THE PAINTER'S HORSE. 



713 



in the Royal Academy or Salon, a picture representing a 

 horse running away with a carriage, would most probably 

 incur no rebuke from the art critics for blurring all the 

 spokes of the wheels, and drawing all the legs and feet of 

 the animal sharp. And yet those of us who know any- 

 thing of the laws of motion, must be aware that, in such a 

 case, any one of the horse's feet which is going forward, 

 must be passing far faster through space, than the more or 

 less perpendicular spokes which are revolving through the 

 lower half of their circle ! The blurred appearance of the 



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Fig. 652. — Napoleon's charger, Marengo. {After Mr. James Ward, R.A. 



near fore foot of the horse in Fig. 655, shows that that foot 

 was rapidly going forward at the moment the photograph 

 was taken. The fact of the horse pulling his rider out of 

 the saddle, gives the idea of movement, which Fig. 656 

 fails to convey. 



At paces in which there is a moment of suspension, 

 the idea of motion, will, as a rule, be best conveyed 

 by drawing the horse with his feet off the ground 

 (Figs. 98 and 189). On account of violating this prin- 

 ciple, old time painters, who represented the horse in 

 the gallop with both hind feet on the ground, failed 

 to give the idea of movement ; although, as it happened, 

 the attitude they adopted was not far from true (Fig. 655). 



