SECTION V.

OF TRUTH OF WATER.

Chapter I.—Of Water, as Painted by the Ancients.

[§ 1.]Sketch of the functions and infinite agency of water.[325]
[§ 2.]The ease with which a common representation of it may be given. The impossibility of a faithful one.[325]
[§ 3.]Difficulty of properly dividing the subject.[326]
[§ 4.]Inaccuracy of study of water-effect among all painters.[326]
[§ 5.]Difficulty of treating this part of the subject.[328]
[§ 6.]General laws which regulate the phenomena of water. First, The imperfection of its reflective surface.[329]
[§ 7.]The inherent hue of water modifies dark reflections, and does not affect right ones.[330]
[§ 8.]Water takes no shadow.[331]
[§ 9.]Modification of dark reflections by shadow.[332]
[§ 10.]Examples on the waters of the Rhone.[333]
[§ 11.]Effect of ripple on distant water.[335]
[§ 12.]Elongation of reflections by moving water.[335]
[§ 13.]Effect of rippled water on horizontal and inclined images.[336]
[§ 14.]To what extent reflection is visible from above.[336]
[§ 15.]Deflection of images on agitated water.[337]
[§ 16.]Necessity of watchfulness as well as of science. Licenses, how taken by great men.[337]
[§ 17.]Various licenses or errors in water painting of Claude, Cuyp, Vandevelde.[339]
[§ 18.]And Canaletto.[341]
[§ 19.]Why unpardonable.[342]
[§ 20.]The Dutch painters of sea.[343]
[§ 21.]Ruysdael, Claude, and Salvator.[344]
[§ 22.]Nicolo Poussin.[345]
[§ 23.]Venetians and Florentines. Conclusion.[346]

chapter II.—Of Water, as Painted by the Moderns.

[§ 1.]General power of the moderns in painting quiet water. The lakes of Fielding.[348]
[§ 2.]The calm rivers of De Wint, J. Holland, &c.[348]
[§ 3.]The character of bright and violent falling water.[349]
[§ 4.]As given by Nesfield.[349]
[§ 5.]The admirable water-drawing of J. D. Harding.[350]
[§ 6.]His color; and painting of sea.[350]
[§ 7.]The sea of Copley Fielding. Its exceeding grace and rapidity.[351]
[§ 8.]Its high aim at character.[351]
[§ 9.]But deficiency in the requisite quality of grays.[352]
[§ 10.]Variety of the grays of nature.[352]
[§ 11.]Works of Stanfield. His perfect knowledge and power.[353]
[§ 12.]But want of feeling. General sum of truth presented by modern art.[353]

Chapter III.—Of Water, as Painted by Turner.

[§ 1.]The difficulty of giving surface to smooth water.[355]
[§ 2.]Is dependent on the structure of the eye, and the focus by which the reflected rays are perceived.[355]
[§ 3.]Morbid clearness occasioned in painting of water by distinctness of reflections.[356]
[§ 4.]How avoided by Turner.[357]
[§ 5.]All reflections on distant water are distinct.[357]
[§ 6.]The error of Vandevelde.[358]
[§ 7.]Difference in arrangement of parts between the reflected object and its image.[359]
[§ 8.]Illustrated from the works of Turner.[359]
[§ 9.]The boldness and judgment shown in the observance of it.[360]
[§ 10.]The texture of surface in Turner's painting of calm water.[361]
[§ 11.]Its united qualities.[361]
[§ 12.]Relation of various circumstances of past agitation, &c., by the most trifling incidents, as in the Cowes.[363]
[§ 13.]In scenes on the Loire and Seine.[363]
[§ 14.]Expression of contrary waves caused by recoil from shore.[364]
[§ 15.]Various other instances.[364]
[§ 16.]Turner's painting of distant expanses of water.—Calm, interrupted by ripple.[365]
[§ 17.]And rippled, crossed by sunshine.[365]
[§ 18.]His drawing of distant rivers.[366]
[§ 19.]And of surface associated with mist.[367]
[§ 20.]His drawing of falling water, with peculiar expression of weight.[367]
[§ 21.]The abandonment and plunge of great cataracts. How given by him.[368]
[§ 22.]Difference in the action of water, when continuous and when interrupted. The interrupted stream fills the hollows of its bed.[369]
[§ 23.]But the continuous stream takes the shape of its bed.[370]
[§ 24.]Its exquisite curved lines.[370]
[§ 25.]Turner's careful choice of the historical truth.[370]
[§ 26.]His exquisite drawing of the continuous torrent in the Llanthony Abbey.[371]
[§ 27.]And of the interrupted torrent in the Mercury and Argus.[372]
[§ 28.]Various cases.[372]
[§ 29.]Sea painting. Impossibility of truly representing foam.[373]
[§ 30.]Character of shore-breakers, also inexpressible.[374]
[§ 31.]Their effect how injured when seen from the shore.[375]
[§ 32.]Turner's expression of heavy rolling sea.[376]
[§ 33.]With peculiar expression of weight.[376]
[§ 34.]Peculiar action of recoiling waves.[377]
[§ 35.]And of the stroke of a breaker on the shore.[377]
[§ 36.]General character of sea on a rocky coast given by Turner in the Land's End.[378]
[§ 37.]Open seas of Turner's earlier time.[379]
[§ 38.]Effect of sea after prolonged storm.[380]
[§ 39.]Turner's noblest work, the painting of the deep open sea in the Slave Ship.[382]
[§ 40.]Its united excellences and perfection as a whole.[383]