Walking on, still at random, I came to the maritime part of the city,
where canals take the place of streets. As yet it was low water, and
vessels lay aground in the mud, showing their hulls, and careening over
in a way to rejoice a water-color painter. Soon the tide came up, and
everything began to be in motion. I would suggest Hamburg to artists
following in the track of Canaletto, Guardi, or Joyant; they will find,
at every step, themes as picturesque as and more new than those which
they go to Venice in search of.
This forest of salmon-colored masts, with their maze of cordage and
their yellowish-brown sails drying in the sun, these tarred sterns with
apple-green decks, these lateen-yards threatening the windows of the
neighboring houses, these derricks standing under plank roofs shaped
like pagodas, these tackles lifting heavy packages out of vessels and
landing them in houses, these bridges opening to give passage to
vessels, these clumps of trees, these gables overtopped here and there
by spires and belfries; all this bathed in smoke, traversed by sunlight
and here and there returning a glitter of polished metal, the far-off
distance blue and misty, and the foreground full of vigorous color,
produced effects of the most brilliant and piquant novelty.
Pages:
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178