e; and until this is
resolved, you are in the thrall of bonds and gyves. But when inspiration
comes, you break loose and are free.

_A Chinese Painter_ (about 1310 A.D.).

CLXXXV

One word: there are _tendencies_, and it is these which are meant by
_schools_. Landscape, above all, cannot be considered from the point of
view of a school. Of all artists the landscape painter is the one who is
in most direct communion with nature, with nature's very soul.

_Paul Huet._

CLXXXVI

From what motives springs the love of high-minded men for landscapes? In
his very nature man loves to be in a garden with hills and streams,
whose water makes cheerful music as it glides among the stones. What a
delight does one derive from such sights as that of a fisherman
engaging in his leisurely occupation in a sequestered nook, or of a
woodman felling a tree in a secluded spot, or of mountain scenery with
sporting monkeys and cranes!... Though impatient to enjoy a life amidst
the luxuries of nature, most people are debarred from indulging in such
pleasures. To meet this want artists have endeavoured to represent
landscapes so that people may be able to behold the grandeur of nature
without stepping out of their houses. In this light, painting affords
pleasures of a nobler sort by removing from one the impatient desire of
actually observing nature.

_Kuo Hsi_ (Chinese, eleventh century A.D.).

LANDSCAPE

CLXXXVII

Landscape is a big thing, and should be viewed from a distance in order
to grasp the scheme of hill and stream. The figures of men and women are
small matters, and may be spread out on the hand or on a table for
examination, when they will be taken in at a glance. Those who study
flower-painting take a single stalk and put it into a deep hole, and
then examine it from above, thus seeing it from all points of view.
Those who study bamboo-painting take a stalk of bamboo, and on a
moonlight night project its shadow on to a piece of white silk on a
wall; the true form of the bamboo is thus brought out. It is the same
with landscape painting. The artist must place himself in communion with
his hills and streams, and the secret of the scenery will be solved....
Hills without clouds look bare; without water they are wanting in
fascination; without paths they are wanting in life; without trees they
are dead; without depth-distance they are shallow; without
level-distance they are near; and without height-distance th