Page:Masterpieces of the sea (Morris, Richards, 1912).djvu/87

MASTERPIECES OF THE SEA M. Chase, stand before a marine of Mr. Richards' and, lifting his stovepipe hat, with a low bow, say:

"I take my hat off to him. He's a master of drawing—I take off my hat"

And if any one wanted to test this faculty of Mr. Richards' artistic equipment, after such authoritative statement, he need only look at the black and white reproductions of the varied marines and landscapes and notice how much they resemble photographs direct from nature; how true they are to the form, and mass and relative distance and aerial perspective of the world about us. This is what is meant by drawing, and only a draughtsman of genius can draw with paint in that faultless and fearless manner.

The sister-sense to drawing—indeed, the elder sister—is, of course, observation. Without keen insight and the patience to watch the processes of nature that abound in beautiful profusion about us, there is no 55