His Painters," which the young Oxford | the Scuola di San Rocco, copying Tingraduate wrote in the autumn and win- toret's frescoes and making a catalogue ter of 1842, in his Herne Hill home, of his works. He studied every bit of and read chapter by chapter each morn-.architectural detail in the walls of St. ing at breakfast, to the delight of his Mark's and of the Doge's Palace, and admiring parents. The book was pub- laid the foundations of another great lished in April, 1843, and soon made its work, "The Stones of Venice." mark. By the end of the year its suc- new thoughts and hopes are vigorously cess was assured. The poet Rogers expressed in a letter which he wrote kept it on his table, Tennyson longed from Venice to an old friend, Mr. Joso much to see it that he wrote to beg seph Severn, whose cartoon had lately his publisher to borrow it for him, gained a prize at the competition for since he could not afford to buy it. the mural decoration of Westminster Even the reviewer in Blackwood, who Hall: took up the cudgels in defence of cher- With your hopes for the elevation of Enished prejudices and reputations at-glish art by means of fresco, I cannot symtacked by this daring young writer, pathize. It is not the material nor the allowed that the book was the work of space that can give us thoughts, passions, a man of power, who thought inde- or power. I see on our Academy walls pendently and felt strongly, and had nothing but what is ignoble in small pic66 a mortal aversion to be in a crowd." tures, and would be disgusting in large ones. It is not the love of fresco that we want; it is the love of God and his creatures; it is humility and charity and selfdenial, and fasting and prayer. It is a total change of character. We want more faith and less reasoning, less strength and more trust. You want neither walls nor plaster nor color - ça ne fait rien à l'affaire gelico that you want, and that you will and must want until this disgusting nineteenth century has-I can't say breathed, but steamed its last (i. 126). So early he had taken up, and wrapped around him, the mantle of Cassandra. In 1844 the family went to Switzerland again to enable the artist-author to prepare drawings for his second volume, in which mountain forms were to be further illustrated. But on the way home Ruskin spent some days in the Louvre, and for the first time saw and loved Perugino and Bellini. He-it is Giotto and Ghirlandajo and Anhad been scoffing at the ancients; at Poussin, Canaletto, and the Dutchmen, because they could not draw rocks and trees; now he discovered that there had been a great age of art eveu before Rubens and Michelangelo. He went home to study Rio and Lord Lind- That winter he wrote the second volsay, and to write about the real old ume of "Modern Painters " in the new masters. And the next spring he vis- and larger home on Denmark Hill, to ited Italy, for the first time without his which his parents had lately moved. parents. Then Florence and Lucca When the book came out, he was back and Pisa revealed their glories to him. in Italy, showing his father the Campo He stood in the shadow of Giotto's Santo of Pisa, the Campanile of Giotto, Tower, and spent long mornings copy- and trying to make him understand ing the frescoes in the cloisters of S. why these things spoke to him with Marco and of Santa Maria Novella. such power. On his return home, He dreamt away the days in the glow- young author found himself quite a star ing sunlight, gazing on the fretted pin- in the literary world. Lockhart asked nacles of Santa Maria della Spina, the him to review Lord Lindsay's "Chrisjewel shrine of Pisa; and he saw and tian Art" for the Quarterly. Sydney loved the marble form of Ilaria di Smith praised " Modern Painters as a Caretto, where she lies in her last, book of "transcendent talent, likely to long sleep, under the cathedral wall of work a complete revolution in the Lucca. Then he went on to Venice, world of taste," and Miss Mitford deand found himself face to face with scribed him as (6 certainly the most Tintoretto. He worked for weeks in charming person she had ever known." the 66 But his health was still delicate, and its appearance was eagerly expected by he suffered from a weakness of the at least one person. Charlotte Brontë spine which made him find society too had lately been reading "Modern fatiguing. He went to Scotland in the Painters," aud now wrote to her pubautumn, and stopped in Perthshire, lishers, congratulating them on the where he proposed to the young Scotch | approaching publication of Mr. Ruslady for whom he had, some years be- kin's new work. If The Seven fore, written his pretty fairy tale of Lamps of Architecture' resemble their "The King of the Golden River." predecessor, 'Modern Painters,' they The marriage, which was, we are told, will be no lamps at all, but a new greatly desired by Ruskin's parents, constellation seven bright stars, for took place on April 10, 1848, and the whose rising the reading world ought young couple went to Keswick. From to be anxiously agape " (i. 140). Mr. this place he wrote on Good Friday to Ruskin's own opinion, thirty years Miss Mitford: later, was that the book had become the most useless he had ever written; the buildings he had described in its pages with so much delight being either knocked down or scraped and patched up into smugness and smoothness more tragic than uttermost ruin” (i. 141). But the "Seven Lamps is still read and valued by many, and has lately gone through four new editions. I begin to feel that all the work I have been doing, and all the loves I have been cherishing, are ineffective and frivolous -that these are not times for watching clouds, or dreaming over quiet waters; that more serious work is to be done; and that the time for endurance has come rather than for meditation, and for hope rather than for happiness. Happy those whose hope, without this severe and tearful rending away of all the props and stability of earthly-enjoyments, has been fixed where the wicked cease from troubling." Mine was not. It was based on those "pillars of the earth which are astonished at His reproof" (i. 136). 66 66 now His next book was to be "The Stones of Venice." Ever since his visit to Italy in 1845, a book about Venice had been planned, and with this object in view the winter of 1849-50 was spent at Venice, where he devoted himself to a thorough examination of St. Mark's Strange words for a young man of nine- and the Ducal Palace. The first voland-twenty on his honeymoon. But ume appeared by the end of 1850, and Mr. Ruskin was unlike other men, and was received with a mingled chorus his mood just then was restless and of groans and applause. One reviewer troubled. He and his wife started to discovered that Ruskinism was viomake a tour of English cathedrals, but lently inimical to sundry existing interhe caught a chill, sketching at Salis-ests; another complained that the book bury, and had to give up his plan. Later in the summer he paid a visit to Normandy, where he studied Gothic buildings, and in October settled at a house of his own in Park Street. That The Stones of Venice seem nobly laid winter he wrote "The Seven Lamps of and chiselled. How grandly the quarry of Architecture," and himself engraved vast marbles is disclosed! Mr. Ruskin the plates from drawings which he had seems to me one of the few genuine writers, made in 1846 and 1848. The fine stud- as distinguished from book-makers, of this ies of the window of Giotto's Tower, age. His earnestness even amuses me in the arches of S. Michele at Lucca, and certain passages; for I cannot help laughCa' Foscari at Venice, with their ing to think how utilitarians will fume and deeply carved mouldings and tufted fret over his deep, serious, and (as they plants, are familiar to all Ruskin lovers, will think) fanatical reverence for Art (i. and have been the delight of our child-152). hood. was unreadable, and the author positively insane. But Charlotte Brontë's hopes were not disappointed, and she wrote full of delight to a friend: The book was announced for At the same moment Carlyle was writhis father's birthday, May 10, 1849, and ing to Ruskin, in a note, thanking him for a gift of books which he had sent him: one on Pre-Raphaelitism, which he published in August, 1851. This was a spirited defence of the band of young painters calling themselves Pre-Raphaelite Brothers, whose pictures had startled the British public in the AcadThese ar I was already deep in the "Stones," and clearly propose to hold on there. A strange, unexpected, and, I believe, most true and excellent Sermon in Stones, as well as the best piece of School-mastering in Architec-emy Exhibition that year. tonics, from which I hope to learn in a great many ways. The spirit and purport of these Critical Studies of yours are a singular sign of the times to me, and a very gratifying one. Right good speed to you, and victorious arrival on the farther shore! It is a quite new "renaissance," I believe, we are getting into just now: either towards new, wider manhood, high again as the eternal stars, or else into final death, and the mask of Gehenna forevermore! A dreadful process, but a needful and inev- dent and gifted young men were not originally pupils of Mr. Ruskin, nor was their movement in the first place his creation. At first the ugliness of the faces in Holman Hunt and Millais's pictures repelled him, and he disliked what seemed to him the popish nature of their subjects. But soon he recognized the seriousness of their aims, and the faithfulness of their attempts to follow nature; and when the Times critic denounced their works, and they fell under the ban of public condemnation, he held out the right hand of fellowship, and stood up boldly as their champion. Since the days of Albert Dürer, he said, there had been nothing in art so earnest and so complete as Holman Hunt's "Light of the World" or Millais's" Carpenter's Shop." became personally acquainted with the artists, and was soon on intimate terms with the true leader of the movement, Dante Rossetti. A drawing of Rossetti's, which was sent him by a friend in 1854, struck him so much, that he sought out the young artist, and agreed to take any drawings that he brought him, at their market price, up to a certain sum every year. Nor did his geuerous patronage end here. He was the first to recognize the rare beauty of Rossetti's early poems, and when his friend Thackeray declined to print them in the Cornhill, he became responsible for the cost of their publication. He Carlyle here alludes to a pamphlet which Mr. Ruskin had lately published on the text, "There shall be one fold and one Shepherd," urging Protestants of all denominations to drop their differences and unite in a world-wide federation, a New Jerusalem, with the Church of England for its nucleus. If people could be brought to go straight to the New Testament for its simple teaching, he thought there would be no difficulty in finding common ground, and once sincere faith in Christ and simplicity of life were restored, these could not fail to produce a revival of the right spirit in art. His aspirations did not meet with much response at the time. The art-critic was held to be The Working Men's College, just wandering out of his province, and, started by Frederick Denison Maurice excepting Carlyle, few were disposed in 1854, received the warm support of to treat him seriously. But for Ruskin | Mr. Ruskin, and Rossetti, who was enhimself, as Mr. Collingwood justly remarks, the publication of this pamphlet was a memorable date; for it was the beginning of a train of thought, which was destined to lead him far in a new direction. listed by him in the cause, helped him to give evening drawing-classes at Great Ormond Street. At the opening lecture, which was held in Long Acre on October 30, 1854, the chapter "On the Nature of Gothic," from the second His next pamphlet was the famous volume of "The Stones of Venice," ever. was distributed to all present, and be- | kin writing to ask Browning for some came, as it were, the manifesto of the explanation of those " seemingly carenew movement. Mr. Ruskin's indus- less and too rugged lines of his," which try during these years was greater than are none the less absolutely "unerring After another visit to Venice in in every sentence he writes of the Mid1852, he left Park Street, to settle next dle Ages, and every principle condoor to his old home on Herne Hill, nected with the medieval temper in and there wrote vols. ii. and iii. of matters of art." The poet replies in a "The Stones of Venice." During the long and characteristic letter, thanking following winter, he delivered his lec- his critic cordially for his "unpleasant tures on architecture and painting things," as much as his over-liberal before the Philosophical Society of Ed-praise, and defending himself from the inburgh, reviewing the life and aims of often-repeated charges of obscurity and Turner, and holding up sincerity in roughness. We can only quote a few imagination, as the guiding principle of lines: Christian art, exemplified in the works of the Pre-Raphaelite painters. In the summer of 1854 he went to Switzerland, to write a book on the history of its chief towns, which was to be illustrated by drawings from his pen. But at his father's earnest desire, he gave up this plan, and set to work on vol. iii. of "Modern Painters." His progress was interrupted by the melancholy events of that autumn. His marriage had disappointed the hopes of his parents, and none of his friends were surprised when the ill-assorted union was finally severed by his wife's act. Mr. Ruskin himself, "with an old-fashioned delicacy and chivalry which revolted alike from explanation and from recrimination, set up no defence, brought no counter-charges, and preferred to let gossip do its worst" (i. 181). Naturally, many false reports were spread abroad, but Mr. Ruskin's friends stood by him loyally, and held his conduct to be free from blame. Mr. and Mrs. Browning were introduced to him early in 1855 by Miss Mitford, and Mrs. Browning thus describes their impressions of this new acquaintance, whose friendship they both valued so highly in after life : We went to Denmark Hill yesterday to have luncheon with Mr. Ruskin and his parents, and see the Turners, which, by the way, are divine. I like Mr. Ruskin very much, and so does Robert; very gentle, yet earnest-refined and truthful. We count him one among the valuable acquaintances made this year in England (i. 182). For the deepnesses you think you discern - may they be more than mere blacknesses ! For the hopes you entertain of what may come of subsequent readings-all success to them! For your bewilderment more especially noted - how shall I help that? We don't read poetry the same way, by the same law; it is too clear. I cannot begin writing poetry till my imaginary reader has conceded licenses to me which you demur at altogether. I know that I don't make out being a putting the infinite within the my conception by my language; all poetry finite. You would have me paint it all plain out, which can't be. .. Do you think poetry was ever generally understood -or can be? Is the business of it to tell people what they know already, as they know it, and so precisely that they shall be able to cry out-Here you should supply this, - that you evidently pass over, and I'll help you from my own stock? It is all teaching, on the contrary, and the people hate to be taught. They say otherwisemake foolish fables about Orpheus enchant ing stocks and stones, poets standing up and being worshipped, - all nonsense and impossible dreaming. A poet's affair is with God, to whom he is accountable, and of whom is his reward; look elsewhere, and you find misery enough. Do you believe people understand Hamlet ? . . . But I write in the blind-dark and bitter-cold, truest thanks, and understand at least this and past post-time, as I fear. Take my rough writing, and, at all events, the real affection with which I venture to regard you. And "I" means my wife as well as yours ever faithfully, Robert Browning (i. 202). In 1855 Mr. Ruskin published his Later in the year, we find Mr. Rus- first pamphlet of "Notes on the Royal the mind, however warped the good may be by evil qualities. That summer he went to Germany and Switzerland, on his last tour abroad with his parents. His father was now seventyfour, and it was to gratify his oftenexpressed anxiety that he might live to see "Modern Painters" finished, that Mr. Ruskin now set to work and wrote the fifth and concluding volume. It was his original intention in this last part of his great book to treat of vegetation, clouds, and water, as well as of the laws of composition; but he soon found the scheme beyond the limits of a single volume, and, giving up the chapter on water, he carried out the rest of his task, as Mr. Collingwood Academy and other Exhibitions," told his hearers boldly that, in order to which was so widely read and largely be a good natural painter, there must sold, that he repeated the plan five at least be strong elements of good in years in succession. He was now recognized as the leading authority in art, and the public was anxious to hear his opinion, not only on the works of the Pre-Raphaelites, but on all questions of taste. In 1857 he lectured at Manchester on "The Political Economy of Art," insisting on the duty of the State to promote art education in different forms, and urging the revival of the mediæval guilds of craftsmen. That autumn he was recalled from Scotlaud, whither he had accompanied his mother on a visit to the scenes of her youth, to arrange the Turner drawings in the National Gallery. The next six months were spent in a laborious endeavor to sort the masses of "precious rubbish," which had been removed says, somewhat sketchily and halffrom Turner's house in Queen Anne Street to Trafalgar Square. From this chaos he extricated four hundred of the painter's loveliest studies in pencil and water-color, and after having, with infinite pains, cleaned, mounted, dated, | and described them, he placed them in sliding frames and cabinets of his own invention. This collection-in the writer's words, "a wonderful monument of one great man's genius and of another's patience "still remains in the cellars of Trafalgar Square, where the Turner drawings can be seen by all who care to study them. Many years afterwards, in 1881, Mr. Ruskin published a Catalogue of the Turner Drawings and Sketches at present exhibited in the National Gallery," and so completed a task for which he deserves the gratitude of posterity. During 1858, he lectured in different towns, on subjects connected with his Manchester addresses, and the relation of art to manufacture. He lent a helping hand to the New Oxford Museum, then building, and lectured, by Dr. Acland's invitation, to the men who were employed there. In October he delivered an inaugural address at the opening of the Cambridge School of Art. At Manchester he spoke again, in February, 1859, on the "Unity of Art," and 66 heartedly, "as an artist would complete a work when the patron who commissioned it had died" (i. 221). He had begun the book in defence of Turner's genius, but now Turner had long been dead and his fame was thoroughly vindicated. The claims of Early Christian art were fully recognized; the Pre-Raphaelites no longer needed his help. Of Tintoretto he had already spoken. Titian and Veronese now became the subject of his discourse. In 1860 the book appeared, and "Modern Painters was finally completed. The date marks an epoch in Mr. Ruskin's life. At forty years of age he had finished the work on which his reputation as an art critic mainly rests. Henceforth art alone was seldom to be his theme. It became the text for wider teachings on larger questions, and he tried to lead others as he had been lead himself by thoughts about art to the serious consideration of great social and ethical problems. What he calls "the terrific call of human crime for resistance, and of human misery for help," seemed just then to have taken absolute hold of his mind to the exclusion of all other feelings. He lived much in Switzerland, among the mountains at Geneva and at Chamou |