"Monumental book . . . Mr. Vicat Cole is a born teacher." "Contemporary Review"
"Mr. Vicat Cole's ability as a landscape painter is well known, and he unites to his executive talents the qualifications of an accomplished teacher." "Connoisseur"
"The name of the author is itself a guarantee that the subject is adequately treated. It is handled in a systematic and lucid way, which the novice . . . can follow with ease." "Studio
"For years greatly admired and widely used, this excellent text by one of Britain's foremost art instructors has achieved the status of a classic in its field. The author, also a noted landscape painter, offers complete and accurate instruction in painting and drawing trees to all serious artists beginner or advanced, amateur or professional. Its extremely comprehensive and detailed coverage has earned this volume a permanent place in the libraries of landscape painters, students, and teachers.
Every aspect of trees and how to depict them in any style is covered with unusual clarity and precision; problems of balancing tree groups, relations of light and shade, delicacy and weight, distance, sky apertures and their patterns, curves and straight lines in tree branches, tree color, the influence of special environmental factors (age, frost and snow, wind, moonlight), the effects of bud arrangements on the anatomy of trees, etc. Of special value is the very thorough and lucid analysis of tree anatomy: the proportion of boughs, branches, and twigs; the positioning of leaves on twigs; the form, texture, and color of leaves; leaf patterns; flower arrangement; stipules, bracts, buds, scales, spines, seedlings, the bark, and all the other essential details of structure. Specific information is given for each tree discussed: oaks, sycamores, willows, pines, maples, etc.; abstract and inaccurate generalizations are avoided. Nearly 500 illustrations by the author accompany the text, demonstrating all the anatomical features discussed. In addition, there are 48 full-page plates: magnificent landscape paintings and drawings by Giorgione, Rubens, Rembrandt, Van der Neer, Watteau, Hobbema, Turner, Gainsborough, Dupre, and many others, showing their compositional use of trees, their details in rendering, and similar material.
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