is as true of linear as color composition, where the scheme
is one producing harmony by opposition of colors.
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[Indian and Horse--Photo A.C. Bode (Oppposition of Light and Dark
Measures); The Cabaret--L. L'hermitte (Opposition Plus Transition)]
In the photograph of the _Indian and horse_ we have a subject full of fine
quality. The demonstration occurs in the sky at just the right place to
serve as a balance for the heavy measures of the foreground and the
interest is drawn back into the picture and to the upper left hand corner
by the two cloud forms, over which is sharply thrown a barricade of cloud
which turns the vision back into the picture. The simplicity of the three
broad tones is appropriate to the sentiment of vastness which the picture
contains. The figure seated in revery before this expanse supplies the
mental element to the subject, the antithesis of which is the interest of
the horse, earthward. Each one has his way, and in the choice by each is
the definition of man and brute, a separation which the pose of each
figure indicates through physical disunion. The space between them widens
upon the horizon line. To establish the necessary pictorial connection or
at least a hint of it suggests three devices. A lariat in a curving line
might be slightly indicated through the grass: the foreground might be cut
so as to limit the range toward us; or a broken line may be constructed
diagonally from the horse's left foot by a few accents in the light of the
stubble. In the first, the union is effected by transition of line; in
the last by opposition of the spot of the figure to the line of the
horse's shoulder and leg extended by a line through the grass.
With the coalition of these two figures there would no longer be felt a
procession of three items in a straight perspective line: the horse, the
man, and the distant river. Instead it would be the horse and owner over
against the notion of prairie, river, and sky.
BALANCE BY OPPOSITION OF SPOTS.
Spots or accents are in the majority of cases equivalent to a line. The
eye follows the line more easily, but the spot is a potent force of
attraction and we take the artist's hint in his use of it, often finding
that its subtlety is worth more than the line's strength. In the case of
a simple hillside back-stopped by a dense mass of trees, a flat and an
upright plane are presented, but until the vision
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