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John Ruskin and the Sociology of Art, 1856-1860 University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 1970 John Ruskin and the sociology of art, 1856-1860 David Darrell Werner The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Werner, David Darrell, "John Ruskin and the sociology of art, 1856-1860" (1970). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 2785. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/2785 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NOTE TO USERS Page(s) not included in the original manuscript are unavailable from the author or university. The manuscript was microfilmed as received 11 This reproduction is the best copy available. ^ UMI JOHN RUSKIN AND THE SOCIOLOGY OF ART, 1856-1860 By David D. Werner B.A., University of Montana, 1959 Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA 1970 Approved by: chairman. Board of Examiners Dea^ Or a du^ Scho o\( T)pt-p 7 M/A UMI Number: EP35863 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. OissMtaticin Publishing UMI EP35863 Published by ProQuest LLC (2012). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 PREFACE Born into a wealthy merchant family in London, John Ruskin (1819-1900) had open to him all the educational and career opportunities of his class. Yet, he acquired no more than an A.B. at Oxford, and he did not pursue a career in the family wine business, in the government, or in the professions. Instead, he spent his life between living in London and traveling on the Continent, the whole scrutinizing first art, then society, continually writing about what he saw. He arrived at his conclusions without reference to outside authority. This independent thought resulted in such statements as those in which he regarded Rembrandt and Raphael as inferior artists and John Stuart Mill, Adam Smith, and Jeremy Bentham as faulty economists. Such pronouncements alienated him from many of his own class, not only because he uttered heresy, but also be­ cause he presumed authority in two seemingly disparate fields. Yet, he was in wide demand as a lecturer on art, and his being the first Slade Professor of Art at Oxford Xll• • * was a high point in his career. The fact is, that although Ruskin's teachings are individualistic, they conform so well to fundamental truths, and here he appealed to many people of all classes. One of these fundamental truths is that truly great art comes only from a society equal to producing it. The purpose of this study is to show how Ruskin thought great art could be generated in a society. He sees this generation possible only in the hearts of all members of a society. First, he defines what great art is by locating its excellence in the heart of the indivi­ dual artist rather than in external considerations of technique or convention. Second, he seeks to produce \ conditions for a great society, the kind of society out of which great artists can come. He defines greatness in a society in the same terms that he defines greatness in art, that is, society must try to produce happy people rather than make more money. Third, he shows how once general welfare is achieved, then individuals of artistic ability will immortalize that society in their art, thus welding artist and society together. In short, the artist, rather than be repelled by what he sees around him, iv embodies the ideals of his people. The union between art and society, if it is to occur at all, must occur within the individual. V TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. GREATNESS IN ART 13 I. LOVE OF SUBJECT MATTER II. SEEING NATURE CLEARLY III. LOVE OF BEAUTY IV. INVENTION III. GREATNESS IN SOCIETY 82 I. FAITH II. AFFECTION III. UNSELFISHNESS IV. COOPERATION IV. THE SOCIOLOGY OF ART Ill I. SOCIETY TO PROVIDE FOR ART II. ART TO REFER TO SOCIETY BIBLIOGRAPHY " 128 vi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Although the years 1856-1860 span only a short time in terms of Ruskin's long life and prolific work, they are significant because during this time Ruskin not only for­ mulates the characteristics of noble or great art, but he also sets forth the corresponding characteristics that are necessary in a society to produce such art. For a true union between art and society to exist, not only must a nation provide for art, but art must, in turn, have ref­ erence to the nation producing it. The fusion of the two can only occur, however, when both put away theoretical preoccupations that are not founded upon man's experience. Only when they are guided by the truth of experience will they become vital and enriching influences in men's lives. Society then must provide for material well-being, and art for spiritual and aesthetic well-being. Both then will serve mankind totally, and life will become ennobled. That the year 1856 is a significant starting point is indicated by Francis G. Townsend when he says that in 1 2 1871 Ruskin prepared some of his works for republication. In the preface of Sesame and Lilies in this edition, Ruskin tells how his early works were hampered by religious fervor and a desire to show off his writing ability. Except for his pronouncements on "art, policy, or morality, as distinct from religion," he therefore decided to "reprint scarcely anything in this series out of the first and second volumes of Modern Painters" and to "omit much of the Seven Lamps and Stones of Venice." However, he would reprint all of his books written in the previous fifteen years "without change." Townsend concludes by pointing out that in Ruskin's own judgment., his earlier works were youthful experiments: "His real work began in 1856, the year of Modern Painters III and IV. Following those two volumes were: The Political Economy of Art (1857), later titled A Joy Forever, The Two Paths (1859), Modern Painters V (1860), and Unto This Last (1860). Together with Modern Painters III and IV, these works comprise the canon of this study. ^Ruskin and the Landscape Feeling: a Critical Analysis of His Thought during the Crucial Years of His Life, 1843-1856 (Urbana, Illinois, 1951), p. 80. 3 In the first ten chapters of Modern Painters III and the first five chapters of Modern Painters IV, Ruskin clears up ambiguities and apparent contradictions for which Modern Painters I and II had been criticized in connection with his views on art and Turner's achievement.^ Ruskin had been accused of contradicting himself in Modern Painters II when he said that Turner was superior both in showing details and in being visionary.^ In Modern Painters III Ruskin defines his central position of what he means when he says Turner is superior in an apparently contradictory sense: That art is the greatest which expresses the greatest number of the noblest ideas. Art is the expression of an artist's soul. A man may have soul and not be able to paint, in which case he ought not to be a painter. But, be his manipulation never so perfect, he is not a great artist unless he is also capable of receiving and imparting noble impressions. The last eight chapters of Modern Painters III and the last two chapters of Modern Painters IV ("The Mountain Gloom" and "The Mountain Glory") are a treatise on the ^The Life of John Ruskin, 2nd ed. 2 vols. (London, 1912), I, 343. ^Ibid., 338-39. ^Ibid., 339-40. 4 history of man's attitudes toward natural scenery.^ In these chapters Ruskin traces the gradual disappearance of man's faith in God by comparing Greek, medieval, and modern concepts of God in natural elements. This loss of man's faith figures strongly in Ruskin's view of error in modern art and society. The last two parts of Modern Painters V, "of Inven­ tion Formal" and "of Invention Spiritual," are, as Edward T. Cook says, "a treatise on 'the relations of Art to God and man.'"^ In the chapters on "Invention Spiritual," Ruskin begins to define the interrelationship between art, God, and man. Here he departs from theoretical concerns to a practical concern for the future of nations like England which ignore the legitimate place of art and reli­ gious devotion in national life. As he closes this five- volume effort, spanning seventeen years of intense thought and observation, his concern for humanity, the apparent digressive element in the work, is set forth as his real concern. In "The Dark Mirror" he says that Modern Painters ^Ibid., 343-44. ^Ibid., 337. ^Ibid. 5 has brought "everything to a root in human passion or human hope." They were designed to defend Turner, but they have been colored throughout,--nay, continually altered in shape, and even warped and laroken, by di­ gressions respecting social questions, which had for me an interest tenfold greater than the work I had been forced into undertaking.8 Indeed, had his father not prodded him, Ruskin may never have completed Modern Painters.
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