1^^ ON THE USE OF THE CAMERA LUCIDA. 



greater degree; his eyes will be inore completely shaded 

 from the sun, he may keep his hat on to sl)ade his head, 

 and, if lie was so luxuriously disposed, might station a 

 servant to hold a large parasol tc^ shade him completely 

 from the son, without the least impediment to his work. 

 But if he sho.'ld choose to draw with the camera lucida, he 

 must abandon li: these ad vantag^es ; turn his face towards 

 the sun if it was shinin<^, let its light fall full upon his pa- 

 per, the rejection from 'which must reverberate into his 

 eyes, and take off his hat, that the agreeable shade it might 

 afford might not prevent him from seeing his pencil, or the 

 view he intended to draw. The luxuries of such a situation 

 may be easily conceived; and I believe that very few would 

 wish to enjoy theiH, who was aware of them. 

 Farfher com- Having said so much on the preceding, which I am tempt- 

 j);ansotu g^ ^^ pyji auxiliary points of comparison, I shall proceed to 



compare the simple act of drawing with each of these in- 

 struments, beginning with the camera lucida. 

 MofTeof rlraw- ^ have repeated the methods of drawing with this instru- 

 in^ with the nient as described by Mr. Bate, and fin>d them correct: it 

 * ' is to be understood from them, that, in order to draw any 



view, you must fix the eye to the eye hole, and move the 

 bead upwards, downwards, or sideways, to get a sight of the 

 view, taking care to move the pencil in a direction opposite 

 to that in which the head is moved, so as to pass it over the 

 objects by degrees, as the motion of the head makes them 

 appear upon the paper. That it is possible to do this, tliere 

 is no doubt; but, when done, it will produce something 

 very different from the spirited or true sketch of an artist, 

 since the whole must be effected by the tremulous creeping 

 movement of the hand, feeling its way iu. twilight, rather 

 than firmly representing that which the artist sees, 

 and with the ^^^ whole of this is diiectly the reverse of what may be 

 camera ob- effected in the camera obscura. Whether the object of an 

 artist be to. study the minutiae of the scene before liim with 

 tasteless, insipid correctness, of which the works of Van- 

 derlieyden are the most eminent example ; or whether he 

 wi*hes to combine truth of representation, with tasteful se- 

 lection of object, and strong delineation of character; the 

 subject he chooses is jilaced completely in his power at one 



view. 



acur*. 



