oly fact
that scarcely a single object amongst those that surround us has any
pretension to real beauty, or could be put simply into a picture with
noble effect. And as I believe the love of beauty to be inherent in the
human mind, it follows that there must be some unfortunate influence at
work; to counteract this should be the object of a fine-art institution,
and I feel assured if really good things were scattered amongst the
people, it would not be long before satisfactory results exhibited
themselves.

_G. F. Watts._

CLXXXIII

I have ... gone for great masses of light and shade, relieved against
one another, the only bright local colour being the blue of the
workmens' coats and trousers. I have intentionally avoided the whole
business of "flat decoration" by "making the things part of the walls,"
as one is told is so important. On the contrary, I have treated them as
pictures and have tried to make holes in the wall--that is, as far as
relief of strong light and shade goes; in the figures I have struggled
to keep a certain quality of bas-relief--that is, I have avoided distant
groups--and have woven my compositions as tightly as I can in the very
foreground of the pictures, as without this I felt they would lose their
weight and dignity, which does seem to me the essential business in a
mural decoration, and which makes Puvis de Chavannes a great decorator
far more than his flat mimicry of fresco does.... Tintoretto, in S.
Rocco, is my idea of the big way to decorate a building; great clustered
groups sculptured in light and shade filling with amazing ingenuity of
design the architectural spaces at his disposal: a far richer and more
satisfying result to me than the flat and unprofitable stuff which of
late years has been called "decoration."...

Above all, I thoroughly disbelieve in the cant of mural decorations
preserving the flatness of a wall. I see no merit in it whatever. Let
them be massive as sculpture, but let every quality of value and colour
lend them depth and vitality, and I am sure the hall or room will be
richer and nobler as a result.

_C. W. Furse._

CLXXXIV

People usually declare that landscape is an easy matter. I think it a
very difficult one. For whenever you wish to produce a landscape, it is
necessary to carry about the details, and work them out in the mind for
some days before the brush may be applied. Just as in composition: there
is a period of bitter thought over the them