“The Light of the World” is well known from the engraving of it by
W. H. Simmons. It was originally purchased by Mr. Thomas Combe, of
Oxford, whose widow has recently presented it to Keble College, where
it now hangs, in the library. The subject of the second picture, which
is less well known, and which has never been engraved, sufficiently
appears from the letter describing it.
[75] Mr. Dearle informs me that this picture was bought from the walls
of the Academy by a prize-holder in the Art Union of London. He adds
that the purchaser resided in either America or Australia, and that
the picture is now, therefore, presumably in one or other of those
countries.
[76] Shenstone: Elegy xxvi. The subject of the poem is that of the
picture described here. The girl speaks--
“If through the garden’s flowery tribes I stray, Where bloom the
jasmines that could once allure, Hope not,” etc.
The prize of the Liverpool Academy was awarded in 1858 to Millais’s
“Blind Girl.” Popular feeling, however, favored another picture, the
“Waiting for the Verdict” of A. Solomon, and a good deal of discussion
arose as to whether the prize had been rightly awarded. As one of the
judges, and as a member of the Academy, Mr. Alfred Hunt addressed a
letter on the matter to Mr. Ruskin, the main portion of whose reply
was sent by him to the _Liverpool Albion_ and is now reprinted here.
Mr. Solomon’s picture had been exhibited in the Royal Academy of 1857
(No. 562), and is mentioned in Mr. Ruskin’s Notes to the pictures of
that year (p. 32).
[77] The defence was made in a second notice (March 6, 1858) of the
Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy, then open to the public. The
picture of Mr. Waller Paton (now R.S.A.) alluded to here was entitled
“Wild Water, Inveruglass” (161); he also exhibited one of “Arrochar
Road, Tarbet” (314). The platitudes of the _Scotsman_ against the
pre-Raphaelites were contained in its second notice of the Exhibition
(February 20, 1858).
[78] There must be some error here, as it is the _true_ dreams that
come through the horn gate, while the fruitless ones pass through the
gate of _ivory_. The allusion is to Homer (Odyssey, xix. 562).
[79] In illustration of the old Scottish ballad of “Burd Helen,” who,
fearing her lover’s desertion, followed him, dressed as a foot-page,
through flood, if not through fire--
“Lord John he rode, Burd Helen ran, The live-lang sumer’s day, Until
they cam’ to Clyde’s Water, Was filled frae bank to brae.
“‘See’st thou yon water, Helen,’ quoth he, ‘That flows frae bank to
brim?’ ‘I trust to God, Lord John,’ she said, ‘You ne’er will see me
swim.’”
This picture (No. 141 in the Edinburgh Exhibition of 1858) was first
exhibited in the Royal Academy of 1856. In the postscript to his
Academy Notes of that year, Mr. Ruskin, after commenting on the
“crying error of putting it nearly out of sight,” so that he had at
first hardly noticed it, estimates this picture as second only to the
“Autumn Leaves” of Mr. Millais in that exhibition. The following is
a portion of his comment on it: “I see just enough of the figures to
make me sure that the work is thoughtful and intense in the highest
degree. The pressure of the girl’s hand on her side; her wild, firm,
desolate look at the stream--she not raising her eyes as she makes
her appeal, for fear of the greater mercilessness in the human look
than in the glaze of the gliding water--the just choice of the type
of the rider’s cruel face, and of the scene itself--so terrible in
haggardness of rattling stones and ragged heath,--are all marks of the
action of the very grandest imaginative power, shortened only of hold
upon our feelings, because dealing with a subject too fearful to be
for a moment believed true.”
The picture was originally purchased by Mr. John Miller, of Liverpool;
at the sale of whose collection by Christie and Manson, two years
later, in 1858, it fetched the price of two hundred guineas. At the
same sale the “Blind Girl,” alluded to in the previous letter, was
sold for three hundred.
For the poem illustrated by the picture, see Aytoun’s “Ballads of
Scotland,” i. 219, where a slightly different version of it is given:
it may also be found in “Percy’s Reliques” (vol. iii. p. 59), under
the title of “Child Waters.” Other versions of this ballad, and
other ballads of the same name, and probably origin, may be found in
Jameson’s collection, vol. i. p. 117, vol. ii. p. 376, in Buchan’s
“Ancient Ballads of the North,” ii. 29 (1879 ed.) and in “Four Books
of Scottish Ballads,” Edin., 1868, Bk. ii. p. 21, where it is well
noted that “Burd Helen” corresponds to the “Proud Elise” of northern
minstrels, “La Prude Dame Elise” of the French, and the “Gentle Lady
Elise” of the English--(Burd, Prud, Preux). It is also possible that
it is a corruption of Burdalayn, or Burdalane, meaning an only child,
a maiden, etc.
[80] The _Witness_ had objected to the “astonishing fondness” of
the pre-Raphaelite school for “conceits,” instancing as typically
far-fetched that in the picture of “Burd Helen,” where Lord John was
represented “pulling to pieces a heart’s-ease,” as he crosses the
stream.
[81] The first exhibition of Turner’s pictures after his death was
opened at Marlborough House early in November, 1856, seven months
subsequent to the final decision as to the proper distribution of the
property, which was the subject of Turner’s will.
[82] See Rogers’ “Italy,” p. 29.
[83] William Hookham Carpenter, for many years Keeper of the prints
and drawings at the British Museum. He died in 1866.
[84] Mr. Ruskin’s offer was accepted, and he eventually arranged the
drawings, and, in particular, the four hundred now exhibited in one
of the lower rooms of the National Gallery, and contained in the kind
of cases above proposed, presented by Mr. Ruskin to the Gallery.
Mr. Ruskin also printed, as promised, a descriptive and explanatory
catalogue of a hundred of these four hundred drawings. (Catalogue of
the Turner Sketches in the National Gallery. For private circulation.
Part 1.1857.--Only one hundred copies printed, and no further parts
issued.)
Writing (1858) to Mr. Norton of his whole work in arranging the Turner
drawings, Mr. Ruskin said: “To show you a little what my work has
been, I have facsimiled for you, as nearly as I could, one of the
nineteen thousand sketches (comprised in the Turner bequest). It, like
most of them, is not a sketch, but a group of sketches, made on both
sides of the leaf of the note-book. The note-books vary in contents
from sixty to ninety leaves: there are about two hundred books of the
kind--three hundred and odd note-books in all; and each leaf has on
an average this quantity of work, a great many leaves being slighter,
some blank, but a great many also elaborate in the highest degree,
some containing ten exquisite compositions on each side of the leaf,
thus (see facsimile), each no bigger than this--and with about that
quantity of work in each, but every touch of it inestimable, done with
his whole soul in it. Generally the slighter sketches are written over
it everywhere, as in the example inclosed, every incident being noted
that was going on at the moment of the sketch.”--“List of Turner’s
Drawings shown in connection with Mr. Norton’s Lectures.” Boston:
1874. p. 11. The facsimile alluded to by Mr. Norton is reproduced here.
[85] July 3, 1857, upon the vote of £23,165 for the National Gallery.
[86] The late Mr. Ralph Nicholson Wornum, who succeeded Mr. Uwins as
Keeper of the National Gallery in 1855, and retained that office till
his death in 1878.
[87] “The family of Darius at the feet of Alexander after the Battle
of Issus,” purchased at Venice from the Pisani collection in 1857.
Lord Elcho had complained in the course of the debate that the price,
£13,650, paid for this picture, had been excessive; and in reply
allusion was made to the still higher price (£23,000) paid for the
“Immaculate Conception” of Murillo, purchased for the Louvre by
Napoleon III., in 1852, from the collection of Marshal Soult.--Of
the great Veronese, Mr. Ruskin also wrote thus: “It at once, to my
mind, raises our National Gallery from a second-rate to a first-rate
collection. I have always loved the master, and given much time to
the study of his works, but this is the best I have ever seen.”
(Turner Notes, 1857, ed. v., p. 89, note.) So again before the
National Gallery Commission, earlier in the same year, he had said,
“I am rejoiced to hear (of its rumored purchase). If it is confirmed,
nothing will have given me such pleasure for a long time. I think
it is the most precious Paul Veronese in the world, as far as the
completeness of the picture goes, and quite a priceless picture.”
[88] The present letter was written in reply to a criticism,
contained in the _Literary Gazette_ of November 6, 1858, on Mr.
Ruskin’s “Catalogue of the Turner Sketches and Drawings exhibited
at Marlborough House 1857-8.” The subjects of complaint made by the
_Gazette_ sufficiently appear from this letter. They were, briefly,
first, the mode of exhibition of the Turner Drawings proposed by Mr.
Ruskin in his official report already alluded to, pp. 78 and 80,
note; and, secondly, two alleged hyperboles and one omission in the
Catalogue itself.
[89] The cloud-forms which have disappeared from the drawings may be
seen in the engravings.
[90] “Notes on the _oil_ pictures,” to be distinguished from the later
catalogue of the Turner sketches and drawings with which this letter
directly deals. See ante, p. 88, note.
[91] By the way, you really ought to have given me some credit for
the swivel frames in the desks of Marlborough House, which enable the
public, however rough-handed, to see the drawings on both sides of the
same leaf.[94]
[92] The rest of this letter may, with the exception of its two last
paragraphs, and the slight alterations noted, be also found in “The
Two Paths,” Appendix iv., “Subtlety of Hand” (pp. 226-9 of the new,
and pp. 263-6 of the original edition), where the words bracketed
[sic] in this reprint of it are, it will be seen, omitted.
[93] From a vignette design by Stothard of a single figure, to
illustrate the poem “On a Tear.” (Rogers’ Poems, London, 1834 ed.)
[94] The identical frames, each containing examples of the sketches
in pencil outline to which the letter alludes, may be seen in the
windows of the lower rooms of the National Gallery, now devoted to the
exhibition of the Turner drawings.
[95] Doubly emphasized in “The Two Paths,” where the words are printed
thus: “_I still look with awe at the combined delicacy and precision
of his hand;_ IT BEATS OPTICAL WORK OUT OF SIGHT.”
[96] “The Two paths” reprint has “put in italics.”
[97] The following note is here added to the reprint in “The Two
Paths:” “A sketch, observe--not a printed drawing. Sketches are only
proper subjects of comparison with each other when they contain about
the same quantity of work: the test of their merit is the quantity
of truth told with a given number of touches. The assertion in the
Catalogue which this letter was written to defend was made respecting
the sketch of Rome, No. 101.”
[98] No. 45 was a “Study of a Cutter.” Mr. Ruskin’s note to it in the
Catalogue is partly as follows: “I have never seen any chalk sketch
which for a moment could be compared with this for soul and power....
I should think that the power of it would be felt by most people; but
if not, let those who do not feel its strength, try to copy it.” See
the Catalogue under No. 45, as also under No. 71, referred to above.
[99] In a letter to Mr. Norton written in the same year as this one
to the _Literary Gazette_, Mr. Ruskin thus speaks of the value of
these plates: “Even those who know most of art may at first look be
disappointed with the Liber Studiorum. For the nobleness of these
designs is not more in what is done than in what _is not_ done in
them. Every touch in these plates is related to every other, and has
no permission of withdrawn, monastic virtue, but is only good in
its connection with the rest, and in that connection infinitely and
inimitably good. The showing how each of these designs is connected
by all manner of strange intellectual chords and nerves with the
pathos and history of this old English country of ours, and with
the history of European mind from earliest mythology down to modern
rationalism and irrationalism--all this was what I meant to try and
show in my closing work; but long before that closing I felt it to be
impossible.”--Extract from a letter of Mr. Ruskin, 1858, quoted in the
“List of Turner Drawings, etc.,” already mentioned, p. 5.
[100] The _Literary Gazette_ of November 20, 1858, contains a reply
to this letter, but as it did not provoke a further letter from Mr.
Ruskin, it is not noticed in detail here.
[101] There was at the date of this and the following letter an
exhibition of Turner drawings at the South Kensington Museum. These
pictures have, however, been since removed to the National Gallery,
and the only works of Turner now at Kensington, are some half dozen
oil paintings belonging to the Sheepshanks collection, and about the
same number of water-color drawings, which form part of the historical
series of British water-color paintings.
[102] This refers to a letter signed “E. A. F.” which appeared in
_The Times_ of October 19, 1859, advising the adoption of Mr. Gilbert
Scott’s Gothic design for the Foreign Office in preference to any
Classic design. The writer entered at some length into the principles
of Gothic and Classic architecture, which he briefly summed up in
the last sentence of his letter: “Gothic, then, is national; it is
constructively real; it is equally adapted to all sorts of buildings;
it is convenient; it is cheap. In none of these does Italian surpass
it; in most of them it is very inferior to it.” See the letters on the
Oxford Museum as to the adaptability of Gothic--included in Section
vi. of these Letters on Art. With regard to the cheapness of Gothic,
the correspondent of _The Times_ had pointed out that while it may be
cheap and yet thoroughly good so far as it goes, Italian _must_ always
be costly.
[103] Hardly a debate. Lord Francis Hervey had recently (June 30,
1876) put a question in the House of Commons to Lord Henry Lennox
(First Commissioner of Works) as to whether it was the fact that many
of Turner’s drawings were at that time stowed in the cellars of the
National Gallery, and had never been exhibited. _The Daily Telegraph_
in a short article on the matter (July 1, 1876) appealed to Mr. Ruskin
for his opinion on the exhibition of these drawings.
[104] Now I trust, under Mr. Poynter and Mr. Sparkes, undergoing
thorough reform.{*}
{*} Mr. Poynter, R.A., was then, as now, Director, and Mr. Sparkes
Head Master, of the Art School at the South Kensington Museum.
[105] For notes of these drawings see the Catalogue of the Turner
Sketches and Drawings already mentioned--(_a_) The Battle of Fort
Bard, Val d’Aosta, p. 32; (_b_) the Edinburgh, p. 30; and (_c_) the
Ivy Bridge, Devon, p. 32.
[106] I have omitted to add to my note (p. 84) on Mr. Ruskin’s
arrangement of the Turner drawings a reference to his own account of
the labor which that arrangement involved, and of the condition in
which he found the vast mass of the sketches. See “Modern Painters,”
vol. v., Preface, p. vi.
[107] The Art Treasures Exhibition in 1857, being the year in which
the lectures contained in the “Political Economy of Art” were
delivered. (See “A Joy for Ever”--Ruskin’s Works, vol. xi. p. 80.)
[108] “The Plains of Troy;”--see for a note of this drawing Mr.
Ruskin’s Notes on his own “Turners,” 1878, p. 45, where he describes
it as “one of the most elaborate of the Byron vignettes, and full of
beauty,” adding that “the meaning of the sunset contending with the
storm is the contest of the powers of Apollo and Athene;” and for the
engraving of it, see Murray’s edition of Byron’s Life and Works (1832,
seventeen volumes), where it forms the vignette title-page of vol.
vii. For the Richmond and the Egglestone Abbey, also in the possession
of Mr. Ruskin, see the above mentioned Notes, p. 29 (Nos. 26 and 27).
The Langharne Castle was formerly in the possession of Mr. W. M. Bigg,
at the sale of whose collection in 1868 it was sold for £451.
[109] A misprint for “wares;” see next letter, p. 104.
[110] Addressed to Mr. Ruskin by Mr. Collingwood Smith, and requesting
Mr. Ruskin to state in a second letter that the remarks as to the
effect of light on the water colors of Turner did not extend to water
color drawings in general; but that the evanescence of the colors in
Turner’s drawings was due partly to the peculiar vehicles with which
he painted, and partly to the gray paper (saturated with indigo) on
which he frequently worked. Mr. Ruskin complied with this request by
thus forwarding for publication Mr. Collingwood Smith’s letter.
[111] The references to _The Times_ allude to an article on the
“Copies of Turner Drawings,” by Mr. William Ward, of 2 Church Terrace,
Richmond, Surrey, which were then, as now, exhibited for sale in the
rooms of the Fine Art Society.
Of these copies of Turner, Mr. Ruskin says: “They are executed with
extreme care under my own eye by the draughtsman trained by me for the
purpose, Mr. Ward. Everything that can be learned from the smaller
works of Turner may be as securely learned from these drawings. I
have been more than once in doubt, seeing original and copy together,
which was which; and I think them about the best works that can now be
obtained for a moderate price, representing the authoritative forms
of art in landscape.”--Extract from letter of Mr. Ruskin, written in
1867. List of Turner Drawings, etc., shown in connection with Mr.
Norton’s lectures. Boston, 1874, p. 9. (See also “Ariadne Florentina,”
p. 221, note.)
The following comment of Mr. Ruskin on one of Mr. Ward’s most recent
copies is also interesting as evidence that the opinions expressed in
this letter are still retained by its writer: “London, 20th March,
1880.--The copy of Turner’s drawing of ‘Fluelen,’ which has been just
completed by Mr. Ward, and shown to me to-day, is beyond my best hopes
in every desirable quality of execution; and is certainly as good
as it is possible for care and skill to make it. I am so entirely
satisfied with it that, for my own personal _pleasure_--irrespective
of pride, I should feel scarcely any loss in taking it home with
me instead of the original; and for all uses of artistic example
or instruction, it is absolutely as good as the original.--JOHN
RUSKIN.”--The copy in question is from a drawing in the possession of
Mr. Ruskin (see the Turner Notes, 1878, No. 70), and was executed for
its present proprietor, Mr. T. S. Kennedy, of Meanwoods, Leeds.
[112] “Italy,” a reputed Turner, lent by the late Mr. Wynn Ellis.
No. 235 was “A Landscape,” with Cattle, in the possession of Lord
Leconfield.
[113] See also “Modern Painters,” vol. v. pp. 345-347, and “Lectures
on Architecture and Painting,” pp. 181-188, where the character of
Turner is further explained, and various anecdotes given in special
illustration of his truth, generosity, and kindness of heart.
[114] The book was also referred to in “Modern Painters,” vol. v. p.
344, where Mr. Ruskin speaks of this “Life of Turner,” then still
unpublished, as being written “by a biographer, who will, I believe,
spare no pains in collecting the few scattered records which exist of
a career so uneventful and secluded.”
[115] Nearly eight years after Leech’s death on October 29, 1864.
[116] The number of the _Architect_ in which this letter was
printed contained two sketches from Mr. George’s “Etchings on the
Mosel”--those, viz., of the Elector’s Palace, Coblentz, and of the
interior of Metz Cathedral. The intention of the _Architect_ to
reproduce these etchings had apparently been previously communicated
to Mr. Ruskin, who wrote the present letter for the issue in which the
etchings were to be given. Mr. George has since published other works
of the same kind--_e.g._, “Etchings in Belgium,” “Etchings on the
Loire” (see Mr. Ruskin’s advice to him at the end of this letter, p.
116).
[117] The reference must, I think, be to “Ariadne Florentina: Six
Lectures on Wood and Metal Engraving given before the University of
Oxford, Michaelmas Term, 1872,” and afterwards published, 1873-6. The
lectures given in the year 1873 were upon Tuscan Art, now published in
“Val d’Arno.”
[118] The value of Rembrandt’s etchings is always in the inverse
ratio of the labor bestowed on them after his first thoughts have
been decisively expressed; and even the best of his chiaroscuros (the
spotted shell, for instance) are mere child’s play compared to the
disciplined light and shade of Italian masters.
[119] This letter was written to Mr. H. Stacy Marks, A.R.A., in answer
to a request that Mr. Ruskin would in some way record his impression
of the Frederick Walker Exhibition, then open to the public. Frederick
Walker died in June, 1875, at the early age of thirty-five, only four
years after having been elected an Associate of the Royal Academy.
[120] The “Hornby Castle” was executed, together with the rest of the
“great Yorkshire series,” for Whitaker’s “History of Richmondshire”
(Longman, 1823).--The picture of John Lewis here alluded to is
described in Mr. Ruskin’s “Academy Notes,” 1856, No. II., p. 37.
1. “The Almshouse”--No. 52--called “The House of Refuge.” Oil on canvas.
A garden and terrace in quadrangle of almshouses; on left an old woman
and girl; on right a mower cutting grass. Exhibited R. A. 1872.
2. “The Old Gate”--No. 48--oil on canvas. Lady in black and servant with
basket coming through the gate of old mansion; four children at play at
foot of steps; two villagers and dog in foreground. Exhibited R. A.
1869.
3. “The Cottage Gardens”--No. 71, “The Spring of Life.” Water-color.
Lady in a garden with two children and a lamb; a cherry-tree in blossom.
Exhibited at the Water-Color Society, Winter 1866-7. See also Nos. 14
and 21.
4. “Ladies and Lilies”--No. 37, “A Lady in a Garden, Perthshire.”
Water-color. A lady seated on a knoll on which is a sun-dial; greyhound
on left; background, old manor-house. No. 67, “Lilies.” Water-color.
Lady in a garden watering flowers, chiefly lilies. Exhibited at the
Water-Color Society, Winter 1869-70 and 1868-9 respectively.
5. “The Chaplain’s Daughter”--No. 20, subject from Miss Thackeray’s
“Jack the Giant-killer.” Exhibited at the Water-Color Society, Summer
1868.
6. “Daughter of Heth,” by W. Black. No. 87. “Do ye no ken this is the
Sabbath?” Young lady at piano; servant enters hurriedly. (Study in black
and white, executed in 1872.)--[See vol. i. p. 41. “‘Preserve us a’,
lassie, do ye ken what ye’re doing? Do ye no ken that this is the
Sabbath, and that you’re in a respectable house?’ The girl turned round
with more wonder than alarm in her face: ‘Is it not right to play music
on Sunday?’”--(No. 131. Three more studies for the same novel.)
7. “The Old Farm Garden”--No. 33--Water-color. A girl, with cat on lawn,
knitting: garden path bordered by tulips; farm buildings in background.
Painted in 1871.
8. “Salmon-fishers”--No. 47--“Fisherman and Boy”--Water-color. Keeper
and boy on bank of river. Glen Spean. Salmon in foreground. Exhibited at
the Water-Color Society, Summer 1867.
9. Mushrooms and Fungi--No. 41--Water-color. Painted in 1873.
10. “Fishmonger’s Stalls”--Nos. 9 and 62 (not 952)--viz., No. 9, “A
Fishmonger’s Shop.” Water-color. Painted in 1873; and No. 62, also “A
Fishmonger’s Shop.” Water-color. Fishmongers selling fish; lady and boy
in costumes of about 1800. Exhibited at Water-Color Society, Winter
1872-3. (The “Tobias” of Perugino has been already alluded to, p. 44,
note.)
11. No. 68. “The Ferry.” Water-color. Sight size, 11 ¾ X 18 in. A ferry
boat, in which are two figures, a boatman and a lady, approaching a
landing-place; on the bank figures of villagers, and children feeding
swans. Exhibited at Water-Color Society, Winter 1870-71.]