Lectures on Painting

DELIVERED TO THE STUDENTS OF THE ROYAL
ACADEMY


BY

EDWARD   ARMITAGE, R.A.


NEW YORK
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
27 & 29 WEST 23D STREET
1883


Press of
G.   P.  Putnam’s   Sons
New York

PREFACE.

These Lectures are a selection from those delivered by me to thestudents of the Royal Academy during the term of my professorship,—thatis, between the years 1876 and 1882.

I have limited the selection to twelve, partly to keep the book of amodest size, and partly because many of the omitted lectures (andespecially those which treat of the great masters of the fifteenth,sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries) would hardly be comprehensiblewithout the numerous engravings with which they were illustrated at thetime of delivery.

I ought, perhaps, to apologize for the roughness of my explanatorydiagrams, but as they only aspire to represent the rude sketches donewith white chalk during the actual delivery of the lectures, let us hopethey will be leniently dealt with.

It is a common practice with writers who are not yet hardened offenders,to seek some excuse for rushing into print, and the excuse usuallyoffered is the “urgent entreaty of valued friends.” I certainly cannotavail myself of this customary but I fear often uncandid plea.

My only reason for publishing must be looked for in the large and veryattentive audiences I have always had. This evident appreciation of myteaching by the Royal Academy students, has led me to think that some ofthese lectures might be interesting and instructive to other studentsoutside the Academy, and possibly even to those who do not intend tofollow art as a profession, but who would be glad to have a littledaylight thrown on a subject which, though much written and lecturedabout of late years, does not seem to have been often treated in asimple, practical manner.

At the same time I am fully aware that the practical part of drawing canonly be learned by real work; and I am also inclined to believe that aknowledge of the old masters and their various schools is betteracquired by frequent visits to galleries where their works can be seen,than by second-hand description from a lecture.

In my opinion, the special duties of a professor and lecturer on Artought to be, first, the general pilotage of the schools through thequicksands and mud-banks with which the deep-water channel leading toexcellence is beset on every side; and, secondly, the alimentation ofthat subtle flame without which the architect degenerates into abuilder, the sculptor into a statuary, and the painter into ahandicraftsman.

E. A.

February, 1883.

CONTENTS.