CHAPTER III

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OF WATER, AS PAINTED BY TURNER.

Sec. 1. The difficulty of giving surface to smooth water.

Sec. 2. Is dependent on the structure of the eye, and the focus by which the reflected rays are perceived.

I believe it is a result of the experience of all artists, that it is the easiest thing in the world to give a certain degree of depth and transparency to water; but that it is next thing to impossible, to give a full impression of surface. If no reflection be given--a ripple being supposed--the water looks like lead: if reflection be given, it in nine cases out of ten looks _morbidly_ clear and deep, so that we always go down _into_ it, even when the artist most wishes us to glide _over_ it. Now, this difficulty arises from the very same circumstance which occasions the frequent failure in effect of the best drawn foregrounds, noticed in Section II.