ct or a
beloved idea, he is induced to tax his powers to the utmost, and to
spend as much time upon his picture as he feels necessary for its
perfection, he will not be able to get so high a price for the result,
perhaps, of a twelvemonth's thought, as he might have obtained for
half-a-dozen sketches with a forenoon's work in each, and he is
compelled either to fall back upon mechanism, or to starve. Now the
press should especially endeavor to convince the public, that by this
purchase of imperfect pictures they not only prevent all progress and
development of high talent, and set tricksters and mechanics on a level
with men of mind, but defraud and injure themselves. For there is no
doubt whatever, that, estimated merely by the quantity of pleasure it is
capable of conveying, a well-finished picture is worth to its possessor
half-a-dozen incomplete ones; and that a perfect drawing is, simply as a
source of delight, better worth a hundred guineas than a drawing half as
finished is worth thirty. On the other hand, the body of our artists
should be kept in mind, that by indulging the public with rapid and
unconsidered work, they are not only depriving themselves of the benefit
which each picture ought to render to them, as a piece of practice and
study, but they are destroying the refinement of general taste, and
rendering it impossible for themselves ever to find a market for more
careful works, supposing that they were inclined to execute them. Nor
need any single artist be afraid of setting the example, and producing
labored works, at advanced prices, among the cheap, quick drawings of
the day. The public will soon find the value of the complete work, and
will be more ready to give a large sum for that which is inexhaustible,
than a quota of it for that which they are wearied of in a month. The
artist who never lets the price command the picture, will soon find the
picture command the price. And it ought to be a rule with every painter
never to let a picture leave his easel while it is yet capable of
improvement, or of having more thought put into it. The general effect
is often perfect and pleasing, and not to be improved upon, when the
details and facts are altogether imperfect and unsatisfactory. It may be
difficult--perhaps the most difficult task of art--to complete these
details, and not to hurt the general effect; but until the artist can do
this, his art is imperfect and his picture unfinished. That only is a
co