IMfVERSFTY LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN OlEflO IA JOUA* CALIFORNIA A: 0' 0! i|gfsJoTES ON DRAWINGS 7 BY 61 S : MR. R US KIN, PLACED ON EXHIBITION BY PROFESSOR NORTON / IN THE GALLERY OF Messrs. NOYES & BLAKESLEE, 127 Tremont Street \ Boston. OCTOBER, 1879. PRICE, TWENTY FIVE CENTS UNIVERSITY Of MR. RUSKIN'S WORKS. Mr. Ruskiris recent and revised works as folloivs : I. SESAME AND LILIES, ( II. MUNERA PULVERIS, III. ARATRA PENTELICI, IV. THE EAGLE'S NEST, V. TIME AND TIDE, VI. THE CROWN OF WILD OLIVE, VII. ARIADXE FLORENTINA, VIII. VAL D'ARNO, | IX. QUEEN OF THE AIR, X. THE Two PATHS, May now be had, of Mr. OSCAR ALLEN, at the Charles River Savings Bank, Cambridge, Mass., at $75 the set, bound in full purple calf. Vols. III., VII., VIII., and X., contain illustra- tions. NOTES ON DRAWINGS 5 H BY /S/C MR. RUSKIN, PLACED ON EXHIBITION BY PROFESSOR NORTON IN THE GALLERY OF MESSRS. NOYES & BLAKESLEE, 127 TREMONT STREET, BOSTON. OCTOBER, 1879. CAMBRIDGE: UNIVERSITY PRESS: JOHN WILSON & SON. 1879. DRAWINGS. EARLY WORK, 1828-1845 Nos. i- 22 pp. 7-12 SWITZERLAND 23- 58 12-25 VENICE 59- 72 25-31 MISCELLANEOUS 73-106 31-34 PREFATORY NOTE. IN 1878 there was an exhibition in London of Drawings by Turner, that belonged to Mr. Ruskin, and of Drawings by Mr. Ruskin himself; the latter being called by him " his own handiwork illustra- tive of Turner." The incidental or direct illus- tration of Turner afforded by Mr. Ruskin's drawings was, however, perhaps of inferior value to their illustration of Mr. Ruskin's own life and work. Certainly in this last respect they were of peculiar interest to the numerous students of Mr. Ruskin's writings, and especially to that large body of read- ers who recognize their obligation to him as the teacher by whose lessons in the study of nature and of art their faculties of observation and of percep- tion have been, chiefly cultivated, their powers of appreciation best directed and developed, and their capacities of enjoyment indefinitely increased and enlarged. It seemed to me that a similar exhibition of Mr. Ruskin's drawings in this country would be of equal interest to his readers on this side of the ocean, and of even greater value to large numbers of them who have not the opportunity of studying works of art in the old world, and who, for the most part, hav- ing at hand only the pirated edition of Mr. Ruskin's books with its disgraceful travesties of the noble and exquisite illustrations with which the author's editions of his own works are adorned, could have received only a most imperfect, if not altogether false impression of the quality and range of his artis- tic powers as therein displayed. Acceding to my suggestion to this effect, Mr. Ruskin has kindly sent to me a large number of drawings, which, together with those already in 'my possession, make up an exhibition fuller and more complete in its illustra- tion of his work for a period of more than fifty years, than the London Exhibition of 1878. The present Exhibition, as compared with that, contains indeed, more than half as many more pieces of Mr. Rus- kin's handiwork. In the Preface to his Notes on his own Drawings he says with humorous and nat- ural pathos, " I have amused and humiliated myself by arranging a little autobiography of drawings from childhood until now ; out of which it appeared to me that some useful points might be made evident respecting the service of particular methods or the danger of particular errors." This little autobiog- raphy appears now in an improved and enlarged edition, with additions to the present time. Of the sixty pieces in last year's exhibition there are here twenty-five. Most of the others in that exhibition belonged to the collections which Mr. Ruskin has given to Oxford, and could not be sent here; but their place is supplied by drawings equally repre- sentative of the nature of his .work at different periods. The Notes on the pieces in the London exhibition which are also to be seen here, are re- printed in the following pages. The Notes on the other pieces are mostly taken from Mr. Ruskin's memoranda upon the drawings themselves, or from his published writings. The character of this collection is unique. These drawings are not the work of an artist by profes- sion ; there is not a picture among them. They' are the studies of one who, by patience and indus- try, by single-minded devotion to each special task, and by concentrated attention upon it, has trained an eye of exceptional keenness and penetration, and a hand of equally exceptional delicacy and firmness of touch, to be the responsive instruments of facul- ties of observation and perception such as have sel- dom been bestowed on artist or -on poet. Few of these drawings were undertaken as an end in themselves, but most of them as means by which to acquire exact knowledge of the facts of nature, or to obtain the data from which to deduce a principle in art, or to preserve a record of the work of pe- riods in which art gave better expression to the higher interests and motives of life than at the pres- ent day. These studies may consequently afford lessons to the proficients in art not less than to the fresh beginners. The beauty of some of them will be obvious even to an untrained eye; but no one may hope to appreciate them at their worth who will not, in a respectful and modest spirit, give time* and patience to their study. CHARLES ELIOT NORTON. CAMBRIDGE, October 10, 1879. NOTES ON MR. RUSKIN'S DRAWINGS CHIEFLY BY HIMSELF. An Asterisk prefixed to a number indicates that the piece was in the London Exhibition, 1878. I. EARLY DRAWINGS. 1828-1845. NOS. I TO 22. I BEGAN to learn drawing 1 by carefully copying the maps in a small quarto Atlas, of excellent old-fashioned type, the mountains well marked (but not blackened all over like those in the modern Geological Survey), the names clear, not crowded above all, not run across each other, nOr to be gleaned, a letter at a time, when one can pick them up. *i. MAP OF FRANCE, and, *2. MAP OF AFRICA, Are examples of many done by the time I was ten years old. These maps were a great delight to me ; the color- ing round the edges being a reward for all the tediousness of the printed names ; the painting, an excellent discipline of hand and eye ; and the lines drawn for the mountains and sea a most wholesome imitation of steady engraver's work. 1 See Mr. Ruskin's "Notes on his own Handiwork," London, 1878. 8 And it will be found that in the forthcoming number of Fesole\ I place map-making first among the elementary exercises which include subsequent color ; with certain geographical modifications in their construction, of which I may say in forestalment now, that every chief exercise map is to be a square of ten, fifteen, or thirty degrees Euro- pean countries mostly coming in squares of ten degrees, India and Arabia in squares of thirty and the degree is to be divided always into sixty (so called) miles, of which great measure of longitude and latitude I hope my young students will form a sure practical estimate by often walk- ing it. *3. OLD-FASHIONED ENGRAVING. From drawing by Richard Gastineau of the old water- color ; and beneath it My first attempt at " composition from Nature," Mr. Gas- tineau's sky with my own " Dover Castle ! " the latter done out of my head ! All dark side and no shadow. This was literally my first attempt at picture-making, at twelve years old. Infinitely stupid, but showing steady power and will to work. *4. BATTLE ABBEY. (Same date.) My first study of Architecture from Nature, after much examination of what engravers call " texture." *5. ETON. Some feeling beginning to show itself in the ignorant work, when I was between thirteen and fourteen. *6. CHURCH AT DIJON. (Foundation poetically omitted !) Example of architectural sketching on my first continen- tal journey, when I was fourteen. Always supremely stupid, but no shirking of work, till I got near the bottom ; of the sorrowful absence of figures I will explain the reason presently. */. A day's sketching, finished out of my head ; between Arona and Domo d'Ossola on the same journey. Inter- esting to me now, in their proper economy of paper, their weak enthusiasm, and the fastening so early on the " rock at Arona," afterwards drawn for " Modern Painters." [The drawing that followed, No. n* in the London Exhi- bition, was one of the Hotel de Ville, Brussels, belonging to the Oxford collection. Mr Ruskin's Note on it was as fol- lows : ] Copy from Prout's wonderful drawing, in his sketches in Flanders and Germany. Made at home (Herne Hill), with other such, to "illustrate" my diary of that first Continen- tal Travel. Most wholesome discipline; the gray wash being now introduced when the pencil shade was impossi- ble, but not carelessly or licentiously. And better things should have come of such practice, but I got over-praised for the mechanical industry, and led away besides into other work, not fit for me. Had I been per- mitted at this time to put my whole strength into drawing and geology, my life, so far as I can judge, would have been an entirely harmonious and serviceable one. But I was too foolish and sapless myself to persist in the healthy bent ; and my friends mistook me for a " genius," and were minded to make me a poet or a Bishop, or a member of Parlia- ment. Had I done heartily and honestly what they wished, it had also been well. But I sulked, or idled, between their way and my own, and went all to pieces, just in the years when I ought to have been nailing myself well together. And the drawing especially came nearly to nothing : farther on in the series, will be found an example of it when I was sixteen: the Oxford vacation sketches, [Nos. *8 to *i6J 10 made two years later, among the Yorkshire and Scottish Abbeys, contain some details which are even now of inter- est in illustrating the Turner outlines of the same subjects. *8. PETERBOROUGH (1837). *9. LITCHFIELD (1837). Both these are accurate in the angles of the pinnacles and spires ; and express at least wholesome enjoyment in the richness of decorated English Gothic. *io. BOLTON (1837). *n. NEWARK (1838). The year's progress is very clearly manifest ; some sense of light and shade now coming into the line work, and the masonry markings very good. *I2. ROSLYN. Entrance Porch (1838). Trying to be very fine, and failing, of course ; but the shadows creditably even for point work. * 1 3 . ROSLYN. Interior The Prentice Pillar (1838). Very much out of drawing, but I imagine the roof itself may have been warped a little. It is a rude provincial building, and has had many a rough wind to stand since those that sang the dirge for Rosabelle. *I4. EDINBURGH. LADY GLENORCHY'S CHAPEL, LOOKING TO THE OLD TOWN AND THE CRA.IGS (1838). *i5. STIRLING (1838). II *i6. STIRLING (1838.) It might easily be thought, that I -was partly imitating Turner's sketches in the foregoing series. But I never saw a Turner sketch till 1842: and what correspondence there is in manner, results from what really was common to us both, intense love of form, as the basis of all subject. I have never been able in the least to make either artists, or a fortiori the public, understand this in Turner: and the engraving from him only increased the difficulty, for they continually gave reduced representations of his work, in which the drawing was necessarily missed. 17. GRASS BLADES. 1 8. THISTLE. Serious botanical work began in 1842, in the Valley of Chamouni, and a few careful studies of grass blades and Alpine-rose bells ended my Proutism and my trust in draw- ing things out of my head, for ever. But the power of delineation natural to me, only became more accurate, and I carried on at the same time separate outline and chiaroscuro studies, which few persons, I believe, would imagine were by the same hand ; and still less, that they were done contemporaneously. '19. OUTLINE FROM THE FRESCO OF THE SACRIFICE OF JOB, IN THE CAMPO SANTO OF PISA ; and, 20. VAL ANZASCA, Done within a short time of each other, show these two directions of study with definiteness. But from this time forward, my drawing was all done that I might learn the qualities of things, and my sketches were left miserably unfinished, not in idleness, but because I 12 had to learn something else. The Venetian ones, for in- stance, ought all to have been full of boats. But to draw a Venetian boat ! (whether the "Sun of Venice" is going to sea, or occupying its place in a solar-system, or fixed stellar- system in the Canal) is to begin another picture, and if of a market-boat, generally with an elaborate fruit-piece on her deck, besides, e.g., *2i. Upper subject, melons ; lower, mats and fish-baskets. Notes of color merely (1845), to be corrected always by notes of curvature, such as *22. More hurried than the two last, but attending to quite other matters, the angles of mast and rudder, and infi- nitely subtle curve of oar. If once one got into boat study, in fact, it was all over with the architecture. II. SWITZERLAND. 1846-1876. Nos. 23 TO 58. *23. DESCENT FROM THE SPLUGEN ON THE ITALIAN SIDE. Old Swiss print, colored by hand. 1 Showing the adaptation of this cool shadow and warm light system to popular engraving. A most lovely piece of quiet work, full of honorable and right feeling. All the prints for sale in the shops of the Swiss towns, at the time of Turner's early travels, were done in this man- ner : and he, in his studies on the spot, would definitely set himself to beat one of these old prints by supplying the fire, or force, that it wanted. 1 1 believe so, but cannot be certain the Swiss had not already fallen on some mechanical help, encouraged with conscientiousness and skill. 13 *24- THE " LOST DUNGEON : " on the Pass of the Splugen. The French translation " Trou-Perdu," entirely loses the grand meaning of the German "Verlohren Loch," a place in which one is both locked tip, and lost: wilderness and dun- geon in one ! and an abyss besides. It is the most ter- rific chasm, on a large scale, in the Alps, the Latins and early Grisons calling it the " Via Mala." *25. STURZ (literally " Overthrow" or " Ruinous Fall ") OF THE RHINE AND AVERS-TORRENT. Another quite admirable study of pines, and true effort to give the forms of water in violent and ponderous fall. By railway, I wonder how many travellers would know whether this was a Rhein-fall, Reuss-fall, or Rhone-fall ; or would lift their eyes from their newspapers to see it, though it were a fall of all three ! *26. Swiss LIFE IN THE OLDEN TIME. Not idealized in the least ; but a quite true picture of a well-to-do farmer's house in Canton Berne. I used to go to Switzerland quite as much to see this life, and the remains of the mediaeval strength that had won it, as to see the Alps themselves. The reader will have patience, perhaps, it may be, also pleasure, in comparing with the old-fashioned picture, the greatest of Swiss authors' description of such a scene. I have an especial reason for asking him now to dwell upon it a little: and will even hope that my own friends will read the passage introducing it, the opening paragraph of Gotthelf's " L'Ame et 1'argent," A to B of the following extract ; the actual description to be compared with the picture is between B and c. The sequel contains some matters of farther interest, readable perhaps at home. A. " Le vrai bonheur est une fleur delicate, autour de la- quelle bourdonnent des milliers d'insectes malfaisants, et que tue le moindre souffle impur. L'homme est le jardinier charge* de la cultiver ; la beatitude est sa recompense ; mais combien peu savent leur metier ; combien regardent indiffe'rents comme les insectes s'y posent ; combien s'amu- sent a voir comme ils la devorent et comme la fleur s'e"tiole ! Heureux celui qui ouvre & temps les yeux, qui, d'une main habile, preserve la fleur et tue son ennemi ; car celui-la pre- serve en meme temps la paix de son coeur, et assure le salut de son ame ; deux choses qui tiennent 1'une a 1'autre, comme le corps et 1'ame, comme ce monde terrestre et 1'autre monde. " II y a dans le pays de Berne beaucoup de jolie* fermes, de riches villages habites par une quantite de dignes coup- les, repute's pour leur crainte de Dieu et la sagesse avec laquelle ils e"levent leurs enfants ; beaucoup de riches vil- lages ou chambres et greniers sont remplis de richesses, que ne soup^onne guere le petit monde a la nouvelle mode, lequel convertit tout en argent, parce que, dans le fait, il depense beaucoup d'argent. Toutes ces provisions entas- s6es representent, pour les besoins personnels et etrangers, des sommes telles qu'on n'en trouverait certes pas, bon an mal an, chez beaucoup de messieurs. Ces sommes n'ont, a 1'ordinaire, aucune place stable. Pareilles a des esprits fa- miliers, mais a de bons esprits, elles courent par le maison, et se trouvent tantot ici, tantdt la, tantot partout a la fois, a la cave, au grenier, au cabinet dans la caisse aux quartiers de pommes seches, dans ces quatre lieux a la fois, sans compter une demi-douzaine d'autres encore. Des qu'un morceau de terre est a vendre qui convient a la ferme, on 1'achete, argent comptant La, jamais le pere ni le grand- pere n'ont rien du a personne ; tout ce qu'ils achetaient, ils le payaient, argent sur table, et de leurs propres deniers. Quand, dans la parente parmi les amis ou dans la commune, un brave homme etait en besoin d'argent, ou voulait faire quelque bon marche, cet argent etait toujours a sa disposi- tion, non comme placement, mais comme assistance tem- poraire, pour un temps determine, sans billet ni interets, tout bonnement sur la garantie de sa bravoure, et sous la garde du Ciel ; et on agissait ainsi par le motif tout sim- ple que Ton croyait encore au Ciel, comme de juste et de raison. " La, le mari va a l'6glise et la foire en respectable habit de droguet ; la femme est toujours, le matin, la premiere a eplucher quelque chose, et le soir, la derniere a eplucher de meme. Pas un mets n'arrive sur 1a table, qu'il n'ait etc cuit par elle, et pas une seille nest versfe dans lauge des cochons, qiielle ne fait au prealable bien remitte jusqiiau fond, avec son bras nu. B. " Pour trouver un e'chantillon de cette honorabilite aristo- cratique, on n'a qu'a aller a Liebiwyl (nous le parlons pas de celui qui est pres de Koenitz, ne sachant pas si on s'y com- porte ainsi). La, une superbe ferme resplendit au soleil, avec des fenetres qui scintillent au loin ; une superbe ferme, que tous les ans on lave avec la pompe a incendie; aussi pa- rait-elle toujours neuve, bien qu'elle ait deja quarante ans ; et quelle bonne chose c'est que le lavage, meme pour les maisons ; on en a la la preuve journaliere. " Une galerie commode et joliment sculptee, 1 fait saillie sous les ailes de la toiture ; une terrasse fait ceinture au- tour de la maison, pavee de, petits caillons serres devant les etables et de larges dalles devant les pieces d'habitation. De magnifiques arbres a fruit entourent les bailments de leur verdure touffue ; une colline la defend des vents du nord, tandis que, des fenetres, on aperc_oit les Alpes qui op- posent une resistance sa fiere et si majestueuse a la marche du temps et a la marche des hommes. "Le soir, on voit, pres de la porte, un homme assis sur un bane, en train de fumer sa pipe, et qu'on ne croirait guere *It might be thought that Gotthelf had made his description from the print itself! But it is from the vivid fact of his own village, " Herzogenbuch-Sec." i6 dge" de plus de soixante ans. De temps en temps, apparait sur la porte une creature a mine avenante et proprette qui a quelque chose a dire ou a demander a cet homme. C'est sa femme. Dans la remise, un beau gargon, svelte et vig- oureux, fait boire deux beaux chevaux bruns, pendant que son frere aine" porte de la paille dans l'e"table. Par moments, on voit dans le jardin, sortir du milieu des fleurs et des herb- ages, une joviale figure de jeune fille, qui demande a samere si elle veut aller lui donner un coup de main, ou qui peste contre les chats qui courent dans la salade, et demande a son pere ce qu'il faudrait faire contre la maladie qui attaque ses roses. Les domestiques et les journaliers rentrent len- tement des champs ; les poules regagnent 1'une apres 1'autre leur poulailler, tandis que le^ pigeon fait encore tres chaude- ment la cour a sa colombe." c. " Tel est le tableau qu'on aurait eu presque tous les soirs sous les yeux, si on s'etait arrete devant cette maison de Liebiwyl, il y a cinq ou six ans ; et si on avait inter- roge les voisins ou telle vieille femme emportant quelque chose sous son tablier, sur le compte de ceux qui 1'habit- aient, on n'eut pas manque de vous repondre brievement : " Ce sont des gens extremement bons et terriblement riches. " A 1'epoque de leur mariage, il y a une trentaine d'an- ne"es, ils formaient le plus beau couple qu'on cut vu entrer depuis bien longtemps a 1'^glise. Plus de cent voitures leur faisaient cortege, sans compter tous ceux qui etaient arrives a cheval, ce qui alors etait beaucoup plus a la mode qu'a present ; car alors les femmes elles-memes montaient a cheval, surtout quand il s'agissait d'aller a la noce. Pour ce qui est de la leur, elle avait dure" trois jours ; eri fait de boire et manger, on n'y avait rien epargne, aussi en avait on beaucoup parle" dans tout le pays. Mais alors aussi les ca- deaux de noce avaient-ils abonde d'une telle fagon, qu'ils en avaient eux-memes etc effrayes. Deux journees entieres ne leur avaient pas suffi pour les recevoir tous, et force leur avait etc de se faire aider par des Strangers. II est vrai qu'on n'eut pas etc dans le cas de trouver, ni en amont ni en aval, une ferme plus reputee que celle-ci. " Le fait est qu'une belle ferme pareille, completement payee, sans compter une masse de mille livres, ne se trouve pas partout. Mais ils ne possedaient pas cela pour eux seuls ; ils savaient encore que les riches ne sont que les mandataires de Dieu, et,qu'ils auraient a rendre compte de chacun de leurs 6cus. Quand on les demandait pour parrain ou marraine, il n'y avait jamais de non, et ils ne se figuraient nullement que depuis que le bois est devenu si cher, les pauvres n'en avaient plus besoin. Les do- mestiques taient trait^s la comme il ne le sont pas sou- vent ; on n'y pretendait pas que la besogne dut etre achevee d'un seul jour, et que le lait qu'on y servait fut toujours trop bon pour eux." I said that I had an especial reason for asking the reader to look at this image of old Swiss life. To me personally it was the soul of the Alps, just as much as the life of Giotto and Farinata was the soul of Fesole, and Florence. 27. A piece of the MOUNTAIN-SIDE OF CHAMOUNI. Study of rounded turf and pine grouping, but still useless to express the pine beauty; elsewhere ("Mornings in Flor- ence. The Straight Gate," p. 141,) I have noticed Turner's prudence in " counting the pines " of the lower Alps, or at least estimating their uncountableness ! I did not under- stand his warning, and went insanely at them, at first, think- ing to give some notion of them by sheer labor. 28. FALLS OF SCHAFFHAUSEN (1850 ?). Color. " That drawing of the Falls of SchafFhausen is the only one of mine I ever saw Turner interested in. He looked at it long, evidently with pleasure, and shook his. finger at it 3 i8 one evening, standing by the fire in the old Denmark Hill drawing-room. How destiny does mock us ! Fancy if I had him to shake fingers at me now ! " [Extract from letter, 1874.] 29. FALLS OF SCHAFFHAUSEN (1850?). Unfinished study in color. From the year 1854 onwards, I spent the summers of 'some half-dozen years in collecting materials for etchings of Fribourg, Lucerne, and Geneva, but had to give all up, the modern mob's madness destroying all these towns be- fore I could get them drawn, by the insertion of hotels and gambling-houses exactly in the places where they would kill the effect of the whole. I can't make drawings of towns thus disfigured, any more than I could of a beauti- ful face with a false carnival nose : and my six years' work has gone pretty nearly for nothing. It may amuse the reader, I hope it will also make him a little sorrowful for me, to compare my boy's drawing of the *3O. Swiss BADEN (1835), with my later studies, all little better than waste paper now. 31. STUDY OF DETAIL FOR PROPOSED ETCHING OF FRIBOURG (1856). Pen drawing touched with color. 32. SIMILAR STUDY (1856). Pencil and pen drawing, with added color. 33. SKETCH FOR ETCHING OF FRIBOURG (1859). P en draw- ing, touched with color. 34. WALL TOWER OF LUCERNE. Pencil study, touched with color. 35. LAKE OF BRIENZ. Color. '9 36. LUCERNE. Pencil drawing, washed with color. 37. DAWN AT NEUCHATEL. Color. 38. LAUTERBRUNNEN. Pencil study, touched with color. 39. GENEVA (1862 or 3). Pencil sketch. 40. GENEVA (1862 or 3). Begun detail for the little pencil study. Pencil with touch of color. 41. AARBURG, CLIFFS OF JURA ABOVE (1863). Sketch in pencil for Swiss towns. 42. LAUFFENBURG. Twilight (1863). Pencil sketch, with color added. 43. HOUSE AT LAUFFENBURG (1863). Sketch in color. 44. 45. SKETCHES OF BRIDGE AT LAUFFENBURG (1868). Pencil. Two tries at subject. Wood-work here original, grand old Swiss carpentry. 46. LUCERNE (1866). Color. 47. LAUTERBRUNNEN (1866). Color. 48. OLD VEVAY (1869). Pencil. *49. Upper subject, TWISTED SPIRE, village near Brieg (Valais), 1876; middle, TOWERS AT BADEN 1863; lower, AT VERONA, 1876, show what I have finally adopted in manner of pencil drawing ; and I believe my pupils will find it a satisfactory one, for rendering the essential qualities of form. 20 50. LINES OF THE ALPS OF TYROL, MUNICH (1859). Pencil and pen sketch. 51. LINES OF THE ALPS FROM KEMPTEN (185-9). Pencil and pen sketch. 52. Pen Sketch of CRESTS OF LA COTE AND TACONAY. (For etching in Modern Painters, Vol. IV., Plate 35.) 53. Pencil Sketch of LEADING CONTOURS OF AIGUILLE BOUCHARD. (For etching in Modern Painters, Vol. IV., Plate 33-) 54. ST. GOTHARD PASS, from near Fluelen. Pencil and pen. 55. STUDY FOR ETCHING OF TURNER'S "PASS OF FAIDO." Pencil and pen. 56. ETCHING OF TURNER'S PASS OF FAIDO." (From Mod- ern Painters, Vol. IV., Plate 21.) 57. ETCHING OF PASS OF FAIDO. Simple topography. (From Modern Painters, Vol. IV., Plate 20.) "On the descent of the St. Gothard, towards Italy, just after passing through the narrow gorge above Faido, the road emerges into a little breadth of valley, which is entirely filled by fallen stones and debris, partly disgorged by the Ticino as it leaps out of the narrower chasm, and partly brought down, by winter avalanches from a loose and de- composing mass of mountain on the left. Beyond this first promontory is seen a considerably higher range, but not an imposing one, which rises above the village of Faido. The etching, Plate 20, [No. 57] is a topographical outline of the scene, with the actual blocks of rock which happened to be lying in the bed of the Ticino at the spot from which I chose to draw it. The masses of loose debris (which, for any per- manent purpose, I had no need to draw, as their arrange- 21 ment changes at every flood) I have not drawn, but only those features of the landscape which happen to be of some continual importance. The little three-windowed building on the left is the remnant of a gallery built to protect the road, which once went on that side, from the avalanches and stones that come down the "couloir" 1 in the rock above. It is only a ruin, the greater part having been by said ava- lanches swept away, and the old road, of which a remnant is also seen on the extreme left, abandoned, and carried now along the hill side on the right, partly sustained on rough stone arches, and winding down, as seen in the sketch, to a weak wooden bridge, which enables it to recover its old track past the gallery. It seems formerly, (but since the destruction of the gallery) to have gone about a mile farther down the river on the right bank, and then to have been carried across by a longer wooden bridge, of which only the two abutments are seen in the sketch, the rest hav- ing been swept away by the Ticino, and the new bridge erected near the spectator. There is nothing in this scene, taken by itself, par- ticularly interesting or impressive. The mountains are not elevated, nor particularly fine in form, and the .heaps of stones which encumber the Ticino present nothing notable to the ordinary eye. But, in reality, the place is approached through one of the narrowest and most sublime ravines in the Alps, and after the traveller during the early part of the day has been familiarized with the aspect of the highest peaks of the Mont St. Gothard. Hence it speaks quite another language to him from that in which it would ad- dress itself to an unprepared spectator : the confused stones, which by themselves would be almost without any claim upon his thoughts, become exponents of the fury of the river by which he has journeyed all day long ; the defile be- 1 " Couloir " is a good untranslatable Savoyard word, for a place down which stones and water fall in storms ; it is perhaps deserving of naturaliza- tion. 22 yond, not in itself narrow or terrible, is regarded neverthe- less with awe, because it is imagined to resemble the gorge that has just been traversed above ; and, although no very elevated mountains immediately overhang it, the scene is felt to belong to, and arise in its essential characters out of, the strength of those mightier mountains in the unseen north. Any topographical delineation of the facts, therefore, must be incapable of arousing in the mind of the beholder those sensations which would be caused by the facts them- selves, seen in their natural relations to others. And the aim of the great inventive landscape painter must be to give the far higher and deeper truth of mental vision, rather than that of the physical facts, and to reach a representation which, though it may be useless to engineers or geographers, and, when tried by rule and measure, totally unlike the place, shall yet be capable of producing on the far-away be- holder's mind precisely the impression which the reality would have produced, and putting his heart into the same state in which it would have been, had he verily descended into the valley from the gorges of Airolo. Of Turner's drawing of this pass I have etched a reduced outline in Plate 21. [No. 56.] In which, primarily, observe that the whole place is al- tered in scale, and brought up to the general majesty of the higher forms of the Alps. It will be seen that, in my topo- graphical sketch, there are a few trees rooted in the rock on this side of the gallery, showing by comparison that it is not above four or five hundred feet high. These trees Turner cuts away, and gives the rock a height of about a thousand feet, so as to imply more power and danger in the avalanche coming down the couloir. Next, he raises, in a still greater degree, all the moun- tains beyond, putting three or four ranges instead of one, but uniting them into a single massy bank at their base, which he makes overhang the valley, and thus reduces it 23 nearly to such a chasm as that which he had just passed through above, so as to unite the expression of this ravine with that of the stony valley. The few trees,, in the hollow of the glen, he feels to be contrary in spirit to the stones, and fells them, as he did the others ; so also he feels the bridge in the foreground, by its slenderness, to contradict the aspect of violence in the torrent ; he thinks the torrent and avalanches should have it all their own way here- abouts ; so he strikes down the nearer bridge, and restores the one farther off, where the force of the stream may be supposed less. Next, the bit of road on the right, above the bank, is not built on a wall, nor on arches high enough to give the idea of an Alpine road in general ; so he makes the arches taller, and the bank steeper, intro- ducing, as we shall see presently, a reminiscence from the upper part of the pass. I say, he ' thinks' this, and 'introduces ' that. But, strictly speaking, he does not think at all. If he thought, he would instantly go wrong ; it is only the clumsy and un- inventive artist who thinks. All these changes come into his head involuntarily ; an entirely imperative dream, cry- ing, ' thus it must be,' has taken possession of him ; he can see, and do, no otherwise than as the dream directs. This is especially to be remembered with respect to the next incident the introduction of figures. Most persons to whom I have shown the drawing, and who feel its gen- eral character, regret that there is any living thing in it ; they say it destroys the majesty of its desolation. But the dream said not so to Turner. The dream insisted particu- larly upon the great fact of its having come by the road. The torrent was wild, the stones were wonderful ; but the most wonderful thing of all was how we ourselves, the dream and I, ever got here. By our feet we could not by the clouds we could not by any ivory gates we could not in no other wise could we have come than by the coach road. One of the great elements of sensation, all the 2 4 day long, has been that extraordinary road, and its goings on, and gettings about ; here, under avalanches of stones, and among insanities of torrents, and overhangings of pre- cipices, much tormented and driven to all manner of make- shifts and coils to this side and the other, still the marvellous road persists in going on, and that so smoothly and safely, that it is not merely great diligences, going in a caravanish manner, with whole teams of horses, that can traverse it, but little postchaises with small postboys, and a pair of po- nies. And the dream declared that the full essence and soul of the scene, and consummation of all the wonderfulness of the torrents and Alps, lay in a postchaise, with small ponies and postboy, which accordingly it insisted upon Turner's inserting, whether he liked it or not, at the turn of the road. Now, it will be observed by any one familiar with or- dinary principles of arrangement of form (on which princi- ples I shall insist at length in another place), that while the dream introduces these changes bearing on the expression of the scene, it is also introducing other changes, which appear to be made more or less in compliance with received rules of composition, rendering the masses broader, the lines more continuous, and the curves more graceful. But the curious part of the business is, that these changes seem not so much to be wrought by imagining an entirely new con- dition of any feature, as by remembering something which will fit better in that place. For instance, Turner felt the bank on the right ought to be made more solid and rocky, jn order to suggest firmer resistance to the stream, and he turns it, as will be seen by comparing the etchings, into a kind of rock buttress, to the wall, instead of a mere bank. Now, the buttress into which he turns it is very nearly a fac-simile of one which he had drawn on that very St. Goth- ard road, far above, at the Devil's Bridge, at least thirty years before, and which he had himself etched and engraved for the Liber Studiorum, although the plate was never pub- 25 lished. Of course, this might be set down as a mere chance coincidence, but for the frequency of the cases in which Turner can be shown to have done the same thing, and to have introduced, after a lapse of many years, memories of something which, however apparently small or unimportant, had struck him in his earlier studies." [From " Modern Painters," IV. 22.] 58. ETCHING FROM A PICTURE BY TURNER (1870?). [Intended to show the leading lines of the composition.] III. VENICE. Nos. 59 TO 72. 59. Study of CAPITALS IN ST. MARKS, for" The Stones of Venice" (1845). Pencil and brush. A single example of a multitude of studies. 60. Studies of VENETIAN CAPITALS. Pencil and brush. [Sketch for lithograph in " Examples of the Architecture of Venice, selected and drawn to measurement from the edifices," London, 1851. Only three parts of this work, containing fifteen plates, were published.] 61. ARCHIVOLT OF ONE OF THE DOORS OF ST. MARKS. Pen and brush. Drawing chiefly made from daguerrotype with added study of details. Engraved for " Examples," &c., but the plate was stolen or lost. 4 26 62. SOUTHERN PORTICO OF ST. MARKS. Chiaroscuro drawing in sepia on the etching for the mez- zotint in "Examples of the Architecture of Venice." 62 a. The mezzotint from the preceding drawing, Plate 6, of "Examples." "The portico is represented as seen from a distance of about twenty-five feet from the base of the western- most pillar : part of the principal facade being seen on the left. At a greater distance than this the sculpture of the capitals would become indistinct to the eyesight of most people, and the spectator is apt, therefore, to pause within this distance, in order to look at the decoration of the upper arches. The ornament of almost all good architecture is calculated for this kind of observation, and yet, strictly speaking, the re- sultant effect is incapable of being represented in a draw- ing, as the spectator's head is thrown back, and the angle of sight considerably elevated. I have long felt the difficulty of conveying a true impression of richly decorated build- ings, in consequence of this ; but I believe the best way is to venture the steep perspective, and calculate the arrange- ments of the forms of the building, on the supposition of the horizontal line being considerably below the bottom of the picture. I have done so in this Plate." [From description in " Examples of the Architecture of Venice." ] 63. DOOR-HEADS FROM CA' CONTARINI PORTA DI FERRO ; AND IN CAMPO S. MARGARITA. (From " Examples of the Architecture of Venice," Plate n.) " The old doorways of Venice are almost always formed by an arch or gable above a horizontal lintel, the enclosed space or tympanum being sometimes left open, and merely defended by iron bars, sometimes filled with masonry, and charged with ornament. The methods of doing this are various and beautiful ; but in the earlier ages all agree thus far that the name of the family is told, and together with it there is always an intimation that they have placed their 27 defence and their prosperity in God's hands, frequently ac- companied with some general expression of benediction to the person passing over the threshold. This is the gen- eral theory of an old Venetian doorway (the theory of mod- ern doorways remains to be explained : it may be studied to advantage in our rows of new-built houses, or rather of new-built house, changeless for miles together, from which, to each inhabitant, we allot his proper quantity of windows, and a Doric portico). The Venetian carried out his theory very simply: in the centre of the archivolt we find almost invariably in the older work the hand between the sun and moon in the attitude of blessing, expressing the general power and presence of God, the source of light ; on the tympanum is the shield of the family. The plate represents two characteristic headings of doors above the lintels. The upper one is from a palace once belonging to a branch of the Contarini family, behind the church of S. Francesco. It has the hand of blessing, and the presiding angel unfolds a scroll with the inscription, "Peace be to this House." The lower compartment of the plate represents a door- head belonging to a small house of the thirteenth century, Gothic, in the Campo Santa Margarita. The central shield, with its hovering angel and supporters, is cut out of one piece of stone ; the rest of the tympanum is formed by small squares of cast brick, enclosed by narrow bars, also of brick. There are seven patterns used for the squares, which I shall give on a larger scale in the second volume; and they are so arranged by the builder that, whichever way the courses of them are read, laterally or upwards, two similar patterns shall never be in juxtaposition ; and no regular arrangement or recurrence of pattern in any definable disposition shall be traceable. At least I can myself discover none, the reader may try, every feature in the drawing being in its proper place. 28 64. Photograph of DOOR-HEAD IN CAMPO S. MARGARITA. 65. DOOR-HEADS, i. IN RAMO DIRIMPETTO MOCENIGO. (From " Examples of the Architecture of Venice," Plate 12.) " I have numbered this door-head i, because it is the sim- plest type of a perfect construction which I found in Venice having the lintel arch, and superimposed gable dripstone." 66. DOOR-HEADS. 2. IN CAMPIELLO DELLA CHIESA SAN LUCA. (From " Examples of the Architecture of Venice," Plate 13.) " This remarkable tympanum is one of the most elaborate pieces of brickwork in Venice, and must have been singu- larly beautiful before the sculpture on the pieces of inlaid stone was defaced. Neither the bearings nor design in the pointed arch or circle above are any more deciph- erable ; but the brickwork remains entirely uninjured. It is composed of five kinds of bricks, all in regular lengths of about ten inches ; one quite plain, but either straight or curved, according to the requirements of the design, another with a pattern of raised triangles on it ; another with one of raised squares and circles alternately ; another with a chain of small squares, and another with little oblique rhombs. Their mode of arrangement is visible enough in the plate, which is carefully drawn to scale ; but one thing is to be especially noticed in the treatment of the gabled space both here and in Plate 12. The sloping courses of brick are gradually set at a less and less angle, so that the whole system radiates like the branches of a fir-tree, becoming less and less inclined as it nears the ground. In order to be sure of my fact, I counted the courses of bricks, and measured their angles with the dripstone at five separate points from top to bottom ; and the plate may, therefore, be entirely depended upon. Observe, especially, in Plate 12, how valuable mere joints filled with mortar may be- 2 9 come, when they are used by a man who knows what he is about. The dripstone and terminal ornament at the apex of the gable in Plate 13 are of stone." 67. STILTED ARCHI VOLTS. From a Ruin in the Rio di Ca Foscari. (From " Examples of the Architecture of Venice," Plate 9.) " A beautifully picturesque fragment of -the wreck of one of the most ancient and interesting palaces in Venice, exactly as it appeared in 1849." 68. SKETCH ON GRAND CANAL (1876). Left off tired. One out of many beginnings on views of the city which may serve to give the reader some idea of the mere quan- tity which must be put into any faithful view of Venice. And here I will venture to say a few words respecting the labor I have had to go through in order to make sure of my facts, in any statements I have made respecting either architecture or painting. No judgment of art is possible to any perscin who does not love it, and only great and good art can be truly loved ; nor that, without time and the most devoted attention. Foolish and ambitious persons think they can form tjieir judgment by seeing much art of all kinds. They see all the pictures in Italy, all the architecture in the world, and merely make themselves as incapable of judgment as a worn-out Dictionary. But, from my youth, I was protected against this fatal error by intense love for particular places ; returning to them again and again, until I had exhausted what was ex- haustible (and therefore bad), and thoroughly fastened on the inexhaustible good. To have well studied one picture by Tintoret, one by Luini, one by Angelico, and a couple of Turner's drawings, will teach a man more than to have 30 catalogued all the galleries of Europe ; while to have drawn with attention a porch of Amiens, an arch at Verona, and a vault at Venice, will teach him more of architecture than to have made plans and sections of every big heap of brick or stone between St. Paul's and the Pyramids. Farther, it is absolutely necessary that fine architecture should be drawn separately, both in color and in light and shade, with occasional efforts to combine the two, but always with utmost possible delicacy, the best work depending always on the subtlest lines. For instance, in 69. PART OF SKETCH OF NORTH-WEST PORCH OF ST. MARKS. Made in 1877. Copied at Brantwood, in 1879. [A study of color, to which Mr. Ruskin's remarks on a study of similar character in the London Exhibition equally apply.] My own study, made in 1874, of the color of the Ducal Palace in Morning Sunlight, comes as near, I believe, to the actual facts of the relation between dark and light in the architecture alone, as attentive care can reach ; and it is wholly impossible to get the drawing of the finer details, unless in this delicate and literally true tone, for all the local darks, such as those of the nearer prison-pillars in this sketch, lose their relative power if the lights are put in deeper tone. But the moment sky is added to such a study as this, all its detail becomes ghostly and useless ; the eye then requires the relation between the nearer buildings and the light at the horizon, or between their shadows and the light of the blue above ; and all one's delicate work is lost. 70. VENETIAN RENAISSANCE CAPITAL (1879). Look from the other side of the room. Chiaroscuro sketch. 71. FREE HAND EARLY BYZANTINE CARVING (1879). Chi- aroscuro sketch. 72. NOTE OF COLOR AND CHIAROSCURO. From Tintoret's picture of the Annunciation in the Scuola di San Rocco, Venice (1852). IV. MISCELLANEOUS STUDIES, IN ITALY, FRANCE, AND ENGLAND. Nos. 73 TO 105.' 73. INTERIOR OF A PALACE, VERONA (1849). Pencil. 74. STREET IN VERONA (1872). Pencil. 75. STUDY FOR ETCHING, FROM PHOTOGRAPH OF THE DUO- MO AT FLORENCE (1874). Pencil. 76. LUNG' ARNO, FLORENCE (1874). Pencil. 77. FROM SAN MINIATO (1845). Color. 78. ST. ETIENNE LE VIEUX, (?) CAEN (1848). 79. PART OF THE CATHEDRAL OF ST. Lo, NORMANDY (1848). A portion of this drawing is engraved in "The Seven Lamps of Architecture," Plate 2. 80. PART OF THE CHURCH OF ST. WOLFRAM, ABBEVILLE (1868). Rapid study in pencil and color-wash. 8 1. OLD HALL IN WORCESTERSHIRE, OR THEREABOUTS, HEREFORDSHIRE, PERHAPS (1854 ?). Pencil, touched with color. 82. PART OF TURNER'S RICHMOND, YORKSHIRE (1858 or 59). Study for etching (never executed) for " Modern Paint- ers." 83. OAKHAMPTON. Study for etching after Turner's drawing. A try for truer rendering of the England drawings. Failure. 84. Photograph from pencil drawing [No. 34 in the London Exhibition] FROM TURNER'S water-color drawing of ARONA. I tried to translate Turner's work into pencil, hoping thus to make it publishable in photograph for my pupils ; but in vain this and other such efforts manifold ; for I find the photograph refuses to translate pencil drawing, and I can- not work in chalk or sepia up to the required fineness. 85. PHOTOGRAPH FROM DRAWING OF GNEISS WITH ITS WEEDS, ABOVE THE STREAM OF GLENFINLAS. [The drawing was No. 45 in the London Exhibition.] Old drawing of "Modern Painters," time (1853), which really had a chance of being finished, but the weather broke ; and the stems in the upper right-hand corner had to be rudely struck in with body-color. ' But all the mass of this rock is carefully studied with good method. 86. STUDY IN COLOR OF BLOCK OF GNEISS, ON THE ALPS (1854 ?) \ 87. A STONE OF MY GARDEN-WALL (1873). 33 88. EVENING AT NORWOOD (1865). 89. SUNRISE FROM DENMARK HILL (1868). 90. STUDY OF SUNRISE. 19 March, 1868. Ended in soft rain from high clouds, hardly enough to put up umbrella, for all the afternoon. Rain in evening. Wind here south-west, the black scud floating fast to the left. 91. DRAWING IN COLOR OF BONE ENGRAVED BY A PRE- HISTORIC MAN. British Museum. 92. NOTES OF WORK IN BRITISH MUSEUM (1872). 93. STUDIES OF BIRD ANATOMY, IBIS, CRANE, GANNET, FOR NOTES TO "LOVE'S MEINIE" (1874). British Museum. 94. MORE STUDIES FOR NOTES TO "LOVE'S MEINIE" (1874). 95-99. LESSONS FOR OXFORD SCHOOL. STUDY OF STONE (1874). IVY (1873). LEAVES AND BERRIES (1873). Keep your red red, and your brown brown, and your green green, for your life. WITHERED RUSH-BLOSSOM, magnified. Study in lamp- black. WILD VIOLET (1879). Outline with brush. For " Proserpina." 100. HIBISCUS (1867). Study in color. 5 34 roi. BUDDING SYCAMORE (1875). Sketched at Greta Bridge. 102. COTONEASTER (1879). 103. STUDY OF MAGNIFIED PHEASANT'S FEATHER (1879). 104. OAK-BUDS (1878). 105. DRY OAK LEAVES (1879). 106. DRY OAK LEAVES (1879). FAC-SIMILES OF ETCHINGS BY TURNER / FOR THE LIBER STUDIORUM. / A portfolio containing fac-similes of thirty-three of Turner's Etchings for the Liber Studiorum, selected from those in the possession of Mr. Ruskin and Professor Norton, may be had of Mr. Walter Rowlands, 220 Dev- onshire Street, Boston. Price Fifteen Dollars. MR. W. J. STILLMAX proposes .to issue a series of permanent photographs of twenty-five subjects choseu from the most interesting works of Gothic and Renais- sance Architecture in Tuscany. The subjects will be chiefly such as have not, hitherto, been photographed ; and will consist largely of details. The prints will be 7x5 inches in size, mounted on card-board 10x14, and issued in a portfolio. The price of the set will be $20. The issue must be dependent on his obtaining subscrip- tions for not less than fifty sets. Subscriptions may be sent to CHARLES H. MOORE, Harvard College, Cambridge.