Life, art, and letters of George Inness . for colorof the face. I looked aghast, but said could I? I was invited there to praise, not tocriticize. The instructor told me she considered thischild her most promising pupil. You see, she said, she has originality; she seesthe whole as an impression and her color is brilliant. I asked if they had a class in drawing from cast. Oh, no, she replied; we do not wish to hamperthem by mere imitation. This is not a fair sample of all schools, but there ismore of this sort of teaching than there should be,and more than would be believed by any o
Life, art, and letters of George Inness . for colorof the face. I looked aghast, but said could I? I was invited there to praise, not tocriticize. The instructor told me she considered thischild her most promising pupil. You see, she said, she has originality; she seesthe whole as an impression and her color is brilliant. I asked if they had a class in drawing from cast. Oh, no, she replied; we do not wish to hamperthem by mere imitation. This is not a fair sample of all schools, but there ismore of this sort of teaching than there should be,and more than would be believed by any one this sideof an insane asylum; and from such schools as thesewe have obtained many works to fill many walls ofthe Grand Central Palace in New York and otherplaces of exhibition. In the good old days when Inness learned to painthe had to go to Barker in Newark, who gave himfirst a copy-card to work from, then a block of plaster,then a bottle, ball, or hoop, to learn to make it squareor round, as the case may be, to train the hand to 268. THE ART OF GEORGE [NNESS make the form, to train the eye to sec. So everystudent should begin. The old way is the hest—totrain the hand to make the things the student he learns the forms and how to make them heis ready to study art, and learn by the combination ofcolors and lines to represent the things he wants tointerpret. After he has accomplished this feat he iswell equipped to try in any way he can to expresshimself in art. No man has yet attained a high mark in art, inany art that will live, without having gone throughthe hardest kind of training. There is no short roadto art. Genius alone never made an artist. Andmark my words, there will come a time when therewill hardly be ash-barrels enough to cart away thestuff that is classed as art to-day. What would Corot be without his graceful line,his superb drawing? Or Millet or Rousseau orTroyon or any one of them whose canvases are bring-ing large prices, and are sought after b
Size: 1324px × 1886px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookaut, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidlifeletters00inne
