RUSKIN GOES TO THE ASHMOLEAN

J Ruskin by J Millais-begun July 1853

completed Autumn 1854.

Millais' portrait of Ruskin is  a major work in the history of Pre-Raphaelitism and British culture and it is a matter for rejoicing that it has been accepted in lieu of death duties and will be part of the permanent collection at the Ashmolean. Because of Ruskin's long association with Oxford there  can be no more appropriate home for the portrait.It is a more substantial work than the somewhat undernourished Manet which the museum has recently acquired.

It seemed to me when I saw it last- a few weeks ago- to be a rather sad painting.The complicated  and often difficult circumstances of the commission may have something to do with this. One thing struck me:the proportions of the figure are not really satifactory and the head sits uneasily on the shoulders of a figure which is  not quite at ease.It portrays a very thin person. The proportions of head to figure are extreme but no where near so extraordinary as you get with Sargent.Where is Ruskin's waist? Is the mouth a little too "set"? That may or not be connected with Ruskin's childhood accident. Curiously enough John Dixon Hunt says that the figure had not been begun when the subject left Glenfinlas,"...although the background was almost complete,there was no  figure at all in the landscape...." But surely it would have been roughed in to some degree? If you are painting inch by inch, as Ruskin described there must have been some sketching in.An efficient painter does not look to waste effort by having to overlay areas already realised.

Again,the strained circumstances-the work being completed from life after Effie had left Ruskin and returned to her family in  Perth- are surely relevant.The personal relationship between Ruskin and Millais too was entering its  final stages.Any hope that Ruskin may have had of Millais becoming a great landscapist-in JR's view of things- was not to be.

I do not recall that Ruskin ever gave his own criticism of the portrait. It remained with his parents until they died.He gave it afterwards to his old friend Henry Acland. (revised Aug2013)

For another post on the portrait see here

The Wider Sea: John Dixon Hunt,London 1982.page 227.

St Martin's Church, Brampton, Cumberland: Window by Burne-Jones

St Martin's Church, Brampton, Cumberland, a photo by James Holland on Flickr.

I have just read Fiona MacCarthy's book on Burne-Jones. What I like about Burne-Jones is his work s a designer (sort of)and his humorous drawings. But there isn't that much on the stained glass-we hear that he made some but nothing significant about the manufacture-can you imagine B-J grozing away? I cannot. As a painter he is alien to me -it is more like heraldry than art.We do have one of his better works in Newcastle but all those people with their pointy chins are boring. The female portraits with their huge eyes are quite repellent. This is a kind of historicist, hot-house painting which I cannot admire.
The book is a typical MacCarthy production and is perfectly readable.The index is decently done. She uses the word mouvementé like a new toy-too often.She is maybe a bit credulous about the use of ox-gall and might have been clearer about the position of Legros in the Victorian art world. Steer is named with Sickert as being a painter of urban squalor-a very odd duo they would be. Sickert yes, Steer, no (page 298).The place name Assonan should most likely read Assouan the French name for the place in Egypt which we call Aswan.

The BM has recently published a selection of Burne-Jones' funny drawings (and also a book on Eric Gill). Both seem to be nicely produced and the price is reasonable. You can read about the Burne-Jones here.
The Last Pre-Raphaelite: Edward Burne-Jones and the Victorian Immagination
Fona MacCarthy,Faber&Faber 2011.

how to paint like a Pre-Raphaelite

                                 Our English Coasts:Holman Hunt

If you want to paint like a Pre-Raphaelite there are one or two technical points which will help you achieve a rich, detailed and lustrous surface. One of the most interesting of the group from a technical point of view was William Holman Hunt and I am going to explain the method he used when painting Our English Coasts 1852 (Strayed Sheep) which is in the collection at Tate Britain.

To obtain the kind of surface that Hunt aimed for you could certainly consider the following:

Use an oil rich painting medium.
Use sable rather than bristle brushes for your detailed work.

The advantages of an oil rich painting medium are that you have a buttery medium which dries to a lustrous, enamel like surface. Hunt said that his formula was:to use equal quantities of walnut or poppy oil,copal varnish and turpentine.

These materials may be obtained from good art material shops.

The advantages of sable brushes are that they give much finer, neater lines than you can get with bristle brushes and with broader sables they can give a softer,more even touch.They are very expensive and need careful looking after.

Hunt worked on a white ground, which also helps if the paintwork is thin and the ground can reflect light through it.He said that he would cover the underdrawing on his canvas with a thin layer of spatula applied white oil from which most of the oil had in fact been removed by allowing the paint to stand on a newspaper. Before applying this thin layer he added a drop of varnish.

So he sometimes was painting wet into wet-and with a very light touch.


You can get further detailed information on Hunt and from: Completing the Picture: materials and techniques of twenty-six paintings in the Tate Gallery.This was published by the Tate Gallery , London in 1982. No overall author is listed but the foreword is by Allan Bowness.The actual section on Hunt is by Christine Leback Sitwell.