Development of the Actual Painting

Development of Colours.

It is difficult to praise too highly the fertility of invention in colour harmonies and the bold ex periments in technique which are due to the painters of the pres ent generation. Only too often, however, these inventions contain an element of risk, and only too often, quite apart from the quality of the work, technical considerations are sacrificed. The creation of a picture makes great demands on the intellect, and in its exe cution, strict discipline must be observed; otherwise the paint in time takes its revenge.

Some painters, having carefully studied portraits by Titian and important pieces of painting by Tintoretto, in which those masters obtained astonishing effects simply by the use of four durable colours, white, black, yellow ochre and red ochre, have tried to reduce their palette to that basis, adding the minimum of ad ditional colours when necessary. Some very good work has cer tainly been done by this method in the last few years. At the same time there are a number of pictures painted in this way which are heavy even when freshly painted, and which soon after wards become painfully opaque. And yet, even leaving aside the Italian Renaissance, even leaving aside Velasquez, it is easy to show what variety can be obtained with this sober palette. It is only necessary to look at what has been done by men such as Manet, Corot in some of his figure subjects, Whistler, and Cezanne in his first manner.

There is however one often tested axiom which will give us one of the keys of the enigma : When the same colour, with the same value, is applied twice in the same place, the second application becomes opaque. It is owing to skilful organisation of their work that painters are able to include other colours in their palette besides the ochres, which, incomparably valuable as they are, have their limitations. For it has been proved that the best col ours, if not cleanly applied, may lose their qualities, while others, which are not usually used, may be so employed that they will stand the test of time. No more typical example could be found than that of Veronese green. Too many painters use this colour in all circumstances, for it is very attractive owing to the variety of tones which can be derived from it. Unfortunately the effects which it gives do not last, and the subtlest harmonies, the most delicate greys, turn to a muddy and leaden black. Yet Gauguin constantly uses Veronese green without ill results. It should how ever be noted that Gauguin only employs this dangerous colour either pure or mixed with strontian yellow. Another example is that of vermilion, which loses its freshness and intensity in a few days unless it is applied boldly and without retouching.

Colours have characteristics of their own and however gifted an artist may be, he cannot dispense with patient observation of the difficult technical side of his art. In this respect, the best example in modern times is set by the Impressionists. If we take their best period, arbitrarily selecting 1890 as the final date, we shall find that their palette does not by any means consist of the most stable colours. The cadmiums and the madders play a much greater part than the earth colours, which the Impression ists did not use very frequently; but what admirable technical knowledge was shown by these painters, who were so long criti cised for their revolutionary ideas! In their pictures we may note a light and luminous outline; the spots of colour are interlaced, but yet remain distinct. The colour effects are produced rather by the juxtaposition than by the mingling of and it is left to the hand of time to blend and harmonise colours whose original bloom has been respected.

III. Technique of Execution.

A painter cannot with im punity retouch his picture whenever he feels inclined; a fact which only too many fail to realise, much to their detriment. The coloured paste which is transferred from the palette to the canvas is a fragile and capricious substance. To paint as inspiration and fancy dictate is not to paint soundly, especially if the work under taken is on a large scale. Pictures completed at a sitting give the best account of the painter's talent. Everyone knows that studies for pictures are nearly always more brilliant than the completed work. A good example may be provided by a com parison between the female torso by Delacroix in the Musee d'Angers and the same passage as it appears in the "Sardanapalus" in the Louvre.

What can be done with a small picture, however, becomes much more difficult when it is desired to paint on a larger scale. Some masters have, nevertheless, in certain cases been able to paint large canvases without going back over what they had once be gun; examples are Tintoretto's "End of the World" in the Madonna dell'Orto at Venice, and Franz Hals' "Banquet of the officers of the corps of archers at Saint-Georges," at Haarlem. By this means they attained an extraordinary vitality of colour ing, and their works defy the passage of time. Spontaneous execu tion of this kind is, however, necessarily limited to certain effects; it is, for example, impossible to arrive all at once at all the pro fundities of technique and observation which go to make up a Rembrandt ; in such cases sketches must be made first.