[translation: BEURS, en préparation, transl. Myra Scholz:] {About human figures} Human figures (to begin with them) should be painted first, whether in a room, a landscape, or some other place where people gather. {Rooms} In a room there is nothing wrong with painting last what is furthest away, receding in the distance. But in a landscape, after placing the human figures (included either for reasons of history or pleasure), one paints the sky, mountains, and grounds from the background to the foreground, and when this has been done, adorns each ground with its trees, castles, houses, gardens, etc., giving each object and ground the intensity or faintness corresponding to its nearness or distance, as perspective dictates. {Floral pieces} A painter of flowers can first paint the blossoms and leaves that appear in sunlight, then those in shadow, […] After that he can deal with the garden or landscape in a way that, in his judgment, is in keeping with the well-executed flowers (or fruits), which are his prime subject. {and sea pieces} In sea pieces one first lays in the sky and water, […]

[D'après DE LAIRESSE 1787, vol. 2, p. 594:] Qu’un peintre de fleurs doit savoir la perspective, & qu’il doit connoître les choses qui produisent un mauvais effet, afin de pouvoir les éviter.