Poore's plate after Millet: a shepherdess resting a hand on a tree in a row of trees, a dog at left, sheep at lower right, and an open way out of the picture on each side of the trees.

Concept · Arranging the Picture

Leading the Eye

Painters plan where the eye goes. Eye-tracking studies test whether it does.

Poore wanted one entrance and one exit for the eye. His Millet example has two, which he counted a fault: "a case of divided interest."

  • In 1935 Buswell recorded 200 viewers' eye movements and found large differences between people.
  • A 2020 study of landscape art found composition pulls the eye to the main elements, but the order of looking varies.

See

Image: Project Gutenberg · Public domain

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