In his lecture ‘Of Water as Painted by Turner’, Ruskin examines the methods and effects of Turner’s construction of water on canvas. Ruskin believed that Turner allowed his paintings to have an element of focus, without allowing the subject to become overly vague, a fault which Ruskin believed some artists allowed to occur when attempting to portray a body of water too realistically. If the surface of the water becomes too over-focused, the viewer tends to be drawn in, and almost forced to’...[tumble] into it, and gasp for breath as [they] go down.’. Ruskin divides Turner’s representations of water surfaces and the force of what he calls ‘agitated water.’. Turner expresses the force, or calmness, of water without losing sight of his viewer’s needs, as Ruskin puts it, ‘the fearless and full rendering of its forms.’. The stability of the relationship between the viewer and the body of water is maintained; the subject of the work does not become jeopardised by an overpowering of sprays and splashing, but instead, uses subtle suggestions of colour or technique to hint at the spray of a waterfall and to allow the foam of water to remain translucent so that the viewer may see the subject behind it. Turner, Ruskin maintained, tended to reject that which overwhelmed. Utilising the example of Turner’s waterfall in the Upperfall of the Tees, Ruskin describes how Turner portrayed the fall’s exquisite mists in such a way that it did not compete for the attention of the viewer.
Ruskin’s own representation of water in The King of the Golden River is one which is almost disturbing for the reader. For Ruskin, the element of water is heavily associated with the element of baptism. It is only through immersion that both Hans and Schwartz are redeemed, or set free from the cyclical nature of greed. Their transformation into the black stones, perhaps, suggests both the punishing and delivering qualities of nature. The river is shown as being both the provider and taker of life; not only would it purge the town of its greed by claiming the two brothers, it would also be the source of the town’s continued prosperity after Gluck transformed the river, and the valley as a whole, from a potential source of plague to a source of unlimited wealth. Ruskin’s beliefs are noticeable here, for he chooses to liberate the community through the actions of one individual; such a philanthropic act hints at his later socialistic writings.
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