OF NO CONSEQUENCE 73 



for really interesting paints. But I hanker after 

 my Intense Blue. It cost me two shillings. 



It appears (I quote from my lesson) that trees 

 are not green. They are really Vandyke Brown 

 and Yellow Ochre and Burnt Sienna and Cobalt 

 Blue. I must verify this. 



There is a thing called the Essential Character- 

 istic which resides in every object and distinguishes 

 it from everything else. Seize that, and nobody 

 can mistake what you have drawn, say a cathe- 

 dral, for what you have not drawn, say an orange. 

 There is therefore something in a cathedral which 

 is not in an orange, and something in an orange 

 which is not in a cathedral. If these things be 

 discovered and properly drawn there is no chance 

 of your cathedral, however round and yellow, 

 being taken for an orange, nor your orange, let it 

 be as Gothic as it pleases, being admired as a 

 cathedral. The task which I must set myself is to 

 find these Essential Characteristics. 



After trial (upon white poplars and elms) I 

 make this assertion. Oranges and Cathedrals are 

 undistinguishable from each other.. It has been 

 well said that the study of art opens the eyes to 



