m 



COMPARTSOX -SVIXn LAXPSCAPE-PAINTIXG. 293 



to some bald or feeble point, and so bv stimulating 

 invention may lead to valuable results. 



Another point of comparison between landscape- 

 painting anil landscape-gardening, whixjh presents at 

 the same time an analogy and an important difference, 

 is to be found in the manner in which the designs con- 

 templated are respectively carried into effect. In 

 painting, there is, or at least may be, something tenta- 

 tive or experimental, running throughout almost the 

 whole of the processes which intervene between the 

 first conception of the picture and its complete execu- 

 tion. The artist, if engaged in composition, traces his 

 outlines on his canvas; but he can alter them as he 

 goes along, and probably his success, or the want of it, 

 in one part of the picture, will suggest a corresponding 

 or compensating feature in another. Even when ap- 

 proaching a conclusion, his work is yet open to change, 

 though such liberties may then be most unadvisable, 

 still change is possible ; but when the last touch has 

 been given, the picture is finished, and will continue 

 so, as long as the colors and other materials endure. 

 All along the wor^ has been wholly in the artist's 

 power, and he has the felicity of completing it, and 

 stamping even its minutest parts with the abiding 

 impress of his own mind. 



" I also am a painter / " says the Garden Artist ; and 

 it is true that he creates a varied scenery ; but neither 

 are his materials nor his operations so entirely under 

 his command. Trees and shnibs may be regarded as 

 his colors ; but how ineffective and untractable are 

 these, when compared with the pigments on the paint- 

 er's palette ! And his processes are only in a slight 

 degree tentative, at least so far as he has immediately 



