He hopes they will both be in Italy together one day, not to look at pictures, but to sketch in the open fields. He was enchanted by the works of
Giotto, but has been swept away by the fields outside. He thinks all of the great artists got their inspiration from nature, not their contemporaries or past art. Discusses the centrality of nature in art, using
Michelangelo and
Titian as examples. Calls
Guido and the
Carracci "false and affected".
He then lays out his ideal method for composing and bringing to fruition a picture. If confronted by a man with a squint he will paint a squint, unlike
Lawrence, who made everyone "pretty". He was glad to hear that
Leighton was elected an R.A.
The two leaves of the letter are fixed together with a nasty sticky tape.