File:American painters- with eighty-three examples of their work engraved on wood (1879) (14767375151).jpg

Identifier: americanpainters00shel (find matches)
Title: American painters: with eighty-three examples of their work engraved on wood
Year: 1879 (1870s)
Authors: Sheldon, George William, 1843-1914
Subjects: Painters Painting, American
Publisher: New York : D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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r off an object is in Nature thedenser is the veil through which we see it; so that the object itself is of sec-ondary importance. The really important thing is the veil or medium throughwhich we see it. And this veil is different at different times. One day we goout in the morning, and, looking up and down the street, take no note ofthe sight. We are not impressed. Another day there is a slight change inthe density or the clarity of the atmosphere, and lo ! what before was acommonplace view has become exquisitely beautiful. It was the changein the air that made the change in the object; and especially when fin-ishing his picture does the artist bear in mind this fact. Moreover, as thespectator looks through this veil of varnish, the light is reflected and refractedjust as it is through the atmosphere—reflections and refractions which,though unseen, are nevertheless felt. The surface of the picture, therefore,ceases fco lie opaque; it becomes transparent, and we look through it upon
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w 2 ^ ■CI I SANFORD R. GIFFORD. 19 and into the scene beyond. In a word, the process of the artist is the pro-cess of Nature. Mr. Griffords industry often leads him to make a dozen sketches of the samescene. The first sketch, indeed, contains the essence, but day after day he vis-its the place, corrects the first sketch, qualifies it, establishes the relations ofone part to another, and fixes the varied gradations of color. His portfoliosare heavy with studies of rocks, of trees, of fallen leaves, of streams, of ocean-waves. Some painters think that, if they reproduce such objects exactly, theylose some of the poetry of natural facts. Mr. Gifford does not think so. Hebelieves in Nature, and is not ashamed laboriously to imitate her. An artistlike Corot offends him by slovenliness. To him one of Corots finished land-scapes is scarcely more than a sketch. He gets from it nothing more than hewould get from a drawing. The best thing by Corot that I ever saw, saidMr. Gifford one day, was

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