Pictorial Composition and the Critical Judgment of Pictures

Henry Rankin Poore

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• Publié par: mesong
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 48
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

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Title: Pictorial Composition and the Critical Judgment of Pictures

Author: Henry Rankin Poore

Release Date: September 16, 2008 [Ebook 26638]

Language: English

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PICTORIAL COMPOSITION AND THE CRITICAL JUDGMENT OF PICTURES***

Pictorial Composition and the Critical Judg- ment of Pictures

A Handbook for Students and Lovers of Art By H. R. Poore

New York and London G. P. Putnam's Sons

1903

It is with sincere pleasure that I dedicate this book to my first teacher, Peter Moran, as an acknowledgment to the interest he inspired in this important subject

[2]

Preface

This been little

book has been prepared because, although the student has abundantly supplied with aids to decorative art, there is within his reach concerning pictorial composition.

I have added thereto hints on the critical judgment of pictures with the hope of simplifying to the many the means of knowing pictures, prompted by the recollection of the topsyturviness of this question as it confronted my own mind a score of years ago. I was then apt to strain at a Corot hoping to discover in the employment of some unusual color or method the secret of its worth, and to think of the old masters as a different order of beings from the rest of mankind.

Let me trust that, to a degree at least, these pages may prove iconoclastic, shattering the images created of superstitious reverence and allowing, in their stead, the result in art from whatever source to be substituted as something quite as worthy of this same homage.

The author acknowledges the courtesies of the publishers of Scribners, The CenturyandMunsey'smagazines, D. Appleton, Manzi, Joyant & Co., and of the artists giving consent to the use of their pictures for this book. Acknowledgment is also made to F. A. Beardsley, H. K. Freeman and L. Lord, for sketches contributed thereto.

Orange, N. J., Feb. 1, 1903.

Henry Rankin Poore

[3]

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Pictorial Composition and the Critical Judgment of Pictures

Preface to Second Edition

The revision which the text of this book has undergone has clarified certain parts of it and simplified the original argument by a complete sequence of page references and an index. The appendix reduces the contents to a working formula with the purpose of rendering practical the suggestions of the text. In its present form it seeks to meet the requirements of the student who desires to proceed from the principles of formal and decorative composition into the range of pictorial construction. H. R. P.

Preface to Tenth Edition

After twelve yearsPictorial Compositioncontinues with a steady demand. Through the English house it has become “a standard” in the British Isles and finds a market in India and Australia. At the request of a few artists of Holland it has been translated and will shortly be issued in Dutch.

Contents

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PART I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTORY . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER II - THE SCIENTIFIC SENSE IN PIC- TURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER III - BALANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BALANCE OF THE STEELYARD. . . . . . . . POSTULATES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL BALANCE. . THE NATURAL AXIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . APPARENT OR FORMAL BALANCE. . . . . . BALANCE BY OPPOSITION OF LINE. . . . . BALANCE BY OPPOSITION OF SPOTS. . . . TRANSITION OF LINE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . BALANCE BY GRADATION . . . . . . . . . . BALANCE OF PRINCIPALITY OR ISOLATION BALANCE OF CUBICAL SPACE. . . . . . . . CHAPTER IV - EVOLVING THE PICTURE . . . . . CHAPTER V - ENTRANCE AND EXIT . . . . . . . GETTING INTO THE PICTURE . . . . . . . . GETTING OUT OF THE PICTURE . . . . . . . CHAPTER VI - THE CIRCULAR OBSERVATION OF PICTURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CIRCULAR COMPOSITION . . . . . . . . . . RECONSTRUCTION FOR CIRCULAR OB- SERVATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER VII - ANGULAR COMPOSITION, THE LINE OF BEAUTY AND THE RECTANGLE .

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