The Painter in oil

But what is a picture? I have met some strange though positive notions as to what is and
what is not a picture. Some persons think that a certain (or uncertain) proportion of
definite forms and objects are necessary to make canvas a picture; that it must contain
some definite and tangible facts of the more obvious kind. I remember one man who
asserted that a canvas in an exhibition was not a picture, but only a sketch, because it
had nothing in it but an expanse of sea and sky. To make a picture of it there was needed
at least to moon, some birds, or better, a ship and some reflections. All this sort of thing
is idle. A picture is not a picture because it has more of this or less of that; it is a picture
because it is complete in the expression of the idea which is the cause of its existence.
And that idea may be tangible or not. It may include many details or none. It is an idea
which is best or only expressed by being made visible, and which is worthy of being
expressed because of its beauty; and when that idea is wholly and fully visible on canvas
or other surface, that surface is a picture. What the contents of a picture shall be is a
matter personal to the painter of it. The manner which it is conceived and produced is
determined by his temperament and idiosyncrasy.
A picture is a visible idea expressed in terms of color, form, and line. It is the product
of perception plus feeling, plus intent, plus knowledge plus temperament, plus pigment.
And as all these are differently proportioned in all persons, it is only a matter of being
natural on the part of the painter that his picture should be original.