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was the quality in transparence(underlined). Transparence! Water color has transparence, oil painting may with difficulty be made to include this quality, etching and engraving, by showing the papers [[strikethrough]] through [[/strikethrough]] everywhere through a network of line, are truly transparent media.

I started to paint in oils," Marsh said of his early efforts, "thinking it an obligation.... I liked the handling, but was always distressed by the opaque results. Someone instructed me in water color. I took to it immediately." Then, later, "the discovery of egg yolk and water and any color to paint in transparent colors on a white gesso ground made it possible to paint many pictures", and, again, "... I liked(underlined), transparence(underlined), and worked much in etching, lithography [[strikethrough]] (and) [[/strikethrough]] engraving...." Marsh hated opacity as William James said that his colleague in philosophy at Harvard, Royce, hated the Absolute, "... as much as so gentle a man could hate anything." 

Yet Marsh admired Thomas Eakins above all American painters [[strikethrough]] yet [[/strikethrough]]; Eakins painted opaquely.