The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 06 (of 12)Hazlitt, William
General
The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 06 (of 12)
Hazlitt, William
English essays -- 19th century
of the motes dancing in the setting sun. At another time, a friend
coming into his painting-room when he was sitting on the ground in a
melancholy posture, observed that his picture looked like a landscape
after a shower: he started up with the greatest delight, and said, ‘That
is the effect I intended to produce, but thought I had failed.’ Wilson
was neglected; and, by degrees, neglected his art to apply himself to
brandy. His hand became unsteady, so that it was only by repeated
attempts that he could reach the place, or produce the effect he aimed
at; and when he had done a little to a picture, he would say to any
acquaintance who chanced to drop in, ‘I have painted enough for one day:
come, let us go somewhere.’ It was not so Claude left his pictures, or
his studies on the banks of the Tiber, to go in search of other
enjoyments, or ceased to gaze upon the glittering sunny vales and
distant hills; and while his eye drank in the clear sparkling hues and
lovely forms of nature, his hand stamped them on the lucid canvas to
last there for ever!—One of the most delightful parts of my life was one
fine summer, when I used to walk out of an evening to catch the last
light of the sun, gemming the green slopes or russet lawns, and gilding
tower or tree, while the blue sky gradually turning to purple and gold,
or skirted with dusky grey, hung its broad marble pavement over all, as
we see it in the great master of Italian landscape. But to come to a
more particular explanation of the subject.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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