Ethel Morton at Sweetbriar Lodge Part 28

"Unless the landscape should be a background for some story," said Della.

"There might be gypsies kidnapping a child, for instance."

"Of course there are other divisions," said Miss Graham, "but roughly speaking, almost every picture is either a record of fact or of imagination, or else it tells a story."

"It's going to be interesting to think about that, when we look at the other pictures we shall see later on," said Tom, and even Roger nodded a.s.sent, although his heart was still set upon the armor.

"Now, let's go back for a moment to look at the 'Horse Fair,'" said Miss Graham. "What do you think a picture ought to have in it to be a real picture?" she asked as they went along the gallery.

"It seems to me that a picture that is nothing but a record, as you said a few minutes ago, can't be much of a picture," said Roger. "I should want something more in a picture, something that would stir me up. Why, even Miss Farren's there isn't exactly a record, because you have something more than just eyes and nose and hair. She looks as if she would be fun to talk to, and as for the 'Horse Fair,' which was the other picture that we decided was a record, why that has in it more than just a lot of horses."

"If Rosa Bonheur had wanted merely to draw some horses, she might have strung them along in a row so that we could get an idea of their size and color and could make a guess at their weight, but here we see them in action and we know that they are in good spirits and we feel some sympathy with the men who have a hard time to hold them."

"Yes, that picture stirs me a little, too."

"That is because both 'Miss Farren' and the 'Horse Fair' are real pictures. Any picture that tries to be more than merely a photographic reproduction must stir your emotions in one way or another," said Miss Daisy. "Now as we look at this picture, do you think the artist put into it everything that she saw on the road that morning when she pa.s.sed this group of men and horses?"

"I dare say not," said Della, "because there would be likely to be dogs and boys with the men, and perhaps some ugly houses in the background."

"Why do you suppose she didn't put everything in?"

"Why, a picture ought to try to be beautiful, oughtn't it, and some of those things might be ugly, or there might be so many of them that it would be confusing."

"Those are both good reasons," said Miss Daisy. "They both show that the artist has to _select_ the things that he thinks will be of the greatest interest to the people who look at his pictures."

"Now when he has picked them out, what should you say the next step was?"

They were all rather blank at this question but after a while Roger said slowly, "Evidently she picked out just so many as being the best looking ones to put in the picture; and she didn't like them all facing the audience, ready to bob their heads at you as you look at them; she made them trot along the road in a natural way."

"Certainly," approved Miss Graham. "She _arranged_ what she had selected so that they would be natural and--"

"And so that the colors would show well?" asked Ethel Brown.

"Yes, so that there would be contrasts of color that would be pleasing to the eye. Then there should be _balance_. Have you any idea what that means?"

n.o.body had.

"I wonder if you haven't all noticed a j.a.panese print that Margaret has?"

"You mean the one with big green leaves up in one corner and the gra.s.shopper clinging to a tendril?" asked Helen.

"That's the one," returned Miss Daisy. "Did it ever occur to you that those leaves were all crowded off into one corner of the picture?"

"I never thought of it," said Margaret, "and I have looked at it every day for a year. They are, aren't they?"

"But it didn't affect you unpleasantly, did it?"

"Why, no. I think it's a pretty picture," said Ethel Brown.

"It is," agreed Miss Graham; "but what device did the artist use to make you feel comfortable about it, and to make you forget that he had put a bunch of foliage up in one corner and had left more than one-half of his sheet blank?"

n.o.body could answer this question and Miss Graham had to give the explanation herself.

"It's all a question of balance," she said. "The great ma.s.s of white paper in the lower right hand part of the picture balances the ma.s.s of green leaves in the upper left hand corner. The green is a heavier looking color than the white, and it therefore takes a larger amount of white to balance the green. The j.a.panese who made this painting understood that, and he has so arranged his leaves and his gra.s.shopper, that the eye is entirely pleased by the balance that results. If Rosa Bonheur has managed wisely there should be ma.s.ses of light and dark, balancing each other, and there should be s.p.a.ces and solids, balancing each other."

"Has she done it? It doesn't worry me any," said Roger. "I think she must have succeeded."

Keeping Miss Graham's explanation in mind they took another look at the Napoleon picture and concluded that Meissonier also knew what he was about.

"'Composition' means the putting together of a picture, doesn't it?"

asked Helen. "I should think that the composition of a picture that has so many figures, must be extremely difficult."

"Far more difficult, of course, than one for which the artist has selected fewer objects."

"And of two artists producing complicated pictures like these, he is the better who gives an effect of simplicity."

"Suppose that Rosa Bonheur had noticed that one of the men struggling with the horses had his face bound up with a cloth; does that have anything to do with the picture?"

They all agreed that it had not.

"Then she was perfectly right to leave out any object that would distract the observer's mind. She put into this picture of horses going to the horse fair only such things as would make the onlooker think of the beauty and spirit of the horses as shown by their handsome coats and by the difficulty which the men had in controlling them, and his imagination would be stirred to wonder as to which of these fine animals was to win a prize. Everything which might compete with these simple ideas the artist left out of the picture."

"It must have been awfully hard to do such a lot of legs," said Ethel Blue, who knew a little about drawing.

"An artist has to know a good deal about anatomy," returned Miss Graham.

"He must know how the human body is made, and the horse's body, too, if he is to do a picture like this, and he even must know something about the under-structure of the earth. He must make the lines of those legs all move harmoniously. Look at this Napoleon picture once more."

Once again they stood before "Friedland."

"If you were to prolong the up-standing lines of weapons and helmets you would find that they were parallel or tended toward some point possibly outside of the picture. Unless an appearance of confusion is desired it would not do to have lines leading in every direction."

"It would make a picture look every which way, wouldn't it?" said Ethel Blue.

"Attention to such points as this helps to give expression to the whole picture," went on Miss Daisy. "Not only do the figures in the pictures have their own expression, but the picture as a whole may wear an expression of peace, like that quiet landscape over there; or of confusion, like this picture of the attempted a.s.sa.s.sination of a pope, or of orderly excitement, like that cavalry charge yonder."

As they turned from one canvas to another the Club realized the truth of what Miss Graham was saying.

"That is a fact, isn't it?" agreed Tom. "You don't have to see the look on the fellows' faces to get the general effect of the picture even from a distance."

"We've been talking so much about color schemes in connection with Dorothy's new house, that I am sure the phrase is familiar to you," said Miss Graham. "Look at the color schemes of these pictures around us. Do you see that there are no discords because a color note is struck and all of the other shades and colors harmonize with it? That battle rush, for instance, is a study in red. Compare that with the dull misty blues, greens, and greys in LePage's 'Jeanne d'Arc.'"

They went from one picture to another and proved the truth of this statement to their satisfaction.

"Now we'll call our lesson done," said Miss Graham. "We'll have some luncheon downstairs and when we come up we can let Roger have his heart's desire, and we'll give the afternoon to looking at the Morgan and Altman and Riggs collections of wonders. I doubt if there was ever gathered together anywhere three such groups. The Altman pictures are choice, the Riggs armor is unequalled anywhere in the world, and the Morgan collection is the finest general collection ever owned by a private individual."

It was a weary but a happy party that returned to Rosemont in the late afternoon.

"One of these days is awfully hard on your head," confessed Roger, as he was talking to his mother about the Club's experience, "but it certainly is good for your gray matter."