This seems to me to be one of the most dangerous sources of corruption;
and I speak of it from experience, not as an error which may possibly
happen, but which has actually infected all foreign academies. The
directors were probably pleased with this premature dexterity in their
pupils, and praised their despatch at the expense of their correctness.

But young men have not only this frivolous ambition of being thought
masterly inciting them on one hand, but also their natural sloth tempting
them on the other. They are terrified at the prospect before them, of
the toil required to attain exactness. The impetuosity of youth is
distrusted at the slow approaches of a regular siege, and desires, from
mere impatience of labour, to take the citadel by storm. They wish to
find some shorter path to excellence, and hope to obtain the reward of
eminence by other means than those which the indispensable rules of art
have prescribed. They must, therefore, be told again and again that
labour is the only price of solid fame, and that whatever their force of
genius may be, there is no easy method of becoming a good painter.

When we read the lives of the most eminent painters, every page informs
us that no part of their time was spent in dissipation. Even an increase
of fame served only to augment their industry. To be convinced with what
persevering assiduity they pursued their studies, we need only reflect on
their method of proceeding in their most celebrated works. When they
conceived a subject, they first made a variety of sketches; then a
finished drawing of the whole; after that a more correct drawing of every
separate part, heads, hands, feet, and pieces of drapery; they then
painted the picture, and after all re-touched it from the life. The
pictures, thus wrought with such pain, now appear like the effect of
enchantment, and as if some mighty genius had struck them off at a blow.