Page:The practice of water-colour painting (IA cu31924014501971).pdf/41

narrower than that of our own men, and that they limit themselves more definitely in their choice of material and in their manner of dealing with it; but a school which has already reached so high a standard of craftsmanship, and which within its boundaries shows so large a measure of artistic intelligence, is capable of wide expansion.

Much excellent work in water-colour is also being produced both in Italy and in France. There is a tendency among the Italians to overdo the crispness of touch and the precision of brushwork which are possible in water-colour painting that concerns itself more with the clever statement of detail than with the suggestion of broad effects, and this tendency is accountable for the production of many things that are brilliant, undeniably, but a little unsympathetic and superficial. But there is also a quite considerable group of Italian artists who are painting both in water-colour and in tempera with a fluent directness of method and a dignified breadth of generalisation that can be frankly admired. In France, too, there is the same tendency towards dry precision, and there are similar