74 



NA TURE 



[May 24, 1883; 



of cloud is here represented, one resembling mashed 

 potatoes. 



602. "A Calm— Bay of Naples," F. W. Jackson. Good 

 study. 



1461. "Between the Showers," Henry Moore. Good 

 study of clouds. 



Distance and Atmosphere 



279. "Gathering the Flock," H. W. B. Davis, R.A. 

 Perfect distance, toning carefully preserved, and the 

 picture is free from the exaggeration which one so often 

 laments. The illumination of the sheep is, however, too 

 local. 



321. " Highlands and Lowlands," William Linnell. 

 Admirably managed distance. 



479. " Light in the West : After Rain," Alfred W. Wil- 

 liams. The artist seems to have too strongly contrasted 

 the peaks against the sky. The peaks though high are 

 really distant, and hence there is atmosphere between us 

 and them. 



96. "Snowdon," Joseph Knight. Everything that could 

 be desired. 



255. " Llyn-yr-Adar on the Adder's Pool, Carnarvon- 

 shire,'' J. W. Oakes, A. This is the picture referred to at 

 length in the preceding article. We repeat that it is a 

 pity the author did not study the rainbow before he 

 attempted to paint it. 



843. " Spring Time at Tillietudlam Castle, Lanarkshire," 

 David Murray. The effect of sunshine on grass is here 

 carefully rendered, but there is a little too much colour in 

 the delicate clouds in the centre of the picture. 



Sunsets 



98. "Parting Day," B. W. Leader, A. Careful study, 

 rifts admirably attempted, but the treatment of them is 

 not quite perfect, especially on the right of the picture. 

 As a rule the clouds must be lower down than they are 

 here represented to give the effect sought to be rendered. 



Note on Rifts. — These rifts, which have attracted the 

 attention of Mr. Leader, are only possible when the 

 air is very densely charged with aqueous vapour, for 

 the reason that they are a projection upon the distant 

 sky of a cylinder, less illuminated than the surrounding 

 air, owing to the interposition of a cloud low down in 

 the atmosphere. Now, as whatever the condition of 

 the air may be it must obviously get more dense as the 

 earth is approached ; the lower the cloud the stronger will 

 be the rift, and the more the cylinder of shadow is directed 

 to the point overhead the more definite will be the rift, for 

 the reason that along the line of sight the greatest distance 

 will then be in shadow. We are really in such a case 

 dealing with a partial eclipse of a long column of air, and 

 as at any one place the conditions of the atmosphere at 

 the same time will be almost, if not quite, identical, if 

 rifts produced by clouds are shown on one side of the 

 picture, the other side of the picture should show rifts 

 produced in like manner. This we think is a point which 

 Mr. Leader has very pardonably missed. The reflection 

 of the clouds in the water is not quite true. 



164. " Sunset Fires," John MacWhirter, A. This 

 picture is spoiled because the artist has made no dis- 

 tinction between the colours of the sky and of the clouds. 



399. " At Last ! " Fred. C. Cotman. Sunset and water 

 reflection ; a beautiful picture. 



1471. "An Autumn Evening," B. W. Leader, A. This 

 is a very fair sunset sky, but a little too cool in colour, and 

 the reflection in the water is not good. There is however 

 a careful bit of painting in the way in which the top of 

 the cumulus is reflected over the bridge. 



Moons, &c. 



214. " Tipt with Eve's Latest Gleam of Burning Red," 

 James S. Hill. It is quite impossible that such a moon 

 should be at such a height at sunset, besides which the 

 moon is more shapeless than she should look under the 

 given cloud conditions. 



232. "Too Late," Frank Dicksee, A. Everything about 

 this picture when we leave the figures, with which we are 

 not at present concerned, is wrong. We have an impos- 

 sible moon in an impossible sky. The artist has attempted 

 to paint the old moon in the new moon's arms, one of the 

 most beautiful natural phenomena visible after sunset, 

 but by a strange fatality almost every point where science 

 could have assisted the artist has been neglected. As is 

 known to many children, the appearance of the complete 

 body of the moon on such an occasion as this, when only a 

 very thin crescent is illuminated by the sun, depends upon 

 the fact that the earth reflects light to the moon, hence 

 the term "earth shine," the equivalent of "la lumiere 

 cendree" of the French. Under these conditions we have 

 in fact a thin crescent illuminated by direct sunlight, 

 whilst the rest of the moon is illuminated by light re- 

 flected from the earth. One of the points of this earth 

 illumination which Mr. Dicksee has entirely missed is 

 this, that the earth-light must be equally distributed over 

 the whole surface of the moon which it illuminates. 

 Sunlight reflected from the earth to the moon, and then 

 reflected back again from the moon to the earth, must 

 be quite general in its action, and must equally light 

 up each part of the lunar surface. Hence the abso- 

 lutely equable illumination which is always seen, but 

 which this picture fails to show. The fact that the old 

 moon thus illuminated appears to rest in the new 

 moon's arms depenJs upon irradiation, by the opera- 

 tion of which a thing very brilliantly illuminated looks 

 larger than when it is dimly illuminated. That part 

 of the moon, therefore, which shines by the brilliant light 

 of the sun, appears to belong to a larger body than that 

 part which receives its less brilliant illumination from the 

 earth. This appearance is so obvious that it has given rise 

 to the old world illustrations, in which the " old " moon is 

 represented as in a boat, because in fact the two horns of 

 the crescent moon extend beyond the old moon as we 

 have said, and appear to form part of a larger circle. 

 This point also Mr. Dicksee has entirely missed. What 

 we have to say touching the colour of the sky is, 

 that neither Mr. Dicksee, nor any one else, ever saw 

 such a colour as he has painted to indicate the place of 

 sunset. At such a height above the horizon a green 

 colour is impossible, it must either be red, or yellow, or 

 grey, according to the state of the atmosphere at the 

 time. We have ventured to speak thus at length with 

 reference to this picture, because we consider it a very 

 typical case, and surely Mr. Dicksee, when he becomes 

 acquainted with the facts to which we have drawn 

 attention, and as to which there can, we believe, be 

 no dispute, will regret that he should have disfigured his 



