uld have my
pupil cultivate this art, not exactly for the sake of the art itself,
but to render the eye true and the hand flexible. In general, it
matters little whether he understands this or that exercise, provided
he acquires the mental insight, and the manual skill furnished by the
exercise. I should take care, therefore, not to give him a
drawing-master, who would give him only copies to imitate, and would
make him draw from drawings only. He shall have no teacher but nature,
no models but real things. He shall have before his eyes the
originals, and not the paper which represents them. He shall draw a
house from a real house, a tree from a tree, a human figure from the
man himself. In this way he will accustom himself to observe bodies
and their appearances, and not mistake for accurate mutations those
that are false and conventional. I should even object to his drawing
anything from memory, until by frequent observations the exact forms of
the objects had clearly imprinted themselves on his imagination, lest,
substituting odd and fantastic shapes for the real things, he might
lose the knowledge of proportion and a taste for the beauties of
nature. I know very well that he will go on daubing for a long time
without making anything worth noticing, and will be long in mastering
elegance of outline, and in acquiring the deft stroke of a skilled
draughtsman. He may never learn to discern picturesque effects, or
draw with superior skill. On the other hand, he will have a more
correct eye, a truer hand, a knowledge of the real relations of size
and shape in animals, plants, and natural bodies, and practical
experience of the illusions of perspective. This is precisely what I
intend; not so much that he shall imitate objects as that he shall know
them. I would rather have him show me an acanthus than a finished
drawing of the foliation of a capital.

Yet I would not allow my pupil to have the enjoyment of this or any
other exercise all to himself. By sharing it with him I will make him
enjoy it still more. He shall have no competitor but myself; but I
will be that competitor continually, and without risk of jealousy
between us. It will only interest him more deeply in his studies.
Like him I will take up the pencil, and at first I will be as awkward
as he. If I were an Apelles, even, I will make myself a mere dauber.

I will begin by sketching a man just as a boy would sketch one on a
wall, with a dash