Sir Uvedale Price, On the picturesque : with an essay On the origin of taste, and much original matter

Front matter

A.W. COCKBURN.

Ulrich Middeldorf

ON THE

Preface

improved state ; the other, when dressed and improved according to the present fashion. The picturesque circumstances detailed in this scene, very naturally lead me, in the third chapter, to investigate their general causes and effects ; and in that, and in the six following chapters, I have traced them, as far as my observation would enable me, through all the works of art and of nature.

This part, the most curious and interesting to a speculative mind, will be least so to those who think only of what has a direct and immediate reference to the arrangement of scenery. That, indeed, it has not ; but it is a discussion well calculated to give just and enlarged ideas, of what is of no slight importance — the general character of each place, and the particular character of each part of its scenery. Every place, and every scene worth observing, must have something of the sublime, the beautiful, or the picturesque ; and every man will allow, that he would wish to preserve and to heighten — certainly not to weaken or destroy — their prevailing character. The most obvious method of succeeding in the one, and of avoiding the Other, is by studying their causes and effects ; but to confine that study to scenery only, would, like all confined studies for a particular purpose, tend to contract the mind ; at least, when compared with a more comprehensive view of the subject. I have therefore endeavoured to take the most enlarged view possible, and to include in it whatever had any relation to the character I was occupied in tracing, or which showed its distinction from those which a very superior mind had already investigated ; and sure I am, that he who studies the various effects and characters of form, colour, and light and shadow, and examines and compares those characters and effects, and the manner in which they are combined and disposed, both in pictures and in nature, will be better qualified to arrange — certainly to enjoy — his own and every scenery, than he who has only thought of the most fashionable arrangement of objects; or who has looked at nature alone, without having acquired any just principles of selection.

I believe, however, that this part of my Essay, and the very title of it, may have given a false bias to the minds of many of my readers. I am not surprised at such an effect, for it is a very natural conclusion, and often justified, that an author is partial to the particular subject on which he has written ; but mine is a particular case. The two characters which

PREFACE.

ix

Mr. Burke has so ably discussed, had, it is true, great need of investigation ; but they did not want to be recommended to our attention : what is really sublime, or beautiful, must always attract or command it ; but the picturesque is much less obvious, less generally attractive, and had been totally neglected and despised by professed improvers : my business, therefore, was to draw forth and to dwell upon those less observed beauties. From that circumstance it has been conceived, or at least asserted, that I not only preferred such scenes as were merely rude and picturesque, but excluded all others.

The second part is built upon the foundations laid in the first ; for I have examined the leading features of modern gardening, in its more extended sense, on the general principles of painting ; and I have shown in several instances, especially in all that relates to the banks of artificial water, how much the character of the picturesque has been neglected, or sacrificed to a false idea of beauty.

But though I take no slight interest in whatever concerns the taste of gardening in this and every other country, and am particularly anxious to preserve those picturesque circumstances, which are so frequently and irrecoverably destroyed, yet in writing this Essay, I have had a more comprehensive object in view. I have been desirous of opening new sources of innocent and easily attained pleasures, or at least of pointing out how a much higher relish may be acquired for those, which, though known, are neglected ; and it has given me no small pleasure to find, that both my objects have in some degree been attained.

That painters do see effects in nature which men in general do not see, we have, in the motto prefixed to this Essay, the testimony of no common observer ; of one who was sufficiently vain of his own talents and discernment in every way> and not likely to acknowledge a superiority in other men without strong conviction. It is not a mere observation of Cicero; it is an exclamation: Quam multa tfideni pictores ! It marks his surprise at the extreme difference which the study of nature, by means of the art of painting, seems to make almost in the sight itself. It may likewise be observed, that his remark does not extend to form — in which the ancient painters are acknowledged to be our superiors ; not to colour — in which they are also conceived to be at least our rivals ; but to light and shadow — the supposed triumph of

PREFACE.

modern over ancient art : on which account, the professors of painting since its revival, have a still better right to the compliment of so illustrious a panegyrist, than those of his own age.

If there were no other means of seeing with the eyes of painters, than by acquiring the practical skill of their hands, the generality of mankind must of course give up the point ; but luckily, we may gain no little insight into their method of considering nature, and no inconsiderable share of their relish for her beauties, by an easier process — by studying their works. This study has one great advantage over most others ; there are no dry elements to struggle with. Pictures, as likewise drawings and prints, have in them what is suited to all ages and capacities ; many of them, like Swift's Gulliver's Travels, display the most fertile and brilliant imagination, joined to the most accurate judgment and selection, and the deepest knowledge of nature ; like that extraordinary work, they are at once the amusement of childhood and ignorance, and the delight, instruction, and admiration, of the highest and most cultivated minds.

It is not, however, to be supposed, that theory and observation alone will enable us to judge either of pictures or of nature, with the same skill as those who join to the practical knowledge of their art habitual reflection on its principles, and its productions. Between such artists and the mere lover of painting, there will always be a sufficient difference to justify the remark of Cicero ; * but by means of the study which I have so earnestly recommended, we may greatly diminish the immense distance that exists between the eye of a first-rate painter, and that of a man who has never thought on the subject. Were it, indeed, possible that a painter of great and general excellence could at once bestow on such a man — not his power of imitating,, but of distinguishing and feel-

* There is an anecdote of Salvator Rosa, which shows the very just and natural opinion that painters of eminence entertain of their superior judgment with regard to their own art : it is also highly characteristic of the lively impetuous manner of the artist of whom it is related, and whose words might no less justly be applied to real objects, than to the imitation of them. Salvator Rosa, essendogli mostrata una singolar pittura da un dilettante, die insiememente in estremo la lodava ; egli, con tin di quei suoi soliti gesti spiritosi esclamo ; O pensa quel che tu diredi, >e Ui la vedessi con gli occhi di Salvator Rosa !

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xi ing the effects and combinations of form, colour, and light and shadow — it would hardly be too much to assert, that a new appearance of things, a new world would suddenly be opened to him ; and the bestower might preface the miraculous gift with the words in which Venus addresses her son, when she removes the mortal film from his eyes.

Vide P. 190,—" Waves beating in upon a rocky coast."

TO THE

EDITION OF 1810 OF THE FIRST ESSAY.

In this edition, the reader will find some considerable additions ; but the chief difference is in the arrangement, which I am very conscious was in many parts extremely defective. Several of the chapters in the first volume are entirely new modelled ; and in the second, a great deal of new arrangement has taken place, especially in the middle part of the last Essay. Those readers only — should there be any such — who may have the curiosity to compare the present with former editions, can judge of the pains that the new modelling has cost me ; but I shall think them well bestowed, if I should be less open to those criticisms, which must have presented themselves to every reader of a methodical turn of mind. Another alteration, which I trust will be thought ;mi improvement, is that of throwing the greater part of the notes to the end of the volumes. One note of much greater length than I could have wished is added to the second volume, in consequence of a very pointed attack from my friend Mr. Knight, in the second edition of the Analytical Inquiry ; it is indeed almost a controversial dissertation on the temple of Vesta, usually called the Sybil's temple, at Tivoli. I am persuaded, however, that I have made no small amends for the tediousness of controversy, by some very curious information I received on the subject, the accuracy of which I have no doubt may be safely relied on. The third volume remains nearly as it was, with scarcely any alteration : there is, however, one addition to the Dialogue of a few last words, by xiv

PREFACE.

way of summing up the points of the controversy, and likewise an appendix, which, like the note just mentioned, was occasioned by some strictures of Mr. Knight's and almost equals it in length. I am still very largely in his debt, on Mr. Burke's, as well as on my own account and am ashamed of being so long in arrears. However slow, I hope at last to leave nothing unpaid ; but as I have undertaken the defence of such a man as Mr. Burke, I feel anxious that it should be as little unworthy of him, as it is in my power to make it.

TO

THE PRESENT EDITION.

The text of this Edition will be found to correspond accurately with that of the Edition 1810, with this difference, that the numerous foot notes which there occur, to the great inconvenience of the reader, have been here incorporated with the text. The few remarks which the Editor has ventured to make in his own person, have been also introduced into the text, where they are distinguished by brackets and the letter E.

Contents

Preface to the First Essay, Preface to Edition 1810, ....

Editor's Preface,

Introductory Essay on Origin of Taste— E

Chapter I

The reasons why an improver should study pictures, as well as nature — The

artist's design in real scenery must change with the growth and decay of trees

The only unchanging compositions are in the designs of painters — Distinction between the painter and the improver — Between looking at pictures, merely with a reference to other pictures, and studying them with a view to the improvement of our ideas of nature — The general principles of both arts the same — The manner in which a picture of Claude would probably be improved bjf Mr. Brown — Anecdote of an improved picture of Sir Joshua Reynolds— The Colonna, Claude — Remarks by E., 59-fi{>

Chapter II

Causes of the neglect of the picturesque in modern improvement — Intricacy and variety, characteristics of the picturesque— Monotony and baldness of improved places — A dressed lane — A lane in its natural and picturesque state — Near the house, picturesque beauty must often be sacrificed to neatness — Different ways in which a picturesque lane might probably be improved — Examples of two lanes that have been improved — Remarks by E., . . . . 6.0-7(1

Chapter III

General meaning of the word picturesque— Mr. Gilpin's definition of it examined —It has not an exclusive reference to painting— The beautiful and the sublime have been pointed out and illustrated by painting, as well as the picturesque- Apology for making use of the word picturesqueness — The picturesque as distinct a character as either the sublime or the beautiful — The picturesque arises from qualities directly opposite to those of beauty — What those qualities

are — Picturesque and beautiful in buildings — in water — in trees — in animals

in birds— in the human species — in the higher order of beings — in painting — Remarks by E., 77-lV.)

Chapter IV

General distinctions between the picturesque and the beautiful — Between the picturesque and the sublime — The manner in which they operate on the mind — Of terror, as a cause of the sublime, 90-103

PACK

CONTENTS.

Chapter V

To create the sublime above our contracted powers — The art of improving therefore depends on the beautiful and the picturesque — Remarks by E. — Beauty alone has hitherto been aimed at — But they are seldom unmixed ; and insipidity has arisen from trying to separate them — Remarks by E. — Instance of their mixture in the human countenance — in flowers, shrubs, and trees — in buildings — Illustration from the mixture of discords with the most flowing melodies in music —Remarks by E., 104-109

Chapter VI

It has been doubted by some whether smoothness be essential to the beautiful — Effects of smoothness, and of roughness, in producing the beautiful and the picturesque, by means of repose and irritation — Remarks by E. — Exemplified in scenery — Repose, the peculiar characteristic of Claude's pictures — Character of the pleasures that arise from irritation — Remarks by E. — Character of Rubens' light and shadow — of Correggio's — of Claude's — his landscapes compared with those of Rubens — Illustration from the different characters of smiles — Character of Rembrandt's light and shadow — Anecdote of Sir Joshua Reynolds — Antique statues, standards of grandeur and beauty — The grandest style of painting, that of the Roman and Florentine schools — The Venetian style, the ornamental, or picturesque — Correggio's style, as described by Sir Joshua Reynolds, might justly be called the beautiful style — Each style of painting corresponds with the characteristic marks of the grand, the beautiful, and the picturesque in real objects, 110-123

Chapter VII

Breadth of light and shadow — Twilight — Quotation from Milton — Its effect should be studied by improvers — Difficulty of uniting breadth with detail — Breadth alone insufficient ; but preferable to detail without breadth — Application of the principle of breadth to improvement — Objections to buildings being made too white — Remarks by E. — Mr. Walpole's expression of the gentleman with the foolish teeth — Distinctness — Remarks by E., 124-135

Chapter VIII

On the beautiful, and what might be called the picturesque in colour — Remarks by e. — Why autumn, and not spring, is called the painter's season — Blossoms, which are so beautiful near the eye, have a spotty appearance in the general landscape — The first requisite of a picture is to be a whole — The colouring of the Venetian school formed upon the tints in autumn — The Ganymede of Titian —That of Rubens, on the fresh colours of spring — Character of the atmosphere, and the lights and shadows, in spring, summer, autumn, and winter — Remarks by E., 136-146

Chapter IX

On ugliness — Angles not ugly — Deformity is to ugliness what picturesqueness is to beauty ; but has in itself no connection with the sublime — Union of deformity with beauty — In what deformity consists — Ugliness and deformity in hills and mountains — in ground — Remarks by E. — in trees — in buildings — Ugliness in colours — Effect of ugliness and deformity compared — Illustrated by sounds — Effects of the picturesque, when mixed with ugliness — The excess of the qualities of beauty tend to insipidity ; those of picturesqueness to deformity — Anecdote of an Anatomist — Application to improvements — Beauty, pictui'esqueness, and deformity, in the other senses— General summing up of the arguments, to show that the picturesque has a distinct character — By what means the word

CONTENTS.

xix came to be introduced into modern languages — The character, not less distinct than those of envy, revenge, &c. — The reason why its distinctness has not been so accurately marked — And why there are not more distinct terms and discriminations in matters of taste — Remarks by E., 147-1 '>.*>

Chapter X

How far the principles of painting have been applied to improvements — Kent the first improver on the present system — Remarks by E. — General character of the old, and of the present system — Remarks by E. — Character of Kent, with remarks by E. — Reasons for having spoken of him in such strong terms — A painter, of a liberal and comprehensive mind, the best judge of his own art, and of all that relates to it : such was Sir Joshua Reynolds— Character of his Discourses — Nothing so contracts the mind as mere practical dexterity — Illustration from such dexterity in music — Want of connection the great defect of modern gardening— Connection the great principle of painting — Illustrated by the connecting particles in language — Mr. Brown, with remark by E. — Quotation from Ariosto — Grandeur in miniature — The clump — Anecdote of Mr. Brown, when High Sheriff — The belt — That and the avenue compared — Further remarks on the avenue — Remarks by E. — An avenue condemned by Mr. Brown, but saved by the owner — Distinction between beautiful and picturesque intricacy — Impossible to plan any forms of plantations that will suit all places — Illustration from the art of medicine — Remarks by E. — The usual method of thinning trees for the purpose of beauty — 111 effect of breaking an avenue into clumps —Remarks by E., 1G4-1JI8

Chapter XI

Trees considered generally — Necessary accompaniments to rocks, mountains, and to every kind of ground and water — Remarks by E. — An exception with regard to the sea, with remark by E. — The variety and intricacy of trees — Those which are fullest of leaves not always preferred by painters — The reasons — Plantations made for ornament, the least suited to the painter — The established trees of the country ought to prevail in the new plantations — Quotation by E. — Larches, and all pointed firs, make a bad general outline ; and, as they outgrow the oak, &c. nothing else appears — Remarks by E. — Fascinating deformity of a clump, compared to that of a wart or excrescence on the human face — Even large plantations of firs have a harsh effect, from their not harmonising with the natural woods of the country — The necessity of a proper balance in all scenery, both in point of form and of colour — One cause of the heaviness of fir plantations is their closeness — Appearance of the outside of a close fir plantation — of the inside — Different appearance in a grove of spreading pines — Fir plantation improper for screens — A common hedge often a most effectual screen — This points out the necessity of a mixture of thorns, hollies, and the lower growths, in all screens ; likewise in ornamental plantations — The advantage of such a mixture, if a plantation should be thinned after long neglect — Contrast of such a plantation with a close wood of firs only — Its variety would not arise merely from a diversity of plants — Variety in forests produced by a few species— Continual and unvaried diversity a source and a species of monotony — Accident and neglect the sources of variety in unimproved parks and forests — The reasons why lawns have so little variety — Why a lawn could hardly be made to look well in a picture— Yet their peculiar character ought not to be destroyed — Verdure and smoothness, which are the characteristic beauties of a lawn, are in their nature allied to monotony ; but improvers, instead of trying to lessen that defect, have added to it — Soft and smooth colours, like soft and smooth sounds, are grateful

XX

CONTENTS.

PAOK

to the mere sense — A relish for artful combinations acquired by degrees — Such a relish does not exclude a taste for simple scenes, and simple melodies — Remarks by E., 189-212

Chapter XII

On the general effects of water in landscape — The beauty arising from reflections — None in Mr. Brown's made water — The turns of a beautiful natural river compared with those of Mr. Brown's artificial rivers — Remarks on certain passages of the poets, respecting the banks of rivers — None of them applicable to those of Mr. Brown's artificial water — No professor has endeavoured to make an artificial like a natural river ; though he would be proud of having it mistaken for one — Mr. Brown and his followers great economists of invention — Cruelty of destroying the retired character of a brook — Regulus — Objects of reflection, peculiarly suited to stagnant water — Remarks on the expression of a fine sheet of water — The great piece of water at Blenheim — The dressed bank and garden scenery ; the reason why that part is superior to the other improved parts — Mr. Brown did not work in that part upon principle — He does not appear to have paid any attention to the thinning of his plantations — Anecdote of a lover of painting : two cows can never group — Character of the water below the cascade at Blenheim — Remarks by E., 213-226

Chapter XIII

General reflections on the subject of the Essay — Mr. Mason's poem as real an attack on Mr. Brown's system as what I have written — Something of patriotism in Mr. Mason's and Mr. Walpole's praises — Mr. Hamilton : Painshill — Precept of Tasso ; comment upon it — Painting tends to humanise the mind — Tribute to the memory of a near relation — Anecdote of Sir Joshua Reynolds and Wilson — The true proser — an emblem of Mr. Brown's performances — The opposite character — an emblem of the picturesque — He alone deserves the name of improver who leaves or creates the greatest number of pictures — But the sickening display of art, and the total want of effect tempts one to reverse the line of Tasso, 227-235

Appendix to the First Essay, 236

ESSAY ON ARTIFICIAL WATER.

Preface, . 247

Arguments that might plausibly be urged in defence of Mr. Brown's made water, and against the imitation of the banks of natural lakes and rivers — In order to imitate them with effect, we must inquire not how such banks may have looked when they were first created, but how they were progressively formed — Different accidents by which natural lakes are formed — Pieces of artificial water made by means of a head, of digging, or of both — Their form best indicated by the water itself — How natural lakes, which originally had no varieties, may have acquired them, and how similar varieties may be prepared by art — What would probably be the process of an improver who wished to prepare them where the banks were naturally uniform— The two principal changes are by removing earth from, or by placing it upon, or against banks — the first considered — Remarks by E. — Remarks on digging out the soil previous to its being disposed of — The banks of a natural river and its varieties analysed — Such an analysis recommended from the example of painters — Method of imitating such a bank by the placing of the mould — And of other objects — Of the beauty of tints — those of stone and of broken soil— All varied banks, not merely those of water, should be studied by the painter and the improver — Reflections on foregrounds

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xxi

— their general effect, and their detail — Arguments for enriching the hanks of made water — Different characters of hanks in natural rivers considered, with their degrees of richness and variety — Those varieties have never been attempted in made water — Reasons for thinking they might be imitated with success — Instance of the close affinity between landscape painters and landscape gardeners • — And between those of Mr. Brown's school and house painters — Objection to the style I have recommended, from the danger of its producing absurdities — That objection obviated — The combinations that might be formed by men of real taste, with Remarks by E. — Mr. Brown's banks though tame, not simple — Reasons for having recommended enrichment, and not simplicity — Character of simplicity— Supposing the country to be perfectly flat, how are the banks to be formed1? — Reflections on Mr. Brown's method in such situations — On continuity of surface in ground, and on the separation and connection occasioned by water and its banks — The strong attraction of water, and its influence on all around it— Its position of great consequence in the view from the house — The banks of a bare natural river, compared with those of Mr. Brown's — also, supposing them both to be planted and left to grow wild — The varieties in the rich but flat banks of a natural river examined — Remarks by E. — They all may and should be imitated — On planting the banks of water — On artificial hillocks, and swellings of ground — Remarks by E. — Quotation from Mr. Mason on that subject — Ditto from the Abbe de Lille — On the forms of artificial pieces of water — Reasons for imitating a lake rather than a river — Remarks by E. — Excellent hints may be taken from the forms of water in gravel-pits — Effect of the proportion of objects to the size of water — And of their disproportion — Small pools in wooded scenes — Quotation from Mr. Mason — On the revival of tints in water — On the use of water in pictures— On a picture of Titian —Many banks spoiled by raising water too high — The effect of torrents descending into a flat — Quotation from Macchiavelli — On islands — Those in Lake Superior — Quotation from Morse's American Geography — The use of islands in disguising the appearance of the head — Their own intrinsic beauty — Of forming and planting islands — The trees most proper for islands — Remarks by E. — Caution with regard to firs, and trees of a light green — Of water plants — Comparison between a piece of water and a lawn — between islands, and clumps and thickets — Circular islands in the centre — On flowing lines and curves — Insensible transitions, not lines, the cause of beauty in landscape — The great defect of Mr. Brown's system — Distinction between a beautiful and a picturesque river, 858-296

ESSAY ON DECORATIONS NEAR THE HOUSE.

Difficulties in treating the subject, and whence they arise — The great defect of modern gardening an affectation of simplicity — Mr. Mason's address to Simplicity objected to — The characters of Richness and Simplicity in painting — Architecture, even of the simplest kind, requires the accompaniments of art — Gardens in Italy ; their general character — Their character when kept up, and when neglected — Vanbrugh's answer when consulted about the garden at Blenheim— An account of an old-fashioned garden, which I myself destroyed, and regret — Remarks by E. — Arguments in favour of the old Italian gardens, from the characters of the artists employed to adorn them — The principles on which their excellence is founded — Anecdote of Lord Stair — Gravel and terrace walk compared — The irregular enrichments of a broken bank compared with the regular ones of an ornamented parapet— Iole in the lion's skin — The varieties in broken ground serve as indications where to plant with effect — In a uniform bank no motive of preference — Leonardo da Vinci— The use of a mixture of stone

b xxii

CONTENTS.

and wood work in the foregrounds of every style of building trellises — Remarks by E. — Toleration in gardening — that of the Romans in religion — The introduction of Dutch gardening probably banished the Italian style — Quotation from Pontanus — Revolution in gai'dening and politics compared — Reformation of Knox and Brown compared — Mr. Brown most successful in gardens, not in grounds — His merit in gravel- walks— those at Blenheim — His ridicule of zig-zag walks — Fountains and statues—Remarks by E. — Caution with regard to statues in gardens — General comparison of ancient and modern gardening — Symmetry, formality, straight lines— The Italian style of gardening most suited to stately architecture, but there are gradations in garden ornaments, as in buildings — How a real and progressive improvement in gardening might be made — False idea of originality — Difference between leaving old terraces, avenues, &c. and making them— Richmond terrace— Arguments drawn from poetry, painting, &c. in favour of heightening and embellishing common nature — The difficulties of gardening not in executing the parts, but in combining them into a well connected whole — Remarks by E,, 297-327