Studio: international art (55.1912)

Reviews and Notices

CROSS-STITCH DESIGN BY A
GIRL IN THE ELEMENTARY
CLASS OF THE ROYAL HUN-
GARIAN ARTS AND CRAFTS
SCHOOL, BUDAPEST

REVIEWS AND
NOTICES

The Life of Ruskin. By E.
T. Cook. (London: George

for full biography are all here. It is improbable that the author
of “Modern Painters” and the Oxford Lectures, of fantastic title,
will ever be rivalled in generalising profoundly on the relation of
life to art. It was when Ruskin came down to particulars that
his momentary whims got out of hand and compromised the
appearance of his best conclusions. The Whistler incident shook

a great reputation to its
foundations and destroyed
confidence in Ru skin’s
sense of the beautiful, but
confidence might equally
have been destroyed in
Whistler’s own sense of the
same, since his attitude
towards a later impression-
ism was just what Ruskin’s
had been to his work. The
fact is, of course, that these
great innovators cannot
stand innovations from any

CROSS-STITCH DESIGN BY A GIRL IN
THE ELEMENTARY CLASS OF THE
ROYAL HUNGARIAN ARTS AND
CRAFTS SCHOOL, BUDAPEST

quarter but their own. Mr.
Cook gives an interesting letter
from Swinburne to Ruskin in
1865, which, he says, might
have averted the episode.
“ Whistler,” it reads, “ (as any
artist worthy of his rank must
be) is of course desirous to
meet you, and to let you see
his immediate work. As (I
think) he has never met you,
you will see that his desire to
have it out face to face must

Allen.) 2 vols. 2ir. net.—
This, the official Life, is pub-
lished, we doubt not, to a

CROSS-STITCH DESIGN BY A GIRL IN
THE ELEMENTARY CLASS OF THE
ROYAL HUNGARIAN ARTS AND
CRAFTS SCHOOL, BUDAPEST

spring simply from knowledge
and appreciation of your own
works.” But the meeting did

waiting special public, as well
as to the world at large; for
the Ruskin cult has survived better than any of the
many other cults of the nineteenth century. The
first volume of this biography deals with Ruskin in
art criticism—the production of “Modern Painters,”
“Stones of Venice,” “The Seven Lamps of Architec-
ture,” &c.; the second more especially with later
writings upon political economy. Lately there has
been a tendency to exalt this phase of Ruskin’s
work at the expense of his writings upon art. For
us, however, these remain the greatest achievements
of this remarkable personality.

Mr. Cook’s is essentially the intellectual life ot
Ruskin, but the descriptions of his homes, details of
his travel and the connection of incident necessary

not take place.

Ruskin could say with
pride, and did, that it was left for him to teach the
excellency and supremacy of five great painters:
Turner, Tintoret, Luini, Botticelli, and Carpaccio.

CROSS-STITCH DESIGN BY A GIRL IN THE ELEMENTARY
CLASS OF THE ROYAL HUNGARIAN ARTS AND CRAFTS
SCHOOL, BUDAPEST

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