DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18975#0022
XVI
INTRODUCTION
not always the time to give personal and continuous instruction. In
such cases he would put his correspondents in communication with one
or other of his assistants—Mr. William Ward or Mr. George Alien—
and would himself pay an occasional visit or write a letter of advice
and encouragement.*
His advice was the more sought when his classes at the Working
Men's College began to be talked about. He says of Rossetti, whom
he had impressed into the same service, that " he was the only one of
our modern painters who taught disciples for love of them."^ Ruskin's
own position in the matter was also unique. He was by this time
the acknowledged chief among contemporary writers on art; he was
the only critic who had the wull — perhaps also the only one who has
been competent—to translate his principles into practice, and teach
with the pencil and the brush the system which he advocated with the
pen. He was appealed to by anxious students and amateurs, as also
by official Commissions,s as at once a writer and a practical teacher.
It was in order to extend his influence in this direction, and to
save his time by printing a " circular letter" to his correspondents,
that Ruskin set himself during the winter of 1856-1857 to write TAr
o/* jDraKAwg*. The correspondence with a lady, otherwise
unknown to him, which is here given in Appendix i. (pp. 489, 490),
will show, in one typical instance, the genesis of the book. The
publication of it in its turn widened the circle of his pupils. The
continued applications which he received for personal advice led to
many friendships. At Wallington, where he often stayed with Sir
Walter and Pauline, Lady Trevelyan, he gave lessons to Miss Stewart
Mackenzie, then about to marry Lord Ashburton.* Among other
amateurs who set much store by his advice and instructions were Char-
lotte, Countess Canning, and her sister Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford.
" I enclose a nice letter from Lady Waterford," he writes to his father
(August 6, 1858); " the sketch of the St. Catherine of which she speaks
is one I asked her to do for me of a pet figure of mine at Venice."
Ruskin greatly admired the work of both sisters. "I had just got your
portfolio back from Clanricarde," writes Lady Stuart de Rothesay
(October 5, 1858) to her daughter, Lady Canning, " when Ruskin came
* Many details in tins connexion will be found in tlie Ze/Zer-y /o 1117/: a ttlnv/,
privately issued in 1893 and reprinted in a later volume of this edition.
2 jP?w/cr:/a, iii. ch. i. § 13.
s See, for instance, his evidence in Vol. XIII. p. 553.
* MM/o/u'oyrop/ncn/ TYb/e,? q/*/Ac Zi/e q/* fll/A'am fie// <S'co//, edited by YV. Minto, 1892,
vol. ii. p. 12.
INTRODUCTION
not always the time to give personal and continuous instruction. In
such cases he would put his correspondents in communication with one
or other of his assistants—Mr. William Ward or Mr. George Alien—
and would himself pay an occasional visit or write a letter of advice
and encouragement.*
His advice was the more sought when his classes at the Working
Men's College began to be talked about. He says of Rossetti, whom
he had impressed into the same service, that " he was the only one of
our modern painters who taught disciples for love of them."^ Ruskin's
own position in the matter was also unique. He was by this time
the acknowledged chief among contemporary writers on art; he was
the only critic who had the wull — perhaps also the only one who has
been competent—to translate his principles into practice, and teach
with the pencil and the brush the system which he advocated with the
pen. He was appealed to by anxious students and amateurs, as also
by official Commissions,s as at once a writer and a practical teacher.
It was in order to extend his influence in this direction, and to
save his time by printing a " circular letter" to his correspondents,
that Ruskin set himself during the winter of 1856-1857 to write TAr
o/* jDraKAwg*. The correspondence with a lady, otherwise
unknown to him, which is here given in Appendix i. (pp. 489, 490),
will show, in one typical instance, the genesis of the book. The
publication of it in its turn widened the circle of his pupils. The
continued applications which he received for personal advice led to
many friendships. At Wallington, where he often stayed with Sir
Walter and Pauline, Lady Trevelyan, he gave lessons to Miss Stewart
Mackenzie, then about to marry Lord Ashburton.* Among other
amateurs who set much store by his advice and instructions were Char-
lotte, Countess Canning, and her sister Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford.
" I enclose a nice letter from Lady Waterford," he writes to his father
(August 6, 1858); " the sketch of the St. Catherine of which she speaks
is one I asked her to do for me of a pet figure of mine at Venice."
Ruskin greatly admired the work of both sisters. "I had just got your
portfolio back from Clanricarde," writes Lady Stuart de Rothesay
(October 5, 1858) to her daughter, Lady Canning, " when Ruskin came
* Many details in tins connexion will be found in tlie Ze/Zer-y /o 1117/: a ttlnv/,
privately issued in 1893 and reprinted in a later volume of this edition.
2 jP?w/cr:/a, iii. ch. i. § 13.
s See, for instance, his evidence in Vol. XIII. p. 553.
* MM/o/u'oyrop/ncn/ TYb/e,? q/*/Ac Zi/e q/* fll/A'am fie// <S'co//, edited by YV. Minto, 1892,
vol. ii. p. 12.