REVIEW OF AESTHETICS AND FINE ART

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By imagination, I do not simply mean to convey the common notion implied by that much abused word, which is only fancy, but the constructive imagination, which is a much higher function, and which, in as much as man is made in the likeness of God, bears a distant relation to that sublime power by which the Creator projects, creates, and upholds his universe.

The painters who obey the imagination seek in their dictionary the elements which accord with their conception; still, by adjusting them with a certain art, they give them a new face. Those who have no imagination copy the dictionary. The result is a very great vice, the vice of banality, which is particularly peculiar to those of the painters whose specialty is closer to the external nature.
The art of colorist is evident in some ways from mathematics and music. His most delicate operations, however, are made by a sentiment to which a long exercise has given an unspeakable security. We see that this great law of general harmony condemns much flutter and much crudity, even among the most illustrious painters. There are paintings by Rubens that not only make one think of a colorful fireworks, but even several fireworks shot on the same site. The bigger the picture, the more the touch must be wide, that goes without saying; but it is good that the keys are not materially melted; they are naturally melted at a desired distance by the sympathetic law which has associated them. The color gets more energy and freshness.
A good painting, faithful and equal to the dream that gave birth to it, must be produced as a world. Just as the creation, as we see it, is the result of several creations of which the previous ones are always completed by the following one; thus a harmonic table consists of a series of superimposed paintings, each new layer giving the dream more reality and making it rise one degree towards perfection. On the contrary, I remember having seen in the workshops of Paul Delaroche and Horace Vernet large pictures, not sketched, but begun, that is to say, absolutely finished in some parts, while some others were were still indicated only by a black or white outline.