THE YOUNG DRAUGHTSMAN. 



539 



given, may be put one above the other as well as one by the side 

 of the other, and both arrangements occur in the drawings of 

 the same child. And much later, when greater attention to posi- 

 tion is observable, there is a general tendency to put the group 

 of features too high up i. e., to make the forehead or brain region 

 too small in proportion to the chin region (see Fig. 2).* 



The want of proportion is still more plainly seen in the treat- 

 ment of the several features. The eye, as already remarked, is 

 apt to be absurdly large. In the drawing of Mr. Cookers little 

 girl, mentioned above, it is actually larger than the head outside 

 which it lies. This enlargement continues to appear frequently 

 in later drawings, more particularly when one eye only is intro- 

 duced, as in the accompanying drawing by a boy in his seventh 

 year (Fig. 5 a, and Fig. 4, &). The mouth is apt to be even more 

 disproportionate, the child appearing to delight in making this 

 appalling feature supreme, as in the following examples, both by 



FIG. 5. 



boys of five (Fig. 5, b and c). The ear, when it is added, is apt 

 to be enormous, and generally the introduction of new details, as 

 ears, hair, hands, is wont to be emphasized by an exaggeration of 

 their magnitude. 



Very interesting is the gradual artistic evolution of the fea- 

 tures. Here, as in organic evolution, there is a process of special- 

 ization, the primordial indefinite form taking on more of charac- 

 teristic complexity. In the case of the eye, for example, we may 

 often trace a gradual development, the dot being displaced by a 

 small circle or ovoid, this last supplemented by a second circle 

 outside the first, f or by one or by two arches, the former placed 

 above, the latter above and below the circle. 



* M. Passy calls attention to this in his interesting note on children's drawings, Revue 

 Philosophique, 1891, pp. 614 if. I find, however, that though the error is a common one, it 

 is not constant. 



f In one case I find the curious device of two dots or small circles, one above the other 

 within a larger circle, and this form repeated in the eye of animals. 



