3i6 



THE PAINTER'S HORSE, 



as well as utterly impossible ; and yet it conveyed the feeling 

 of motion better than that practised by the earlier horse 

 painters. It is manifest that a pictorial attitude which we 

 know to be incorrect, will look unnatural to us. Consequently, 

 the more general knowledge becomes, the more difficult will 

 it be for a painter who tries to draw horses in motion, to 

 satisfy the artistic requirements of his public. Hence, pictures 





Fig. 408.— Horse Leaping, by Alken. 



of galloping horses appearing to claw the ground, as the 

 fore feet come down with the knees and fetlocks well bent, 

 or committing equally absurd eccentricities, will, to any one 

 who has studied the paces of the horse, look simply ridiculous, 

 no matter how meritorious the painting may be in other 

 respects. Barroil {UAri Equestre) justly remarks that the 

 fact that the domain of the painter is what one sees and 

 not what really takes place, is no proof that one sees attitudes 

 which do not exist ** It is, however, by virtue of this theory, 



