BIB_ID
188257
Accession number
MA 14325
Creator
Ruskin, John, 1819-1900, sender.
Display Date
Romsey, England, 1875 December 12.
Credit line
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1818-1887.
Description
1 items (4 pages) ; 20.2 x 12.6 cm (unfolded to 20.2 x 25.2)
Notes
George Francis Miles (Frank Miles) was an artist and a friend of Oscar Wilde's at Oxford in 1874 and 1875.
Georg William Reid was Keeper of the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum between 1866 and 1883.
Letter illustrated with diagrams by Ruskin intended to provide instruction in the drawing and shading of spheres.
Georg William Reid was Keeper of the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum between 1866 and 1883.
Letter illustrated with diagrams by Ruskin intended to provide instruction in the drawing and shading of spheres.
Provenance
Gordon N. Ray.
Summary
Says that he is not going to call him Miles or Mr. anymore [the salutation is "My Dear Frank"], because he is sure that loving his mother [Mary Ellen], and loving the sky as he does, he will come to love all good and lovely things, and that he will help in the work which he will discover in a little while to be necessary to the having of both, from the ghastly ruin that the devil is bringing on them. In the meantime, concerning Naples' yelllow light, he tells Miles not to waste time or care in trying to get difficult colors, or conquer difficulties at all. Ascertain what colors will stand and on what paper they work easiest. With those, do all beautiful things possible, and leave the rest alone. He cannot paint light by any tricks of color. When he goes to Florence, look carefully at Angelico and Botticelli, and he will see what true workmanship can do, to teach for ever of what is really as lovely as light itself. In the meantime, his chief deficiency is in knowledge and feeling of light and shade. Color will come to him like singing to a nightingale. But he wants discipline and study in light and shade. He should go to the British Museum like a good boy and ask [George William] Reid to show him Ruskin's favorite blue drawings by Mantegna, and he will see what workmanship means in light and shade. After that, he should do any marble (not plaster) Greek head that he wants in pure, complete chiaroscuro. His darkest shade should not be darker than the blue of that Mantegna drawing, and all the work should be in gradating the lights out of that, not indulging with work in the darks. [On the opposite page, Ruskin illustrates these instructions with diagrams of spheres.]
Catalog link
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