Hints upon tints, with strokes upon copper and canvass

Abstract

First edition. A most uncommon spoof on the artist’s manual, of which there were many at the time. “The technicalities of art are so ambiguous, so undefined, so little understood,- though to painters themselves the very clear obscure of their craft,- that I shall consider myself already pardoned for presuming to give a more defined light and shade into a picture composed of such varied detail,- for daring to throw even the glimmer of my poor dark lantern, upon so mysterious a subject.” Sections, often in verse, on light and shade, chiaroscuro, color, drawing, composition, sculpture, etc. The plates as well as the text are a spoof.