DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61012#0028
XXvi SLR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.
characters as they actually appeared on the scene, the Arch-
bishop of York called on Reynolds and asked his opinion
concerning this. Both visited West and endeavoured to
dissuade him. West, firm in his rejection of the classic dress,
replied, “ I want to mark the place, the time, and the people,
and to do this I must abide by truth.”
When the picture was finished he called Sir Joshua to see it.
Reynolds seated himself before the canvas and examined it
with interest for half-an-hour, and then, rising, said, “ West
has conquered ; he has treated the subject as it ought to be
treated.” So just was Reynolds’ mind that he could admit the
truth even when it opposed his own theories.
Ruskin has also contributed his quota to the Reynolds con-
troversy. Writing in his favourite antithetic style, he says :—
“ Nearly every word that Reynolds wrote was contrary to his
own practice ; he seems to have been born to teach all error by
his precept, and all excellence by his example ; he enforced
with his lips generalisation and idealism, while with his pencil
he was tracing the patterns of the dresses of the belles of the
day ; he exhorted his pupils to attend only to the invariable,
while he himself was occupied in distinguishing every variation
of womanly temper ; and he denied the existence of the
beautiful at the same instant that he arrested it as it passed,
and perpetuated it for ever.”
Thus to Sir Joshua’s lot, as to all who put themselves before
the world, has fallen a portion of praise and blame ; but the
best praise that can be accorded a man’s work is that it should
survive him, and continue to arouse interest long after his death.
This most certainly is the case with regard to Reynolds’ Dis-
courses, and therefore to them may apply what he has himself
said as to the duration of masterpieces. Not faultless, not all-
embracing, but full of historical and individual interest, of keen
and careful observation, of judicious thought, they merit the
attention of the modern reading public—a public far more
largely interested in art than ever existed in the day when their
writer lived and painted and lectured.
HELEN ZIMMERN.
characters as they actually appeared on the scene, the Arch-
bishop of York called on Reynolds and asked his opinion
concerning this. Both visited West and endeavoured to
dissuade him. West, firm in his rejection of the classic dress,
replied, “ I want to mark the place, the time, and the people,
and to do this I must abide by truth.”
When the picture was finished he called Sir Joshua to see it.
Reynolds seated himself before the canvas and examined it
with interest for half-an-hour, and then, rising, said, “ West
has conquered ; he has treated the subject as it ought to be
treated.” So just was Reynolds’ mind that he could admit the
truth even when it opposed his own theories.
Ruskin has also contributed his quota to the Reynolds con-
troversy. Writing in his favourite antithetic style, he says :—
“ Nearly every word that Reynolds wrote was contrary to his
own practice ; he seems to have been born to teach all error by
his precept, and all excellence by his example ; he enforced
with his lips generalisation and idealism, while with his pencil
he was tracing the patterns of the dresses of the belles of the
day ; he exhorted his pupils to attend only to the invariable,
while he himself was occupied in distinguishing every variation
of womanly temper ; and he denied the existence of the
beautiful at the same instant that he arrested it as it passed,
and perpetuated it for ever.”
Thus to Sir Joshua’s lot, as to all who put themselves before
the world, has fallen a portion of praise and blame ; but the
best praise that can be accorded a man’s work is that it should
survive him, and continue to arouse interest long after his death.
This most certainly is the case with regard to Reynolds’ Dis-
courses, and therefore to them may apply what he has himself
said as to the duration of masterpieces. Not faultless, not all-
embracing, but full of historical and individual interest, of keen
and careful observation, of judicious thought, they merit the
attention of the modern reading public—a public far more
largely interested in art than ever existed in the day when their
writer lived and painted and lectured.
HELEN ZIMMERN.