Gateway to the Classics: How to Study Pictures by Charles H. Caffin

How to Study Pictures

by Charles H. Caffin

Table of Contents

Introduction

Cimabue—Giotto

Masaccio—Mantegna

Fra Angelico—Jan van Eyck

Botticelli—Memling

Perugino—Giovanni Bellini

Raphael—Wolgemuth

Da Vinci—Dürer

Titian—Holbein the Younger

Correggio—Michelangelo

Veronese—Tintoretto

Rubens—Velasquez

Van Dyck—Franz Hals

Rembrandt—Murillo

Jacob van Ruisdael—Poussin

Hobbema—Claude Lorrain

Watteau—Hogarth

Reynolds—Gainsborough

Constable—Turner

David—Delacroix

Rousseau—Corot

Breton—Millet

Courbet—Boecklin

Rossetti—Holman Hunt

Piloty—Fortuny

Manet—Israels

Puvis de Chavannes—Gérôme

Whistler—Sargent

Monet—Hashimoto Gaho

Front Matter

Author's Note

Some experience in lecturing has impressed upon me several points. In the first place, the majority of students have not the time to make an exhaustive study; while those who intend to do so ultimately, still need to begin with a simple summary that shall spread before them the salient features of the subject and afford a firm groundwork on which to build. Instead, therefore, of multiplying names, I have confined myself to fifty-six, which are pivotal ones by reason of what these artists accomplished or of their influence upon others. The selection must not be regarded as an attempt to pick out a list of the most famous names in painting; my real aim being to unfold the gradual progress of the art, to show how various motives have from time to time influenced artists, and how the scene of vital progress has shifted from country to country. I have tried to present a survey of the whole field of painting, not to write, a history of artists or schools.

Again, while the student is buried in the history of one school, it is difficult for him to bear in mind what is being done by contemporary artists in other schools. Accordingly, as often as possible, I have treated side by side contemporary men of different nationalities, trying to show in each case something of the differences of environment and personality, and of motive and method. In this way also, I hope, the panoramic character of the story is increased.

Lastly, "by their works ye shall know them." An artist desires to be known and estimated by his works. Also it may be more useful to study pictures than lives of artists, because an appreciation of one picture leads to that of many. Therefore I have tried to combine with the historical aspects of the subject the matter which is usually treated separately in books of "How to study pictures."

I have adopted the parallel method: "Look on this picture and on this." Not, as a rule, to suggest that one is more admirable than another; but to stimulate interest and the faculty of observation, and to show how various are the motives which have prompted artists and the methods which they have adopted. In the sum total of comparisons I have tried to include as many as possible of the motives and methods which have from time to time prevailed, so that the student may gain a basis of appreciation from which to extend his observations with understanding and enjoyment.

For the object of study should be to put oneself in touch with each artist in turn, to enter into his point of view, to see as far as possible with his eyes, and to estimate his work, not for what it does not contain, but for what it does. In this way only can our appreciation of painting become catholic and intelligent. Then, we are no longer content to say "I know what I like," but "I know why I like"; and our likings are multiplied.

As we discover more and more of the diverse ways in which artists have put a portion of themselves, of their own lives, into their pictures, our appreciation becomes indefinitely enlarged, our sympathies continually broadened, our enjoyment perpetually increased. Thus may we enter into the life of the artist and reinforce our own lives.

CHARLES H. CAFFIN.

Mamaroneck, N. Y.