nature, more suggestive of real life and interest, than many of the pictures in this volume.
They are admirably taken, with a carefulness in regard to light and shade that has rarely bee»
approached."— The Scotsman.
4
Separate Plate.
THE HAYSEL.
(Copyright.)
PHOTOGEAVURE.
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India Prints on paper, 34 x 26 inches, limited to 100 copies. Price
15.«. a copy.
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Price 10s. a copy.
After the advertised number has been pulled, the plate will be
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Copies to be obtained of the TYPOGRAPHIC ETCHING COMPANY, 3, Ludgate
Circus Buildings, E. C.
Opinions of the Press.
" We have received ... a very beautif 1 reproduction of a picture by P. H. Emerson, which is a
triumph both for photographer and process. . . . There is much poetical feelinsr in the prroupiiMf. . . .
The general tone of the picture is a subdued red, and gives on . the idea of summer twilight."—
The Camera.
" We have here a magnificent plate."— Photographic News.
" From the Typographic Etching Company we have a reproduction of a landscape by P. H.
Emerson ... by a process . . . possessing decided individuality and capable of effect of light and
atmosphe e which the present example shows may be s,ng estive and pleasii g. Here the figures ot
the labourers and the laden wain are realized with considerable fidelity to the conditions of light
ana air mat constitute a vague glimmering environment, ine cnarm 01 tranquillity tnat oeiongs
to mild diffused light and spacious windless atmosphere can scarcely have suffered by translation
in this instance."— Saturday Review.
"Whether in composition or general treatment it is a picture of which the artist may justly fee
proud." — British Journal of Photography.
" We have received a large plate of a beautiful meadow scene also photographed by Mr. Emerson.
It is indeed a June idyl of the marshes, with the women in picturesque attire piling upon a hay
waggon the weet-scented grasses for transport to the neighbouring stackyard."- Scotsman.
*' It is most certainly a splendid production, though its beauties dp not dawn upon one at the first
glance, yet after a little contemplation we must confess that it is one of the best examples of
photogravure we have ever seen."— Photographers' World.
IDYLS OF THE NOKFOLK BBOADS,
A Series of Twelve Plates, depicting Pastoral Life in East
A n^li a, reproduced in Autogravure from Original Negatives,
with accompanying descriptive Notes, by the Author, P. H.
EMEUSON, B.A., M.B. (Cantab.).
Numbeted Proofs printed on India and Plate paper, outside size 17 X 13
inches, in gold-lettered portfolio. Price £1 11s. Gd.
The issue of these proofs is limited to 150.
Prints on Plate paper, outside size 17 X 13 inches, in lettered port-
folio. Price £1 Is.
The issue of these Prints is limited to 600 copies.
(AUTOTYPE Co., 74, New Oxford Street, London, W.)
Press Notices.
"It contains a dozen exquisite studies of the Broads and their borders reproduced by their well-
known delicate piocess of autogravure. These p ctures are selected with true artistic feeli g, and
in almost every case they have ' composed ' as perfectly as though they were arranged at will and
not by Nature. There is but ne word which fitly indicates their merit, and that is one borrowed
from their title— idyllic."— land and Water.
'• In a handsome, delicate portfolio, in white and gold, in choice and luxurious form, are presented
a dozen deeply mounted autogravure plates, on India paper, from photographic negatives. They
are loving studies of beloved aspects and incidents in the land of the fimous Broads, in every season
of the year and in various phases of the quiet life of that country. Mr. Emerson's text, printed on
fine old English rough quarto paper, poetically descriptive of the country and of the scenes of the
pictures, makes beautiful bits oi' writing."— School Hoard Chronicle.
" In ' Idyls of the Norfolk Broads " Mr. P. H. Emerson still further adds to our knowledge of the
pastoral life and landscape of the English Fens. He is in love with the country— he calls it an
earthly paradise ; and never did lover sing the praises of his mistress with more enthusiasm than
does Mr. Emerson the distinctive beauties of this land of mists and marshes and sweet-scented
meadows, with its industrious and homely people. . . . The scenes have been selected with an
artist's eye, and are reprodxiced in really a delightful manner— two especially are very pleasing-
Flowers of the Mere,' in which we have the head of a charming little village maiden, and 'A Grey
Day Pastoral,' the silvery tones of which have at least been suggested in black and white.
Accompanying each plate is a concise, well-written description of the scenery depicted."— Scotsman.
" The present volume of proofs on India paper, reproducing original negatives by the autotype
process, presents some of the most charming and characteristic types of East Anglian life and
scenery." — Daiiy Telegraph.
'' That Mr. Emerson is an enthusiastic lover of the Norfolk Broads is very evident. To him East
Norfolk is an earthly paradise, replete with all the elements that conduce to poetry and art. Of
these the former finds an outcome in the descriptive letterpress, and the latter in twelve photographs,
which illustrate one or other phases of life or nature in these broads. . . .
" These pictures are, in most cases, full of feeling. In technical merit ' The Windmill ' excels. It
is a very charming little picture, about lour inches square, representing a windmill standing close
by a stream, boats lying at repose alongside. The engraving, printing, and general get-up are of a
high order of merit." -British Journal of Photography.
Mr. Emerson gives a poetic account, almost with the loving fervour of Virgil, of the beauties
that he so much feels. . . . Altogether Mr. Emerson has in this last series done an excellent thing,
and should the time come when photographers in general do similarly, artists will not speak of
photography as they very often do at present."- Photographic News.
" On the whole, the series is representative of the district of which Mr. Emerson writes with the
knowledge that comes of enthusiastic study. 'The Mill,' 'The Haysel,' and the marshy pasture.
No. 3, are charming pictures ' A Grey Day Pastoral' is a pleasing example of the cool, moist, and
luminous effect of mild diffused light under a thin veiled sky. Mr. Emerson's text is pleasant
reading."- Saturday Review.
" Mr. Emerson is well known as the producer of some of our most artistic photographs and these
' Idyls ' cannot fail to increase his reputation. . . . Each one is a delightful study. . . . The
composition in each case is admirable, and they are printed in a manner which shows advance in
photographic art."— Artist.
" This is truly a book for the drawing-room table. The introductory matter, as well as the
descriptive text, give proof that Mr. Emerson is as successful a worker with pen as with sun-pencil,
for the matter is full of poetic touches which only a true lover of Nature would be capable of, and
which few could express in such a charming manner."— The Camera.
PICTURES OF EAST ANGLIAN" LIFE.
Illustrated with Thirty-two Photogravures and Fifteen
smaller Illustrations. The text, divided into twenty-six
chapters, treats of the East Anglian peasantry, and is full
of interesting information of the habits and customs of the
peasantry and nsherfolk, of their ghost stories, witchcraft,
and of natural history, poaching, &c.
The Edition de luxe, size 20 X 16 inches, is handsomely bound in vellum,
with green morocco back, and black and gold decora'ions. The text ia
printed on best English hand-made paper ; the small Illustrations, as well
as the larger ones, are printed on India. This sumptuous Edition is
limited to 75 numbered copies. Price £7 7s. a copy.
The Ordinary Edition is strongly bound in cloth and leather. The
Plates are printed on best plate paper, and the text is printed on best
white paper. This Edition is strictly limited to 500 copies. Price
£5 5s. a copy.
(SAMPSON Low & Co., Ld., St. Dunstan's House, Fetter Lane, E.G.)
Press Opinions.
"It is a monograph, pictorial and literary, on the Suffolk peasantry and fisherfolk— a natural
history of one of the most interesting of English race-types. . . . Hedger and ploughman, fisher and
boor, as they are pictured in these exquisite engravings, they have a not too remote resemblance to
the melancholy peasant of Millet. . . . The author has something of his eye for the bovine-human
type, for the fine artistic gloom of life and mind of the fields."— Daily >'<?«.•« (Leader).
"After a hasty glance at Mr. P. H.Emerson's handsome large quarto volume . . . one is disposed
to characterize it as the prose of Dr. Jessop's ' Arcady.' On better acquaintance, we see that there is
in Mr. Emerson's book also a great deal of the poetry of real life. We . . . claim that in ordinary
village ways as sketched by Mr. Kmerson, and in village character, hard and uninviting as it seems
to the outsider, there is ' i>oetry ' enough. ... He has plenty of quiet humour. ... Of some of the
plates, which form such a feature in this volume, it is impossible to speak too highly."— The Graphic.
" It might almost be said to be descriptive by anecdote, of which the author seems to have a rare
store, on every aspect of the subject with which he deals. His book is undoubtedly . . . ' A
contribution to a natural history of the English peasantry and fisherfolk.' ... In this series of East
Anglian books Mr. Emerson has distinctly elevated landscape photography His scenes are selected
with the eye of a true artist. ... To a certain extent Mr. Emerson may be said in these pictures to
have done for the peasantry of East Anglia what Jean Francois Millet did for those of his own
country."- Scotsman.
"In 'A Stiff Pull 'and 'In the Barley Harvest,' both capital subjects, capitally treated, he has
been successful enough to make us wish that Millet had painted in >uffolk instead of at and about
Chailly-en-Biere. In another plate, ' The Farm by the Broad,' he contrives to give us something
of the effect of . . . a Corot. In . . . ' Going Out ' and . . . ' Coming Ashore ' he reminds us a little
of Mesdag; in other plates . . . of the followers of Bastien Le Pa>.'e."— Saturday Review.
"The volume may be taken, therefore, as representing pretty completely the present state of the
art of photo-engraving in England. . . . Mr. Emerson is to be congratulated on having brought
distant East Anglia and its people before us with a completeness that has not been attempted with
any other considerable portion of the British Islands." — Manchester Guardian.
41 The tales and interesting folk-lore are simply and pleasantly told. The philologist will find in
these pages many fresh words and expressions ; the artist and naturalist many curious and novel
observations. . . . The book is a valuable addition to the natural history of the English peasantry
and fisherfolk."- Daily Telegraph.
" Dr. Emerson's new book is one which no county family's library in Suffolk should be without.
. . . Dr. Emerson has studied the Suffolk peasantry with conscientious thoroughness and approached
his subject with sincere sympathy for the hardness of their life."— Pall Mail Gazette.
" All who have felt the peculiar attraction of East Anglian scenery are grateful to Dr. P. H.
Emerson for his splendid photogravures. . . . This splendidly gol-up folio is an important work,
reflecting hisjh credit on all concerned in its production. We hope Dr. Emerson will not allow his
camera to lie idle. . . . Dr. Emerson has been a close observer of their character and intelligence,
and has much that is curious to say."— Westminster Review.
" We have, in short, a delightful history of the inner life of the Norfolk and Suffolk peasant, and
of the things dear to him, illustrated by such a series of truthful nature-pictures as is approxi-
mated to in no other work of which we know, unless in Dr. Emerson's earlier series " — Photographic
Keies.
" Mr. P. H. Emerson has produced a really valuable book. His text, descriptive of the life,
superstitions, and character of Suffolk peasantry and fisherfolk, their stories of the land and
stories of the sea are all of the greatest interest, and in many cases hyve the merit due to original
inquiry and research. . . . Mr. tmerson. one of the foremost, and in some respects one of the most
successful, of living photographers, has illustrated his large work with thirty-two photo-
gravures . . . the full page plates are often of the highest merit ' The Clay Mill,' and especially
' The Haymaker with Rake,' are so good in tone that they almost suggest the work of Millet.
' Where winds the Dike,' reminds the spectator of Corot."— Mayazme «/ drt.
"This book is handsomely got up, well-bound, finely printed, and copiously illustrated. . . . His
text is thoroughly well worth reading on account of ... its sardonic sense of humour, keen zest
for the grotesque provincialisms of the people of out of-the-way districts, quick ear for laughable
oddities of pronunciation, quick eyes for old-world customs and whimsicalities, and deep sympathy
with the sufferings of the poor and helpless. . . . There are, too, many quaint anecdotes."—
dfhenteum.
" Dr. Emerson gives us not only a mass of valuable and interesting letterpress, but a collection of
very remarkable photo-engravings. By no one has photography been more diligently and more
successfully applied to illustrate not country scenes only, but country life. . . . His pictures never
look like compositions — indeed, he is as successful with some of his groups as with mere
landscapes. . . . The letterpress . . . proving on every pa«e that he has not only lived among the
people whom he describes, but that he is quite in touch with them. . . . ]>r. Emerson is a keen
observer ot men as well as of nature. ... He is for the most part thoroughly reasonable. ... I
am grateful to him, for I have learnt much from his book, and have been put in the way of (I
hope) learning much more."— Academy.
" Nothing could well be better selected or executed than are the photograynres, and even the
small illustrations of the book. In these he has caught 'the very form and spirit of the times ' in
East Anglia. . . . His landscapes . . . recall Constable's pictures."- Fit-Id.
" This is a delightful book . . . indeed, no one can study the illustrations and read the accompany-
ing text without becoming imbued with the author's enthusiasm, and without feeling that he
h s gained an entirely new insight into the character and surroundings of the English peasant.
So artit-tic are the illustrations, witn their Corot-like softness of outline, that in future no book that
deals with an unfamiliar country will seem complete without sucli aids. . . . There should be, ;:iid
no doubt there will be, books such as this about every corner of the globe, and Mr. Emersou
is to be thanked for setting the example."— Kew Fork " Ration."
NATUEALISTIC PHOTOGKRAPHY
FOB
STUDENTS OP THE ART.
By Dr. P. H. EMERSON.
'Crown 8vo. Cloth, 5s. Second Edition, revised.
Opinions of the Photographic Press.
"In the work just issued, that the author endeavours himself to look directly at his subject
without feeling himself bound by what others have said, constitutes the chief charm, and the
reader soon finds he is not in contact with an author who is either an echo of others, or wishes
to make his readers mere echoes of himself; indeed, the reader soon finds that his teacher is not
one who expects and strives to mould his readers to his own image, but one who hopes to rather
read them to think and act for themselves. If our author's spirit was more current among the
teehnical teachers of our day, we would probably be in a more hopeful condition as regards future
progress in the arts and crafts. The literary style of the work is excellent, and it contains a fund of
useful information conveyed in a pleasant manner. . . . The mass of the book is composed of
valuable and thoughtful essays on the various branches of photographic work— both from the
technical and the artistic aspects — embodying the author's own experience. Altogether ' Natural-
istic Photography ' is a work which should be possessed and read by every one interested in the
practice of Photography."— Photographic News.
"Suffice it to say that the book is distinctive from any other book on photography, and there
is reading worth studv on every page. We have been so fascinated by the freshness of language
and the forcible way in which the author endeavours to bowl over o'd ideas and institute new
ones, that we have had a difficulty at times in laying aside the admirably printed and got-up
volume. We can only say that we heartily commend it to all who are interested in artistic
photography, and who are not above learning from a master in the subject."— Photograph^ Journ.ul.
"When he comes to the part that really concerns photographers he is simply admirable . . . his
boldness and originality of treatment, the ability with which he analyzes, arranges, and treats his
subject, and his practical conclusions, are as charming as they are valuable, as pleasant to read as
they will be useful to practise. . . . The latter part of the book on technique and practice is capital,
and ought to meet with acceptance, and must be valuable to the photographic world. . . . Carefully
thought out, ably written, boldly expressed, original in treatment, ' Naturalistic Photography ' is a
valuable contribution to our literature."— Photography.
"Dr. Emerson's book has come at last. It was well worth waiting for, and fully justifies
expectation". ... It has evidently already helped a considerable number of photographers to
ideas. . . . The general acceptance of evolution principles, thought freed from trammels, and the
adoption of scientific methods, tend to give us treatises in which a rational and natural basis for
all phenomena is sought. Dr. Emerson's book is distinctly of this class. ... It is brimful of
interest, and will furnish texts for art argument for some time to come, as well as afford solid
instruction for the earnest student."— Camera Club Journal.
" C'estun volume a lire, ie dirai meme a relire, car le Dr. P. H. Emerson e*met des id6es qui
lui sont tellement personnelles, qui souvent contredisent si fort les ide"es ge'ae'ralement recues, qu'il
faut s'y reprendre a deux fois pour bien se rendre compte de sa maniere toute nouvelle d'apprecier
1'art photographique. . . . II se compose d'une introduction, dans laquelle nous trouvons tout
d'abord la preuve de 1'originalite' des ide"es de 1'auteur, &c. . . . On le voit, le sujet est traite" dans
tous ses details, et ajoutons qu'il est trait^ d'une f'acon tres interessante. . . . II taut recorinaitre
que la lecture de ce volume s'impose non seulement a ceux qui s'occupent de photographic, mais a
tous ceux qui s'occupent de l'6tude des beaux-arts."— Journal de V Industrie Photographique.
" It is enough to say that we have read this beautifully got-up book with interest, and consider
the opinions and many doctrines of the author very remarkable; and finally we can in good faith
recommend the book."— (Translation of part of review in the) Deutsche Photographen-Zeitung .
"A most enjoyable book to every true lover of nature. . . . Erudite, embracing a very large
field . . . this work must claim the careful attention of an earnest student . . . the ordinary text-
book of photography is superseded, and technique and practice is dealt with in a thorough and
somewhat original manner . . . the reader will find much which will be well worth careful
Study."— Photographic Art Journal.
" ' Naturalistic Photography ' is a splendid contribution to photographic literature."
Wilson's Photographic Magazine.
" This book is highly to be recommended to those acquainted with the English language."
(Translated from) Photographitche Ifittheilungen.
" Cet ouvrage si bien e"tudi<§ sera lu avec grand fruit par les photographes amateurs, surtout aux-
quels il est destine", car ils y trouveront les conseils pratiques dont ils tireront profit, soit dans
atelier, soit dans les e"tudes en plein air."— L' Amateur Photographe.
" The practical part of Dr. Emerson's book is most admirable. . . . Dr. Emerson has produced
some of the most superb work ever achieved by photography, and all who have admired his
beautiful compositions are anxious to know his methods. He treats the subject in a clear and
forcible way, and with mu<h ori ginality . . . . One reads and reads again with pleasure from page
to page, and is often delighted with the novelty of presentation. The great virtue ot Dr. Emerson's
book is its freshness. The reader is not wearied with reiteration of old hackneyed ideas and mis-
application of stereotyped rules. It is a record of the author's own opinions."
American Journal of Photography.
" This book contains a greater amount of information on the artistic elements to be considered
in photography than any that we know of. The author . . . has elucidated very concisely, yet also
very fully, the principles which should be kept in view in making artistic and attractive photo-
graphs. . . . In these days of amateur photography, when the mechanical and chemical manipula-
tions necessary to obtain a good photograph are so easily acquired, a book like this, calling
attention in simple language to the elementary conditions that should be observed in making
artistic photographs, will be greatly appreciated. —Scientific American.
" Da Londra, coi tipi Sampson Low & Co.. ci giunge una recentissima pubblicazione del Sig.
Emerson, coltito 'Naturalistic Photography, essolutamente originate ed interessante. L'autore
si rivela per un artista intelligentissimo della fotografia e facendone la critica con sicurezza di
giudizio e con esempii tratti, nella parte estetica, dai gran di maestri."
Bollettino dell' Associa;ione degli Amatori di Fotografia da Roma.
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MANUFACTURERS OF HIGHEST CLASS
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And made on the in-
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and Screw Nuts being
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or the slides of any
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Each includes 3 Douhle
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WATSON'S "DETECTIVE" CAMERAS.
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O, CR^HSTBOTTR-HSr STREET, I., O IN" ID O INT, "W.C.
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Is specially constructed for Tourists, combining
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fectly rigid, has long extending focus, reversing
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Price, including 3 double backs with spring fastenings : —
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THE TOURIST'S COMPANION.
SHEWS ECLIPSE POCKET CAMERA,
or Fixed Focus Hand Apparatus (Patent).
CAMEHA OPEIT Folded for the Pocket. Enclosed in Detective Case
ready for use. Weight 12 ounces, with Roller Slide for 48 Pic-
for Pictures 44 x 3 j. tures or three Double Backs.
We would call special attention to the superiority of the results obtained with this little
instrument over those of the many others introduced since we first made the Eclipse. As
a first-class working instrument it still has no rival.
Street Views, Groups, Architectural subjects, Landscapes, Panorama, &c., are obtained
with marvellous detail, particularly suitable for Lantern Transparencies and for enlarging
to an extraordinary extent.
Detective Case for
^rr^w-* Fitted with Three Double : Roller Slide, and
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3Jx
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490
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causes, to obtain an instantaneous exposure. Instantly attaching the Camera to any
wooden projection. Wo tourist should be without it.
Weight. Size. Price, post free.
For J-Plate Cameras 2% oz 4^x2 x fin 3/3
For^-Plate , 6 3, 7^x2£xl „ 4/3
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PHOTOGRAPHIC APPARATUS MANUFACTURER,
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FOURTEEN PRIZE MEDALS have been awarded to G. HARE'S Cameras and Changing-
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International Inventions Exhibition for Excellence in the manufacture of Cameras.
G.
HARE'S NEW CAMERA.
INVENTED AND INTRODUCED, JUNE, 1882.
The Best and most compact Camera ever Invented. Since its introduction, this Camera
has received several important modifi-
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rivalled for elegance, lightness, and
general utility. It is specially adapted
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Holder. A 6£ x 4f Camera measures
when closed 8x8x2^ in., weighs only
4 Ibs., and extends to 17 in. The steady
and increasing demand for this Camera
is the best proof of its popularity.
"Little need be said rf Mr. George Hare's well-known Patent Camera, except that it
forms the model upon which nearly all the others in the market are based."— Vide British
Journal of Photography, August 28, 1885.
Square, with Re- Brass
versible Holder. Binding,.
£9 16 0 ... £140
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Since this Camera has been introduced, it has been awarded THBEE SILVER
MEDALS: at Brussels International Photographic Exhibition, 1883; at the Royal
Cornwall Polytechnic Society, Falmouth; and at the INTERNATIONAL INVENTIONS
EXHIBITION, 1SE5. Also Bronze Medal, Bristol International Exhibition, 1883—
HIGHEST AWARD.
G. HARE'S Improved Portable Bellows Camera.
INVENTED AND INTRODUCED 1878.
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£600
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Brass
Binding.
£0 16 0
100
100
100
Size of
Plate.
10 x 8
12x10
15x12
Thes
This Camera offers many advantages where a little extra weight and bulk is not objected
to. It is very solid and firm in construction, and especially suited for India and other
trying climates.
PRICES, with one Double Slide and Hinged Focussing Screen : —
For Plates.
6*x 4£
8*x 6*
10 x 8
12 xlO
15 x!2
18 X16
Horizontal and
Vertical.
£676
7 18 0
940
10 13 0
13 6
20 15
Square, with
Reversible Holder
£7 12 6
950
10 16 0
12 5 0
15 10 0
24 0 0
Brass
Binding.
0
100
150
1 10 0
200
2 10 0
For Prices of Extra Dark Slides and Inner Frames, See Catalogue.
Advertisements.
PHARMACEUTICAL, OPERATIVE & PHOTOGRAPHIC CHEMISTS.
HINTON'S FOLDING PLATE BACKS, 4000 sold in one year.
HINTON'S MAGNESIUM FLASH LAMPS, the most practical
made.
HINTON'S PURE CHEMICALS, always reliable.
HINTON'S STANDARD READY-MADE SOLUTIONS.
HINTON'S " COLLEGE" DARK ROOM LAMPS, 10/6.
HINTON'S SELECTED LENSES AT MODERATE PRICES.
HINTON'S CAMERAS OF SEASONED WOOD AND BEST
WORKMANSHIP.
HINTON & CO. STOCK PLATES, FILMS, and PAPERS by
all the best makers.
DEPOT for WRAY'S MAGNIFICENT LENSES, LIESEGANG'S ARISTOTYPE PAPER,
and NEWMAN'S ACCURATE TIME SHUTTER,
HINTON'S IPRICE LIST.
Registered G.W.W. Trade Mark.
G.W. WILSON & CO.,
2, ST. SWITHIN STREET, ABERDEEN,
Wholesale Landscape Photographers and
Photographic Publishers,
LAHTERN SLIDE MAKERS AKD EEARGERS AW) PROCESS PRINTERS.
Catalogues and Price Lists Post Free on application.
CORRESPONDENCE INVITED.
Advertisements.
PLATINOTYPE PRINTING
From Photographers' own Negatives carefully executed, by
Richard Keene, so as to secure the BEST RESULTS.
EETOUCHING, NATURAL SKIES, &c., AT MODERATE COST.
Price List Post Free on application to
DERBY.
THE AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER.
PUBLISHED WEEKLY. Price 2d.
IMPORTANT ADVERTISING MEDIUM,
Being tlie ONLY JOURNAL for AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHERS in
Field, Studio, Camp ; Afloat, Ashore ; in Town or Country ; at Home
and Abroad.
N.B.— All communications respecting Advertisements to be addressed to
PARRY & CRAWFORD, 52, LONG ACRE, LONDON, W.C.
PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY. PRICE 2d.
— *•••••••••»•»•• —
•rr 12
A
A Popular Illustrated
MATEUR1 Jo"™al
Devoted to
Photography and the
kindred Arts.
PHOTOGRAPHER
Edited by CHARLES W. HASTINGS.
London : HAZELL, WATSON & VINEY, Ld., 52, Long Aere,W.C.
And through all Newsagents and Photographic Dealers.
SPECIMEN COPY FREE ON APPLICATION.
1O/1O per year, 5/6 for Six Months
A dvertisemcnis.
Polytechnic School
OP
Photography,
309, 311, REGENT STREET, LONDON, W.
THE SCHOOL is open daily for Practical Instruction in all
branches of PHOTOGRAPHY. The STUDIO and DAKK
ROOMS are lit by Electricity, and the appliances are complete
in every respect.
TERMS FOR PRIVATE INSTRUCTION ;-
£ s. d.
In Dry Plate Photography and Silver Printing, until proficient ... 5 5 0
,, Retouching ... ... ... ... ... ... 5 5 0
,, Developing (special course) ... ... ... ... ... ... 2 12 6
„ Carbon Printing 230
„ Enlarging 220
„ Platinum Printing 1 10
FORTY-EIGHT PBIZE MEDALS
Have been awarded to Students of the School at Exhibition*.
A year's practical Training at the School is the best
Photographic Education obtainable in the World.
FULL PARTICULARS ON APPLICATION.
Advertisements.
FIELD AND STUDIO CAMERAS AND
STUDIO STANDS
Have received the Highest Awards wherever Exhibited,
' The Cameras of MEAGHEB deserve
special Examination, as
well for the perfection
of their workmanship as
for their perfect adapta-
tion to the purpose for
which they are de-
signed."—Yide Report
of Jurors, Class IX.,
International Exhibi-
tion, Paris.
Fio. 1.
FIG. 2.
This Camera is Light, Portable, and quickly set up ready for use, and is
perfectly rigid when extended. Fig. 1. shows the Camera packed up.
Fig. 2 shows the 'Camera with Reversing Frame and Front extended.
Each Camera is supplied with two Fronts which can bs raised or lowered as
required.
MEAGHER'S IMPROVED PORTABLE BELLOWS CAMERA.
Specially constructed for use with Dry Plates. It is fitted with Single or
Double Action Swing Back, and the focussing is effected by Screw or Back
Adjustment. Prices, with Single Swing Back and three Double Backs, each
carrying two Prepared Plates : —
For 6x4 ~ £515 0
Ditto, with Double Swing Back, Reversing Frame, and Extending Front for
Long Focus -
For6*x4j ...
Ditto, with Double Swing Back, Reversing Frame, and Extending Front for
Long Focus ... ...
For7*x5 ~
Ditto, with Double Swing Back, Reversing Frame, and Extending Front for
Long Focus
For 8* x 6*
Ditto, with Double Swing Back, Reversing Frame, and Extending Front for
Long Focus .. ~
For 10x8 .. - -. ...
Ditto, with Double Swing Back, Reversing Frame, and Extending Front for
LongFows
BRASS-BINDING CAMERA, and Three Double Backs up to
8*x6*, £1 8s.; 10x8, £1 13s.
FOR PRICES OF LARGER SIZES SEE ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE.
Illustrated Catalogues Post Free. Ten Per Cent. Discount for Cash with
Order.
LENSES BY ROSS, DALLMEYER,
AND ALL OTHER MAKERS.
|gp~ AGENT FOB THE ABNEY AND DERBY DRT PLATES.
And BEAM-CHARD'S SENSITIZED PAPERS.
MANUFACTORY:— 21, Southampton Row, High Holborn, LONDON, W,C.
8 5
7 1
0
0
9 11
7 5
O
0
9 15
810
O
0
1115
10 5
O
14 5
0
/
Advertisements.
; BECK'S
'AUTOGRAPH' LENSES
n
WITH
IRIS DIAPHRAGM.
BLAKE & EDGAR,
Artists in Photography,
74, Midland Road, Bedford.
Messrs. R. & J. BECK.
Dear Sirs,
The No. 5 Lens, after severe testing-, has
proved to be a Splendid and Reliable Instrument, and
candidly we expected a good thing ; but with this Lens,
for all the purposes we have tried it, the results are far
above our expectations. During Twenty-five Years' ex-
perience in Photography, only Lenses of the two Best
Makers have been used. We can confidently say we
prefer your Lens to any of the others we have.
We are, Dear Sirs, yours respectively,
BLAKE & EDGAR,
FULL CATALOGUES ON APPLICATION TO
R. & J. BECK, 68, ConddD, LOHNHL
U
RETURN TO the circulation desk of any
University of California Library
or to the
NORTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
Bldg. 400, Richmond Field Station
University of California
Richmond, CA 94804-4698
ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS
2-month loans may be renewed by calling
(415)642-6233
1-year loans may be recharged by bringing books
to NRLF
Renewals and recharges may be made 4 days
prior to due date
DUE AS STAMPED BELOW
APR 1 7 2006
F
>00 pp., post free, 7 St
25.
10-
O;
GENERAL LIBRARY -U.C. BERKELEY
CASH PRICES of thpri
POETEAIT LENSES.
TEA. BAPID (C). QUICK-ACTING
RAPID RECTIMNEAR PORT.
LENSES.
See descriptive Catalogue.
IDINARY INTENSITY (A)— PATENT.
for Cabinets, in snort rooms,
dia.. 2f in,, distance 14 ft. £13 0 0
for GabfhAfrsjip to 8^x65, dia.
3^ in., disfanee.5tt.ft,
18 0 0
for Cabinets upTKJA9x7, dia.
4 in., distance 24 ft 27' 5* 0
for Imperial Portraits and 10 x 8,
dia. 4| in., focus 14 in 38 10 0
for plates 15 x 12 and under,
dia. 5 in., focus 18 in. ... ...50 0 0
for plates 20x16 and under,
dia. 6 in., focus 22 in 60 0 0
)RTRAIT AND GROUP (D)— PATE?'
Portraits 8£x6f, Views 10x8,
dia. 2^ in., focus 10^ in. ... $'
, Portraits 10 x 8, Views 12 x 10 * /•**
dia. 2| in., focus 13 in. ... /« >y? P /*C&/9
, Portraits 12x10, Views 15' - .„,
dia. 3iin., focus 16 in. ..
, Portraits 15x12, View
dia. 4 in., focus "• ir / ,. 16
, Portraits 18 x " £J / y V ' >> 20
dia. 5 in., f / J / ,,21
.Portrait? ,- ~. " j be had in ,
dia. 6i ~y /^ /*••
Size of View
or Landscape.
Size of Group
or Portrait.
Equiv.
Focus.
Price,
Rigid
Setting.
4| by 3^ in.
3* by 3| in.
4 in_
£3 15 0
5 4 „
, 3i,,
6 „
4 10 0
8 5 „
, 4 „
81,,
5 10 0
8* 6^
, 5 „
11 -,
700
10 P
, 6|,,
13 „
900
12
, 8 „
16 „
11 0 0
13
IP
•.eh size
y 10 in.
ml,
m,,
12 0 0
15 0 0
. 12 „
24 „
2.) 0 0
. 16 »
30 „
27 0 0
L
, 20 „
33 „
32 0 0
SCTILINEAR (PATENT),
ral Views in Confined
juations.
Back
Focus.
i Equiv.
I Focus.
Price.
3|in.
1 4 in.
£4 10 0
4f )>
5|,,
5 10 0
6?
1 7 „
7 10 0
7i»
8|,,
•10 10 0
11 „
|13 „
14 0 0
14 ,
15i,,
20 0 0
17 „
! 19 „
30 0 0
irs for gter.eoscopic Views.
./IDE ANGLE LANDSCAPE LENS,
for .Landscapes, pure and simple.
iov.MHLii.1....^ 0
'. 2, Ditto ditto Gin. iocus 2 ~b 0
ct. Stereo. Lenses, 2 in. & 2|in.
bcus 4 0 0
TICAL LANTERN. LENSES' (PATENT).
itended for use with the Optical Lantern only.
. 1 Lens, .li.gfiid If in, dia. with
.lack Motion ...*" £4 4 0
). 2 do. If ary3 2 in. do. do. 5 5 0
ndensers— SJin. dia^aaounted, ea. 5 5 0
. Do. .'4?in. do. • do-. .«.».-.6 6 0
;w~RECTILINEAR LANDSCAPE LENS
(PATENT).
Largest Dimen- I Diameter
sions of Plate. of Lenses.
6|by 4 Jin.
10
12
15
18
22
liin.
Equiv.
Focus,
in
m,
Price.
£4 15 0
600
800
10 5 0
12 10 0
16 0 0
21 0 0
No.
Size of
Plate*
Equivalent
FJicus. 0
'* Price.
lA
5 by 4
5| in.
£350
1
74
4i
7
3 15 0
2
8*
6J
8|
4 10 0
3
10
8
10
5 10 0
4
12
10
12
700
5
15
12
15
8 10 0
5A
15
12
18
9 10 0
6
18
16
18
10 10 0
7
22
20
22
14 .0.. 0
8
25
21 „
. 25 '
l" 0' -0
NEW RAPID LANDSCAPE LENS,
For Distant. Objects and Views.
Largest Dimen-
sions of Plate.
by 4 in.
Diameter
of Lenses,
r-s
1-6
2-125
2'6
3
3'5
4-25
in.
Equiv. |
Focus.
Price.
9 in. £4 10
12 ,* 5 15
7 10
9 10
11 10
14 0
17 10
.LLMEYER "On the Choice and Use of Photographic Lenses."
Eighth Thousand (Enlarged), Is. Descriptive Catalogue free on application.
, NEWMAN STREET, OXFORD STREET, LONDON, W.
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