MR. COLLIER'S "MANUAL OF OIL-PAINTING."
LTO THE EDITOR OF TER SIOMTATOR."]
Sra,—As Mr. Quitter still persists in regarding me as an upholder of the bold, bad, British style of painting, I must make a further attempt to convince him that I am a follower of the only true and orthodox method, which Mr. Qailter regards, quite unwarrantably, as the exclusive property of the French school.
Mr. Quitter calmly assumes that I acknowledge his description of my method to be correct. I see I have been too brief. Here is the description:—" Get your details right bit by bit, says our author in other words, and modify them subsequently until your effect is accurate." This is not my method ; indeed, it is the precise contrary of it. I do not allow even the larger details to be put in until the general effect appears to be true as seen from a long way off. I am quite convinced that Mr. Quitter's misrepresentation is unintentional ; but I certainly have been misrepresented, and rather seriously.
I can only see one point on which I can have misled my critic. He assumes that I do not include the background in the patches of colour which have to be put down in the first day's painting. I regret that I have not expressly stated this; but as I mention that the canvas must be completely covered at the end of the first day's painting, it is difficult to see how there can be any mistake in the matter. Again, the term " mosaic " is a stumbling-block to Mr. Quitter; but yet this very word is used in the precise sense that I use it in the description of the practice in M. Duran's studio, of which Mr. Quitter approves as being an example of the right method. Here is the passage —"We blocked in the curtain first, and then put in the figure or face in big touches, like a coarse wooden head hewn with a hatchet; in fact, in a big mosaic." If M. Duran's mosaic is compatible with artistic orthodoxy, why is not mine P
As for Mr. Quitter's strictures on Mr. Poynter's method, they do not concern me. Mr. Poynter can very well take care of him- self, if he thinks it worth while to do so. It is true that I have derived my system from Mr. Poynter's ; but I have expressly stated that I have altered it in one very important particular. Mr. Poynter recommends his pupils to finish a bit at a time. This recommendation I criticise, and contrast it with M. Duran's method and with my own, in which "all the tones should first be blocked in very coarsely before any of the finishing touches are given."
My critic appears to object to my recommendation that a careful outline should first be made. Here, for the first time, our views really are in opposition.
It is obvious to me that there is not much use in getting the right tones unless one puts them in the proper places, and that the best way of ensuring this is to map out the main forms by a careful preliminary drawing ; and I am sure that in this I am
only following the best Continental practice. Of coarse, the should only be of the "main lines," as I state in my "ManuaL"
I think I have now shown conclusively that (with the creep- tion of the little matter of the outline) I have merited Mr. Quitter's blessing rather than his curse.—I am, Sir, &c , Joan Comitna,
7 Chelsea Embankment, B.W., February 24th.
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