COMMON-SENSE IN ART

(Pall Mall Gazette, January 8, 1887.)

At this critical moment in the artistic development of England Mr. John
Collier has come forward as the champion of common-sense in art. It will
be remembered that Mr. Quilter, in one of his most vivid and picturesque
metaphors, compared Mr. Collier's method as a painter to that of a
shampooer in a Turkish bath. {119} As a writer Mr. Collier is no less
interesting. It is true that he is not eloquent, but then he censures
with just severity 'the meaningless eloquence of the writers on
aesthetics'; we admit that he is not subtle, but then he is careful to
remind us that Leonardo da Vinci's views on painting are nonsensical; his
qualities are of a solid, indeed we may say of a stolid order; he is
thoroughly honest, sturdy and downright, and he advises us, if we want to
know anything about art, to study the works of 'Helmholtz, Stokes, or
Tyndall,' to which we hope we may be allowed to add Mr. Collier's own
Manual of Oil Painting.

For this art of painting is a very simple thing indeed, according to Mr.
Collier. It consists merely in the 'representation of natural objects by
means of pigments on a flat surface.' There is nothing, he tells us, 'so
very mysterious' in it after all. 'Every natural object appears to us as
a sort of pattern of different shades and colours,' and 'the task of the
artist is so to arrange his shades and colours on his canvas that a
similar pattern is produced.' This is obviously pure common-sense, and
it is clear that art-definitions of this character can be comprehended by
the very meanest capacity and, indeed, may be said to appeal to it. For
the perfect development, however, of this pattern-producing faculty a
severe training is necessary. The art student must begin by painting
china, crockery, and 'still life' generally. He should rule his straight
lines and employ actual measurements wherever it is possible. He will
also find that a plumb-line comes in very useful. Then he should proceed
to Greek sculpture, for from pottery to Phidias is only one step.
Ultimately he will arrive at the living model, and as soon as he can
'faithfully represent any object that he has before him' he is a painter.
After this there is, of course, only one thing to be considered, the
important question of subject. Subjects, Mr. Collier tells us, are of
two kinds, ancient and modern. Modern subjects are more healthy than
ancient subjects, bu