Show STUDENT LIFE and there is beauty in the manner of painting and modeling or in the rendering of a musical composition but the higher aim of any language is not to exhibit itself for it's own sake but to express the ideas and meanings of men From every work of art which we have seen we retain an impression and if the work is a masterpiece of its kind the impression will be one of the artist’s conception thought or feeling We may for the time being admire the different technical features the grouping color light and shade textures or form as beautiful in themselves and we are right in doing so but these are not sufficient in themselves to impress us very deeply There is a stronger element in the work the artist’s idea imagination or creation it is in this that we shall feel the power of his individuality Most people have an idea that the object of a painting or a piece of sculpture is to see how closely the artist can imitate nature a reflection in the looking glass if you w ill but it is an erroneous idea Imitation never made anything worth looking at a second time The world is indebted to it for nothing and the imitators have all died off without leaving a trace of anything we appreciate or care for Their labor has been too ignoble and purely mechanical to endure The painter detailing nature upon canvas line upon line with no hope object or ambition but that of rendering nature as she is is but unsuccessfully trying to rival the photographer’s camera and the sculptor working in the same fashion is but emulating the hideousness of the wax figure It is not the object of painting or sculpture to deceive and make one believe lie stands in the presence of real life Art is not the delineation of fruits or crowbars in such a realistic manner that you stretch out your hand to lift them up nor the moulding of bronze and marble so that you start with surprise when you find they are not living We often hear people going into raptures over the manner in which objects stand out from the frames and look as if you could hang your hat on them but this sort of thing represents a horrible nightmare to the artist lie always tries to get his subject to retire within the canvas 23 True painting and sculpture are classed among the imitative arts and so is poetry But consider how far removed from reality is poetic language and how very wide the gulf between nature and the greatest masterpieces of painting This idea of imitation is a false conception of art throughout Sir Joshua Reynolds said of the artist: “lie regards nature with a view to his profession combines her beauties and corrects her defects For the works of nature are full of disproportion” Our own great American artist Whistler made the statement: “That nature is always right is an as- sertion artistically as untrue as it is one whose truth is universally taken for granted Nature is very rarely right to such an extent even that it might almost be said that nature is usually wrong — that is to say the condition of things that shall bring about the perfection of harmony worthy a picture is rare and not comi mon at all” To hold any art and make it great there must be a deep human interest behind it If we would have our work loved or cared for by others we must first love it ourselves A man can not do this and be an imitator Painting is a language and trees sky earth air water men cities streets and buildings are but the symbols of ideas which play their part in the con ception Perhaps we may say literal imitation is despicable enough yet generic truth to nature is absolutely necessary and the measure of this truth attained makes a great artist or an inferior one Truth is not the aim of any art Tiieir great object is to give expression to an aesthetic emotion and truth becomes valuable only so long as it acts as a means toward this end Painting should please us with aesthetic ideas received directly through the sense of sight precisely as music should please us with aesthetic ideas received di'rectly through the sense of hearing and the value of each depends very much on the quality and quantity of pleasure given The great English landscapist Turner was once approached by a lady who seemed to be worried by the fact that she had never seen a sky in nature just like that in one of his pictures but we can fully agree with him when |