[10] “The principal object in the foreground of Turner’s ‘Building of Carthage’ is a group of children sailing toy boats. The exquisite choice of this incident … is quite as appreciable when it is told, as when it is seen—it has nothing to do with the technicalities of painting; … such a thought as this is something far above all art.”

John Ruskin,
Art Professor: Modern Painters.

TURNER, Joseph Mallord William
Dido Building Carthage, or The Rise of the Carthaginian Empire
1815
Oil on canvas
155.5 x 230 cm.
Turner Bequest, 1856.

[16] … “The Butcher’s Dog, in the corner of Mr. Mulready’s ‘Butt,’ displays, perhaps, the most wonderful, because the most dignified, finish … and assuredly the most perfect unity of drawing and colour which the entire range of ancient and modern art can exhibit. Albert Durer is, indeed, the only rival who might be suggested.”





John Ruskin
Slade Professor of Art: Modern Painters.










Mulready, William (RA)
The Butt: Shooting a Cherry
1822-1848
oil on canvas
45.4 38.4 cm
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

“It is a portrait of Doge Andrea Gritti, and I believe it is a real Titian. It shows finish. It is a very perfect sample of the highest finish of ancient art.[17]








[17] … “I feel entitled to point out that the picture by Titian, produced in the case of Whistler v. Ruskin, is an early specimen of that master, and does not represent adequately the style and qualities which have obtained for him his great reputation—one obvious point of difference between this and his more mature work being the far greater amount of finish—I do not say completeness—exhibited in it … and as the picture was brought forward with a view to inform the jury as to the nature of the work of the greatest painter, and more especially as to the high finish introduced in it, it is evident that it was calculated to produce an erroneous impression on their minds, if indeed any one present at the inquiry can hold that those gentlemen were in any way fitted to understand the issues raised therein.—I am, Sir, your obedient servant,





A. MOORE.
“Nov. 28.”
Extract of a letter to the Editor of the Echo.

Titian (TIZIANO Vecellio)
Portrait of Doge Andrea Gritti
c. 1545 Oil on canvas,
133 x 103 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington

Marshall Cavendish issued a series about the great artists when I was younger, which I religiously collected – and still have. Every issue was just as religiously studied and with some of the artists, Van Vogh amongst them, I struggled to understand just what was special about their work.

Wheat Field with Crows, 1890

“In both figure and landscape … I want to get to the point where people say of my work: that man feels deeply, that man feels keenly.”

Letter to Theo van Gogh
21 July 1882

This particular painting, Wheat Field with Crows was a ‘milestone’ for me. I studied the colour plate for all the aspects I could think of – in the end I just sat and looked at it, allowing my eye to wander around the surface. I expect I filled in with many suppositions and assumptions, adding my own cultural interpretation about the ‘murder of crows’ but as I looked, there was so much sadness in this painting that it brought tears to my eyes; I didn’t know paintings could do that. It was many years before I stood before another painting that moved me as powerfully again, after I’d mistakenly thought that that effect was unique to this particular painting.

Garden with Arbor, June, 1881

“What I like so much about painting is that with the same amount of trouble which one takes over a drawing, one brings home something that conveys the impression much better and is much more pleasant to look at … it is more gratifying than drawing.


But it is absolutely necessary to be able to draw the right proportion and the position of the object pretty correctly before one begins. If one makes mistakes in this, the whole thing comes to nothing.”


Letter to Theo van Gogh
20 August 1882

It didn’t convert me into an admirer of Vincent’s work but I wasn’t going to dismiss him when he was the only artist I knew of that could create that effect on me. I’ve ‘bumped up’ against some of his oils since, usually reluctantly, and it’s always been rewarding for what I’ve learnt, if not a totally pleasant experience.

I’d seen a few of his drawings over the years and knew of course, of his reputation as a draughtsman and of all his letters to his brother Theo – but I’d never read any quotations or had any idea of the volume of drawings and sketches he produced – so the examples and quotations here were a delightful surprise to me. I thoroughly enjoyed the glimpses into how he thought about his work from the quotations.

So, in his own words…

Landscape with Willows and Sun Shining Through the Clouds, mid-March 1884

”Corot drew and modelled every tree trunk with the same devotion and love as if it were a figure.”




Letter to Theo van Gogh
c.September 1881









”If one draws a pollard willow as if it were a living being, which after all is what it really is, then the surroundings follow almost by themselves, provided only that one has focused all one’s attention on that particular tree and not rested until there was some life in it.”


Letter to Theo van Gogh
c.15 October 1881

Haystacks near a Farm, 12-13 June 1888

“… you will see when you come to the studio that besides the seeking for the outline I have, just like everyone else, a feeling for the power of color. And that I do not object to doing watercolors; but the foundation of them is the drawing, and then from the drawing many other branches beside the watercolor sprout forth, which will develop in me in time as in everybody who loves his work. …”





Letter to Theo van Gogh
31 July 1882

Olive Trees, Montmajour 1888

”I have been knocking about in the orchards, and the result is five size 30 canvases, which along with the three studies of olives that you have, at least constitute an attack on the problem.


The olive is as variable as our willow or pollard willow in the North, you know the willows are very striking, in spite of their seeming monotonous, they are the trees characteristic of the country.


Now the olive and the cypress have exactly the significance here as the willow has at home.


What I have done is a rather hard and coarse reality beside their abstractions, but it will have a rustic quality, and will smell of the earth. ”






Letter to Theo van Gogh
c.21 November 1889

** More Vincent Quotes, Quotes, Quotes

I was once in the Norwich Castle Museum, purposefully striding along the galleries to their fine collection of watercolours and ignoring the paintings hanging left and right. In mid stride – I stopped – and took one pace backward, wondering what on earth had captured my notice? Looking around at the paintings, there was nothing here to interest me?

Painting a young maiden is similar to cavorting with great abandon. It is the finest refreshment.



Portrait of a Chambermaid

To my right was a rather plain 3/4 portrait in the the Dutch manner; an elderly man with a white beard, a red nose, dark and sombre clothing, hands resting in his lap with a white ruff I think. Not what would be described a handsome man though I think I recall a flash of spirit and a twinkle of laughter in his expression but those could easily be my imaginings.

Every child has the spirit of creation. The rubbish of life often exterminates the spirit through plague and a souls own wretchedness.





Nicolaas Rubens

It wasn’t the subject that had stopped me dead in my tracks, so many years on and the composition is very hazy in my memory. I stood and studied this painting for several minutes, even getting into conversation with one of the museum staff about it. The owner had recently died and the painting was expected to be sold – and they were expecting it to go elsewhere.



It was the sheer quality of the flesh painting – flesh that seemed almost to have blood running in the veins.

I’m just a simple man standing alone with my old brushes, asking God for inspiration.



Self Portrait

I was in Edinburgh some years later and excited about going to see a major Rubens they had on display at that time – how can anyone be excited about seeing a painting! Even though this enormous historical painting is a world famous masterpiece (and I’ve forgotten the title) it disappointed me because it lacked the same magic I’d seen in the humble portrait that had hung in Norwich Castle.

** More Peter Paul Rubens’ Quotes