34 



tance, would only have a general air of* 

 richness ; and that is the character which 

 they would have in a painted landscape. 

 When seen near, they are much more rich 

 in detail than a painter could venture to 

 represent them in his fore-ground: they 

 are compositions of a confined kind, which 

 have seldom been carefully finished as 

 such, though often sketched as studies. 

 But had such an artist as Van-Huyssum^ 

 who was both a landscape and a flower- 

 painter, chosen to take a compartment of 

 that kind by itself quite separate from the 

 rest of the scenery, he would have repre- 

 sented it in its full detail ; and such a pic- 

 ture would have borne the same relation 

 to a landscape, as one of those groups of 

 flowers which he so often did paint, and 

 with such wonderful truth and splendour, 

 bear to the general view of a garden. He 

 would have expressed all the brilliancy and 

 mellowness of such a small composition! 

 and we, in dressing such parts, should en- 

 deavour to give them that mixture of meI-< 

 lowness and brilliancy, which would suit. 



