FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF TOPOGRAPHY AT THE MILITARY SCHOOL
OF ST CYR, ETC ETC

LONDON:

BICKERS AND SON, 1, LEICESTER SQUARE, W.C.

PRINTED BY

W. WILFRED HEAD, PLOUGH COURT, FETTER LANE, E.C.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PART I.

CHAP. I. The Horizontal Line

II. On the Size of Figures in a Picture-Scales

of Proportion

PAGE

3

8

PART II.

CHAP. I. Distance-The Station-The Principal

PREFACE.

THERE are already before the public a great number of handbooks on Perspective. In most of these the theory is analyzed, some excellent rules are laid down, and those already existing are well explained; but, generally speaking, the synthesis and the application of the art to actual practice seem to be, almost studiously, ignored.

In the following pages the author has taken particular pains to avoid this error, and has accordingly, in every case, made his theory subservient to practice. He no sooner expounds a proposition and deducts a rule, than he points out a clear and concise method for its direct application to the canvas or sketch.

In his great experience as an artist, he has noted the difficulties which beset the beginner, and which often recur to painters after long years of practice; and his experience as a professor at one of the first public schools of France has enabled him to explain the Theory and Practice of Perspective so lucidly that the reader will be spared a great deal of the