The New York herald., 1879-02-03

not to all of them; that he was, technically, q
wonderful but imperfect and irregular painter
in oil, unsafe and unsound in his processes
though at the time both strong and delicate in
handling; that he stands apart and alone in water
color. which in his hands is like new art that he
excellent line etcher in preparation for mezzo
tint, and good engraver in mezzotint besdes and
that with all these glfts and acqulreien.s ne was
OF artists believe that his fame will last that he
was as much poet on canvas as Byron ana Sheiiey
were in written language and that although II Is
possible that his performances may be afterward ex
celled it will be very different for any future land
scape painter to rival his reputation in his own
country 1t IL becoming more and more
difficult to create sensation in art, and without
sensation such fame that of Turner is impossible
ARRANGEMENTS.
So much for the painter. OF Ruskin Mr. Hamer-
ton says that the artist in him is powerful as to
act independently of the critical faculty whether the
critical faculty be in itself positively strong feeble
and he shows that many of Mr.. Ruskins happiest
periods about the national neglect of Ruskin and his
melancholy almost solitary death. periods and
nothing more. He denies Turner's truth to nature
by careful comparison of several of his landscapes
with the scenes from which they painted, and
tells curious anecdotes tending to show that he did
not even to be true. He was once staying at a
friend house where there three children. and
had with him drawing. of which the distance was
carefully outlined. but "there was no material for
the nearer parts. One morning, when about to pro-
ceed with this drawing. he called in the children as
collaborateurs for the rest in the following
ner He rubbed three cakes of water color red blue
and yellow in three separate saucers. gave one to
each child and told the children to dabble in the sau
and then play together with their coored fingers
on his paper He watched the work of the thirty little
fingers with serious attention and after the dabblng
had gone for some time, suddenly called out,
"stop'' He then took the drawing into his own
hands. added imaginary landscape forms suggested
by the accidental coloring and the work was finished.
On another OCCASION after dinner he amused himself
in arranging many colored sugar plums on
desert plate and when disturbed in the operation by
question. said to the quesioner "There, you have
made me lose fifty guineas." What relation had
sugar plums to landscape painting? Simply this
that landscape might afterward have been invented
in the same color arrangement. "He cared no more
about the truth than Victor Hugo cares" says Mr..
Hamerton.
NOT PRE-RAPHAELITE.
Ruskins affirmation that Turner was the true head
of pre- Raphaetsm is refuted partly by showing that
Turner's work was always artificial, and therefore
not conformed to the pre-Raphaelite principle
laid down by Mr.. Ruskin himself. that
the most minute details must be obtained
by working everything, down to the minutest detail.
from nature and nature only and also by comparing
one Of Seddon's landscapes with one of Turner'S,
and showing that the latter works entirely from
more less successful invention, the former from
observation The book is divided into sixteen chap
ters. and is well but not exhaustively indexed The
preface speaks of Turner an instructive subject
the student of because he is always and above
all things the artist Wih all his study of objects
and effects he was never a naturalist" says Mr..
Hamerton.
ART CRITICS.
In another passage he expresses the conviction
that the proper function Of writer upon art is first
to inform himself well as he can and then to say
what he thinks with the most fearless candor, but
without the slightest pretension to authority,
only aiming to deserve the credit that belongs to
utility. "The march of humanity" he says. 'is
like procession by torchlight, in which see
their way by the light given by Others but also hold
up torches Of their own"