_Constable._


CV

Have a holy horror of useless impasto, which gets sticky and dull, turns
blue and heavy. When you have painted a bit of which you are doubtful,
wait till the moment when it will be possible for you to take it out.
Judge it; and if it is condemned, remove it firmly with your
palette-knife, without rubbing by rags which spoil the limpidity of the
pigment. You will have left a delicate foundation, to which you can
return and finish with little labour, because your canvas will have
received a first coating. Loading and massing the pigment is an
abomination. In twenty-four hours gold turns to lead.

_Puvis de Chavannes._


CVI

From the age of six I began to draw, and for eighty-four years I have
worked independently of the schools, my thoughts all the time being
turned towards drawing.

It being impossible to express everything in so small a space, I wished
only to teach the difference between vermilion and crimson lake, between
indigo and green, and also in a general way to teach how to handle round
shapes and square, straight lines and curved; and if one day I make a
sequel to this volume, I shall show children how to render the violence