Re: Dark Deception Chapter 3 [torrent Full]
Genciana Haggins
The work now laid before the public originated in indignation at theshallow and false criticism of the periodicals of the day on the worksof the great living artist to whom it principally refers. It wasintended to be a short pamphlet, reprobating the matter and style ofthose critiques, and pointing out their perilous tendency, as guides ofpublic feeling. But, as point after point presented itself fordemonstration, I found myself compelled to amplify what was at first aletter to the Editor of a Review, into something very like a treatise onart, to which I was obliged to give the more consistency andcompleteness, because it advocated opinions which, to the ordinaryconnoisseur, will sound heretical. I now scarcely know whether I shouldannounce it is an Essay on Landscape Painting, and apologize for itsfrequent reference to the works of a particular master; or, announcingit as a critique on particular works, apologize for its lengthydiscussion of general principles. But of whatever character the work maybe considered, the motives which led me to undertake it must not bemistaken. No zeal for the reputation of any individual, no personalfeeling of any kind, has the slightest weight or influence with me. Thereputation of the great artist to whose works I have chiefly referred,is established on too legitimate grounds among all whose admiration ishonorable, to be in any way affected by the ignorant sarcasms ofpretension and affectation. But when public taste seems plungingdeeper and deeper into degradation day by day, and when the pressuniversally exerts such power as it possesses to direct the feeling ofthe nation more completely to all that is theatrical, affected, andfalse in art; while it vents its ribald buffooneries on the most exaltedtruth, and the highest ideal of landscape, that this or any other agehas ever witnessed, it becomes the imperative duty of all who have anyperception or [Page x] knowledge of what is really great in art, andany desire for its advancement in England, to come fearlessly forward,regardless of such individual interests as are likely to be injured bythe knowledge of what is good and right, to declare and demonstrate,wherever they exist, the essence and the authority of the Beautiful andthe True.
Whatever may seem invidious or partial in the execution of my task isdependent not so much on the tenor of the work, as on itsincompleteness. I have not entered into systematic criticism of all thepainters of the present day; but I have illustrated each particularexcellence and truth of art by the works in which it exists in thehighest degree, resting satisfied that if it be once rightly felt andenjoyed in these, it will be discovered and appreciated wherever itexists in others. And although I have never suppressed any conviction ofthe superiority of one artist over another, which I believed to begrounded on truth, and necessary to the understanding of truth, I havebeen cautious never to undermine positive rank, while I disputedrelative rank. My uniform desire and aim have been, not that the presentfavorite should be admired less, but that the neglected master should beadmired more. And I know that an increased perception and sense of truthand beauty, though it may interfere with our estimate of the comparativerank of painters, will invariably tend to increase our admiration of allwho are really great; and he who now places Stanfield and Callcott aboveTurner, will admire Stanfield and Callcott more than he does now, whenhe has learned to place Turner far above them both.
In three instances only have I spoken in direct depreciation of theworks of living artists, and these are all cases in which the reputationis so firm and extended, as to suffer little injury from the opinion ofan individual, and where the blame has been warranted and deserved bythe desecration of the highest powers.
Of the old masters I have spoken with far greater freedom; but let it beremembered that only a portion of the work is now presented to thepublic, and it must not be supposed, because in that particular portion,and with reference to particular excellencies, I have spoken in constantdepreciation, that I have no feeling of other excellencies of whichcognizance can only be taken in future parts of the work. Let me not beunderstood to mean more than I have said, nor be made responsible forconclusions [Page xi] when I have only stated facts. I have said thatthe old masters did not give the truth of Nature; if the reader chooses,thence, to infer that they were not masters at all, it is hisconclusion, not mine.
Whatever I have asserted throughout the work, I have endeavored toground altogether on demonstrations which must stand or fall by theirown strength, and which ought to involve no more reference to authorityor character than a demonstration in Euclid. Yet it is proper for thepublic to know, that the writer is no mere theorist, but has beendevoted from his youth to the laborious study of practical art.
Whatever has been generally affirmed of the old schools oflandscape-painting is founded on familiar acquaintance with everyimportant work of art, from Antwerp to Naples. But it would be useless,where close and immediate comparison with works in our own Academy isdesirable, to refer to the details of pictures at Rome or Munich; and itwould be impossible to speak at once with just feeling, as regarded thepossessor, and just freedom, as regarded the public, of pictures inprivate galleries. Whatever particular references have been made forillustration, have been therefore confined, as far as was in my power,to works in the National and Dulwich Galleries.
Finally, I have to apologize for the imperfection of a work which Icould have wished not to have executed, but with years of reflection andrevisal. It is owing to my sense of the necessity of such revisal, thatonly a portion of the work is now presented to the public; but thatportion is both complete in itself, and is more peculiarly directedagainst the crying evil which called for instant remedy. Whether I evercompletely fulfil my intention, will partly depend upon the spirit inwhich the present volume is received. If it be attributed to aninvidious spirit, or a desire for the advancement of individualinterests, I could hope to effect little good by farther effort. If, onthe contrary, its real feeling and intention be understood, I shallshrink from no labor in the execution of a task which may tend, howeverfeebly, to the advancement of the cause of real art in England, and tothe honor of those great living Masters whom we now neglect or malign,to pour our flattery into the ear of Death, and exalt, with vainacclamation, the names of those who neither demand our praise, norregard our gratitude.
If, however, I have had no reason to regret my hasty advance,as far as regards the ultimate issue of the struggle, I haveyet found it to occasion much misconception of the character,[Page xiv]and some diminution of the influence, of the present essay.For though the work has been received as only in sanguine momentsI had ventured to hope, though I have had the pleasureof knowing that in many instances its principles have carriedwith them a strength of conviction amounting to a demonstrationof their truth, and that, even where it has had no other influence,it has excited interest, suggested inquiry, and promptedto a just and frank comparison of Art with Nature; yet thiseffect would have been greater still, had not the work been supposed,as it seems to have been by many readers, a completedtreatise, containing a systematized statement of the whole of myviews on the subject of modern art. Considered as such, it surprisesme that the book should have received the slightest attention.For what respect could be due to a writer who pretendedto criticise and classify the works of the great painters of landscape,without developing, or even alluding to, one single principleof the beautiful or sublime? So far from being a completedessay, it is little more than the introduction to the massof evidence and illustration which I have yet to bring forward;it treats of nothing but the initiatory steps of art, states nothingbut the elementary rules of criticism, touches only on meritsattainable by accuracy of eye and fidelity of hand, and leaves forfuture consideration every one of the eclectic qualities of pictures,all of good that is prompted by feeling, and of great thatis guided by judgment; and its function and scope should theless have been mistaken, because I have not only most carefullyarranged the subject in its commencement, but have given frequentreferences throughout to the essays by which it is intendedto be succeeded, in which I shall endeavor to point out the significationand the value of those phenomena of external naturewhich I have been hitherto compelled to describe without referenceeither to their inherent beauty, or to the lessons which maybe derived from them.
Yet, to prevent such misconception in future, I may perhapsbe excused for occupying the reader's time with a fuller statementof the feelings with which the work was undertaken, of itsgeneral plan, and of the conclusions and positions which I hopeto be able finally to deduce and maintain.
There is, I fear, so much malice in the hearts of most men,that they are chiefly jealous of that praise which can give thegreatest pleasure, and are then most liberal of eulogium when itcan no longer be enjoyed. They grudge not the whiteness ofthe sepulchre, because by no honor they can bestow upon it canthe senseless corpse be rendered an object of envy; but they areniggardly of the reputation which contributes to happiness, oradvances to fortune. They are glad to obtain credit for generosityand humility by exalting those who are beyond the reachof praise, and thus to escape the more painful necessity of doinghomage to a living rival. They are rejoiced to set up a standardof imaginary excellence, which may enable them, by insistingon the inferiority of a contemporary work to the things thathave been, to withdraw the attention from its superiority to the[Page xvi]things that are. The same undercurrent of jealousy operatesin our reception of animadversion. Men have commonly morepleasure in the criticism which hurts than in that which is innocuous,and are more tolerant of the severity which breakshearts and ruins fortunes, than of that which falls impotentlyon the grave.
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