XI RIVERSIDE LETTERS 87 



people from standing in the wrong places, 

 and how even then they would repeatedly 

 move these obstacles. It is really astonish- 

 ing how ignorant the generality of people 

 are about the simple principles of seeing 

 things rightly. I have to take just the 

 same care when I am showing friends the 

 flowers in my garden, as I do when they 

 come to see my pictures in my studio, I 

 generally conduct them cunningly to the 

 best points of view before directing their 

 attention to a flower border. In a garden 

 it makes all the difference whether the 

 spectator has the light behind or in front 

 of him. When the light comes through the 

 border towards you every petal and leaf is 

 enriched by transparency and the colour 

 intensified, whilst if the light is behind you 

 and shines dead on the objects in your front 

 the effect is cold and opaque. You might 

 as well look at a stained glass window from 

 the outside in order to judge of the beauty 

 of its colour, as at a bed of flowers with the 



