ABSTRACT
The making of pictures only rarely entailed the artist’s passively recording the subject before him. The study of art through an analysis of rules governing the portrayal of form, light and shade, as well as color, was intended to aid the novice in the realization of his perceptions and to open “a road of communication between the eye and the operations of the mind.” The artist’s mind was a medium through which his perceptions were sifted. The final image was a product of the characteristics that distinguished the subject as well as the artist’s ability, the conventions he had learned, and his personal vision. In the end, the quality of a work of art depended not upon the theme, nor upon what the artist had absorbed from his mentors and books, but upon his own intellect and his capacity to engage the intellect of others through visual imagery that was at once creative and arresting.
