The art teaching of John Ruskin

Preface

It is perhaps too much to expect of the “ general reader” that he should defer criticism of Mr. Ruskin’s various utterances until he has studied the whole of Mr. Ruskin’s writings. And yet, without a firm grasp of the general character and tendency of this author’s thought, there is a great risk either of resting satisfied with his wit and picturesqueness, or of doing him the grave injustice which is done to any thinker when we quote texts without context, and use his words without their true weight in them.

To all standard systems of philosophy, hand¬ books or summaries have been written, usually by some pupil personally acquainted with the master, and in sympathy with his character and tone of thought. Such summaries, so far from superseding the original works, have been found most useful in promoting their study,— -in clearing up their difficulties, and in emphasising those leading thoughts which are often understood rather than expressed in the discursive eloquence of a great writer. It may be questioned by some vi Preface

whether Mr. Ruskin is entitled to rank with the standard philosophers. We had better leave that question to posterity. It is enough that half a century of criticism, in an age which is nothing if not critical, has only confirmed the position which he took as a youth in the world of art and literature. An undoubted genius, quite unique in his powers and in his views, must command the attention of all, while he enlists the full sympathy of comparatively few. But his name is so iden¬ tified with art in England, that no intelligent student can afford to ignore him.

In the following chapters I offer my contribu¬ tion to the better understanding of his work by doing for the complex and multitudinous writings of Mr. Ruskin what other disciples have done for other masters : systematising where he scorns system, condensing into curt abstract what he has detailed in charming redundance of diction and illustration, collecting and comparing his scattered utterances on the various branches of his wide¬ spread subject ; in the belief, which I trust the reader will ratify, that Mr. Ruskin’s writings on art, though “ a mighty maze,” are “ not without a plan.” w r r

Coniston, 23 rd Sept. 1891.

Chapter I Biographical

PAGE

1. The Scope of his Teaching ..... i

2. The System of his Teaching ..... 3

3. His Artistic Education ...... 6

4. His Independent Study ...... 8

5. His Relation to Academicism . . . . . 1 1

6. His Relation to English Art-Philosophy . . . 13

7. His Relation to German Art-Philosophy . . . 16

8. His Relation to Modern Thought . . 17

9. His Successive Periods ...... 20

10. His Writings on Art : Modern Painters Group . . 27

11. His Writings on Art : Oxford Lectures Group . . 30

Chapter II

12. Real and False Art ...... 34

13. Aphoristic Definitions ...... 36

14. Great Art and High Art . . . . . . 38

15. Art and Manufacture ...... 40

16. Ideas of Power ....... 42

17. Machinery and Art ....... 45

18. Photography and Art ...... 47

19. Programme of the Subject ..... 49 viii

Chapter III Page

20. The Purpose of Art . . . . . . 53

21. Deceptive Imitation . . . . .. . 55

22. The Mimetic Instinct ...... 57

23. Representation ....... 59

24. Fact and Effect ....... 60

25. The Most Important Truths ..... 62

27. Idealism and Realism ...... 66

Chapter IV

28. The Theory of Generalisation ..... 68

29. The Platonic Archetype ...... 69

30. The Academic Art-Philosophy . . . . . 71

31. The Revolt against Academicism .... 73

32. The War of Physics and Metaphysics 75

33. Specialisation .... .... 76

Chapter V

35. The Three Stages of Knowledge .... 80

36. Three Stages of Art . . . . . . 81

37. The Interest of Individualisation .... 83

38. Individualisation in Poetry ..... 85

39. Individualisation in Painting ..... 86

40. Realistic Detail ....... 88

Contents ix

PAGE

41. Idealistic Detail ....... 90

43. Completion, Right and Wrong ..... 93

Chapter VI

44. The Difference between Art and Science ... 95

45. Does Science help Art ? ...... 97

46. The Use of Science to Art . . . . . 99

47. History-painting and Archaeology . . . .102

48. Perspective and Geometry . . . . .105

49. Landscape and Natural Science . . . .106

50. Draughtsmanship and Anatomy . . . 108

Chapter VII

52. Truth and Beauty . . . . . . .113

53. Erroneous Opinions on Beauty . . . . . 114

55. Theoria and ALsthesis . . . . . .117

56. Typical Beauty . . . . . . .120

57. The Theology of Beauty . . . . . .123

59. Ugliness, Caricature, and the Picturesque . . .127

Chapter VIII Imagination

62. Imagination and Truth . . . .134

X

PAGE

64. Associative Imagination . . . . . .136

65. Penetrative Imagination . . . . . 137

66. Contemplative Imagination . . . . .138

Chapter IX

70. The Hero as Artist . . . . . . .149

71. Genius and Talent . . . . . . .151

72. The Three Uses of Art . . . . . 1 5 3

73. Art as viewed by Religion . . . . . 153

74. The Influence of Religion upon Art . . . .156

76. The Service of Art to Religion . . . 161

77. Religion and Artists . . . . . .163

Chapter X Art And Morality

78. Ethical Laws and Practical Rules . . . .166

79. The Effect of Art upon the Artist .... 168

80. The Effect of the Artist’s Morality on his Art . . 170

81. Art for Art’s Sake ....... 172

82. Didactic Art . . . . 173

83. The Effect of Art on Public Morals . . . 175

84. The Effect of Public Morality on Art .176 xi

Chapter XI The Sociology Of Art Page

88. The Evolution of Art . . . . . .186

89. The Great Schools . . . . . . 18S

90. The Age of the Masters . . . . . . 192

Chapter XII

94. The Sources of Art ...... 202

Chapter XIII

102. The Genesis of Art ...... 222

103. A priori Development of Architecture . . . 224

104. Architecture as a Fine Art ..... 226

105. Laws of Architecture ...... 227 xii Contents

PAGE

107. Proportion and Decoration ..... 233

108. Sculptured Ornament ...... 234

109. Ornament and Structure' ..... 236

no. Architectural Colour ...... 237

CHAPTER XIV nr. The Rank of Decorative Art ..... 240

1 1 3. Technical Conditions ...... 242

1 14. Conventional Design : its Reasons . . . 246

115. Conventional Design : its Fallacies . . . . 248

1 16. Naturalism in Ornament ..... 250

Chapter XV

1 18. The Necessity of Design ..... 253

120. Natural Grouping . . . . . . .236

1 21. Imaginative Grouping ...... 257

123. Three Stages of Design ...... 260

124. Rules of Composition . . . . . .261

125. Laws of Composition ...... 263

Chapter XX Study And Criticism

Style and Teaching ......

1 59

The Aim of Art-Study ......

Study for Amateurs . . . . • • '

1 6 1 .

Who are “ the Masters ” ? .

Standards of Art-Study ......

Study from Nature ......

Teaching and Criticism ......

The Function of the Critic .....

The Criteria of Art ......

The Future of Art ......

ABBREVIATED REFERENCES

M. P. = Modern Painters : the edition used throughout has been that of 1888; and the references are made as briefly and clearly as possible in each case to direct the reader’s attention to the passage required, whatever edition he possesses. Where the page is mentioned, the pagination of the “1888” edition nearly corre¬ sponds with that of earlier complete editions.

S. V. = Stones of Venice : large edition of 1886 used. To this the same remarks apply as to M. P. (the “ Travellers’ ed.” contains only selections).

S. L. A. — Seven Lamps of Architecture : large edition of 1880.

E. D. = Elements of Drawing (out of print) : edition of 1857, referred to by page.

A. E. = The Art of England-, edition of 1887, referred to by lecture and page.

L. F. c -Laws of Fesole : complete edition of 1882, referred to bychapter and paragraph.

The following are referred to by numbered paragraphs, which are continuous throughout each volume.

L. A. T?. = Lectures on Architecture and Painting-, edition of

J. E. — A Joy for Ever (Political Economy of Art) : small edition of 1887.

T. P. = The Two Paths : small edition of 1887.

L. A. — Inaugural Lectures on Art at Oxford : small edition of 1887.

A. P. Air -lira Pentelici : large edition of 1879.

A bbreviated References

A. F. = Ariadne Floreniina : large edition of 1876.

V. d’A. = Val d'Amo : large edition of 1882.

E. N. = Eagle's Nest : small edition of 1887.

Of other works the title is given in full.

References to passages in the present work are by chapter or paragraph (continuously numbered throughout) without any title prefixed.

Chapter I Biographical

I. The Scope of his Teachmg. — To put the reader of Mr. Ruskin’s works at Mr. Ruskin’s point of view ; to give some distinct clue to the thread of thought which runs throughout his writings ; to disentangle it from all the complicated embroidery of eloquence, description, and digression which at the same time ornament and obscure it ; to bring together the statements of his different periods, and to compare the results of his various investi¬ gations pursued along different lines : in short, to help the student of Ruskin, is the purpose of these chapters. They are designed as a com¬ panion to the study of Mr. Ruskin’s teaching ; not, primarily, as a compendium of his doctrines.

And yet, as they must of necessity embody a great part of his thoughts upon many subjects connected with Art, they might be taken by some readers as an attempt to condense and expound the whole. To so extensive a task I do not address myself ; chiefly because Mr. Ruskin is

B his own best exponent on certain topics, and nothing I could say would explain or enforce his own words on such matters as the relation of Art to life in practical things, the development of important schools and styles, and the significance and value of the works of great masters. Con¬ sequently, those ideas which stand out in the popular mind as most prominently Ruskinian, are only lightly to be treated here ; while those are emphasised which some experience of study and teaching has indicated to me as likely to be missed, or to be misunderstood, in dwelling upon isolated parts and periods of his work. Few people have the chance, and fewer the resolution, to work out lines of argument concealed — rather than displayed — in his voluminous treatises and discursive letters and lectures ; and while they delight in his style, in his descriptions, in his wit, and in his wisdom, they are apt to miss the underlying drift and current of thought which gives life and unity to the whole.

And yet it is impossible but that a man who has exercised so great an influence over his age should have had some systematic and well-con¬ sidered plan of thought, which suggested his utter¬ ances, even when they seemed paradoxical. It is impossible that mere literary style should have gained and held the ear of the public for the casual remarks of an irresponsible onlooker. And when you come to understand what that plan of thought is, you find that the apparent paradoxes resolve themselves into necessary conclusions : you find that Ruskin may be right, or he may be wrong ; but the strongest of his sayings is of a piece with all his philosophy.

For, by his Art-Teaching, I understand some¬ thing much wider than directions to pupils about drawing lines and mixing colours. In his various writings he has given — sometimes in orderly ar¬ rangement, sometimes dispersedly — his thoughts upon Art with regard to its uses, and his observa¬ tions as to its influence on the lives of those who produce it and those who admire it ; in a word, its relation to Nature and its significance to Man. The beginner may want to know how to paint pictures ; and something of this in due course we shall learn ; but first in importance stand those broader considerations which appeal to all think¬ ing minds, and involve all manner of profound interests. When put into shape, such thoughts make up a more or less complete Philosophy of Art ; that is to say, an inquiry into the position of Art with regard to God, and the World, and the Soul — or whatever other great names you may be pleased to substitute for these ancient terms.

2. The System of his Teaching. — Mr. Ruskin began with the intention of treating Art in a formal and systematic manner ; but after a dozen years of perseverance in that attempt, the sheer weight and mass of his material, and the desire to speak usefully to the public rather than accept¬ ably to art -philosophers (if there were any in this country) — all combined to break up his scheme and alter his tactics. So in January 1856, at the outset of Modern Painters , vol. iii., he announced his intention of being thenceforth unsystematic, and rather paraded a contempt for system, which I suspect to have been a reaction from earlier ambitions. In the Oxford Lectures he recurs to orderly arrangement, more or less ; but meantime his style had been fixed ; and he had become an essayist, instead of a writer of treatises.

And he had also become a practical teacher instead of a closet philosopher. He had tried to give lessons to inquiring artists, to intelligent lads of what are called the “ working classes,” teaching for many years at the Working Men’s College in Gt. Ormond St., Bloomsbury ; and the formality of youth had worn off — the stiffness of his graduate’s gown had got rumpled out, and he went to work in his shirt-sleeves, so to speak, as every earnest man must, eventually. But when a Luther or a Wiclif preaches in the vulgar tongue, it is not from lack of Latin ; and when a man like Ruskin writes Academy Notes , and Elements of Drawing ; and letters to the newspapers, and lectures at nightschools — full of one-sided, enthusiastic preaching of the truth immediately necessary — it is not to be supposed that he is a fanatic, and has suddenly lost all his philosophy. The great teachers are those who abdicate the chair for the pulpit, who abandon the treatise for the pamphlet ; I say abdicate and abandon , for there is no virtue in untaught pulpiteering and pamphleteering ; it is only when these popular methods are used by great men that they become rightly influential.

And in this mood Ruskin has often said hard things against professional philosophers, chiefly because of the “ unsettling ” tendency of the post-Hegelian age ; but not without reason, in the domain of Art-Philosophy especially, because to a serious student of Art in all its forms these framers of a priori art-theories seem often to be trying to make bricks — not without straw perhaps — but without clay. Very few of the professed thinkers have had a real, working acquaintance with Art ; they usually re-echo the gossip of a few studios, and re-assert the fallacies of the common hand¬ books ; and the practised ear detects the plagiarised phrase, and resents the imposture. Especially in the instances they give, in the obviously limited range of their illustrations, in the choice of commonplace or second-rate examples, and in their blindness to unacknowledged excellence, one sees that they are not versed in Art ; and consequently the formulae with which they assume to have summed up the com¬ plexities of the subject do not always bear examina¬ tion in the light of a full and detailed acquaintance with the very varied processes of mind and prac¬ tices of hand which Art has actually employed.

Therefore, if we are accustomed to look on Mr. Ruskin as anti-philosophical, it is because he has passed through the phase of attempting systematic theory, and come out into the freer air of purified common sense, with the mission to teach and preach one truth at a time, as his audience and occasion required. But it is not in maintaining any obvi¬ ous system of consistent formulae that one is a philosopher ; it is only by having thought out one’s subject. And, taking Mr. Ruskin’s writings as a whole, allowing for the gradual development of his mind, for successive stages of study, and the continually changing circumstances and influ¬ ences under which he lived, we can trace a distinct cohesion and continuity in his thought, all the more valuable because his interests were so varied and the appeals to his attention so diverse.

3. His Artistic Edtication. — Mr. Ruskin was not brought up as an artist ; he was intended for the Church, and expected to be a poet. If he had been sent at sixteen to the Academy Schools we should have had another painter of some originality, of great talent in draughtsmanship, and of extreme refinement ; but we should not have had the writer who, far beyond any other, has directed the practice and stimulated the patronage of Art in England. At a very early age he began to draw illustrations to his MS. books, at first quite without a teacher, and then in complete independence of the teachers under whom he was put. His real masters were Turner and Prout and Roberts, whose engraved works he copied with care ; not Copley Fielding and Hard¬ ing, who taught him something, no doubt, but not what they intended to teach him. In the spring of 1836, when he was seventeen years old (born on 8th February 1819), he took lessons from Fielding, with very little profit ; but he loved Fielding’s work for the sake of its subject. In 1841, in the autumn, he took lessons from J. D. Harding, and learnt from him, not the “ tree-touch,” but the contempt which Harding shows in his written teaching for vulgar Dutch realism, and the reason for that attitude, based upon high ideals of the mission of Art and the responsibilities of the i Biographical J

missionaries. Harding was a sincerely religious man, who felt that landscape was a sort of religious art, as showing forth the praise of the Creator : he was not satisfied with teaching his pupils to draw ; he tried to teach them to think, and to adore the Maker of the beautiful scenes whose memory they were to preserve by “ the use of the lead pencil.” And he certainly became such a teacher as we had not before ; we owe a great debt to him for making Drawing acceptable to the temper, and instructive to the mind, of religious England.

But it did not need a Harding to put this before Ruskin, who by that time, already twentytwo years of age, had shown that he knew and felt as much, — -in his early Poems, in his early Essays, in his early attempts at drawing, both published and unpublished. The very next year he was writing Modern Painters , and discussing Art from a much higher standpoint than any that Harding reached. The claim of Harding’s friends that Ruskin did not sufficiently acknowledge his obligations to the pioneer of his advance, is founded on a want of appreciation of the real and funda¬ mental distinction between the two men. Ruskin says things that Harding says, but he would have said them in any case ; and he goes beyond Harding at every turn — he investigates regions which Harding never entered. In Modern Painters Harding is treated with respect ; in the 1883 Epi¬ logue to vol. ii. with eulogy ; and the engraver’s error in plate 27 (vol. iv.) — by which, in early editions, the Hardingesque tree seems, on compar¬ ing the text, to be meant for the worst type of all

— is so obviously an error that it need never have been taken for an insult.

4. His Independent Study. — But though he was not the pupil of drawing- masters, he was the energetic student of Art, from those early days when, aged eleven, he facsimiled Cruikshank, and when, at the age of fourteen, he imitated Turner’s vignettes, and copied Rembrandt at the Louvre. Throughout his life he studied masterpieces of ancient Art in the only way in which they can be thoroughly studied — by facsimile copying ; and as specimens of his work in this kind may be seen in his Oxford School, the St. Catherine of Luini, and in his own house, the Zipporah of Botticelli and the St. Ursula of Carpaccio.

Besides copying the masters he made analytical notes in galleries. These are generally found in his journal, which he has always kept with assi¬ duity ; a specimen of his unpublished remarks on treatment, colour, and composition in some of the pictures at Genoa is given in Stones of Venice , in the supplementary chapter entitled “Castel Franco” (vol. iii. of new edition). This fact is worth noting, because it is sometimes supposed that Mr. Ruskin is one of those writers who are discursive from lack of matter, and that his examination of his subject has always been superficial. On the con¬ trary, those who have been able to look over his note-books can testify to his diligence in collecting all manner of material bearing on his subject ; and those who have been with him during the progress of any important work know with what elaborate care he has built up his argument ; though when x Biographical 9

all is done, he knocks away the scaffolding, so to speak, and leaves his fabric unsupported by the props and ties and debris of “ authorities,” which many writers accumulate around their work in the shape of notes and references.

But together with his studies of Art he studied Nature from the beginning ; sketched unweariedly, in season and out of season ; noted phenomena ; elaborated detail ; caught effects ; measured pro¬ portions and angles ; in short, he has worked at the craft of the landscape painter in all except painting pictures ; and the more thoroughly, be¬ cause his memoranda were not merely meant to serve for painting pictures, but for study of the subject. Every landscape artist of serious aim knows how much of this sort of labour is necessary, though it never meet the eye of the public ; and that in doing it lies the difference between the professionally educated landscapist and the mere amateur. Mr. Ruskin has practically had the education of a professional painter — and a good deal more than most of them — by unremitting application to study.

In this way he created a style of his own — a style which is so characteristic of the man that it is hardly adaptable to the aims of ordinary artists ; and yet it contains the elements for which we should look in a student of Nature, whose desire is not to produce pretty pictures or striking com¬ positions, but to record phenomena with delicacy and accurate completeness. A drawing by him is not a remarkable object in an exhibition ; but it is good to live with, because it does not depend i o Art- Teaching of Ruskin chap.

on the artifices of contrasted arrangement, the dexterity of bold execution, and all the other qualities which ensure immediate popularity at some expense of intimate and lasting appeal. It is not a “ picture ” but a “ study.”

Most of his work was done, from the com¬ mencement, with the intention of illustrating his books ; and consequently is on a small scale, refusing colour, and emphasising the characteristics to which he meant to call attention. He never mastered oil-painting ; partly because the facts he wanted to record could be much more easily got in line and water-colour wash, partly because he never meant to paint pictures, and oil-colour is especially the material for picture painting. But etching in its various methods was practised by him with skill and success, of which examples are among the illustrations to Modern Painters and the soft-ground plates to the early editions of The Seven Lamps of Architecture — one of which was “ savagely ” bitten in his wash-hand basin at La Cloche in Dijon, and is none the worse for its summary treatment.

For sensitive delineation, pure draughtsmanship of natural detail and architectural ornament, in¬ volving subtlety of refined curvature and delicate adjustment of lines, I do not think his work can be beaten. It is idle to suppose that his published plates owe their qualities to the engravers ; the qualities are equally present in work engraved by his own hand ; and the original drawings are finer than the reproductions — without prejudice to the reputation of the famous men who worked for him,

I

Biographical 1 1

and in so doing touched perhaps the highest level that their Art has reached.

Teaching, studying, drawing, engraving, sketch¬ ing, — it might well seem that life was not long enough for all this, together with literary labours and social reform ; were it not that Mr. Ruskin is the most energetic of men, inheriting an un¬ wearied activity from his parents, and brought up by them to be never idle, but always obviously occupied. His objection to smoking, for instance, is grounded on the idea that it tends to make time pass pleasantly without active employment : his objection to athletics and games is that they divert energy from useful purpose. In his own case — however one may estimate the result — we have a man who has never idled, never spent his time in society, never wasted his energies in anything but his work. “If you want to get on better than other people,” one of our gnomic writers has said, “ you must do more work than they.” And if you want to teach Art, you must practise it, and study it, and everything appertaining to it, far more conscientiously than the average artist or critic. The conception of Ruskin as a mere literary stylist and dilettante in Art is an error ; there are few writers whose opinions are founded on so thorough an examination of the subject.

5. His Relation to Academicism. — Beside the practice of Art, which does not in itself justify philosophic criticism and generalisations of theory, Ruskin began at an early age to study such writers as were then accessible ; of which there were two kinds, — those who, being artists, wrote about Art from the point of view mainly of practice ; and those who, being critics, wrote their notions of the theory. In the first class, besides current literature such as that contained in E. V. Rippingille’s Artists' and Amateurs' Magazine , there were the lecturers at the Royal Academy — Reynolds, Barry, Fuseli. Sir Joshua Reynolds was much the most important, both as a great artist and as a fine writer. Ruskin was brought up in an atmosphere of tradition of the Johnsonian School ; the Rambler and the Idler , to which Reynolds contributed, were his father’s favourite reading among those scenes of travel which gave the son his opportunities and inspirations for the study of Art and Nature. James Northcote, the favourite pupil and biographer of Reynolds, was a friend of the family ; and it was natural that the great Sir Joshua should be respected with youthful hero-worship by a boy who found noble qualities in his work and sound sense in his “ Discourses.”

Accordingly, the first two volumes of Modern Painters start from Reynolds as from an authority in whom there may be blemishes, but no serious flaw. And when, in 1855, it was necessary to controvert the peculiar doctrines of Academicism of which Reynolds was the exponent, Ruskin’s tone towards his old master is that of courteous antagonism. The lesser critics among his foes he hunted like rats and crushed without remorse, which makes his treatment of the nobler opponent all the more distinguished. And as time went on, and the ghost of the Grand Style was laid, together with many other potent wraiths and tyrannic giants of the bygone age, to trouble the world no more (for a season) — his old comradeship with his predecessor in Art-Teaching was revived. He praised his work and his doctrines in a course of Oxford Lectures ; and very many of the points upon which his latest teaching insists are the points upon which Sir Joshua insisted.

As I have studied the influence of Reynolds on Ruskin, their points of contact and coincidence, elsewhere (in the magazine Igdrasil , vol. i. No. 4, published by George Allen), it is unnecessary here to repeat the full detail, especially as it would lead us farther than we can afford to go. But in a word it may be said that of all previous writers on Art, Reynolds has influenced Mr. Ruskin more * than any other, in spite of grave diversities of temper and wide differences of conclusion. For Academicism as such, apart from the personality of a genius like Sir Joshua, Ruskin has never had much respect. For the Royal Academy as an institution he has had his hopes and indicated his ideals. With many of its members he has had friendly relations; he has done justice to their talents ; and though he has not spared criticism he never joined in the indiscriminating detraction of jealous outsiders.