In a message dated 11/9/08 2:15:28 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> I agree re Ruskin. But did he write that after seeing Turner? Yes. Did he > really have such experiences of the sea before he saw Turner? > > I share your suspicions. I'm not a Ruskin scholar, and I'm unlikely to become one because I recoil from the personality to the extent it is displayed in the potted biographies I've read, and the priggish and smugly self-righteous quotes he is famous for. Granting my shallow knowledge of his itineraries, the only times I can discover when he went to sea were simply to cross the channel to the continent. He obviously would have us believe he personally had endured nearly the worst a tumultuous ocean has to offer. For example, he writes of "the low rain clouds brought down to the very level of the sea, whirling and flying in rags and fragments from wave to wave, AS I HAVE OFTEN SEEN THEM." He implies he could "appreciate" Turner because he's one of the "few people who have ever seen the effect". But when the hell did that ever actually happen? It's silly to suggest that only a few people ever crossed the channel. Perversely, if indeed he did fake it, and the only heavings of the sea he ever saw were on a Turner canvas, it is much to the credit of his hyperesthesic sensibility and his preternatural articulateness that he could write such stuff as that in MODERN PAINTERS. ************** AOL Search: Your one stop for directions, recipes and all other Holiday needs. Search Now. (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1212792382x1200798498/aol?redir=http ://searchblog.aol.com/2008/11/04/happy-holidays-from -aol-search/?ncid=emlcntussear00000001)
