If you can see or if you know the position of the horizon in a picture, the image automatically becomes an extension of your own personal space.

As the horizon is also your eye level, you can understand the scale and space of the image in relation to your own body. Any part of the image which is in line with the eye level, feels as if it is close to your own personal height.

This effect works whether objects are small or large, near or far, or whether the viewer is standing, sitting or lying down. The viewer of our black and white illustration above could be a child standing in the landscape or an adult crouching at a tabletop, on which a small architectural model of some old Greek ruins had been placed.

If you mouse-over this image, the setting will change to an outdoor environment. Although the ruins are still the same size, they take on a more commanding scale in the open landscape.

Wherever you choose to place the eye level in a picture will have a crucial effect on its composition.

FAMOUS ARTWORKS
THAT USE A CENTRAL EYE LEVEL

The eye level in this painting, which is just above the kitchen maid's hand, implies that the viewer is seated. This suggests that the scene is observed from a position of comfort which enhances the quiet and pensive atmosphere of the work.

Constable uses a centrally positioned eye level to create a balanced composition where all elements of the subject - figures, foreground, background and sky - are of equal importance to its design.

The diagonals of this painting form the lines of perspective which meet at a vanishing point in the centre of the picture. It is a simple composition which divides the image diagonally into star-lit and lamp-lit sections. This is a bold example of one-point perspective.

In Caillebotte's famous image of a Paris street, the viewer shares a common central eye level with the figures in the paintings. This forms a spatial link between you and the characters in the composition and psychologically you feel that you are part of the scene. The picture frame becomes your field of vision and you almost get the sense that you need to move aside to avoid brushing shoulders with the approaching people.

You can read a more detailed evaluation of 'Paris Street, A Rainy Day' on page the next page.