Ruskin on pictures Author:John Ruskin Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: I NOTES ON THE TURNER COLLECTION OF OIL-PICTURES AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY [Formerly at Marlborough House] VOL. I. PREFACE [TO THE CATALOGUE O... more »F 1856-7] Although the following notes refer only to a portion of the great series of the works of Turner which are now exhibited at Marlborough House, they will be found copious enough to mark all the principal stages of his progress, and characters of his design; and they will sufficiently indicate to the reader what kind of excellence is to be looked for, even in the pictures of which no special notice is taken. Among these undescribed onesl there are indeed some of the greatest efforts of the master; but it is just on account of their great excellence that I do not choose to add any account of them to these rough notes; hoping to describe and illustrate them elsewhere in a more effectual way.2 Nor is any notice taken in the following pages of the Turner drawings; for any account of these at present would be premature; the number belonging to the nation is very great; and it will require prolonged examination to trace the connection and significance of many of the subjects. Besides, the drawings, as stated at p. 33, are nearly all faultless; simple in purpose, perfect in execution, and 1 All the information absolutely necessary to the understanding of their subjects will be found in the Official Catalogue, admirably arranged by Mr. Wornum, and that at a cost of labour which its readers will not readily appreciate, for Turner was constantly in the habit of inventing classical stories out of his own head, and it requires Mr. Wornum's extensive reading and determined inducting merits [? inductive methods] to prove the non-existence of any real tradition of the subject. See, for instance, the note on the No. 495, in t...« less