Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1884-09-05
MODERN ART.


Mr.. Ruskln's Theory of its Dccaden"e.
when Mr.. Ruskin published the OXforl
lectures ON the art of England which
we reported at the time of their delivery,
his friends wrote to him, il seems. to con
graduate him on 'the supposed improve
ment in his temper and manners under
the stress of age and experience. Mr..
Ruskin, did not by any means take these
congratulations as Il compliments ana has
found ii necessary To write another lecture
in order to correct the false impression OF
his friends. why is it, he at once begins
by asking them, "that British painters,
great or small, are never right altogether;
that their work is always flawed, and new
err thorough ~
The first general cause which Mr.. Rus
kin assigns for the failure of modern art
is the ''infectious insanity for centraliza-
ton which collects all the vicious elements
of any country's life into the mephitic
cancer in its centre In the great times
of art. ON the other hand. all great art is
provincial There is no AtticNstyle, but
there is a Doric and Corinthians there
is no Roman style. but there is an M
brian. Tuscan. Lombard and Venetian.
The tendency to contradictions which has
been fatal to art at all times L. at TINS
time especially pcrniciOuS because the
capitals of Europe are all of monstfous
and degraded architecture. "All artists
in former ages might he corrupted ny the
manners, but he was exalted 10y the
splcndor, of the capital. and persisted
amid magniiicencc of palaces : but now
the board of works is capable of no higher
skill than drainage. and the British artist
floats placidly down the maximum cur
rent of the National ClOaCa. to his Dun
clad rest. content. virtually, thai his life
should be spent ut one end OF cigar ana
his fame expire at the other.
Mr. RuSkin'S second cause for the dcgra-
dation of modern art is the degrated state
of the weather OF the physical character
of 'thr plague wind of the nineteenth
century" he discOurscd at the London
Institution in the spring: he now speaks
of its effect on the artistic power of our
time He illustrates his point by describ-
ing the weather at Brentwood on the 10Th
of May. 1Ss4-a day with an 'cntirely alb
normal keen southwest wind, with a
bright sun" Now. what sort of study
Mr.. Ruskin asks could an artist get on a
day like that In the first place
''Ile must have Il tent of some sort-he
cannot sit in the wind-and the tent will
be always unpegging itself and Tapping
about his ears; next he cannot draw a
leaf in the foreground, for they are
all shaking like aspens: nor the
branch of a tree in the middle distance
for they are all bending like switches nol
IA cloud, for the clouds have no outline
nor even the effect of waves on the Lake
surface. for the cat 's-paws and sWirlS OF
: wind drive the dark spaces over 1t Ike
feathers
With this dismal picture Mr. Ruskil
Lea
) days used to be in ordinary sprinl
weather of old times-days such a'
he had spent 'thousandS of in his forty
years of happy work between 1870 an'
: $50" Sceptics who are unable to follow
the rest of Mr. Ruskin'S "cyanometer'
seemed kccner in 1914 than in lSi
because the artist had grown Older, ant
| will refuse to believe on the strength o
t an old mans eyes-been and hrllllan
though they fortunately are still-tha
+ there has really passed away Il glory from
+ the sky
About the next change, to which Mr.
t Ruskin attributes some of the deteriori
e tions of noble subjects induced by TIN
; progress Of manufacturers and engineer
: ing are too obvious.
c take. for instance, four of the mos
r beautiful and picturesque subject
= once existing in Europc-Furness Alb
4 bcy, Conway Castle, and Castle o
e ChillOn, and the Falls of Schaffhauscn
e \ railroad station has been set up within
= Il hundred yards of the abbey: an irol
: railroad bridge crosses the Conway il
e front of its castle: Il stone one crosse
- the Rhine ut the top of its cataract
h and the great Simplon line passes the en-
II of the drawbridge of Chillon. Since sue
o improvements have taken place, tn
r portraiture of these scenes by men c
:. sense or feeling has become forever in
~ noSSiblp Discard of color may be endure
$ in picture-discord of sentiment hevcl
). The artist turns unconsciously, bu
e necessarily, from the disgraced noblencr
e of the past to the consistent basenesS {
o the present and is content to pair
e whatever he is in the habit of seeing
h the manner he thinks best calculated
1t recommend it to his customers"