Complete Works of Wilkie Collins (2150 page)

The estimate that has been formed of the merits of the colouring in Mr. Collins’s pictures, must also be considered as embracing their characteristics of light and shade; for the latter of these qualities being one great result, which all real excellence in the former tends to produce: both must necessarily be discussed together. Nothing in Mr. Collins’s pictures more thoroughly testified to his study of Nature, and his observation of the principles of the old masters, than the broad, significant disposition of light and shade which they present to the eye, and which produces in them much of the vigour of effect they may possess when seen from a distance. Neither their darks nor lights appear, when thus viewed, as isolated, ungraceful patches; but assume, on the contrary, the appearance of a varied, harmonious whole, one shadow leading smoothly on to the next, and one light answered at intervals by another. As a test of the power and correctness of his
chiaroscuro,
let any of his pictures, with the exception of his earliest and immature efforts, be looked at under a dim light, when none of their individual qualities of form and colour can be plainly discerned, and it will be found that the general disposition of light and shade which is then alone visible in them, never assumes a disagreeably scattered, or disjointed aspect, but preserves a grace and balance, a vastness and harmony in its vague shapes, which attracts the eye, even in the absence of any definite object that it can observe. In those cases where his pictures are not within reach, any of the prints from “The Fisherman’s Departure,” “Fishermen on the Look Out,” “Rustic Hospitality,” “Fetching the Doctor,” “The Stray Kitten,” or “Feeding the Rabbits,” will be found to produce, though in an inferior degree, the same result. As regards the value of this test of the correctness and feeling of an artist’s chiaroscuro, its propriety must be apparent to any one who has observed the remarkable coherence and harmony of light and shade on natural objects when they are fading in the twilight, and who considers that all Art is excellent or faulty, in proportion as it gains or loses on being referred directly to Nature.

In drawing and composition, Mr. Collins’s pictures will be found well worthy of the careful attention of the spectator. His industry and correctness in the study of the antique and living models, when he drew in the schools of the Royal Academy, was generally noticed among his fellow-students, and is thus referred to by his old and valued friend, Mr. Etty, R.A., who favoured me with a letter relative to the subject of the present work: — ”Your father and myself started as ‘probationers’ at the Royal Academy in the same week; he drew the ‘Laocoon,’ and I the ‘Torso.’ His drawings were remarked for their careful execution and good effect.” The qualities thus noticed as distinguishing Mr. Collins’s practice of that branch of the Art on which the first and main foundation of excellence depends, remained with him throughout his career. The very faults of slight restraint and timidity, which were considered by some critics to appear in his early efforts, were the faults of too great an anxiety to draw correctly, — an anxiety which, as his grace and freedom in the expression of form increased with his general advance in his pursuit, assured to him that accompanying exactness in whatever he attempted, on which he could always depend, as a means of enhancing the value and securing the precision of his most elabourate studies and most ambitious ideas. Pursued honestly, steadily, and correctly throughout his works, his power of drawing acquired a final completeness from that contemplation of new forms in Nature and new merits in Art, which his journey to Italy enabled him to enjoy. His drawing of the figure in his pictures is characterised by an anatomical knowledge of form which never obtrudes itself in exaggeration of attitude, but which is apparent in correctness of proportion, in ability in rightly conveying the appearance of action in the clothed body, and in attention to the finish and completeness of the extremities. His landscapes also are drawn with a vigour which displays itself in general flow and decision of line, in the various and powerful modelling of his foliage and his skies, in the space and freedom of form in his distances, and in the firmness and clearness of shape in his minute foreground objects. In that arrangement of groups which it is one important labour of drawing eloquently to exhibit and enforce, and which is termed “ composition,” his pictures present in a pre-eminent degree the qualities of simplicity and grace. The general dispositions of his figures, and of the landscape objects surrounding them, are always in harmony; the composition of one part of his pictures being never neglected for the sake of another. Directness of motive is always combined with novelty in his arrangement of objects; and while his study of the old masters enabled him to avoid mistaking eccentricity for originality, his observation of Nature taught him to attain simplicity without sacrificing grace. In his more extended efforts, where complex or difficult groupings presented themselves, as in “The Skittle-players,” “Christ among the Doctors,” and other pictures, he preserved with great success the clearness and balance of his composition; impressing on it its due beauty and completeness as a whole, and maintaining the variety and subordination, the successive gradations of division proper to its parts. It is, however, unnecessary further to enlarge upon this portion of his qualifications for his Art; for the propriety and eloquence of his composition may be easily estimated by the reader; not only in all his pictures, but in the prints from his pictures as well.

The characteristics of his style of “execution” have already been referred to in a former page of these Memoirs. To what has been previously observed on the subject, it may be further added, that it would be difficult for those not practically connected with Art to form an estimate of the anxious labour and refined skill by which the truthful and various aspect of the surface in his pictures was gained. The objects in them appear as if abandoned by the labour of the brush exactly at the right moment; no traces of mannerism or monotony being observable in the purity of quality and correctness of gradation which distinguishes what may be termed the manipulation of his tints. If recourse be had, in examining his pictures, to the application of the magnifying-glass, it will then be seen by what conscientious, reiterated labour the surfaces of the objects in them were produced; tint will appear amalgamated with tint, alternately heightened and deepened, touched and retouched, with an almost imperceptible minuteness of handling. And yet, with all this elabouration, the general aspect of his “execution” is pre-eminently simple; it is not the less broad and comprehensive in effect, because it is in a high degree careful and finished in detail.

Such, briefly and imperfectly examined, were the more remarkable of Mr. Collins’s qualifications for his Art. If it be imagined that too much has been in any respect claimed for the merits of his works, it is to be remembered that those works remain to be examined, to confute whatever may be erroneous in what has been remarked of them; or, far more probably, to prove that their evidences of genius are beyond, instead of below, the estimate that has been attempted in these pages.

Of the future position which Mr. Collins’s works will occupy in general estimation, it may safely be predicted that it will be a high and a permanent one. He was essentially a painter for all classes: his pictures were produced upon the principle that what is most universally pleasing or instructive, is what is most undeniably good in all intellectual efforts; and they appeal, therefore, to the uneducated, as well as to the informed, in Art. While the critic and the connoisseur will find them interesting as studies; while the student will perceive in them the safe and comprehensive teaching which their clear, conscientious, practical construction is so thoroughly calculated to afford the general spectator will not behold them with indifference, or quit them unimproved. Identified, as the greater part of them are, with English people and English scenery, they will guide his taste pleasantly and securely in the observation of Nature in his own land; they will refine and enlarge his appreciation of its bright places and happy objects; under their influence on his recollection, the sports of children at the cottage door may assume a new attraction for his eye, and beach and ocean in their summer’s day repose, grow gentler and lovelier in their tranquil ascendancy over his heart. Such were the objects with which the pictures described in this narrative were composed; for such was the mission which it was the life’s anxiety of their originator that his Art should fulfil.

Of Mr. Collins’s personal character, a few concluding particulars may be communicated, as not, it is hoped, inaptly closing this narrative of his life and works:

The conviction that his success as a painter was not only an incentive to constant exertion to sustain and increase his reputation, but also a means of enabling him to assist those who occupied an inferior station in his profession, was a guiding motive of his conduct throughout life. No poor and deserving artists ever applied to him for assistance in vain; his purse and his influence were always ready to relieve and to aid them. Upon the same principle, his advice was willingly and gently given to all students who consulted him. His constant readiness in applying his own knowledge of painting to aid others, made him an invaluable adviser in the difficulties of his younger brethren in the profession. His assistance was often applied for by young men, in that most frequent difficulty of early practice in Art — combining the different parts of a composition, so as to give the due importance to its general effect. His intuitive penetration in immediately detecting the weak point of a picture, and his kind and scrupulous sincerity in using it for the benefit of others, were then remarkably displayed. Finding the student, as he usually did, sitting before his canvas in utter despair; bitterly conscious that, after all his hard labour on individual objects, he was incompetent to combine them into the necessary singleness of effect, Mr. Collins never depressed him further by immediately exposing his incapacity. Examining the picture with the utmost care, he would first praise whatever it possessed of excellence in its parts — now commending the drawing of a figure, and now the skilful arrangement of an object. Then, giving further encouragement to perseverance and hope, by the relation of the difficulties he had himself experienced in the study of Art, he would take up the first piece of chalk that lay in the room, and by merely marking with it on the picture, would place its proper effect, its necessary distribution of light and shade, before the young painter’s eye, in five minutes; leaving him, with much cordial encouragement to persevere, equally surprised and delighted at the easy extrication from his difficulty, accomplished by his adviser’s skill. It was by such services as these, always cheerfully rendered when required, that Mr. Collins endeared himself to the younger members of his profession; by whom the loss of his counsel and encouragement still continues to be experienced with sincere and natural regret.

His method of enforcing his advice on others, lay almost entirely in practical illustrations, similar to that above mentioned; long practice, deep study, and natural capability, having made his knowledge of the Art so intuitive, that no other manner of explaining it ever served him to his own satisfaction. In reference to his opinions and practice in painting, and especially in that branch of it which comprises general effect, some brief, but interesting particulars, have been communicated to me by his friend Dr. Joseph Bullar, who writes thus: — ”I happened to recollect just now a conversation of your father’s, which, if new to you, may be of use. He was finishing a picture in his painting-room, and he said that the real genius of his Art lay not so much in painting each part, as in harmonizing the parts into one whole, after having painted them. How he did this, he could not
say.
He did not know that he had any rules for it: he went over the whole, and gave it its finishing completeness, instinctively as it were. * * * I also recollect distinctly, his great anxiety that your brother, in his studies at the Royal Academy, should not exchange the antique, too soon, for the living model.”

Mr. Collins’s firmness in adhering to that which he had satisfied himself was right in his practice in Art was unwavering. Though ready and anxious to take the advice of others, as long as he was undecided on the treatment of any part of a picture, when his resolution was once settled, no considerations of personal ease or interest ever induced him to alter it. As an instance of this, may be quoted his uniform determination not to heighten the cool gray lights of his pictures, which he knew were caught directly from Nature, for the sake of making them artificially prominent amid the glare of the large surrounding mass of works, at the Exhibition. He preferred to risk the superficial accusation of feebleness, rather than to change what he knew was true, to suit passing circumstances or to procure temporary applause.

The pliability with which his disposition adapted itself to the different requirements of his Art, was another distinguishing feature in his character. To those who witnessed his high flow of spirits in society, his genuine, and almost boyish enjoyment of the varying recreations of his leisure hours, it was a matter of astonishment to see how instinctively and completely, whenever he began to paint, or occupied himself in sketching from Nature, he changed from the easy pleasure-companion, to the earnest, industrious, plodding workman, resolute at all sacrifices in elabourating and completing whatever he had determined to perform. Although many instances of his firm perseverance, even at an early age, in overcoming difficulties of all kinds in his Art by his own energy and patience have been already related in these Memoirs, the following additional anecdote may be presented to the reader, without, it is hoped, involving any tedious repetition of the same subject: