127 



yet Monsieur Gerardin ' is greatly mis- 

 taken, when he directs that no scene in 

 nature should be attempted, till it has 

 first been painted: and 1 apprehend the 

 cause of his mistake to be this: — In an 

 artificial landscape, the foreground is the 

 most important object; indeed some of 

 the most beautiful pictures of Claude de 

 Lorraine consist of a dark foreground, 

 with a very small opening to distant coun- 

 try: but this ought not to be copied in 

 the principal view from the windows of a 

 large house, because it can only have its 

 effect from one window out of many, and, 

 consequently, the others must all be sa- 

 crificed to this sole object. In a picture, 

 the eye is confined within certain limits, 

 and unity is preserved by artificial means, 

 incapable of being applied to real land- 

 scape, in all the extent which Mons. Ge- 

 rardin recommends. 



"' Gerardin Visconte d' Emernonville sur le Paysage, 

 A work containing many just observations, but often 

 mixed with whimsical conceits, and impracticable theo- 

 ries of gardening. 



