DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18975#0268
224
THE ELEMENTS OF DRAWING
7. RlCHTER.
I have already told you what to guard against in looking at his works A
I am a little doubtful whether I have done well in including them in this
catalogue at all ; but the imaginations in them are so lovely and numberless,
that I must risk, for their sake, the chance of hurting you a little in judgment
of style. If you want to make presents of story-books to children, his are
the best you can now get; but his most beautiful work, as far as I know, is
his series of Illustrations to the Lord's PrayerA
8. ROSSETTI.
An edition of Tennyson, lately published, contains woodcuts from drawings
by Rossetti and other chief Pre-Raphaelite masters.^ They are terribly spoiled
in the cutting, and generally the best part, the expression of feature, enPreAy
lost; * still they are full of instruction, and cannot be studied too closely.
But observe, respecting these woodcuts, that if you have been in the habit
of looking at much spurious work, in which sentiment, action, and style are
borrowed or artificial, you will assuredly be offended at first by all genuine
work, which is intense in feeling. Genuine art, which is merely art, such
as Veronese's or Titian's, may not offend you, though the chances are that
you will not care about it; but genuine works of feeling, such as Afaad
or Aarora TefgA in poetry,4 or the grand Pre-Raphaelite designs in paint-
ing, are sure to offend you : and if you cease to work hard, and persist in
looking at vicious and false art, they will continue to offend you. It will
* This is especially the case in the St. Cecily, RossettPs first illustration to the
PuJace op Arp which would have been the best in the book had it been well
engraved. The whole work should be taken up again, and done by line engraving,
perfectly ; and wholly from Pre-Raphaelite designs, with which no other modern
work can bear the least comparison.
* [See above, p. 204. Adrian Ludwig Richter, painter and engraver (1803-1884),
for many years Professor at the Dresden Academy. His illustrations to the Lord's
Prayer were published in 1856 ("FaPr PiMcr" fa Pdda?-a uoa Padwly /PcAPr. da
aa^ye/MAP vwi Aaya.P GaAer; Prc^de?i), and in the same year, with English
Text (" ?'Ae PordT Prayer, wPA PJaAdraPo?M Ay Pudwiy PicAPr. PAyraved wood Ay
A. GaAer, Dreede?!.' PuAAPAed Ay GaAer a?id PPAPr"). Story-books illustrated by him
are very numerous; for a complete bibliography see Adrian. Padwiy PicAier : dfaier
and Padirer (a Catalogue of his works by Johann Friedrich HoF, Dresden : 1877).]
2 [Ed. 1 reads : . this catalogue at all; but the fancies in them are so pretty
and numberless . . ; and omits, at the end of the paragraph, the words "but his
most beautiful work . . . Lord's Prayer."]
^ [This was an edition of the Poem# (the 1842 volume) with illustrations by
Thomas Creswick, John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt, William Mulready,
John Callcott, Horsley, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Clarkson Stanfield, and Daniel Maclise,
published by Moxon in 1857- It was reprinted by Messrs. Macmillan in 1893, and
by Freemantle & Co. in 1901 (with an introduction by Holman Hunt). The volume
is the subject of a monograph by G. S. Layard, entitled Pca??y.soa. and AA Pre-PoyAae/Pe
P/a.S'AraPr.s' : 1894.]
4 [For Ruskin's appreciation of JPrad, see Vol. V. p. 219 n. Am-ora PefyA had
just been published (1856) when this book appeared.]
THE ELEMENTS OF DRAWING
7. RlCHTER.
I have already told you what to guard against in looking at his works A
I am a little doubtful whether I have done well in including them in this
catalogue at all ; but the imaginations in them are so lovely and numberless,
that I must risk, for their sake, the chance of hurting you a little in judgment
of style. If you want to make presents of story-books to children, his are
the best you can now get; but his most beautiful work, as far as I know, is
his series of Illustrations to the Lord's PrayerA
8. ROSSETTI.
An edition of Tennyson, lately published, contains woodcuts from drawings
by Rossetti and other chief Pre-Raphaelite masters.^ They are terribly spoiled
in the cutting, and generally the best part, the expression of feature, enPreAy
lost; * still they are full of instruction, and cannot be studied too closely.
But observe, respecting these woodcuts, that if you have been in the habit
of looking at much spurious work, in which sentiment, action, and style are
borrowed or artificial, you will assuredly be offended at first by all genuine
work, which is intense in feeling. Genuine art, which is merely art, such
as Veronese's or Titian's, may not offend you, though the chances are that
you will not care about it; but genuine works of feeling, such as Afaad
or Aarora TefgA in poetry,4 or the grand Pre-Raphaelite designs in paint-
ing, are sure to offend you : and if you cease to work hard, and persist in
looking at vicious and false art, they will continue to offend you. It will
* This is especially the case in the St. Cecily, RossettPs first illustration to the
PuJace op Arp which would have been the best in the book had it been well
engraved. The whole work should be taken up again, and done by line engraving,
perfectly ; and wholly from Pre-Raphaelite designs, with which no other modern
work can bear the least comparison.
* [See above, p. 204. Adrian Ludwig Richter, painter and engraver (1803-1884),
for many years Professor at the Dresden Academy. His illustrations to the Lord's
Prayer were published in 1856 ("FaPr PiMcr" fa Pdda?-a uoa Padwly /PcAPr. da
aa^ye/MAP vwi Aaya.P GaAer; Prc^de?i), and in the same year, with English
Text (" ?'Ae PordT Prayer, wPA PJaAdraPo?M Ay Pudwiy PicAPr. PAyraved wood Ay
A. GaAer, Dreede?!.' PuAAPAed Ay GaAer a?id PPAPr"). Story-books illustrated by him
are very numerous; for a complete bibliography see Adrian. Padwiy PicAier : dfaier
and Padirer (a Catalogue of his works by Johann Friedrich HoF, Dresden : 1877).]
2 [Ed. 1 reads : . this catalogue at all; but the fancies in them are so pretty
and numberless . . ; and omits, at the end of the paragraph, the words "but his
most beautiful work . . . Lord's Prayer."]
^ [This was an edition of the Poem# (the 1842 volume) with illustrations by
Thomas Creswick, John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt, William Mulready,
John Callcott, Horsley, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Clarkson Stanfield, and Daniel Maclise,
published by Moxon in 1857- It was reprinted by Messrs. Macmillan in 1893, and
by Freemantle & Co. in 1901 (with an introduction by Holman Hunt). The volume
is the subject of a monograph by G. S. Layard, entitled Pca??y.soa. and AA Pre-PoyAae/Pe
P/a.S'AraPr.s' : 1894.]
4 [For Ruskin's appreciation of JPrad, see Vol. V. p. 219 n. Am-ora PefyA had
just been published (1856) when this book appeared.]