Art Out-of-Doors 



predate all their special qualities. We can 

 all recognize our friends when we meet 

 them ; but something more than this power 

 is needed by the painter when he wants to 

 compose a picture of many figures, or to 

 draw a face which shall have a given expres- 

 sion ; and something more by the connois- 

 seur if he is properly to estimate and thor- 

 oughly to enjoy the artist's work. And as 

 the painter and the connoisseur study and 

 assimilate all they see, so too should the 

 landscape-gardener and, no less, the lover 

 of Nature, if they want to understand and 

 enjoy all that is offered them, either in the 

 unassisted work of Nature or in that which 

 Nature and the artist have produced in 

 partnership. Taste is the guide we need, 

 and taste means the cultivation of our own 

 perceptive powers, not the learning of cut- 

 and-dried aesthetic formulas. 



To study art as a preparation for the study 

 and appreciation of Nature may seem, at 

 first thought, a reversal of the right order of 

 things. But it is a very wise thing to do. 

 If a painter were never anything more 

 266 



