In the representation of a fine mountain, for instance, there are, besides all its rhythmic beauty of form and colour, associations touching deeper chords in our natures—­associations connected with its size, age, and permanence, &c.; at any rate we have more feelings than form and colour of themselves are capable of arousing.  And these things must be felt by the painter, and his picture painted under the influence of these feelings, if he is instinctively to select those elements of form and colour that convey them.  Such deeper feelings are far too intimately associated even with the finer beauties of mere form and colour for the painter to be able to neglect them; no amount of technical knowledge will take the place of feeling, or direct the painter so surely in his selection of what is fine.

There are those who would say, “This is all very well, but the painter’s concern is with form and colour and paint, and nothing else.  If he paints the mountain faithfully from that point of view, it will suggest all these other associations to those who want them.”  And others who would say that the form and colour of appearances are only to be used as a language to give expression to the feelings common to all men.  “Art for art’s sake” and “Art for subject’s sake.”  There are these two extreme positions to consider, and it will depend on the individual on which side his work lies.  His interest will be more on the aesthetic side, in the feelings directly concerned with form and colour; or on the side of the mental associations connected with appearances, according to his temperament.  But neither position can neglect the other without fatal loss.  The picture of form and colour will never be able to escape the associations connected with visual things, neither will the picture all for subject be able to get away from its form and colour.  And it is wrong to say “If he paints the mountain faithfully from the form and colour point of view it will suggest all those other associations to those who want them,” unless, as is possible with a simple-minded painter, he be unconsciously moved by deeper feelings, and impelled to select the significant things while only conscious of his paint.  But the chances are that his picture will convey the things he was thinking about, and, in consequence, instead of impressing us with the grandeur of the mountain, will say something very like “See what a clever painter I am!” Unless the artist has painted his picture under the influence of the deeper feelings the scene was capable of producing, it is not likely anybody will be so impressed when they look at his work.