[113] See also “Modern Painters,” vol. v. pp. 345-347, and “Lectures on Architecture and Painting,” pp. 181-188, where the character of Turner is further explained, and various anecdotes given in special illustration of his truth, generosity, and kindness of heart.
[114] The book was also referred to in “Modern Painters,” vol. v. p. 344, where Mr. Ruskin speaks of this “Life of Turner,” then still unpublished, as being written “by a biographer, who will, I believe, spare no pains in collecting the few scattered records which exist of a career so uneventful and secluded.”
[115] Nearly eight years after Leech’s death on October 29, 1864.
[116] The number of the Architect in which this letter was printed contained two sketches from Mr. George’s “Etchings on the Mosel”—those, viz., of the Elector’s Palace, Coblentz, and of the interior of Metz Cathedral. The intention of the Architect to reproduce these etchings had apparently been previously communicated to Mr. Ruskin, who wrote the present letter for the issue in which the etchings were to be given. Mr. George has since published other works of the same kind—e.g., “Etchings in Belgium,” “Etchings on the Loire” (see Mr. Ruskin’s advice to him at the end of this letter, p. 116).
[117] The reference must, I think, be to “Ariadne Florentina: Six Lectures on Wood and Metal Engraving given before the University of Oxford, Michaelmas Term, 1872,” and afterwards published, 1873-6. The lectures given in the year 1873 were upon Tuscan Art, now published in “Val d’Arno.”
[118] The value of Rembrandt’s etchings is always in the inverse ratio of the labor bestowed on them after his first thoughts have been decisively expressed; and even the best of his chiaroscuros (the spotted shell, for instance) are mere child’s play compared to the disciplined light and shade of Italian masters.
[119] This letter was written to Mr. H. Stacy Marks, A.R.A., in answer to a request that Mr. Ruskin would in some way record his impression of the Frederick Walker Exhibition, then open to the public. Frederick Walker died in June, 1875, at the early age of thirty-five, only four years after having been elected an Associate of the Royal Academy.
[120] The “Hornby Castle” was executed, together with the rest of the “great Yorkshire series,” for Whitaker’s “History of Richmondshire” (Longman, 1823).—The picture of John Lewis here alluded to is described in Mr. Ruskin’s “Academy Notes,” 1856, No. II., p. 37.
1. “The Almshouse”—No. 52—called “The House of Refuge.” Oil on canvas. A garden and terrace in quadrangle of almshouses; on left an old woman and girl; on right a mower cutting grass. Exhibited R. A. 1872.
2. “The Old Gate”—No. 48—oil on canvas. Lady in black and servant with basket coming through the gate of old mansion; four children at play at foot of steps; two villagers and dog in foreground. Exhibited R. A. 1869.