It is not enough to drink in and remember the emotional side of the matter, although this must be done fully, but if a memory of the subject is to be carried away that will be of service technically, the scene must be committed to memory in terms of whatever medium you intend to employ for reproducing it—­in the case of a drawing, lines and tones.  And the impression will have to be analysed into these terms as if you were actually drawing the scene on some imagined piece of paper in your mind.  The faculty of doing this is not to be acquired all at once, but it is amazing of how much development it is capable.  Just as the faculty of committing to memory long poems or plays can be developed, so can the faculty of remembering visual things.  This subject has received little attention in art schools until just recently.  But it is not yet so systematically done as it might be.  Monsieur Lecoq de Boisbaudran in France experimented with pupils in this memory training, beginning with very simple things like the outline of a nose, and going on to more complex subjects by easy stages, with the most surprising results.  And there is no doubt that a great deal more can and should be done in this direction than is at present attempted.  What students should do is to form a habit of making every day in their sketch-book a drawing of something they have seen that has interested them, and that they have made some attempt at memorising.  Don’t be discouraged if the results are poor and disappointing at first—­you will find that by persevering your power of memory will develop and be of the greatest service to you in your after work.  Try particularly to remember the spirit of the subject, and in this memory-drawing some scribbling and fumbling will necessarily have to be done.  You cannot expect to be able to draw definitely and clearly from memory, at least at first, although your aim should always be to draw as frankly and clearly as you can.

[Illustration:  Plate LIV.

STUDY ON BROWN PAPER IN BLACK AND WHITE CONTE CHALK

Illustrating a simple method of studying drapery forms.]

Let us assume that you have found a subject that moves you and that, being too fleeting to draw on the spot, you wish to commit to memory.  Drink a full enjoyment of it, let it soak in, for the recollection of this will be of the utmost use to you afterwards in guiding your memory-drawing.  This mental impression is not difficult to recall; it is the visual impression in terms of line and tone that is difficult to remember.  Having experienced your full enjoyment of the artistic matter in the subject, you must next consider it from the material side, as a flat, visual impression, as this is the only form in which it can be expressed on a flat sheet of paper.  Note the proportions of the main lines, their shapes and disposition, as if you were drawing it, in fact do the whole drawing in your mind, memorising the forms and proportions of the different parts, and fix it in your memory to the smallest detail.