. American painters: with eighty-three examples of their work engraved on wood . nd the knowledge so obtained is used afterward for thepurpose of suggesting. Corots trees, however, do not display much knowl-edge of that sort. They look like poles with cobwebs wound around are unsubstantial, not real. I look upon a landscape as I look upon a human being—its thoughts, itsfeelings, its moods, are what interest me ; and to these I try to give expres-sion. What it says, and thinks, and experiences, this is the matter that con-cerns the landscape-painter. All art is based upon a knowledge
. American painters: with eighty-three examples of their work engraved on wood . nd the knowledge so obtained is used afterward for thepurpose of suggesting. Corots trees, however, do not display much knowl-edge of that sort. They look like poles with cobwebs wound around are unsubstantial, not real. I look upon a landscape as I look upon a human being—its thoughts, itsfeelings, its moods, are what interest me ; and to these I try to give expres-sion. What it says, and thinks, and experiences, this is the matter that con-cerns the landscape-painter. All art is based upon a knowledge of Natureand a sympathy for her; but in order to represent her it is not necessary tomake a thing exactly like a thing. Imitation is not what we want, but sug-gestion, as I said before. The most popular pictures, undoubtedly, are thosethat imitate the most—those of the Franco-Spanish school, for instance. I donot believe in art for arts sake, nor in art for schemes of color, for purposesof mere decoration, but in art for the expression of ones self. An artist cannot I •. 0 z z X o s JEBVIS MO EN TEE. 53 improve upon Nature, but often his recollection of a natural scene serves himbetter than a labored study of it made on the spot. Perhaps this is why-Ian tlscape-painters who have lived exclusively in the country are not apt topaint so well as when they get away from it. A good deal of untrained artis more valuable than the trained. Some people call my landscapes gloomy and disagreeable. They say thatI paint the sorrowful side of Nature, that I am attracted by the shadows morethan by the sunshine. But this is a mistake. I would not reproduce a LateNovember scene if it saddened me or seemed sad to me. In that season ofthe year Nature is not sad to me, but quiet, pensive, restful. She is not dying,but resting. Mere sadness, unless it had the dramatic element in it, I wouldnot attempt to paint. Jervis McEntee was born in Rondout, Ulster County, New York, on the14th of July, 18
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectpainters, bookyear187
