'The world of art is an enchanting deception,' Hazlitt confided as he conducted his readers into the new picture gallery at Dulwich and straight to the 'Cuyp next the door'. 'You may lay your finger on the canvas; but miles of dewy vapour and sunshine are between you and the objects you survey.' To think of doing this is to realise that more than 'deception' is involved. We know it is a flat canvas and yet are happy to half-forget, indeed find it hard not to half-forget, that it is not a real view.

LRB 4 August 1983 | PDF Download