An Acrid Whiff
Dec. 29th, 2004 10:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloWhen the painter J.M.W Turner died, his executor, the great critic John Ruskin, went through the archives and made a bonfire of a lot of stuff he disapproved of- "painting after painting of Turner's of the most shameful sort - the pudenda of women - utterly inexcusable and to me inexplicable".
Or at least that's what we were told. And Ruskin's memory has been tainted with an acrid whiff of burning art-works ever since.
But now it seems as if the bonfire never happened. Ian Warrell, the Turner expert at the Tate Gallery, has been through the huge Turner collection and, checking and counter-checking, reports that there's nothing missing. Instead of burning the erotica, Ruskin sort of "lost" it in his highly complicated filing system.
And the bonfire story? Who knows? I guess Ruskin put it about to bolster his image with the Victorian public as a righteous arbiter of public taste. It's what he wanted people to believe he'd done.
I'm so glad he didn't.
He was a weird, prissy, ridiculous man. Also a genius- a visionary. One could write a play, a TV play perhaps- about good Ruskin and bad Ruskin fighting it out over Turner's porn stash.
Which leaves one final question: when are we, the British public- the ultimate owners of the Turner collection- going to be allowed to see this stuff?
Or at least that's what we were told. And Ruskin's memory has been tainted with an acrid whiff of burning art-works ever since.
But now it seems as if the bonfire never happened. Ian Warrell, the Turner expert at the Tate Gallery, has been through the huge Turner collection and, checking and counter-checking, reports that there's nothing missing. Instead of burning the erotica, Ruskin sort of "lost" it in his highly complicated filing system.
And the bonfire story? Who knows? I guess Ruskin put it about to bolster his image with the Victorian public as a righteous arbiter of public taste. It's what he wanted people to believe he'd done.
I'm so glad he didn't.
He was a weird, prissy, ridiculous man. Also a genius- a visionary. One could write a play, a TV play perhaps- about good Ruskin and bad Ruskin fighting it out over Turner's porn stash.
Which leaves one final question: when are we, the British public- the ultimate owners of the Turner collection- going to be allowed to see this stuff?
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no subject
Date: 2004-12-29 06:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-29 06:39 am (UTC)It's as if they were holding back one of Shakespeare's plays because it was too racy.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-29 08:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-29 08:48 am (UTC)I went to the Tate website and they have vast amounts of Turner available to view. Maybe the "pudenda" are buried in amongst all the views of the Rhine and the Lake District. If I were more intrepid I would be able to answer this question, but I'm afraid my courage failed me....
no subject
Date: 2004-12-29 08:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-29 09:02 am (UTC)TURNER'S PUDENDA.
Intellectual commentary
Date: 2004-12-29 08:05 am (UTC)Re: Intellectual commentary
Date: 2004-12-29 08:33 am (UTC)Re: Intellectual commentary
Date: 2004-12-29 05:45 pm (UTC)Re: Intellectual commentary
Date: 2004-12-29 11:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-29 10:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-29 11:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-29 04:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-30 01:39 am (UTC)There's a story- probably true- that Ruskin's marriage remained unconsummated because he was traumatized to discover- on his wedding night- that his wife had pubic hair.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-30 09:49 am (UTC)Lol, how frightening! ;)
no subject
Date: 2004-12-30 10:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-31 05:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-31 06:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-29 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-30 03:38 am (UTC)Pudenda!
Pudenda!
no subject
Date: 2004-12-29 10:22 am (UTC)What about you?
no subject
Date: 2004-12-29 12:19 pm (UTC)