The Press. — London, England, 1858-12-04 00:00:00

SUPPLEMENT TO ~_.....,, I) , i , t fittraturt. MR. RUSKIN ON ARTISTIC EDUCATION.* Ir is hardly possible that Mr. Ruskin should write anything, especially on the subject of Art, which, whatever fault may be found with it on the score of its sophistical or arrogant spirit, should not be at least remarkable for brilliancy and vigour ; and he must be far more perverse, more dog matic, and more irreconcileable with himself than he has ever yet been, before the public will cease to listen to his eloquence, or fail in eager ness to purchase the slightest work which may fall from his pen. We can as little imagine him promulgating any view which shall be totally false and foolish, as we can conceive him deprived of his marvellous power of description or his habitual moral suggestiveness.—On the other hand, we are inclined to say—which possibly he may regard as one of the sincerest compliments that could be paid him !—that of late years we have never felt his utterances wholly satisfactory, and have been disposed to question more than ever the fundamental soundness of some of his Liter, and apparently favourite, views. The rea con, perhaps, is that in his earlier works he con fined himself to the subject of Art alone, while M various later publications he has shown a tendency to take up " things in general," and offer instruction on a good many points besides those which are usually supposed to be compre hended in the sphere of his special study. Thus, in the present lecture he recurs, apparently with perfect confidence, to the notions of Art- Organization which he promulgated in his Poli tical Economy of Art," a point on which (see THE PAM, Jan. 9, 1858) we have already ex pressed our opinion. We could ill afford to be without such a writer as Mr. Ruskin, but it is to be feared that hi s ideas of social amelioration lay too little stress on the reformation of individual character—too much on external agencies ; and, moreover, that these agencies, if brought to bear, would amount to something very like a " Paternal Government." Some such views are in some degree inseparable from his idiosyncrasy. Endowed with sympathies which are perhaps wide rather than deep, and blessed, or cursed, with one of those architectonic minds that in stinctively seeks to compress the Universe itself into the mould of its own individuality—which, having reached what are, or seem to be, first principles in one branch of knowledge, never rests till it has carried them through all others, inevitably desiring to grasp the world of thought, feeling, and action into one consistent and harmonious system of law and order,—Mr. Ruskin seems to belong, as regards the general 'Cope of his intellect and character, rather to the cjass of thinkers who are represented by Plato, Fourier, Owen, and Comte, than to those among the Aristotle, Butler, Bentham, and Mill are I ,a! leading spi r it s . Th ere i s a lways something 'reaching and noble about his thoughts—a 'igour and earnestness about his writing which carry" you away in spite of yourself, and lift you Cuabridge School of Art. Mr. Ruskin's Inaugural Ad delivered at flambridge, Oct. 29, 1d5: 1 . Cambridge : u 'l l •toil• London: Bell and Daldy. ~ '1 I I I rt 1+ GRATIS. Stetimus tele aspera contra Contulimusque menus: experto credite, quantus In clipeum assurgat, quo turbine torqueat hasten:). The follo wi ng passage will not be new to those who have read Mr. Ruskin's " Elements of Drawing," but it conveys a lesson which cannot be too frequently repeated :--• The more I see of schools, the more reason I see to look with doubt upon those which produce too many showy and complete works by the pupils. A showy work will always be found, on stern examination of it, to have been done by some conventional rule,—some servile conaplisnce with directions which the student does not see the reason for; and representation of troths which he has not himself per ceived : the execution of such drawings will be found monotonous and lifeless ; their light soil shade specious and formal, but false. A drawing which the pripil has learned much in doing, is nearly always full of blunders and mishaps, and it is highly necessary for the formation of a truly public or universal school of Art, that the misters should not try to conceal or anticipate such blunders, but only seek to employ the pupil's time so as to get the most precious results for his understanding and his heart, not for his hand. Mr. Ruskin, soberly enough, does not lead ama teurs to suppose that they can ever attain the excellence of professional men. But they ought to learn drawing, not with the hope of doing that for which the devotion of a life is required, but in order to be good judges of Art, and thoroughly acquainted with the best examples. So much for the moral and intellectual effect. of Art on the general student. If, now—to pass to the second point—we want to get the most out of the workman, in a commercial point of view, neither schools, nor lectures, nor mechanical in ventions, nor premiums, nor painstaking, will help us. To have good art, we must enjoy art— and enjoy it so much as to be unwilling to part with it. There is a story of a Spanish book seller, who dealt in old and rare editions, and was so unwilling to part with them, that once, when induced to do so with a favourite volume, he secretly tore out a leaf, and, on the cus tomer's returning a day or two after to remon strate on the deficiency, decoyed him into the back shop, and murdered him in order to regain the cherished treasure. This, we think, is something like the feeling which, according to Mr. Ruskin, we ought to have for the productions of our art—some thing like that, too, which induces the Arab in the story, when he has reared a horse and brought him to a town for sale, the instant the bargain is con cluded, to throw it up, spring on the animal's back and ride off, rather than part with him. But this makes a serious difficulty for us as a commercial nation : The very primary motive with which we set about the business, makes the business impossible. The first and absolute condition of the thing's ever becoming saleable is, that we shall mike it without wanting to sell it; nay, rather with a determination not to sell it st any price, if once we get hold of it. Try to make your Art popular, cheap—a fair article for your foreign market ; and the foreign market will always show something better. But make it only to please yourselves, and even be resolved that you won't let anybody else have any ; and forthwith you will find everybody elee wants it. Here Mr. Ruskin goes off into a long tirade to the effect that ladies don't properly enjoy their silk dresses! They may like being well dressed, but they do not "feel delight in the beauty and " play of the silken folds and colours themselves " for their own gorgeousness or grace." The proof of which is, that when he was copying a certain Paul Veronese at Turin, none of the English travellers, none of the ladies, not even "any nice, sharp-looking. bright-eyed girl," who No. 292.—V01. VI. LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1858. safely over all the obstacles at which a more terrestrial Pegasus would halt and stumble. If he is not always thoroughly practical—which we admit he often is—he is at all events never vulgar or commonplace. And there is a way he has of grasping a subject, and presenting it in a fresh and vivid fashion, which generally brings out its leading features under the light of a new analysis ; and this, even though its divisions may be reduced to formulae with which we are already familiar, is never again regarded b; the mind under quite the same aspect, but, by the myste rious privilege which Genius enjoys of " rescuing " admitted truths from the neglect caused by their " universal admission," is ever after associated with the new language and new imagery under which it has been represented and, we might almost say, re-created by its author. Thus, in the pages before us, instead of going into details, and recommending how to study nature, what examples to look for, what ancient masters to imitate or observe—directions which no one, assuredly, is more capable of giving, and which, in an inaugural address to learners in Art would hardly have been deemed out of place— he goes at once to the root of the matter in its broadest and most catholic, that is to say, its moral and national aspect : I suppose the persons interested in establishing a School of Art for workmen may in the main be divided into two classes, namely, first, those who chiefly desire to make the men themselves happier, wiser, and better; and secondly, those who desire to enable them to produce better and more valuable work. These two objects may, of course, be kept both in view at the same time; nevertheless, there is a wide difference in the spirit with which we shall approach our task, according to the motive of these two which weighs most with us—a difference great enough to divide, as I have said, the promoters of any such scheme into two distinct classes ; one philanthropic in the gist of its aim, and the other commercial in the gist of its aim ; one desiring the workmen to be better informed chiefly for his own sake, and the other chiefly that he may be enabled to produce for us commodities precious in themselves, and which shall successfully compete with those of other countries. This difference in motives leads to a difference in the principles of art-education ; the wider in struction being applicable not to artizans in par ticular, but to labourers of all kinds ; the narrower being specifically adapted to the im provement of the worker in one branch alone. It is of little avail to teach drawing, &c., in general to the latter, and suppose that he can then apply it to his own trade. It is of no use "to teach an iron-worker to observe the down "on a each, and of none to teach laws of atmo " spheric effect to a carver in wood." Nor can that which both respectively want be taught in a single school ; experience alone can give them the requisite power of manipulation. The only general thing that can be taught in such a school is the power of " sight." Here, again, we find a valuable distinction, yet one which seems obvious enough when stated :—The power "of seeing objects clearly and truly" is by no means the same thing as " the power of representing them," though they are often unconsciously confounded. You may learn the knack of representing objects without ever faithfully studying the objects them selves; but, let the obj ects be put before you to copy as you can, and t hough your attempt may be an entire failure, you will know a great deal more about the object itself than you did before. After such a struggle with Nature to learn her secrets, we feel towards her as the hero in Virgil did towards his adversary :