The artistic side of photography in theory and practice . s caught the true spirit of his landscapeswith more feeling than most of the painters, and allthe photographers. When the Baroness Orczy described the moon as honey-coloured she was superficially clever, andtruthfully incorrect. The spirit of the moon and itsmoonshine is coldness, whereas honey-colouredsuggests mellow warmth. Art should aim at theunderlying spirit of the subject, and not only at thesuperficial appearance. And so the ideal of Japaneseart is the spirit of a worthy subject, depicted withaccent, simplicity, and refinement.
The artistic side of photography in theory and practice . s caught the true spirit of his landscapeswith more feeling than most of the painters, and allthe photographers. When the Baroness Orczy described the moon as honey-coloured she was superficially clever, andtruthfully incorrect. The spirit of the moon and itsmoonshine is coldness, whereas honey-colouredsuggests mellow warmth. Art should aim at theunderlying spirit of the subject, and not only at thesuperficial appearance. And so the ideal of Japaneseart is the spirit of a worthy subject, depicted withaccent, simplicity, and refinement. III. In all our attempts to benefit by the art of theJapanese, we are met with their formulated keynote, Life True to Self ! and also with the statementthat imitation is suicidal to the realisation of indi-viduality. The imitation of Japanese methods is consequentlyforbidden, for the adoption of Oriental design cannever be true to the Occidental temperament; butwe can learn the great lesson, that Art is noble and 183 JAPANESE LANDSCAPEBy Holland Day 184. & The Influence of Japanese Art demands a noble theme ; and that to make life live inour pictures should be the chief end and aim of Art. There seems to be also a second lesson—an artist isstrongest when he is reserved, and his Art strongestwhen it is refined. 187 LEAF FROM MY NOTE-BOOK Japanese Paintings The following was written after a visit to the exhibi-tion of Japanese paintings in Messrs. Gravess gallery,and may prove interesting. It was published in TheAmateur Photographer of March 5, 1907. These Japanese impressionists seem to receiveimpressions that are entirely different from thosewhich stamp themselves on Western minds. Theyseem to see things differently from the way Europeanssee things ; and, strange to say, they see things moreas the camera sees them. Roughly speaking, theyseem to seize on some object (or perhaps a group ofobjects) and focus it sharply, leaving all else out offocus and softly and imperfectly def
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