The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-05-04
ONE GRAND GID MAN.
John Rnskin Numbers More Admirers in
america Than in Any Other Country
His Greatest Works

John Rnskin Numbers More Admirers in
america Than in Any Other Country
His Greatest Works
From the Minneapolis Times.
1T Is always pleasant to think of John
tuSkin at Brantwood, in the midst of
some of the most beautiful rural
scenery of old England, where with
breadths of quiet water, rejecting all
the passing glories of the sky, and
rocks and trees and ferns and grasses
he loves all around his house. and
within, all the collectanca Of his taste,
ne Is passing the closing years of a
long and useful life, in wondrous
strength Of mind and body, while the
pen still gives his vast constituency OF
readers ON both sides of the sea fruit
age OF past years of brain toll in the
shape of lectures and letters before un-
published.
Perhaps Ruskin is nowhere in the
world better appreciated than in this
country. From the time Modern
PAINTERS and seven Lamps" came to
us Ruskin has had a wonderfully faith
iul constituency in the United States.
For fifty years he has been stimulus
to art reading clubs and a delight to
general readers, and this is the only
country where an anthology has been
constructed and published from his
works. Whoever read Modern Paint
ers' when it first appeared felt that a
writer Of great and original power was
addressing him. There was profuse
adulation. A new teacher had ap-
peared, and it was several years before
the inevitable reaction took place and
the people who were offended by his
criticisms, which We're sharp and Sc
we're, began to talk back in the English
papers and reviews. AS a matter of
fact John Ruskin is a merciless critic
of others and he used his tremendous
resources Of language and expression
to blast those methods in art he did not
like. Had Ruskin never written any
thing but Modern Painters his fame
would have been secure. for it readily
secured him the credit of being the
greatest writer on art in the English
language, and it is doubtful If any
other critic in any other language ever
surpassed him for close touch with ma
ture and power of thought and lam
guage to interpret nature and to lay
down canons of taste. No art critic
since has reached Ruskin's level.
An Unreliable Economist
Outside of art Ruskin is not at home
and they who judge him by his OBJ
servations in literature, history, society.
etc, have excellent foundations for hos
tile criticism. Rusliin has been crank
In sociology, but he meant well. Let
the reader of Rusliin confine himself to
the critics first work, Modern
Painters" and to Seven Lamps OF Ar
chitecture," and "Stones of Venice" and
his other minor works of art criticism
and he will readily take Ruskin for his
master. Only compare the lectures of
Sir Joshua Reynolds held supreme pre-
viously to Ruskin's advent as an au-
thor, and the quality of art criticism
contained I'm them. with Modern Paint
ers," and Ruskin's primacy conspicu-
ously appears. The beauty Of Rusl<in's 8
style Is its freedom from technicalities,
its perfect naturaness and absence of
obsCurities and pendantry. Having
seen every great picture and statue
and cathedral in Europe. Ruskin can
write about them all so that n reader
of ordinary education is both charmed
and instructed, Such a minute observer
of nature never before wrote n
book. Whether rock, tree. lichen,
moss or storm cloud, RuSkiu
describes them as never before
described. Who ever before or
since wrote OF Leaf Beauty" as he has
=, ~ ha ,Df n ~
alpine storm cloud in type as he has
Turner himself once said that Ruskin
saw things in his pictures he never
meant to be there: but that Is high
tribute to Ruskin's power of idealiza-
ton
II Is to be regretted that RuslSin ever
undertook To write on social questions
and to dip into general literature. meta
physics and politics. But he has done
so and his course has been meat To his
enemies. Ruskin as an art critic, it
must be confessed, Is terribly dogmatic
but he Is more dogmatic when he comes
to write on other subjects. His intol-
erance therein is excessive and II is
unfortunate that he did not rest upon
his laurcls In the palm of art criticism.
The idea of u man gravely attempting
to write n treatise ON political economy
who had never read any work but Adam
Smiths wealth of Nationsr' But
with all his faults. the Grand Old Man
OF Brantford is one of the hest beloved
of Engishmen. Thousands of Ameri-
cans call to see him every year. and II
Is pretty certain that John Ruskln has
as many admirers on this side the At
lantic as in England. IL not more.