Modern Painters, John Ruskin, Edited And Abridged, David Barrie, c. 1987
I picked this book up years ago in San Antonio, at Half-Price Books.
I have looked at it briefly off and on over the years.
It certainly intrigues me.
From another book: link here.
The Correct Use of Whales: Hull, or Kingston-Upon-Hull, Yorkshire; polar bears feared more than whales by whalers; 1822 -- Hull, England's most successful whaling port; Tunstall whale; Beale's journey, 1830, coast of South America, Cape Horn, across the Pacific to Hawaii, and on to Kamchatka Peninsula; echoed the work of Charles Darwin, whose own voyage on the Beagle was under way even as Beale reached the South Sea; J.M.W. Turner; Melville's passion for Turner almost rivalled that of the artist's champion, John Ruskin; Melville read Ruskin's Modern Painters, before his trip to England; Beale supplied Ismael's cetology; Beale to whales as Darwin to finches.
I noted that I haven't posted notes on this book yet (April 1, 2026) -- apparently it's time to get started.
Narrative: 591 pages; does not include index.
First thought after starting this project: Ruskin, as a writer and perhaps as a thinker, has been greatly ignored. Great ignored. Amazing.
Bottom of page 17, first page of the introduction, this line: Turner himself seems to have been rather embarrassed by the extravagant praise heaped upon and no doubt shook his head over Ruskin's rough treatment of Claude, whom he (Turner) deeply respected.
Claude, I assume was Claude Monet.
Introduction
First volume published in 1843; Ruskin was only 24 at the time; first embarked on this project in 1836 -- seven years earlier, putting him at age 17 when he started this project; in response to a "vitriolic review in Blackwood's Magazine of some paintings by Turner n that year's Royal Academy exhibition.
Nothing came of in. In 1842 another "outburst of philistine critical abuse reawoke Ruskin's indignation, and as they say, "the rest is history."
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