BURNET'S PROGRESS OF A PAINTER. * SOHN BuRNET is professionally known
for several works on the principles and practice of painting; and to the public at large for various prints after paintings that would for their character and homely truth have rivalled the popularity of Wilkie, but for the unlucky circumstance that Wilkie painted first. In the double volume before us, Mr. Burnet has advanced to a more artistical literature than he has yet attempted. The Progress of a Painter is in some degree a species of art-novel, in which it is sought to • The Progress of a Painter in the Nineteenth Century: containing Conversations and Remarks upon Art. By John Burnet, Author of " Practical Hints on Fault- ing," &c. Published by Bogue.
make the adventures of a person and the presence of artists of celebrity a vehicle for general instruction in art, although so much of romance is not introduced as in many art-fictions. Chronology is not rigidly adhered to—in fact there are avowed anachronisms; but the book is supposed to open some forty or five-and-forty years since, when Wilkie was residing in Sol's Row in the dawn of his celebrity, and Nasmyth, Etty, and some other artists of less eminence, were starting in their career, or settling down from their struggles after fame. The author's wife is a Sootchwoman; and a young relation of hers in the North, John Knox, giving signs of pictorial genius, comes up to London for her husband to introduce him to his friend Wilkie, and put him in the way of becoming a painter. One introduction leads to an- other, and they lead to Noctes Ambrosianm conversations on art, and to strolls or expeditions in search of pleasure and the pic- turesque both in one. One or two gipsy incidents indicate an at- tempt at love and mystery, but little comes of it; Mr. Burnet perhaps not feeling himself quite au fait at romanoe-writing. In fact, the book closes abruptly, with its hero Knox sufficiently advanced to be secure of patronage and repute, but without dis- posing of any of the dramatis personae. The framework is slight, but well-adapted to introduce criti- cisms and disquisitions on the principles of art, as well as to exhi- bit its practice by showing how the materials for pictures are best collected, and the gradual progress of a picture. London at the opening was very different from London now, and the rambles in search of " studies " suffice to describe rural scenes which are now covered by "the contents of brick-fields." Effect is given to the opinions advanced, or the rules laid down, not only by dialogues, but by often putting them into the months of well- known painters. Glimpses of the more jovial if more homely artist life of the last generation are shown, with the occasional introduction of whilom celebrities in other walks—as " old Ast- ley." Some attempts at humour, and the manners of high life, are but indifferent. The reader is occasionally let behind the scenes as to the manufacture of drawings and other trade-like doings. For instance, an artist named Scaife who after some efforts as a ".water-colour draughtsman" in Scotland, had sat down as scene-painter at Astley's, used to manufacture original drawings for printsellers and dealers at half-a-crown a piece.
"Detail could not be much expected in works manufactured at so cheap a rate ; but the drawings of Scaift always possessed breadth of effect and chasteness of colour, engendered by the works of Girtin, which at that time were in their zenith. How drawings of this excellence could be produced at so cheap a rate, may be a mystery to many. But the way Scaife took to produce this result was, by dividing a large sheet of Whatman's grand ele- phant into twelve compartments with pencil; and, having outlined in each a subject of rock, hill, or dale, according to his sketches or his imagination, he then saturated the paper as thoroughly as a wet blanket, and laid it down on a table, and commenced with gray colour or neutral tint, until every subject was charged with its light and shade. The next process was to ap- ply colour to suit the various designs, and then allowed the whole to dry : the consequence was, that it not only facilitated the advancement of the drawings, but gave a firmness and solidity to the manipulation. The detail was afterwards supplied by the hair-pencil; and where lights were required, such as foliage, or small stones in the foreground, he touched them with water, and then rubbed the drawing (while the touches were wet) either with bread, or gave it a blow with the sleeve of his coat. The consequence was an appearance of finish ; which effect he heightened by touching in sha- dows and portions of colour. I have been thus particular as many of Tur- ner's finest early drawings are conducted on the same principle."
Picture-cleaning is a cognate subject, and of its principles as well as practice there is an account introduced.
" Before entering upon the process of picture-cleaning, it will be necessary to mention the effect of time upon a picture. It is thrown completely out of harmony by the fading of those colours having a vegetable basis, and the indestructible quality of such as have a mineral one, such as several of the oxides. These changes are not perceptible until the several coats of varnish are removed which have acted as a general glaze ; after which, the whole work appears as a picture of discordant spots of blue, red, and yellow. In taking off these several coats of varnish, mixed and unmixed with harmo- nious glazings, continued friction with the point of the finger is adopted in the first instance ; which of necessity takes off the edge of the sharp pencil. ling, especially that of the Dutch and Flemish schools, such as the works of Teniers, Cuyp, Berghem, &c. But if such a process is not sufficient to re- move the dark oleaginous varnishes and glazing, spirits of wine is made use of, which completely destroys the soft liquid appearance of the picture ' • for we must remember that the oil with which all the colours are mixed gra- dually comes to the surface after a lapse of time, which gives even flake white a yellow transparent character ; consequently, when this is removed, the white assumes the character of plaster of Paris, and even the ultrama- vines, and other rich colours, appear like distemper painting. Now it is that the restorer is called in, who, though a painter, is generally of a second- rate character, and cannot comprehend the subtile niceties of the work, which have all disappeared ; but even if the original painter could be called out of his grave, he would stand aghast to see the havoc that time and the picture-cleaner have made on the several colours, and how different its effect since it left his easel. However, knowing what his intentions were, he would set about reviving with fresh pigment those colours that had fled, and deepen and enrich those tones that the merciless and ignorant hand of the cleaner had destroyed ; after which, though he could not restore the finished pencilling and sharp touches, he would replace them with similar, equally full of spirit and expression. But the dealer's assistant is not permitted to do this, even if he were capable. Any repairing, if discernible, reduces the value of the work ; consequently he has recourse to stippling the different colours, like the process of miniature-painting : but even this method is capable of being detected, especially by experienced dealers, who have been at one time guilty of the like method, and who, of course, lake no secret of exposing the faults of their rivals."
The scene of the following criticism on Cuyp, and a comparison of Vandevelde and Turner, is the Stafford Gallery : thither Knox goes with his friend, and meets several other artists, who have assembled early to discuss and examine, before the fashionable visitors arrive.
" ' Ah, my dear Knox,' Wilkie said, `you are just in time to hear what I was observing respecting this great example, the Canal of Dort.' I said, in Cuyp you found the principles of breadth of light, breadth of colour, and that harmony arising from the lines composing the different shapes of objects. Ay, even to the agreement of his very handling, his style seems the very opposite to the Roman, which, as Reynolds says, is like a combination of clanging instruments producing harmony out of discordant sounds ; whereas the mellifluous pencil of Cuyp spreads over the whole subject, as if nature were viewed through a coloured glass tinging everything with golden hue. Those who attempt to imitate this sunny brightness often end in what is called foxy and horny colouring. Cuyp seems to counteract this disagree- able quality by interspersing portions of delicious grey tones : this is often produced by stumbling the sky and distance with a delicate yellow tone, and wiping it off the shadows. That small picture opposite gives us a complete insight into his repetition of forms ; the irregular shapes of the ruined castle find an agreement in the clouds above it. By the way, perhaps the pencil- ling of every object in this work wants that variety of touch observable in nature. It is like a page of writing containing various matters rendered in the same free running hand. This extreme dexterity may become a vice if carried too far, as we see it is in some of Berghem's landscapes. There are certain works where this loose free manner of handling is more allowable, indeed, more advantageous than a careful defined pencilling : for example, if we compare that large picture by Vandevelde with the similar subject painted by Turner, we perceive at once the superiority produced by this free and undefined handling. The figures and vessels in Vandevelde's picture are as defined and dry in their outline as the lay figures and models from which they may have been painted. They do not give the spectator the smallest idea as if the whole scene were in motion, for even the water looks as if the waves were arrested by instantaneous freezing. Turner's whole work is full of motion, and every form conveys that unsteady character which nature presents under the influence of a gale. The one is a representation of still life—the other, agitation personified."
These extracts have been confined to general subjects, in prefer-
ence to expositions of the principles of painting, so to speak, or the still narrower topics of technical usages. Those who wish for such may recur to the book. With the exception of a few passages, where an attempt at a lighter style than Mr. Burnet can altogether manage runs into flatness, they will find the instruction relieved by the form in which it is presented. Whether the knowledge might not have been as effectually and more briefly conveyed in a direoter form, is a point unnecessary to discuss.
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