Turner and Mulready : the effect of certain faults of vision on painting, with especial reference to their works. The real and ideal in portraiture. The deterioration of oil paintings : three lectures / by R. Liebreich.

  • Liebreich, Richard, 1830-1917.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Turner and Mulready : the effect of certain faults of vision on painting, with especial reference to their works. The real and ideal in portraiture. The deterioration of oil paintings : three lectures / by R. Liebreich. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    recognize them by optical contrivances, when the vision of the naked eye does not suffice to analyze the colours of a picture. When I had the pleasure of showing this experiment with Mul- ready's pictures to Professor Tyndall, he drew my attention to the fact that one single colour, namely, the blue of the sky, was not affected by the yellow glass. The blue of the sky was almost the same in both pictures. I could not at once explain the cause of this, but I discovered it afterwards. The fact is, it is impossible to change the sky-blue of the first picture so as to form a colour that looks like it when seen through a yellow glass. If more white is added, the sky becomes too pale; if a deeper blue is used, it becomes too dark. Mulready was thus forced to content himself by giving to the sky in his later pictures the same colour as in the earlier ones. If we look at Mulready's earlier works through the same yellow glass, they lose considerably in beauty of colouring: the tone appears too weak; the shadows brown; the green, dark and colourless; we see them as he saw them, and understand why he became dissatisfied with them and changed his colouring. It would be more important to correct the abnormal vision of the artist than to make a normal eye see as the artist saw when his sight had suffered. This unfortunately can only be done to a certain extent. If it is the dispersion of light which, as in Turner's case, alters the perception of nature, it can be partly rectified by a kind of diaphragm with a small opening (Donders' sthenopeical spectacles). In cases of astigmatism, the use of cylindrical glasses will com- pletely correct the aspect of nature, as well as of the picture. Certain anomalies in the sensation of colour may also be counteracted to some extent by the use of coloured glasses; for instance, by a blue glass, when the lens has become yellow, as in Mulready's case. If science aims at proving that certain works of art offend against physiological laws, artists and art-critics ought not to think that by being subjected to the material analysis of physiological investigation, that which is noble, beautiful, and purely intellectual will be dragged into the dust. They ought, on the contrary, to make the results of these investigations their own. In this way art-critics will often obtain an explanation of the development of the artist, while artists will avoid the inward struggles and disappointments which often arise through the difference between their own perceptions and those of the majority of the public. Never will science be an impediment to the creations of genius. [R. L.]