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ART INSTRUCTION. 
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DRAWING FROM THE FLAT TO LEARN THE TECHNIQUE 
OF REPRESENTATION 
BY HENRY T. BAILEY, SUPERVISOR OF DRAWING FOR THE STATE OF 
MASSACHUSETTS. 
“Shall the pupil first take a course in drawing from the flat in order to learn the 
sechnique of representation ?” 
A PIECE of great. representation—a work of art—has two elements: 
first, and of supreme importance, a motif, a spiritual essence or life of its 
own, born of the thoughts and feelings of the artist; and, second, an 
embodiment, an expression of this spiritual life through forms appreciable 
by the senses. The end is the re-creation of the artist’s thought and feel- 
ing in the mind of the observer. The means are sensuous forms and 
colors. The medium may be pencil, pen and ink, charcoal, water-color, 
oil-color, or pastel. And the Zechnique is simply the way in which the 
artist handles his medium. 
Technique is largely the result of individual peculiarities and habits, 
tike a man’s handwriting ; and just as an author’s chirography is of little 
importance if legible, and his style of greater moment, and his message 
chief, so technique is of little importance compared with true form and 
color, and these in turn are subordinate to spirit. 
But there is another relation to be considered. Just as the author’s 
command of language, his knowledge of grammatical construction and of 
the laws of rhetoric, condition his expression of thought or feeling, so upon 
the artist’s power to embody his ideal in sensuous forms depends his power 
co re-create his ideal in another mind. In other words, the spirit finds its 
most complete expression and best secures its end only through adequate 
means. The ability to draw truthfully is therefore prerequisite to the 
complete and vivid representation of ideals, and technique assumes impor- 
:ance in so far as it affects the truth of the drawing. 
While the final results of drawing in the public schools may not rise to 
the dignity of great art, if genuine and vital they will have the two essen- 
tial elements of such art; namely, spirit and adequate form. Our course 
in drawing will then make provision for two related lines of work: one 
whose end shall be to develop thought and feeling, the other whose end 
shall be to develop power to adequately express thought and feeling. 
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