The objects must be arranged so that the thing expressed is told clearly and directly, in short, the student should try to express his subject as it has never been expressed before. All things not connected with the subject should be removed, and all but the chief thing to be expressed should be carefully subdued. The interest must not be divided, but all must go to help the expression of the motif of the picture. Thus a white patch the size of a threepenny piece may ruin a twelve by ten inch plate, as many a hat, a basket, as many a small article has done; just as a false foot may ruin an otherwise fine stanza. Be most careful how you introduce a detail, it may either make or mar your picture.

The sentiment and detail must always be appropriate or the result is a travesty. Thus haymakers do not wear new-fashioned buttoned boots, nor do rustics wear sun-bonnets and aprons all clean and fashionably cat. But this is only a superficial matter, the artist must carry appropriateness much deeper than in mere costume; for example, a flock of sheep on a pasture may be made quite false in sentiment, if they are driven in away that suggests a march to the slaughter-house, and they very easily huddle together in a manner that suggests that final procession. The student will now see how subtle all these matters are, and how little yet how much divides the masterpiece from mediocrity. Some photographers think naturalism consists only in taking things as they are, and they will exclaim, if you criticize their work, "Oh! it was just like that any way," True, oh ingenuous one, but it was just some other way as well, and perhaps that other way might have given a work of art, whereas this way has given a bald and uninteresting fact. Selection or composition is a most subtle matter, and one very difficult to learn, but let the student persevere, and if he has the ability he will find that the scales will fall from his eyes as he goes on.

Impression.

Impression

The impression must be true throughout, and if all the preceding components are true the impression will be true.

Our student may now have carried out all these things and yet there may be no picture, his mind may be commonplace. He may have wasted a good technique on a commonplace subject, such as a yacht going in full sail, an express train, some very ordinary dogs or horses, or some very extraordinary men or women. We are then brought to a very important matter, the subject.