[105] For notes of these drawings see the Catalogue of the Turner Sketches and Drawings already mentioned—(a) The Battle of Fort Bard, Val d’Aosta, p. 32; (b) the Edinburgh, p. 30; and (c) the Ivy Bridge, Devon, p. 32.
[106] I have omitted to add to my note (p. 84) on Mr. Ruskin’s arrangement of the Turner drawings a reference to his own account of the labor which that arrangement involved, and of the condition in which he found the vast mass of the sketches. See “Modern Painters,” vol. v., Preface, p. vi.
[107] The Art Treasures Exhibition in 1857, being the year in which the lectures contained in the “Political Economy of Art” were delivered. (See “A Joy for Ever”—Ruskin’s Works, vol. xi. p. 80.)
[108] “The Plains of Troy;”—see for a note of this drawing Mr. Ruskin’s Notes on his own “Turners,” 1878, p. 45, where he describes it as “one of the most elaborate of the Byron vignettes, and full of beauty,” adding that “the meaning of the sunset contending with the storm is the contest of the powers of Apollo and Athene;” and for the engraving of it, see Murray’s edition of Byron’s Life and Works (1832, seventeen volumes), where it forms the vignette title-page of vol. vii. For the Richmond and the Egglestone Abbey, also in the possession of Mr. Ruskin, see the above mentioned Notes, p. 29 (Nos. 26 and 27). The Langharne Castle was formerly in the possession of Mr. W. M. Bigg, at the sale of whose collection in 1868 it was sold for £451.
[109] A misprint for “wares;” see next letter, p. 104.
[110] Addressed to Mr. Ruskin by Mr. Collingwood Smith, and requesting Mr. Ruskin to state in a second letter that the remarks as to the effect of light on the water colors of Turner did not extend to water color drawings in general; but that the evanescence of the colors in Turner’s drawings was due partly to the peculiar vehicles with which he painted, and partly to the gray paper (saturated with indigo) on which he frequently worked. Mr. Ruskin complied with this request by thus forwarding for publication Mr. Collingwood Smith’s letter.
[111] The references to The Times allude to an article on the “Copies of Turner Drawings,” by Mr. William Ward, of 2 Church Terrace, Richmond, Surrey, which were then, as now, exhibited for sale in the rooms of the Fine Art Society.
Of these copies of Turner, Mr. Ruskin says: “They are executed with extreme care under my own eye by the draughtsman trained by me for the purpose, Mr. Ward. Everything that can be learned from the smaller works of Turner may be as securely learned from these drawings. I have been more than once in doubt, seeing original and copy together, which was which; and I think them about the best works that can now be obtained for a moderate price, representing the authoritative forms of art in landscape.”—Extract from letter of Mr. Ruskin, written in 1867. List of Turner Drawings, etc., shown in connection with Mr. Norton’s lectures. Boston, 1874, p. 9. (See also “Ariadne Florentina,” p. 221, note.)
The following comment of Mr. Ruskin on one of Mr. Ward’s most recent copies is also interesting as evidence that the opinions expressed in this letter are still retained by its writer: “London, 20th March, 1880.—The copy of Turner’s drawing of ‘Fluelen,’ which has been just completed by Mr. Ward, and shown to me to-day, is beyond my best hopes in every desirable quality of execution; and is certainly as good as it is possible for care and skill to make it. I am so entirely satisfied with it that, for my own personal pleasure—irrespective of pride, I should feel scarcely any loss in taking it home with me instead of the original; and for all uses of artistic example or instruction, it is absolutely as good as the original.—John Ruskin.”—The copy in question is from a drawing in the possession of Mr. Ruskin (see the Turner Notes, 1878, No. 70), and was executed for its present proprietor, Mr. T. S. Kennedy, of Meanwoods, Leeds.
[112] “Italy,” a reputed Turner, lent by the late Mr. Wynn Ellis. No. 235 was “A Landscape,” with Cattle, in the possession of Lord Leconfield.