the giving;
Back of the hand that receives thrill the sensitive nerves of
receiving.

CHAPTER XIV - SPECIFIC QUALITIES AND FAULTS

If we recognize the manly qualities in a picture, the work has at least a
favorable introduction. Farther than this point it may not please us, but
if not, it should remain a question of taste between the artist and
yourself; and, concerning taste there is no disputing. It is just at this
point that the superficial critic errs. Dislike for the subject, however
ably expressed, is never cause for condemnation. The fair question to ask
is, what was the artist's intention? Its answer provokes your challenge;
"Is it worth the expression!" If conceded, the real judgment begins. Has
he done it; if not wholly--in what degree?

The question of degree will demand the patience of good judgment. There
may be much or little sanity in condemning a picture owing to a single
fault. It depends on the kind. There are errors of selection, of
presentation (technique) of natural fact, and of art principle. We can
excuse the first, condone the second, find small palliation for the third,
but he for whom art principles mean nothing, is an art anarchist.

Errors of selection are errors of judgment. A man may choose a subject
which is unprofitable and which refuses to yield fruit; and yet in his
effort at reediting its elements he may have shown great skill and
knowledge and may have expended upon it his rarest gifts--fine technique
and good color. The critic must read between the lines and blame the
judgment, not the art. Feeble selection and weak composition will be more
easily specified as faults than bad drawing and unworthy color.

To the profession, the epithet "commonplace" weighs heavily against a work
of art. Selection of what is fitting as an art subject means experience.
The "ungrateful" subject and bad composition are therefore likely to mark
the _nouveau_ in picture making--the student fresh from the atelier with
accurate drawing and true color and who may be full of promise, but who
has become tangled with what the French term the soujet ingrat. Every
artist has studies of this sort which contain sufficient truth to save
them from being painted over as canvas, and most painters know the place
for such--the storeroom. Exhibition of studies is interesting as
disclosing the means to an end, and the public should discern between the
intention of the "stu