Part 2 (1/2)

A Standpoint B Point of Sight C Horizontal line D Vanishi+ng lines E Point of distance F Vanishi+ng lines of distance G Line of sight]

1 The education of hand and eye and a knowledge of perspective, to be imparted to every schoolboy, no matter what his profession or occupation is likely to be

2 The education of the public to read aright this new language (new to most people), the ”shorthand of pictorial art”

The popular theory ast editors and publishers is that the public would not care for information presented to them in this way--that they ”would not understand it and would not buy it” Sketches of the kind indicated have never been fairly tried in England; but they are increasing in number every day, and the time is not far distant e shall look back upon the present system with considerable amusement and on a book or a newspaper which is not illustrated as an incomplete production The number of illustrations produced and consu press is enormous; but they are too much of one pattern, and, as a rule, too elaborate

In the illustration of books of all kinds there should be a ra of importance should be described anywhere without an indication of the elevation, if not also of the ground plan; and, as a rule, no picture should be described without a sketch to indicate the coive the correct _locale_ that it seems wonderful we have no better h plan will illustrate one of the si a description clear to the reader Take the verbal one first:--

”The young Bretonne stood under the doorway of the house, sheltered from the rain which cae on the 'Place' she coe, and could see down the four streets of which it was principally composed”

[Illustration]

In this instance a writer was at soes) the exact position of the streets near where the girl stood; and it was a situation in which photography could hardly help hies of a book on art with diagrams and elementary outlines, but it rams are at the basis of a systeeneral The reason, as already pointed out, for drawing attention to the subject now, is that it is only lately that syste lines on the printed page al up the type Thus a new era, so to speak, in the art of expressing ourselves pictorially as well as verbally has commenced: the means of reproduction are to hand; the blocks can be made, if necessary, in less than three hours, and copies can be printed on revolving cylinders at the rate of 10,000 an hour

The advance in scientific discovery by eon soe of facts which, in the interests of science, he requires to deraphically, objects which it would often be ie of drawing and perspective, the surgeon and the astronomer would both be better equipped At the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, where the majority of students are intended for the h i to express hie that can be understood

In architecture it is often necessary, in order to understand the description of a building, to indicate in a few lines not only the general plan and elevation, but also its position in perspective in a landscape or street Few architects can do this if called upon at a moment's notice in a Parliamentary coe of an architect[6]

These rereat force to books of travel, where an author should be able to take part in the drawing of his illustrations, at least to the extent of being able to explain his raphical accuracy

A curious experiment was made lately with some students in an Art school, to prove the fallacy of the accepted systes, and the like in words A page or two from one of the Waverley novels (a description of a castle and the heights ofin the valley towards the sea, and clusters of houses and trees on the right hand) was read slowly and repeated before a nu apart froement, proceeded to indicate on blackboards before an audience the leading lines of the picture as the words had presented it to their hly skilful in one case, were all different, and _all wrong_; and that in particular the horizon line of the sea (so easy to indicate with any clue, and so important to the composition) was hopelessly out of place Thus we describe day by day, and the pictures forination of the reader is at work at once, and requires sihly stiht be used for the substitution of pictorial for verbal methods of expression, which apply to books as well as periodicals Two may be mentioned of a purely topical kind

1 In June, 1893, when the strife of political parties ran high in England, and anything like a _rapprochement_ between their leaders seemed impossible, Mr Gladstone and Mr Balfour were seen in apparently friendly conversation behind the Speaker's chair in the House of Co the interesting situation, does not say in soto Mr B,” but makes, or has ures standing talking together, and writes under it, ”_Amenities behind the Speaker's chair_” Here it will be seen that the subject is approached with reater force through the pictorial method

2 The second modern instance of the power--the eloquence, so to speak, of the pictorial es of _Punch_ on the occasion of the visit of the Russian sailors to Paris in October, 1893

A rollicking, dancing Russian bear, with the words ”_Vive la Republique_”

wound round his head, hit the situation as no words could have done, especially when exposed for sale in the kiosques of the Paris boulevards The picture required no translation into the languages of Europe

Itnew here--that the political cartoon is everywhere--that it has existed always, that it flourished in Athens and Rome, that all history teeh Gillray, Rowlandson, Hogarth, Blake, and s because the town is laden with newspapers and illustrated sheets The tendency of the time seems to be to read less and less, and to dependreasons for this on which we must not dwell; the point of importance to illustrators is the fact that there is an insatiable de quickly and accurately, in a language which every nation can understand

Another example of the use of pictorial expression to aid the verbal A traveller in the Harz Mountains finds hi, on a clear summer's day, and thus describes it in words:--

”We are now on the heights above Blankenberg, a promontory 1,360 feet above the plains, with an al northward and eastward The plateau ofhere ends abruptly It is the end of the upper world, but the plains see between us and our ho to impede the viehich it is al sun has pierced the veil of mist, and a map of Northern Ger into view one by one First, we see Halberstadt with its spires, then Magdeburg, then another city, and another

”We have been so occupied with the distant prospect, and with the objects of interest which give character to it, that we had alestive lines of this wonderful view There is an ancient castle on the heights, the town of Blankenberg at our feet, a strange wall of perpendicular rocks in the middle distance; there are the curves of the valleys, flat pastures, undulating woods, and roads winding away across the plains The central point of interest is the church spire with its cluster of houses spreading upwards towards the chateau, with its ed with trees, &c, &c”

This was all very well in word-painting, but what a veil is lifted from the reader's eyes by some such sketch as the one below