…for we must bear in mind that, when we look at a landscape, or any other extensive object, the eye in fact embraces exactly only one thing, or point, at a time. Every object, but the particular one upon which our eyes are fixed at the moment, is noticed only in part….In a good picture, therefore, this rule is observed; and, and while the one object on which the eyes are intended to dwell in particular is worked out fully, surrounding objects and details are left much elaborate; witness Murillo’s best pictures.
[…]
Let it not be supposed, however, that I disclaim all details in drawing; I only beg for them in their proper place; for, according to the very true Turkish proverb:
“He who knows not the details knows not the whole.”
[…]
It is, therefore, a mistake to try and acquire at once a bold and rapid style; it can only come by study and by practice, since it is the result of being familiar with details. These need not always be told in the drawing, but there can be no good drawing without a thorough knowledge of them.
—S. C. Malan, Aphorisms on Drawing (Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts, 1856)
[n.b.: Quite an interesting biography of a clergyman and self-taught painter, Solomon Caeser Malan.]
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