Pictorial Composition and the Critical Judgment of Pictures

A man, a horse, a tree, a fence, a road and a mountain: what keeps this assortment from becoming a picture?

In this early-twentieth-century handbook, Henry Rankin Poore addresses painters, photographers and art lovers who want more than a rule for every canvas. He argues that composition is the force that binds separate forms into a whole—and offers no easy recipe, only principles and the “shalt nots” that help reveal what breaks harmony. Poore even asks readers to set aside their reverence for the Old Masters and judge each work by its arrangement, not its name or age. How do you learn to see the difference between a collection of things and a picture that holds together?

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