INTRODUCTION. 5 



If you have previously studied with attention, be not 

 in the least troubled about details when you are sketching 

 in the outlines. Your memory will give due interpretation, 

 and the doubt, which would hinder you in the reverse 

 situation, will soon vanish, and instead, will impart to 

 your pencil the boldness of accurate delineation with all 

 due preservation of style ; that is to say, passing boldly 

 from the form to the idea. 



From this I conclude that, for the artist, truth is the 

 result of constant study of the living model. Art is the 

 utilisation of this imperatively necessitated study, prior 

 to the animation of the model in a picturesque manner, 

 according to the impression conveyed by the senses and 

 the instinct of the animal. 



In the case of the horse, the interpretation of the 

 phases of motion are very difficult, however thorough 

 the knowledge of the exterior of the subject for 

 reproduction. It is therefore necessary to know what 

 takes place in nature. The spectator should understand 

 that the action of the animal is taken from its real life. 



Let me be permitted to relate a little episode, already 

 long past, which has relation to the present theme. I 

 met, in the studio of Horace Vernet, a rich amateur who 

 was in ecstacies over the artist's facility in the accurate 

 and rapid reproduction of the gaits of horses. The 

 painter, moved by these compliments, and in order to 

 give pleasure to his guest, covered a canvas, as if by 

 magic, with the most irregular motions of the equine 

 tribe ; racing, rearing, kicking. The rapid pencil of 

 Vernet animated all alike, and when the stranger had 

 taken his leave, astounded at such prolific ability, Vernet 

 said to me, whilst making a cigarette, " I have done my 

 business, but I took care to avoid bringing back at a 

 quiet pace all those animals which I had just started at 

 full speed to gratify him ; he would perhaps have noticed 

 the hesitation which I feel at portraying the simplicity 

 of a tranquil gait, for then my eye loses command. 

 Nevertheless," he added, " I think I have improved 

 upon the reproduction of my father's time." 



I have always recollected this feeling of hesitation in 

 the great painter, who possessed every artistic audacity. 



In order that the outlines of details may be exact, the 



