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NA TURE 



[May g, 1878 



rally— among those 'even who acknowledge their obli- 

 gations to mathematical and biological science in the 

 regions to which I have referred — the notion that they 

 have anything to learn from physical science — physical 

 science being reduced, at all events it will be convenient 

 that in what I now say I shall take it as reduced, in the 

 main, to optics. There seems to be a sort of notion that 

 there are no laws underlying the phenomena of air, and 

 sky, and sea; that while the shape of a horse's leg is de- 

 fined by law, the order of colours, for instance, in a rain- 

 bow, depends upon the play of blind chance. Indeed I have 

 been informed — and I may tell the story here because it 

 hammers my point home better than anything I could 

 say — that an eminent artist, now living, who had 

 painted a rainbow practically inside out, when the pic- 

 ture was returned to him in order that the colours 

 might be corrected, was so indignant with this attempt 

 to interfere with this special development of the " highest 

 style of imaginative creation," to use Lord Beaconsfield's 

 words, that he charged the trifle of 20/. for attempting to 

 place the colours in the order in which monotonous 

 nature perversely insists they shall stand. 



This is a general attitude, not only of artists, but of would- 

 be teachers of art, and these latter piteously make tempting 

 officers of the whole range of theology for science to work 

 her wicked will upon, if only art may be spared from her 

 contaminating touch. This is not, however, the universal 

 attitude, as I can abundantly testify. Some of our 

 modern painters do most enthusiastically enter into the 

 - study of physical science not only for its own sake, but 

 . in order to embrace it in their art. It has been my great 

 privilege during the last few years to discuss with painters 

 of the highest eminence questions bearing on art which 

 have arisen from my own investigations in another region 

 of woi'k, and in the study of which the works and obser- 

 vational powers of the artist have been of the greatest 

 value to me. 



It is as a result of these many conversations that I 

 have determined to put on paper a sketch of some of the 

 many points in which I think the interest of the operation 

 of nature' s laws is as great from an artistic as from a 

 scientific point of view. I shall, I hope, be able to throw 

 these notes into order, but I shall content myself at first 

 with giving an idea of the result of such studies upon art 

 criticism. Whole reaches of art will remain untouched by 

 physics, and its influence will be chiefly felt by the land- 

 scape-painter. It is only those who are ignorant of the de- 

 velopment of art who will look with suspicion upon the new 

 tests of truth with which artists can supply themselves — 

 with the new ways of tracing effects to causes. Art criti- 

 cism must gain considerably, for in place of jargon we may 

 in time find common sense, and when once this basis is 

 secured then the more secure will be the "highest style 

 of imaginative creation" resting upon it. 



I shall best indicate what I believe will be the influence 

 of the study of optics in the future on art, by stating, by 

 way of introduction, in its most naked form the result 

 of an appeal to the newest branch of knowledge as 

 a test of the truth to nature of several of the pictures in 

 this year's Academy. 



The recent results obtained by the workers in spectrum 

 analysis have added so much to our former knowledge of 

 the actions which go on when light is given ou":, or re- 



flected, or absorbed, that almost all the optics the painter 

 really requires conveniently lies round the most recent 

 work in molecular physics, for the reason that it is the 

 action of molecules which builds up the world with which 

 the artist has to deal. 



The instance I shall take in this paper is the following 

 one. One of the smallest of the developments of the 

 new branch of optics supplies us with facts which can be 

 embodied in a simple working hypothesis. The approxi- 

 mate truth of this can be brought to the test by the 

 various colours of the sky. When I say "working 

 hypothesis," I use a term well known to men of science 

 to indicate a train of thought to work upon and test. 

 It is a first approximation to a general grouping of many 

 facts, and it is perhaps as much generated by imagination 

 as by work. It is not a hypothesis in the ordinary sense 

 of the word, because it has not borne sufficient tests, and 

 it especially is not a thing to be dogmatic about (and 

 by this I do not mean to imply that there is anything 

 whatever which ever should be) but still I think it will 

 serve my turn. 



Although I have never painted a picture, and am 

 no art critic, yet I have criticised the pictures in this 

 and former years with the most intense pleasure from 

 the scientific point of view. This year I have limited 

 myself to sky colour, and I have prepared two lists, 

 one, including those pictures which I think in harmony 

 with nature, and the other those which represent pheno- 

 mena which, however probable in any other planet, are, 

 I think, physically impossible in this. 



I have done more. I have tested the hypothesis by 

 the pictures. I have gone over those in which I was 

 chiefly interested from my narrow point of view with 

 two artist friends of great distinction, and I have 

 asked them whether the view at which I have arrived 

 in each case was correct. The test I had applied had 

 failed me in no instance. 



Here then are the most salient examples included in 

 my lists. I dealt with pictures, not artists, and carefully 

 avoided seeking the artist's name in any case ; but 

 here I must bring them out, in order to refer to the 

 pictures with sufficient completeness. 



First, then, to deal with those pictures in which cloud 

 and sky colour are, I think, correct : — 



3. " The Timber Waggon " — C.E.Johnson. Accu- 

 rate study of the absorption of light by a 

 slightly hazy atmosphere. 

 62,. "A Summer Flood" — H.R.Robertson. Colour 

 of cumulus clouds glowing with the reflected 

 light of sunset, perfect. 



105. " The Cornish Lions " — John Brett. Remarkable 

 picture : the colours and the atmospheric 

 absorption, and therefore transformation of 

 the colour, perfect. 



153. "Evening" — R. C, LesUe. Wonderfully true 

 rendering of a very rare effect, 



230. "Estes Park, Colorado, U.S."— Albert Bierstadt. 

 Very fine atmospheric study. The vapour roUing 

 down the valley leaves its effect on the picture 

 marvellously. 



267. "Wandering Shadows"— P. Graham, A. Mag- 

 nificent picture. Notice the effect of the atmo- 



