An Eye for Colour

An Eye for Colour

Engraving

Fun (22 July 1865): 91

1st Art Student: “Fine sunset that, Jack, but I fancy I’ve seen it before.”

2nd ditto: Of course; decided crib from Turner. Saw it at a glance.”

In Modern Painters Ruskin pointed out that most people’s ideas of clouds come from Dutch painting — not from looking at the sky. Almost three decades after this cartoon Wilde (or one of his mouthpieces in “The Decay of Lying”) claimed Turner invented sunsets.


Courtesy of the Suzy Covey Comic Book Collection in the George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida.

Click on image to enlarge it

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the University of Florida library and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. — George P. Landow]