cts stronger than Nature
would warrant; thereby producing harmony from contrast and variety.

Reynolds, speaking of Claude Lorraine, says, 'Claude Lorraine was
convinced that taking nature as he found it seldom produced beauty: his
pictures are a composition of the various draughts which he had
previously made from various beautiful scenes and prospects.'

The harmony proceeding from contrast and variety of colour is more
conspicuous in the landscapes of Rubens, and the gorgeous colouring of
the landscapes of Titian, than in Claude--'departing from Nature for a
greater advantage!' As in the moonlights of Vanderneer, the pictures of
Cuyp and Both, and our own glorious Wilson, Gainsborough, &c. In
choosing from among these great manners, we must lean on the observation
of Reynolds, when he says, 'An artist is obliged for ever to hold the
balance in his hand, by which he must decide the value of different
qualities; that when some fault must be committed, he may choose the
least.'

There is, beyond all doubt, a grandeur in _general_ ideas, that the
narrow conceptions of _individual_ nature can never attain to.

Any subject, however mean or degraded in itself, but painted on a great
principle, will acquire splendour and dignity from association.

'Look at Nature! Nature is the true school of Art!' is the universal cry
of the vulgar and uneducated. But before their perception is capable of
_even seeing Nature_, as it is spread out before them, they will have
much to acquire of _Art_: for although Nature is before their eyes, to
them it is a closed book! This is no new position, for, says Sir Joshua,
'If our judgment is to be directed by narrow, vulgar, untaught, or
rather ill-taught reason, we must prefer a portrait by Denner, or any
other high finisher, to those of Titian or Vandyck; and a landscape by
Vanderheyden to those of Titian or Rubens; for they are certainly more
_exact_ representations of Nature. If we suppose a view of nature
represented with all the truth of the camera obscura, and the same
scene represented by a great artist, how _little and mean_ will the one
appear in comparison of the other, when no superiority is supposed from
the choice of the subject.'

And again,--'Amongst the painters, and writers on painting, there is one
maxim universally admitted and continually inculcated. Imitate Nature is
the invariable rule; but I know none who have explained in _what manner_
this rule is to be understood: