by another line from the sun to the head of the figure, and carried on until it cuts the first line, showing where the shadow would terminate. When the sun is directly behind the spectator, the shadows will of course be cast forward. In this case a dot must be made upon the horizon as before, and another as far below it as the sun is above the horizon, at the back of the observer. A line should then be drawn from the mark on the horizon to the foot of the figure, or of any other object, and another from the point below to the head of the figure, which by intersecting the ground line will give the length of the shadow.

I am, &c.

LETTER XIX.

MY DEAR SIR;

"IMITATE nature" is a frequent though

often a very vain remark, intended no doubt as the best advice that can be given to a young artist, but unfortunately proceeding from those persons whose ideas of the art are generally very limited. That a painter must imitate nature is a truth that cannot be denied; it will however be admitted as equally true by persons of a cultivated taste, that imitation, which employs the hand and the eye only, can never produce a work of art of an elevated character; although I am ready to allow that skilful execution, aided by a correct eye, will effect pictures of a very pleasing kind, such as those little confined scenes painted by Jacob Ruysdaal with great truth, but evidently with no

higher aim than to present an exact portrait of the spot before him. His works, however, afford many good examples of the minor class of art; yet his colouring is not always agreeable, owing to the slaty tone of some of his skies, and the cold hues that generally pervade his works. Hobbima was a more rigid imitator of little things than Ruysdaal. Every brick in a cottage is a portrait, and many objects in his pictures, even those at some distance from the foreground, appear as if seen through a telescope. It therefore seems to me that he represented things as he knew them to be, and not as they would be visible to the eye in certain situations in some degree remote from the spectator. This making out of small parts (erroneously termed finishing) interferes sadly with the general effect and repose of a picture. I cannot admit, my dear Sir, that works of this class are by any means the result of genius, because the mind is not required to supply any thing. They are merely copies of local, and frequently mean

scenes, where every part whether it be good, bad, or indifferent, is faithfully represented. I am aware, that by making these remarks I subject myself to censure from certain persons who extol Hobbima as a man of genius, of which there is no sufficient evidence in his works to prove the truth of such an assertion. When we compare the works of these artists with those of the Italian painters of landscape, they appear trifling. Indeed Gaspar Poussin was evidently a man of very superior genius, who well knew what true art ought to

effect. He appears to have collected in many instances the best portions of nature, and being intimately acquainted with the science of composition, and possessing a vivid imagination, with a powerful talent for invention, he produced pictures which appeared to be the most happy possible combinations of nature. The forms of his masses are bold and often grand, and the component parts so judiciously balanced, that the eye of taste will always contemplate his compositions with com

G

plete satisfaction. In many of his small pictures his colouring remains pure and true to nature; but in some of his larger works (which were painted upon a dark brown ground to enable him to proceed with greater facility, as it answered for many parts of his picture when thinly painted over) unfortunately, in the course of time, this ground colour has made its way through, and some of his pictures from this circumstance now appear very dark, and in some few cases bordering upon blackness.

Salvator Rosa was a man of elevated genius, whose mind was well stored with the images of wild and rugged nature, and who seemed to delight in unfrequented spots abounding with craggy rocks, torrents, and trees torn and shattered by tempests. His pictures are very fine and powerfully adapted to excite the feelings of the spectator; and it appears to me that we may readily trace the disposition of either the poet or the painter by his works, according to which rule we cannot but