MR. COLLIER'S MANUAL. [TO THE Itorros or can "BriorAros."]
Sra,—My description of Mr. Collier's method was taken from his own words, and is, I believe, the only one which those words,. in their ordinary signification, could be taken to express. In his instructions to the student, Mr. Collier directs him to make- an elaborate outline, and to fill in that outline with patches of colour matching tho tints of the model. He says no word about the "general impression," about the "masses," about the " background," about the "values ;" but only confines himself to instructing the student to match the tints of the model. I
repeat, with what added emphasis may be justified by having
said it twice already, that a French artist would not instruct his pupil to proceed in this manner, but would tell him to seek first for the general effect of his whole subject, for the most important masses, for the broad effect of light and shade ; and that such instruction marks, in the main, the chief distinction between French and English teaching,—in other words, that the English teaching endeavours from the first to give attention• to the varieties of local colour, and match these, rather than to seek the broad effects on which the pioture must be built.
If an author tells a student that the first thing he has to do• is to match the colours, that student will undoubtedly suppose
that the light and shade, and the general effect and the appear- ance of the background (which our author does not even mention), are subsidiary details, to be sought for subsequently, if at all. And if Mr. Collier does not intend him to think thus,. he had better alter the phrasing of his book.—I am, Sir, the.,
HARRY QUITTER.
[The discussion must end here.—En. Spectator.]
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