sentiment of repose, is to interest the better feelings of our nature, all the component parts of the picture must be subdued, or occasionally brought into notice so as to aid the general intention of the artist; and when this is effectually accomplished, those persons, who possess a well cultivated taste for the arts, will be ready to acknowledge that the work is complete. I will add, lest the young artist for whom these hints are chiefly intended should not have a clear perception of them, and therefore fall into error, that every part of a picture ought to be well defined, and no portion of it should upon any consideration be neglected; for these are the means with which the end is to be obtained. I also wish to impress upon his mind, that if either the making out of the details is too evident (and this is frequently mistaken for finishing), or coarse, or slovenly execution, attracts the attention of the spectator from the general intention of the painter, the

sentiment of the picture will be destroyed: for this, which is the practical part of the art, no instructions can avail, as it must be regulated by the judgment and feeling of the artist. I will in my next Letter point out the subjects that really require high finishing.

I am, &c.

MY DEAR SIR;

THE objects that chiefly admit of close imitation and high finish, either singly or combined in groups, are flowers, dead game, and indeed all those subjects that come under the denomination of still life. Flowers that exhibit so much elegance of form, brilliancy, and variety of colour, are peculiarly suited for imitation, and to represent them truly they demand correct drawing, great purity of colour, and also a just knowledge of the principles of light and shadow. Pictures of flowers, and more particularly such as are painted with water colours, are generally too gaudily coloured, and therefore when they are placed in contact with a well toned landscape, they injure it very much. Real flowers, on the contrary, do not produce the same ill effect; for

notwithstanding their colours are bright, still the tints are so delicately graduated in consequence of the great variety and inequality of their surfaces, which by producing many gentle reflections of light, and numberless soft shades, so modify the colours, that when these beautiful objects are arranged with taste, they will then have a splendid, but by no means a gaudy effect. It appears to me, that the faulty representations of flowers consist mainly in painting those parts which are in deep shade with a positive colour; the shaded part of a blue flower merely with a stronger tint of blue; a red flower with a darker red; and so on with every variety of shadow. Surely this is a great error, seeing that colour is the result of light; and in proportion to the decrease of light, colour will be diminished, and will finally be nearly lost in the depth of shade. In these beautiful subjects which are eminently suited to gratify the eye, the chief merit must depend upon the correct resemblance of the objects

selected for imitation. Landscape, however, or general nature, in order to interest those persons who possess a well cultivated taste for the arts, requires a different mode of treatment; for that which constitutes the chief excellence of one class of art would prove greatly injurious to that of another character. The man of genius, therefore, whose mind being congenial with that of the poet, introduces some sentiment into his works, which elevate them far above the cold and common-place representations of landscape, where we trace the mechanical skill of the hand only. He never imagines, nor does he paint with the intention that his picture shall deceive the eye from its naturalness, his aim being to interest the mind of the spectator through the medium of that organ, which he is aware should be agreeably attracted by the beauty of the subject, the poetical feeling with which it is treated, and the judicious completion of every part.

I am, &c.