Page:Constable by C. J. Holmes.djvu/19

 a faint idea of the natural charm of his style. Had his taste not lain in other directions, he might, I think, have occupied a distinguished place among the masters of English prose, and his simple eloquence is never seen to better advantage than when he is describing the subjects of his sketches.

The enormous, and in many respects well deserved, reputation of Ruskin compels a brief note on his attacks upon Constable, which, as he himself admitted, were called forth by Leslie's affectionate admiration. Such resentment may explain, but does not excuse, the utter injustice of his remarks upon one whom he regarded as a possible rival of Turner. He writes, for instance: "Unteachableness seems to have been a main feature of his character, and there is corresponding want of veneration for Nature herself. His early education and associations were also against him; they induced in him a morbid preference of subjects of a low order." And again: "Constable perceives in a landscape that the grass is wet, the meadows flat, and the boughs shady; that is to say, about as much as, I suppose, might be apprehended between them by an intelligent fawn and a skylark. Turner perceives at a glance the whole sum of visible truth open to human intelligence." The modesty of the last sentence indicates sufficiently the writer's sense of proportion and lack of prejudice. Three lines later he classes Constable with Berghem!

As to Constable's unteachableness, it is impossible to have two opinions when one knows his work. He was all his life a devout student of the old masters, he learned to paint by copying and imitating them, and in his lectures on Landscape he speaks of them always with all possible sympathy, affection, and respect. To accuse him of want of veneration for Nature is even more absurdly false, and may be best answered in Constable's own words. In the course of the last of his lectures on Landscape, delivered the year before his death, he says: "The young painter who, regardless of present popularity, would leave a name behind him, must become the patient pupil of Nature.... The landscape painter must walk in the fields with a humble mind. No arrogant man was ever permitted to see Nature in all her beauty. If I may be allowed to use a very solemn quotation, I would say most emphatically to the student, 'Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.'"