Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 8.djvu/110

58 and therefore his arrival in London, although so sudden and unexpected, was far from being unwelcome.

It required no long stay in the British capital to convince the young aspirant that he had much yet to learn before he could become an artist. But he also found that London could offer such lessons as Edinburgh had been unable to furnish. This conviction first struck him on seeing Wilkie's "Blind Fiddler," of which his brother John was executing the well-known and justly-admired engraving. James was arrested and rivetted by the painting, so unlike all he had hitherto admired and copied: it was, he perceived, in some such spirit as this that he must select from nature, and imitate it, if he would succeed in his daring enterprise. This conviction was further confirmed by studying the productions of the eminent Dutch masters in the British Gallery, where he found that originality of conception was not only intimately blended with the truthfulness of nature, but made subservient to its authority. He must therefore study nature herself where she was best to be found among the fields, and beneath the clear skies, where the beauty of form and the richness of colour presented their infinite variety to the artist's choice, and taught him the best modes of arranging them upon the canvas. Forth he accordingly went, with nothing but his note-book and pencil; and among the fields, in the neighbourhood of London, he marked with an observant eye the various objects that most struck his fancy, and made short sketches of these, to be afterwards amplified into paintings. It was remarked, also, in this collection of hasty pencillings, that instead of seeking to aggrandize the works of nature, he faithfully copied them as he found them. "He has introduced," says a judicious critic, speaking of one of his paintings, "everything that could in any way characterize the scene. The rainbow in the sky, the glittering of the rain upon the leaves; the dripping poultry under the hedge, the reflections of the cattle on the road, and the girl with the gown over her shoulders, all tend with equal force to illustrate his subject." Not content, also, with the mere work of sketching in the fields, he was accustomed to note down in his book such observations in connection with the sketch as might be available for the future picture, or those remarks in reference to light and shade that were applicable to painting in general. The result of this training was soon perceptible in the increasing excellence of his successive productions, of which Allan Cunningham, his biographer, well remarks:—"His trees are finely grouped; his cows are all beautiful; they have the sense to know where the sweetest grass grows; his milk-maids have an air of natural elegance about them, and his cow-boys are not without grace."

Of the paintings of James Burnet, some of which are in the possession of his relatives, and others among the costly picture galleries of our nobility, the following is a list:—


 * 1) Cattle going out in the morning.
 * 2) Cattle returning home in a shower.
 * 3) Key of the byre.
 * 4) Crossing the brook.
 * 5) Cow-boys and cattle.
 * 6) Breaking the ice.
 * 7) Milking.
 * 8) Crossing the bridge.
 * 9) Inside of a cow-house.
 * 10) Going to market
 * 11) Cattle by a pool in summer.
 * 12) Boy with cows.

"While Burnet was thus pursuing a course of self-education that drew him onward step by step in improvement, and promised to conduct him to a very high