The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1900-03-06
John Ruskin--His Strength and His
Weakness.

~ 49, Mt-A
born February s. 1919, and only latci,
passed away, / have little to DO. To tn
average MAJ Of today Ruskin's life dos.
not appeal over much-it hardly seem,
normal on quite healthy. With its mail
facts and elements they who care fcI
Ruskln, the writer, are sufficiently ia.
miliar; they know Of his early home. tina.
Of 4 wealthy wine merchant who Wcn1
III for Shakespeare and water colOrS; u
his education ut Oxford; his taking to ar
criticism by accident: Of his giving his
wife to Millais, Il stroke Of generosity
like enough to get him misunderstood 1y
the less Self-abnegatiyc, and Of his futile
attempt to live up to his own theory OF
how Il member Of society should conduc
himself. With those who do not care
for Ruskin it is quite useless to deal.
We are, ! take it. mainly concerned
with what John Ruskin did, and with
what he attempted. Whether reasonably
or u~nreasonably, the world judges men
not less by what they undertake than by
what they accomplish. Napoleon Buona-
l,arte said to himself: 4 will break the
power of E~ngland.' He did not do it.
The world puts down that failure in
every estimate of Napoleon. Ruskin said
to himself: Il Will reform art" and later
II Will reform mankind.' Whether he
succeeded or failed must be the main
rule IN a Judgment of manufacturing to
the worlds method.
Ituskin,s influence has projected into
three very different spheres of human ac-
tivity-Art, Literature and Economics.
HIS influence on art and economies was
direct: his influence on letters incidental
and even unintentional. Letters took up
merely the recoil of the ideas, solid
enough If dogmatism goes for anything.
chat Ruskin hurled at the bastions of
What he held to be Fharisaism IN art
and economies. Yet was letters not less
affected than the others.
Ruskin was an eyangel. with all an
cvangel's conviction that he could not
be mistakcnr This characteristic was
the root both of his success and
his failure-he needed it to brace
INN for the effort necessary to accom-
plSh even Il 1.-THE of what he attcmntcd:
by 1t The was blinded to certain forces.
Infinitely more potent than any individ-
ual, that would have aided him nightly
had he but acted III the same direction
with them. With this premise we may
proceed to consider the first task Ruskin
set himself-the reformation of art.
HIS Defence OF TURNER.
That Ruskin's influence ON art was
wholly for the better is hardly questioned
nowadays. lie was, in Il measure, to
art what Wordsworth wa to poetry.
Luther to the religion Of Christianity,
Bacon to science, and Napoleon to the
tactics OF war. He found art not only
concerning itself with limitations but rs
was inevitable accentuating the defects |
of what 1t copied. 1t was hodgetl and
bound with rules as arbitrary and aS
sitting rs the Old dramatic ~uniticS. Rus
KIN unshacklcd it: not that he was a cres-
tor III art. He was not. Such was the
state Of art when Ruskin found it. but
not of all artists. There were some
vino insisted on going TO the forests for
their trees instead Of to the pictures of
other men. These 1iuskin chanayioned
and defended with a wealth Of language,
an acutelesS of analysis, and Il warmth
of enthusiasm that in the end won the
world Of art to his way Of thinking. Rus
kin, be It remembered, did not teach
Turner TO paint Il landscape; he Taught
others that Turner painted landscapas
somewhat as they should be: that he
them better than artists whom
his fellow painters busted themselves in
Then going from the Dartr-
to the general, embracing sculpture
ana architecture as we'll rs painting. he
.eXpounded 4 theory and Il method that
was not alone OF untold benefit to those
III whose behalf be wrote. but to others
who should come after. and to the thou
sands who paint no pictures. but who
from RuSkin'S books some concep-
ton. however crude, Of what the primer
Pies OF true art are: and to Vet other
thousands. who seldom see Il picture at
which ltlSkin would not shudder. he has
gwen the power to feel the beauty of the
.leafles> tree on the far Hill top. against
the violet canvas of the sunset.
OF TOUCH WITH HIS AGE.
And then, when he had succeeded thus
RuSkln failed. and failed through his
'Vallgel temperament. He forgot that
40 man may paint 4 landscape as it is.
out only as he secs 1t. and even more that
le must of necessity see it not alone in
he light of the sun that falls on it. but
II the light Of the age in which he lives.
his Ruskln would not permit llim to do.
lie would have 1T that the painter must
}alnt the landscape as the sunlight re
-ealed 1t to HIM, but that other light
must come not from England, but from
ualy. lie would have the artist 90 to
latufe lOr his materials and to Italy for
ID '1lcIbI dlIo1. III OtllcT words he wis
rot willing to cOncede that art. like liz
nature. must be an Repression of its age
1 ut would endure. lie refused to believe
hat under all the gross commcrcialism
IF England, the confnercialism that he
rated alike for its u~gliness and its inins-
ICE, there lay dormant the potential cle-
Of an art not less noblc than that
Il Italy and that it WAS the business Of
he English artist to body them forth
lay more, that if the English artist fail
Ad to do so he Was after all but an imi-
-ator, and his reward would be oblivion.
not immortality. You say this is but =
theoretical objection: True enough-hut
lt'iSkln was mainly Il teacher OF thc tho
Dry OF art, and by his theory he must
'tand or fail. That | do not misrepreSpDt
fuskln attitude in this particular allow
nc 10 point out that lie declares in his
discussion of sculpture that the use Of.
he word taste as expressing an apprc-
nation Of art shows that modern educa-
ION classes art aS giving only Il kind
II pleasure analogous to that derived
rom eating by the palate" !,
Continuing he says: "M0dprn educa- +,