entire scheme both
of his chiaro-scuro and colour, on this foundation: his many paintings,
drawings, and etchings of candlelight subjects, show how much his taste
led to this class of art; and his daylight pictures, from the warmth of
colour and breadth of shadow, proclaim the source from which he derived
the cause of their brilliancy and force. From the light being tinged
with yellow, the half-tone partakes of the same warmth, which gives a
greenish tint even to his grey tones. This conduct conveys an emanation
of the principal light passing over the more delicate shadows. In his
daylight subjects it is not so; the light being often comparatively
cool, is allowed to extend its influence to the secondary lights, and
then, as it subsides into the shadow, is led in by the dark being
lighted up by touches of red and brown; thus the light touches in the
dark are warm, though the high light and secondary are cool. In Coreggio
we often find the shadows more hot than even in Rembrandt, from his
principal light and secondary being more cool. Rembrandt never allows
his lights, even though comparatively cool, to pass into the shadow
without a few touches of warm colour; this was the practice of Rubens,
to enrich, as it were, "the debateable land." When this principle of
painting candlelight subjects fell into the hands of his pupils, the
harmony and colouring of the whole were lost or changed. For example,
Hoogstraten, his pupil, instructed Schalcken, as did also Gerard Dow;
but the candlelight pieces of Schalcken are hot and foxy, without any
redeeming grey tones. When he painted by candlelight, he placed his
sitter in a dark room, with a light, while he painted in another
apartment, having a hole cut through the door to communicate with his
sitter; the consequence was, the effect gave exactly what we see in
such cases--a red, dull treatment of colour. We know these facts by an
anecdote told of William the Third. When Schalcken was over in England,
the King wished to sit to him for his portrait, and hearing of his
celebrity in candlelight pieces, wished it painted under that effect.
The painter placed a light in his Majesty's hand, and retired into the
outer room; the candle guttering, kept dropping on the King's hand,
but being unwilling to disturb the artist, the King held on, while the
painter, intent on his work, proceeded without noticing it. Many of our
English artists paint by gaslight; but the tones of the flesh are not
b