Landscape Painting, by Birge Harrison, is an attractive addition to the literature of the subject. It presents in book form the substance of a series of talks on landscape painting given before the Art Students League of New York at its summer school at Woodstock, New Jersey.
In the opening chapter Mr. Harrison offers some general considerations on the function of art in expressing not only the subject the artist has in mind but also the character of the race and age, and describes landscape painting as not merely the record of individual impressions but as the manifestation of the advancing ability of the race to understand and organize its impressions, so that the painting of today is made possible only by the accumulation of the interpretations contributed by the past.
The author proceeds to describe the elements of good landscape painting. He introduces his discussion of color with scientific observations, and continues with a description of modern progress in ability to express the luminous, vibrating quality of out-of-door effects. He sets forth the importance of constructing a picture in well-related values, and lays a wholesome emphasis on knowledge of drawing as essential to good workmanship and to the charm that can be secured only when the brush work is backed by a sure knowledge of the underlying form. The poor and uncertain draughtsman fumbling for form loses all quality.
Some of the suggestions on composition appear self-evident and somewhat formal, and likely to lead the young student, who is usually the only person to give them much serious thought, to consider the letter, not the spirit, of the matter. The author, however, gracefully relieves the situation by saying that most of the rules can occasionally be disregarded with advantage.
The chapter on schools sets forth the debt which the originality of a student owes to the work of others and the fact that one individuality inspires another. The discussion entitled The Subconscious Servant gives prominence to the truth, too often overlooked, that the artist must not only draw well from nature but must master her types and build up for himself a store of well-understood images and usable memories if he is to do creative work.
The book is full of practical technical suggestions and is admirably illustrated. It is calculated to put the art student who uses it into a working mood and to bring to the untechnical reader a better appreciation of landscape art and that interest in the authors method of presentation which is awakened whenever a man essays to set forth by one medium of expression the processes and standards of another and wholly different medium which is his usual mode of interpretation.
--University of Chicago School Review, Volume 18