[Rarebooks] FS: John Ruskin 12-page AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT on Realism in Art and Literature and its Relation to Morals

[Charles Agvent]

RUSKIN, John. AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT (AM) on Realism in Art and Literature 
and its Relation to Morals. Twelve 5" x 8" pages written on 3 folded 
leaves, stitched together at the vertical fold, not signed but 
completely in Ruskin's hand. A presumably complete and untitled essay, 
possibly unpublished, on realism in art and its relation to morals. 
Ruskin begins, “Realism in any work of art ... is by no means a modern 
attribute. We find it in the paintings of Raphael just as unmistakably 
as in those [of] Meissonier or Duran.... We may very properly call it 
the natural -- the human -- element of a work of art, and no doubt it is 
this element which pleases us most in all masterpieces.... But realism 
is not the sole end, nor even the chief end of artistic creations; if it 
were, we should prize a photograph more than one of Turner's 
landscapes.... Now contemporary fiction must be subject to the same laws 
as past fiction, only its worth must vary according to the merits of the 
present novelists.... The three greatest English novelists -- Thackeray, 
George Eliot, and Dickens were minute in their copies of human nature & 
precise in their character dissection. Of the three, Dickens avowedly 
wrote for a 'purpose' -- to remedy abuse of a specific character -- to 
denounce foundling houses, charity schools and courts of chancery, but 
while he succeeded in mitigating or correcting many of these wrongs, he 
necessarily pushed his realism too far -- to the detriment of his 
art.... Dickens invests the lowest classes with romance; he makes them 
so attractive that you regret you were not born a pauper." Ruskin 
discusses other British authors as well as the French school: "I think 
we shall find that the French realistic school (and its imitation in 
England & America) fails signally. Realism is not to blame as much as 
the want of art.... We may regard realism as an aid to morals if it is 
interwoven with the artistic element. If unaccompanied by this, realism 
in fiction can never lead to the highest creations of genius, may 
frequently be pernicious, and will probably often be dull." The essay 
does not appear in the WORKS OF JOHN RUSKIN, ed. Cook and Wedderburn 
(Cambridge, 1903-12). The date is written, apparently in another hand, 
at the very end of the essay. Minor staining. Near Fine.

The OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY cites Ruskin’s MODERN PAINTERS as the 
earliest instance of the word “realism” to mean “close resemblance to 
what is real; fidelity of representation, rendering the precise detail 
of the real thing or scene.” (#020995)  $10,000

https://www.charlesagvent.com/pages/books/020995/john-ruskin/autograph-manuscript-am-on-realism-in-art-and-literature-and-its-relation-to-morals

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