TREES IN MODERN PAINTING 265 



he defines a tree more closely than usual it is 

 generally when, near the foreground, in the 

 conventional place at the side of the picture, 

 it is used as a contrast to a wide stretch of 

 country, in which, if it be valley or lowland 

 plain, he loves to show a very sea of forest- 

 trees, their full, rounded forms now in light 

 and now in shadow. 



De Wint uses trees in much the same way 

 as Cox. Sometimes his treatment of them is 

 even more summary ; there is hardly even a 

 suggestion of leafiness ; at other times his 

 rendering is much more subtle than that of 

 Cox ; but he rarely, if ever, paints them as if 

 he valued them otherwise than for their effec- 

 tiveness in the general landscape. I have 

 referred above to Cotman's fine architectural 

 draughtsmanship. Cox never interests himself 

 in the refinements of Gothic detail, though he 

 shows himself sensitive to the play of light on 

 the walls and roofs of picturesque buildings. 

 De Wint will wander round Gloucester and 

 Lincoln, and paint their cathedral towers, 

 evidently with some feeling for the beauty of 

 panelling and tracery, of battlemented parapet 

 and crowning pinnacles. But he could not 



