Landscape and figure painters of America . e. If ittries to do this it must fail, and give but aweak reflection of natures inimitable it can give, and it does give, in a verydirect and sympathetic way, the effect pro-duced on the artist by nature. It is the meansthe artist has of revealing the feelings thatpossess him in the presence of nature. Thisis its proper sphere, and in this only can itexcel. It is not, as it is often supposed tobe, something as like the solid earth as pos-sible. It has a decided resemblance un-doubtedly, but its essence is spiritual andLand- elusive. The w
Landscape and figure painters of America . e. If ittries to do this it must fail, and give but aweak reflection of natures inimitable it can give, and it does give, in a verydirect and sympathetic way, the effect pro-duced on the artist by nature. It is the meansthe artist has of revealing the feelings thatpossess him in the presence of nature. Thisis its proper sphere, and in this only can itexcel. It is not, as it is often supposed tobe, something as like the solid earth as pos-sible. It has a decided resemblance un-doubtedly, but its essence is spiritual andLand- elusive. The whole subject of landscapeChap n. *s a world of illusions; the only thing it that is certainly not an illusion being the erton, effect on the mind of each particular humanbeing who fancies that he sees something,and knows that he feels something, when hestands in the presence of nature. His feelingsare a reality, but with regard to that whichcauses them, it is hard to say how much isreality, and how much a phantom of A BRIEF HISTORY 3 And F. W. H. Myers explains the difficultyof expressing these feelings, while assertingthe possibility of doing so, in the following in-teresting way: The range of human thoughts Essay onand emotions greatly transcends the range of 1^j^111such symbols as man has invented to express ; and it becomes the business of art touse these symbols in a double way. Theymust be used for the direct representation ofthought and feeling; but they must also becombined with so subtle an imagination as tosuggest much which there is no means ofdirectly expressing. And this can be done,for experience shows that it is possible so to ar-range forms, colours, and sounds as to stimulatethe imagination in a new and inexplicable way. It is thus seen that it is a very difficult thingto render in any branch of art the feelingsinspired by nature. It is perhaps harder todo so in painting landscapes than in depict-ing the human form on canva
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