Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

LECTURE VI.

DRAWING, A MEANS OF EDUCATION.

BY WILLIAM J. WHITAKER,

OF BOSTON, MASS.

IN considering the subject of our present lecture, it is not necessary to premise that every person who wishes to learn to draw, requires all the talent and varied powers requisite for an artist. This narrow view of the matter has led to the mistake of making Drawing a somewhat exclusive study, or, what is generally termed, an accomplishment; and, as it is frequently taught, it scarcely deserves even that name, for it gives no power to the mind, but simply trains the hand to mechanical productions and mechanical skill.

It is too often made a mere dead letter, instead of a living, active principle, and, in place of enlarging the mind, and prompting the heart to investigate nature and her beauties, it is made all-sufficient to copy the thoughts of others, without attaining the power to express a single one of our own, or to delineate

faithfully the simplest object placed before our eyes. Such is not Drawing.

Suppose the old masters, whose works we SO much admire for their truth and beauty, had been mere copyists of the dead past, or remote antiquity

would it have been possible for the sublime productions their minds and hands have brought forth, to have been given to the world. Never! But instead of these we should have had innumerable pictures, statues, and temples all resembling each other, rather retrograding than advancing in form; for it is utterly impossible to copy faithfully unless we catch the spirit of the original designer, and this power is not given to all, any more than the poet's dreams of beauty, or the nice analytic power of the man of science.

In speaking of methods of imparting instruction in this, to me, delightful art, I advocate no individual's exclusive one, nor do I deny that there is merit in all; but I would have drawing taught universally, and in a manner that should be at once natural, truthful, and productive of the highest good to all who may undertake to learn. How this is to be accomplished, remains to be shown. How others who have reached high eminence in art have accomplished it, let them tell for themselves. Of Claude Lorraine it is said, "He studied nature from sunrise to sunset;" of John Van Huysum, "He painted everything after nature, and was so exact as to watch the hour of the day when his model appeared to the greatest perfection;" of Murillo, "He was a faithful imitator of nature, always true and natural;" and

of the illustrious Gainsborough, that "He would return to his studio from a country ramble, with pockets laden with stores from nature's treasurehouse." Stores? Yes, "frightful" weeds, "ugly" misshapen stones, and leaves withered and dead; but he saw in them beauties, and laid them up, either for future use or imitation.

We may not all acquire the great powers of these great men; but shall we scorn a part, because we are incapable of grasping the whole? shall we refuse to write, because we cannot be Shakspeares and Miltons? refuse to study mathematics, because we can be neihter Newtons nor Franklins? deny our love of country, if we cannot prove ourselves Alfreds or Washingtons? never dare to speak, because we have not the eloquence of a Clay or a Webster ? Such reasons are absurd. We must take our talents as they are, God-given; use them with the highest hopes, cultivate them for the noblest purposes, and with lofty aim; and if we never reach it, what then? The winged arrow droops ere it can reach its destination; and shall we, beings gifted with immortality, and created for eternity, be less than this? No; it may not be. We all aspire to more than we can reach; and if we could reach that height which now appears perfection, we should look so far beyond it then, that the perfection of our present hour would seem only perfect in its imperfectness.

That Art has been admired and cultivated by all countries and all peoples, none can deny, as we have undeniable proofs of the truth of such an assertion in the works they have left behind them. That this

study has sometimes preceded writing, it would be no hard matter to prove. Nay it stands on the monuments of Egypt, Nineveh, and Mexico, a living proof of this statement. It has, in times long since passed away, been the very means of symbolizing language, and imparting instruction; and it still stands in the hands of the teachers of the rising generation of the present times, a powerful instrument of progression, if rightly used. It has been said that this is an age of illustration, and with much apparent truth; for we have pictorial books of art and science, pictorial magazines and papers, and pictorial illustrations of invention in the various branches of industrial skill, and human enterprise. We use art everywhere; in the temple, the schoolhouse, the dwelling, in the articles of daily wear, and daily use in the household; and who thinks a home furnished if it is without a picture? Then, if it is of such importance as to belong to the every occupation and sphere of human life and activity, should it not be cultivated, and that with the greatest care? should it not be universal, that all may be enabled to appreciate the Beautiful, and made capable of being impressed and elevated by it? But a common objection is, that all have not the power to learn. Before we accede so much, let us endeavor to ascertain what Drawing is, and what powers are requisite to enable us to learn to use the pencil, or crayon, with sufficient facility to illustrate such lessons as may require it at our hands.

First- What is Drawing? Not what it is usually supposed to be simple delineation of copies placed

[ocr errors]

before the pupil. But it is the art of representing truthfully any real object we see, or can remember to have seen, or can imagine, on a flat surface. To represent any object drawn by another-thus copying only from the flat surface, will never enable any one, unless gifted to an extraordinary degree, to delineate the smallest natural object, or to express, by this means, any thought, however simple. But if it is cultivated in the right way, it will give to the person acquiring such a knowledge, (and that, not necessarily a very extended one,) the power to draw from nature - to delineate the flower or bud, the tree or shrub, the well-remembered haunts of childhood, the forms of all things loved; and, besides, it will lead to a closer investigation of all around us in this garden of God; it will expand the intellect, and open up the deeper feelings of the heart; it will gift with energy those who pursue it, and afford many a pleasant hour to the mind, when weary and worn with the heavier duties of life.

Next, the powers required to attain a knowledge of the art of Drawing. First, a willing, persevering mind; secondly, a knowledge of geometric form; and lastly, sufficient patience to enable one to begin at the beginning, and go forward as nature prompts-from the seed to the germ, the germ to the young plantand so on through the various stages of being, until maturity is reached. I know full well this does not agree with the popular notions of the necessary requirements, which include talent and genius, and all the other excuses for hard work, that the lazy mind is capable of inventing; but I have no faith in these

« AnteriorContinuar »