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

rt 1+

GRATIS.

Stetimus tele aspera contra
Contulimusque menus: experto credite, quantus
In clipeum assurgat, quo turbine torqueat hasten:).

The following 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