One Inconvenience... May Attend Bold And Arduous

One Inconvenience... May Attend Bold And Arduous Attempts: Frequent Failure May Discourage. This Evil, However, Is Not More Pernicious Than The Slow Proficiency Which Is The Natural Consequence Of Too Easy Tasks.

Our Exhibitions [the Royal Academy] Have... A Mischievous Tendency, By Seducing The Painter To An Ambition Of Pleasing Indiscriminately The Mixed Multitude Of People Who Resort To Them.

Grandeur Of Effect Is Produced By Two Different Ways Which Seem Entirely Opposed To Each Other. One Is By Reducing The Colors To Little More Than Chiaroscuro... And The Other, By Making The Colors Very Distinct And Forcible... But Still, The Presiding Principle Of Both Those Manners Is Simplicity.

The True Test Of All The Arts Is Not Solely Whether The Production Is A True Copy Of Nature, But Whether It Answers The End Of Art, Which Is To Produce A Pleasing Effect Upon The Mind.

What Has Pleased And Continues To Please, Is Likely To Please Again; Hence Are Derived The Rules Of Art, And On This Immovable Foundation They Must Ever Stand.