THE LANDSCAPE BEAUTIFUL 



already developed much further than 

 landscape art, and proceeding on the fair 

 assumption that the latter will follow some- 

 what the same course that the former have 

 followed. The comparison may be con- 

 veniently made with painting, and for 

 simplicity's sake may be confined to Amer- 

 ica, though, of course, the same phylogeny 

 would be found anywhere else. 



The development of painting presents 

 three principal stages, — not to analyze more 

 closely. These may be recorded and sum- 

 marily characterized as follows: 



1. The period of the representation o£ 

 details. Smibert, West and Copley built 

 up their pictures by drawing in every pos- 

 sible detail, seen or unseen. Every button 

 on a coat and every stitch on a cuff were 

 represented as fully and as accurately as the 

 skill and means of the artist would permit. 



2. The period of the representation of 

 material masses. The painters early learned 

 that masses are more important than de- 

 tails, and so the effort was turned from the 

 latter to the former. The so-called school 

 of impressionism, while earning an unpopu- 

 lar reputation through extravagances, 

 nevertheless settled the thinking world in 



130 



