Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/338

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Ruskin
324
Ruskin

were not intended to be taken too literally. No one was more courteous to radicals, lawyers, political economists, scientific persons, and others whom he professed to abhor. In general company Ruskin's conversation was apt to become monologue. On these occasions the beauty of phrase and flow of magical words were wonderful to listen to. D. G. Rossetti said that some of these monologues made all Ruskin's written words feeble and uninspired by comparison. On more familiar occasions he was whimsical, paradoxical, dictatorial, incalculable. There was always a flash of irony playing about his talk, which puzzled, teased, or delighted his listeners according to their temperament. His charm of manner was irresistible. 'No one,' says Mrs. Carlyle, 'managed Carlyle so well as Ruskin. It was quite beautiful to see him. Carlyle would say outrageous things, running counter to all Ruskin cared for. Ruskin would treat Carlyle like a naughty child, lay his arms around him, and say, "Now this is too bad!"' Of young girls Ruskin was the indulgent and devoted slave. But to all his friends, young and old, boy or maid, humble or distinguished, his manner had something of the same caressing charm. 'For the sake of others,' says Professor Norton, 'who have not known him as I have, I would declare my conviction that no other master of literature in our time has more earnestly and steadily endeavoured to set forth, for the help of those whom he addressed whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, and lovely; or in his own life has more faithfully tried to practise the virtues which spring from the contemplation of these things.' 'To my dear and ethereal Ruskin,' was Carlyle's inscription in the last book he gave to his disciple. 'I should wish,' wrote Jowett, after visiting Ruskin at Brantwood, 'never to lose the impression of the kind welcome which I received from him. He is the gentlest and most innocent of mankind.'

Among many portraits of Ruskin are: 1. As a child, aged three and a half, oil-picture by James Northcote, R. A. (at Brantwood). In this, as Ruskin relates in 'Præterita,' there is a background, at the child's special request, of 'blue hills.' 2. At the age of twenty-three, water-colour by George Richmond, R.A., exhibited at the academy, 1842 (at Brantwood). 3. At the age of thirty-four, oil-picture by Millais, full-length, standing bareheaded on the rocks beside Glenfinlas (in the collection of the late Sir Henry Acland; now, as an heirloom, in the possession of Rear-admiral Acland). 4. At the age of thirty-eight, head in chalk by George Richmond, R.A. (reproduced as frontispiece to the 'Selections' of 1862, now at Brantwood; not flattery, said the artist, 'only the truth lovingly told'). 5. A few years later, a crayon drawing by Rossetti (formerly in the possession of Mr. Pocock of Brighton). 6. At the age of fifty-seven, an etching by M. Georges Pilotelle (produced for Noséda of the Strand). 7. At the age of sixty-one, a bust by Boehm (in the Ruskin Drawing School, Oxford). 8. A year later, 1881, life-size portrait in water-colour by Mr. Herkomer, R.A., exhibited at the Grosvenor same year. 9. Executed in 1884, and exhibited at the New Gallery in 1889, a bust by Mr. Conrad Dressler: the first portrait of Ruskin with a beard: 'it makes me look far crazier,' said the sitter, 'than ever I've been.' 10. Painted in 1898–9, with long beard, oil-picture by Arthur Severn (now at Brantwood). 11. A very fine photograph by Mr. F. Hollyer, half-length, seated with long flowing beard, taken in 1895. (Illustrated articles on portraits of Ruskin appeared in the 'Magazine of Art' for 1891.)

The complete bibliography by Thomas J. Wise and James P. Smart, issued in 1893, and giving letters, lectures, and minor Ruskiniana, included 1,152 entries. 114 volumes (large or small) bear Ruskin's name as author, and to twenty-nine other volumes he contributed prefaces or other matter. There has as yet been no collective edition of his works. Of an octavo series of 'Works' commenced in 1871, only eleven volumes were published. They were issued in boards and in what is now called in the trade 'Ruskin calf,' a purple chosen by himself. Since 1882 many of the books have been issued in a uniform edition, crown 8vo (referred to below as 'small edition'). The following is a chronological list of the principal works and editions: 1. 'The Poetry of Architecture,' in London's 'Architectural Magazine,' 1837–8; first published separately, 1893, medium 4to (illustrated). 2. 'Modern Painters,' 1843, vol. i.; 1846, vol. ii.; 1856, vol. iii. (illustrated); 1856, vol. iv. (illustrated); 1860, vol. v. (illustrated). Vol. i. of the first and second editions was large crown 8vo; the third edition and all the other volumes were imperial 8vo. The first edition of this book commands high prices on account of the plates. 'Autograph edition,' 1873, 5 vols. imperial 8vo (impressions from the original plates); ' complete edition,' with new index and collation of different editions, 1888, 6 vols. imperial 8vo (three additional plates, some of the others re-engraved); small complete edition (reduced plates),