There was too much of rule and precedent, too much
regard for the traditions, for him to do anything strikingly original.
His brush-work and composition were more learned than individual, and
his color, though usually good, was oftentimes conventional in
contrasts. Taking him for all in all he was a very cultivated painter,
a man to be respected and admired, but he had not quite the original
spirit that we meet with in Gainsborough.
Reynolds was well-grounded in Venetian color, Bolognese composition,
Parmese light-and-shade, and paid them the homage of assimilation; but
if Gainsborough (1727-1788) had such school knowledge he positively
disregarded it. He disliked all conventionalities and formulas. With a
natural taste for form and color, and with a large decorative sense,
he went directly to nature, and took from her the materials which he
fashioned into art after his own peculiar manner. His celebrated Blue
Boy was his protest against the conventional rule of Reynolds that a
composition should be warm in color and light.
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