1979 1 cosgrove, d. john ruskin and the geographical imagination

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American Geographical Society

John Ruskin and the Geographical ImaginationAuthor(s): Denis E. CosgroveReviewed work(s):Source: Geographical Review, Vol. 69, No. 1 (Jan., 1979), pp. 43-62Published by: American Geographical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/214236 .

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RUSKIN AND GEOGRAPHICAL

IMAGINATION

45

not

possess, this

gift

of

taking

pleasure

in

landscape

I

assuredly possess

in a

greater

degree

than

most

men,"'"i

his

approach

to

that

pleasure

and its sources was

never

purelv aesthetic

but

was

linked

to a scientific

study

of

form.'5

For

a

period in his

youth,

Ruskin

directed

his interest in

mountain

scenery

toward

a study of Alpine

geology.

He followed

the

controversy between

H.

13.de Saussure

and

the

Huttonians

concerning

the

crystallization

of

Alpine

rocks,

and

he

later

published a paper

in the

Geological

Magazine

defending

de Saussure's

position."6

Ruskin

subsequently

rejected a

purely scientific

approach to

landscape.'7

The

essence

or

character

of a

landscape,

he

believed, was beyond

science.

It

could

not

be

captured

merely by

concentration on

external

form and

morphology:

The

natural

endencyof

accuratescience

s to

makethe

possessorof it

look

for,

and

eminentlysee, the

things connected

with his special

pieces of

knowledge;

and

as

all

accurate

science

must

be

sternly

limited,

his

sight

of

nature

gets

limited

accord-

ingly.... And I wasquitesurethatif I examinedhemountainanatomy cientifically,

should

go wrong

n

like

manner,

ouching

he external

aspects.

Therefore,

.

.

I

closed

all

geological

books,

and set

myself,

as

far

as

I

could,

to

see

the Alps

in

a

simple,

thoughtless,and

untheorising

manner;but

to see

them,

if it might

be,

thoroughly.'8

Ruskin's

approach to

landscape was

thus

to be

phenomenological.'" He

wished to rid

himself

of a

priori

notions

and theory in

order

to see, or

experience

directly,

external

phenomena and

to develop an

understanding

from that

direct or

"lived"

experience of

landscape

rather

than to

explain it

scientifically.

The

concern with

seeing

rather than

observing,

with

an

engagement

of

self and

landscape,

became a

central

feature of

Ruskin's geography.

Though

rejecting pure

empiricism,

Ruskin

retained the

early

scientific

eye for

accurate observation.

In

the Preface

to

the second

edition of

"Modern

Painters" he

claimed

that he

would

"endeavour

to investigate

and

arrange the

facts of

nature with

scientific

accuracy."20

His

sketches

and

watercolors

demonstrate

this

concern and

have

caused some

to

accuse

him

of

being a draftsman

rather than an

artist

in his

drawing

of

nature.

That

this

is

far

from

true, though

understandable, becomes

apparent

when

we

consider his

theory of

association.2'

The

third great

influence

on Ruskin's

geographical

imagination was his

religion.

"4

"Modern

Painters," Vol.

III,

i856

(The Works,

Vol.

5,

p.

365).

"On

empiricism

in

early

nineteenth-century English

landscape

painting

see

Ronald Rees:

John

Constable

and the Art

of

Geography,

Geogr.

Rev.,

Vol.

66,

1976,

No. 1'

pp.

59-72,

reference

on

p.

6i.

"8J.Ruskin:

Notes on the

Shape

and

Structure

of

Some Parts of

the

Alps,

with

Reference to

Denuda-

tion, Geol.

Mag.,

Vol.

2, 1865,

No.

8, pp. 49-54 and

No.

I

1,

pp.

193-196 (The

Works,

Vol.

26, pp.

2

1-34).

For

a

summary of the

debate over

catastrophic

and

uniformitarian

theories

concerning

mountain

geology see

Robert

E.

Dickinson

and

Osbert J.

R.

Howarth:

The Making of

Geography (Clarendon

Press,

Oxford,

1935),

pp.

163-167.

"'

Modern

Painters,

"

Vol.

IV,

1856,

Appendix 2

(The

Works,

Vol.

6,

pp.

475-481).

18Ibid.

(The

Works,

Vol.

6,

p.

475).

Sauer

had similar

thoughts on

the

geographer

as a

nonspecialist.

See C.

0.

Sauer: The

Education of

a

Geographer,

in

Land and

Life

[see

footnote

2

above],

pp.

389-404,

reference on

pp.

393-396.

19

phenomenological approach to landscape and place in geographv has been widely discussed. See,

for

example,

Edward

Relph:

An

Enquiry

into the

Relations between

Phenomenology

and

Geography,

Canadian

Geogr.,

Vol. 14,

1970,No. 3,

pp.

193-201;

and

D.

C.

Mercer andJ. M.

Powell:

Phenomenology

and

Related

Non-positivistic

Viewpoints

in the Social

Sciences (Dept.

of

Geography,

Monash Univ.,

Mel-

bourne,

Vic.,

Australia,

1972).

20

Preface to

the second

edition of

"Modern

Painters," Vol.

I,

1844(The

Works, Vol. 3,

p.

48).

21

Ruskin's

education as a

sketcher

and painter

naturally

influenced his ideas

of beauty in

landscape.

See P.

Walton:

The

Drawings of John

Ruskin (Oxford

Univ.

Press, London, 1972),

for a

discussion of his

early

artistic

education.

By this time

it is

probably

fair to say

that the

main

features of

Ruskin's

geographical

"imagination" were

already

formed,



46

THE

GEOGRAPHICAL

REVIEW

The overwhelming

power of his

mother,

a fanatical Scottish Protestant

of

Evangelical

faith,

on

Ruskin's

whole life

has frequently

been

stressed.22Robert

Hewison

points

out that

one

of

the

typical characteristics

of Evangelism

at that time

was its

typolog-

ical approach to

biblical exegesis.23

The Bible contained

not only a literal truth

but

also

a hidden meaning

that the faithful

had a duty

to interpret.

"It

was an article

of

faith

that the Bible

was a continuous

account

of God's revelation

of himself

to

mankind."

Hewison

shows how Ruskin

transposed this pattern

of thinking to

his

approach

to

landscape.

Landscapes

contained a

deep symbolic

meaning,

and

close

attention

to their literal

truth

expressed

in form would also

reveal,

to the man

of faith,

a symbolic

truth

about God and

the

goodness

of

his

creation.2"

George

Landow

has

called

this a "theocentric aesthetic,"25

and it underlies

Ruskin's

understanding

of

beauty

in

landscape

and art.

All beauty is

"either the

record of conscience,

written

in

things external,

or it

is a

symbolizing

of Divine

attributes

in matter,

or it

is

the felicity

of living things, or the perfect fulfilment of their duties and functions. In all cases it is

something

Divine, either

the approving

voice of God,

the

glorious

symbol

of

Him,

the

evidence

of

His kind

presence,

or the obedience

to His will

by

Him induced

and

supported.

26

Out of the

stimulation

of romantic

thought

that

was enhanced

by early

travel

through

mountain scenery,

a

scientific self-training

in

accurate

observation

that

was

encouraged

by

his

art

teachers,

and

a

religious

experience that

stressed

the

symbolic

interpretation

of things,

Ruskin's

geographical

imagination

and

his approach

to

landscape

were formed.

His first

publication

may

be read as a work of

cultural

geography, and we may observe how from this early beginning Ruskin developed his

love

of landscape

into a coherent

geographical

theory-a

theory

that

is

remarkably

similar

to one

advocated

by

later

geographers.

RUSKIN'S

CULTURALGEOGRAPHY

Ruskin's

first

publications,

a series

of

articles

written

from

1837

to

1838

for

Loudon's

Architectural

Magazine

while

he was an Oxford undergraduate,

were

later

collected

into a book

titled "The

Poetry

of

Architecture.

27

The

subtitle

is clear

evidence

of a

geographical

content:

"The

Architecture

of

the Nations

of

Europe

considered in Association with Natural Scenery and National Character." Ruskin

had

intended to examine

the

range

of

architectural

forms

in

the

landscapes

of

western

Europe,

from

vernacular

buildings

to the

high

art of

Architecture,

but the

full scheme

of

the

work was

never realized.

In

the

book

he

dealt

only

with

"the

cottage"

and

"the

villa." The

scheme

that Ruskin

had

proposed

was

arguably

worked out

under

other

titles

in

the

whole of

his

work

before

he

turned

explicitly

to

problems

of

political

economy.

Ruskin

himself recognized

this

and stated

in

a

later

reference to

the

chosen

subtitle:

"I

could

not have

put

in

fewer,

or more

inclusive

words,

the

definition

of

what

half my

future

life

was to

be

spent

in

discoursing

of.

"28

Ruskin's

intention was

22James, op. cit.

[see footnote g

above];

and Hewison,

op. cit.

[see

footnote io abovel, p. 24. Ruskin

described his mother and her

influence on him in his autobiography.

23

Hewison,

op. cit.

[see footnote

io

above], pp.

26-27.

24Ibid.,

p. 27.

26

Landow,

op. cit.

[see footnote io

above],

p. 28.

26"Modern Painters,"

Vol.

II, 1846 (The Works,

Vol.

4,

p.

210).

27

The articles were written under the pseudonym of Kata Phusis (According

to Nature)

and were first

published in book form

in

i873.

28"Praeterita," Vol. 1, 1875 (The Works,

Vol.

35,

p.

224).



RUSKIN AND

GEOGRAPHICAL IMAGINATION

47

to trace in

the

distinctive haracters

f

the architecture f

nations,

not

only

its

adapta-

tion

to

the situationand climate

n

which

t

has

arisen,

but its

strong

similarity o,

and

connection

with,

the

prevailing

urn

of

mind

by

which the nationwhofirst

employed

t

is

distinguished.2'

The

essays

in

"The

Poetry

of

Architecture"

deal with

the

landscapes

of

England,

northern

France, Switzerland and northern

Italy-the

countries that Ruskin had

traveled

as a

youth.

The

guiding

theme

is the notion that a

harmony

of

man's

creations with

the natural

landscape

is

achieved

through

a

recognition

of those

forms

and

styles of

building

that are

aesthetically

suited to the

predominant

natural features

and forms of

the environment. Such

a

recognition

can

only

come from

a

free and

humble,

unselfconscious

realization

by

man of his

place

in

God's

ordained

order

of

nature.

Ruskin

divided natural

landscapes

into four

categories

based

on a

combination

of

dominant color tone

and

topography.

The

woody

or

green

country,

dominated

by

woodland

and a pastoral

economy,

was

found under

temperate

climates

and

in

regions

where an

undisturbed

landownership had maintained

large

wooded

areas.

"It

is

to

be seen

in no

other

country,

perhaps,

so

well as

in

England.

In

other

districts,

we

find

extensive masses of black

forest, but not

the

mixture

of

sunny

glade,

and various

foliage, and

dewy

sward,

which

we meet

with in the richer

park

districts

of

Eng-

land."30

What Ruskin

seemed

to

have had

in

mind was

the Wealden district

of Kent

and

Sussex near his

south London

home,

the

Chilterns,

and

perhaps

what

we

would

now

describe

as

bocage.

Distances of vision

were

fairly short so

that

the dominant

color was a fresh green. Such a landscape, Ruskin said, excited emotions of reverence

for its

antiquity

and a

melancholy inspired by "the

decay

of

the

patriarchaltrunks."3"

Any building

in

such

countryside

must reflect

these

aspects and

feelings

inherent

in

the natural

landscape.

The

roof, for

example,

should be set

at an obtuse

angle (for

the

calculation of

which

Ruskin

provided a

simple

geometrical

formula), and

the building

must be

long

and low so

as to

be partially

obscured by

the

trunks of the

trees. The

warm color

of

wood as a

constructional

material best

harmonized

with

the environs.

The

cultivated or

blue

country was

rich

champaign

land, devoted

primarily to

arable

cultivation.

Long

views over

cropland

gave blue

distances with a

rich fore-

ground of variegated colors that change rapidly with the seasons. Such change and a

dense

population

produced a

variety of

forms, and

therefore a

similar

variety was

permissible in

building types, so

long

as tone and

character

were

cheerful. Of the

cottage,

"neatness will

not spoil

it: the angle

of its

roof may be

acute, its

windows

sparkling,

and its roses

red

and abundant;

but it must

not

be

ornamented nor

fantastic,

it

must be

evidently

built

for

the

uses of

common life."32

Much of

England,

particularly

the

Welsh marches

(he

cited the

Malverns), and

northern Italy once

belonged

to

this

category.

The

wild

or grey

country Ruskin

identified as wide,

unenclosed,

treeless

undula-

tions of

land.

Best

characterized

by the Isle

de

France, such a

landscape demanded

29"The

Poetry of

Architecture,"

1873

(The Works,

Vol. [,

p.

5).

Walton

(op. ci.

[see

footnote

21

abovel,

pp.

33-35)

comments on

the

strong

influence

of

Wordsworth's Guide

Throughhe

Districtof theLakes

1835) on

Ruskin's

writing.

3""The

Poetry

of

Architecture," 1873 (The

Works,

Vol.

i, p. 67).

31

Ibid.

(The

Works, Vol.

i,

p. 69).

Ruskin's

debt to

eighteenth-century

aesthetic

theory of

emotional

association is

clear here,

as elsewhere

in

his early

work.

"2Ibid.

(The

Works,

Vol. 1,

p.

71).



48

THE GEOGRAPHICAL

REVIEW

size and

massiveness

in building to

complement the scale

of the

scenery, but a dark

color

was necessary

for the structure

to blend

into the darkness of long,

featureless

distances.

The

hill or brown country,

Ruskin's

final class of landscape,

demanded

a far more

sensitive

approach in building

than

the others because

of the low

density of popu-

lation

and the variety of topographical

character

in mountain

and high hill

districts.

Such

an

observation,

no

doubt,

was more expressive

of Ruskin's own preferences

than

of

any

other criteria,

but he noted

that in mountain scenery

the actual setting

of the

building

assumed

a paramount importance.

The demands

that this

class of landscape

placed

upon the

builder

were

spelled

out through a comparison

of the Swiss cottage

and that of the English

Lake District (Figs.

i and 2).

Ruskin found

the Swiss

cottage, which

he described in

detail differentiating

between the upper summer

residence or "chalet"

and the

lower winter residence

that

he considered the cottage proper, poorly designed to harmonize with its landscape.

The reasons

for his

criticism

were the use of

wood as

a material and the

apparent

weakness

of

the

cottage

in the

context

of

a

powerful

mountain environment.

It looked

as

if

it might

be

swept

away by the

next spring thaw

or rockfall. The criticism

was an

aesthetic one, and Ruskin

acknowledged

in his description

of the construction

of

the

cottage that it perfectly

fitted its function;

it did

not, however, appear

to. By

contrast

he found the Westmoreland cottage

of the English

Pennines (Fig.

2) both

suited

functionally to

its environment and pleasing

aesthetically.

The hill

or

brown

country

had a

prevailing

sense

of

solitude

and loneliness.

This was enhanced,

accord-

ing to Ruskin, by an occasional isolated cottage set against the mountains; but such a

building

should

not be too

conspicuous.

Its

material,

color and tone should

be that

of

the surrounding scenery:

Every hing

about

t shouldbe

natural,

and

shouldappear

as

if

the

influences

ndforces

whichwere

n

operation

round t had beentoo

strong

o be

resisted,

and

had

rendered

all

effortsof art to check their

power,

or

conceal

the evidence

of

their

action,

entirely

unavailing.33

The

Swiss

cottage

failed

in that it did

not bow to

the forces

of

nature;

it was too

conspicuous.

The

Lakeland

cottage,

built of

stone,

succeeded.

Ruskin

summarized

the

geology

of the

hill

areas

of Cumberland and Westmoreland and the topography

that

resulted

from

frost

and fluvial

action.

The

available

stones for

building provided

the

obvious

constructional

material:

These

stones,

thus

shaped

to

his

hand,

are the

most convenient

building

materials

he

peasant

can obtain.

He

lays

his

foundation

and

strengthens

his

angles

with

large

masses, illingup

the intervals

with

pieces

of

a more

moderate

ize;

and

using

here

and

there

a little

cement to bind

the whole

together,

and

to

keep

the

wind from

getting

through

he

interstices;

ut

never

nough

o

fill

them

altogether p,

or to render

he

face

of

the

wall

smooth.

The door s flankedand roofedbythree argeoblongsheetsofgreyrock,whose orm

seems

not to be considered

f

the

slightest

consequence."

Despite

the

apparent

crudeness

of the

Lakeland

cottage,

of

which

Ruskin

provided

a

detailed

description,

it

was

preferable

to the

Swiss

cottage.

The

reasons

for

Ruskin's

preference

lay

in

the

moral character

of

the

two

peoples

(nations

in

Ruskin's

terms)

-I

Ibid.

(The

Works,

Vol. 1,

p.

44).

34

Ibid.

(The

Works,

Vol.

1,

pp.

45-46).



RUSKIN

AND GEOGRAPHICAL

IMAGINATION

49

..............s:-:.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~...

r

~~~~~~~~M

. . t . . .

t~~~~~S~

I.

FIG. I-Cottage near Altorf,

1835;"Every canton

has its own

window.

That of

Uri

with its

diamond

wood-work at the

bottom, is, perhaps,

one of the richest" ("The

Poetry

of

Architecture,

i873,

[The Works,

Vol.

i,

pp.

35 and 34]).

who built them. The English cottage represented a humble and unselfconscious

resolution of man

in his alteration

of nature to use

the materials

and followed

the

forms

inherent in the local

environment-"the

material

which Nature furnishes,

in

any given

country, and the

form which

she suggests, will

always render the

building

the most

beautiful, because the

most appropriate."38

'"

Ibid. (The Works,

Vol.

1,

p. 47). For

a later extension of this argument

see

"Modern

Painters,"

Vol.

IV, 1856 (The Works, Vol. 6, pp.

128-161).



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RUSKIN

ANDGEOGRAPHICAL

MAGINATION

51

The

argument

so

far

may appear

deterministic in an environmental

sense,

but it

is

not

entirely so. The

full

force of

Ruskin's

argument

is

that whether

or not men

will

follow the forms

suggested

by

nature

is

a function of "national

character."

This

curious

concept

seems

frequently

chauvinistic in

the

book;

for

example,

Ruskin

commented

unfavorably

on

the mixed

ethnicity

of

the Swiss and their lack of

a

common language or

religion.36

But

Ruskin

used

the

phrase

as

almost

an

equivalent

to culture

in

the sense

of

a

shared

set of

values and attitudes:

Man,

the peasant, is a

being

of more

marked national

character,

han

man,

the

educatedand refined.For

nationality

s

founded,

n a

greatdegree,

on

prejudices

nd

feelings

nculcatedand aroused

n

youth,

which

grow

nveterate

n the

mind as

long

as

its

views

are confined o the

place

of

its

birth;

its

ideas moulded

by

the

customsof its

country,and its conversationimited

to

a

circle

composed

of

individuals

f

habits and

feelings

ike

its

own.37

National character assumed

something

of the

nature

of

genre

e

vie-an

expression

of

a

group's collective

experience of its

world-and became

intimately associated with

place,

and,

in

a

peasant

culture,

centered

particularly around

religious

beliefs. The

Swiss,

with

their

variety

of

language,

religion,

and

custom

were, according

to

Ruskin,

incapable

of

a

true

national

character, and this was reflected in the

lack

of

harmony

between

vernacular

building and

landscape.

The inference is

clearly

weak and

expresses

a limited

understanding

of

culture, but

the roots of

a concept

of

localized

culture close

to

that of the

later French

School of

geography

are discernible. That

similarity

becomes

clearer

in

later,

more

mature works

in

which

Ruskin

abandoned

the

concept of

national

character and focused on

cultural

groups

in

a narrower sense.

Man,

nature,

and

place are,

however,

the

dominating

themes

of

"The

Poetry

of

Architecture,"

making

it

perhaps Ruskin's most

obviously

geographical

work. It is

unfortunate

that

he

did not extend the

essays,

as

he

had

intended,

to

a

consideration

of

buildings

in

groups

and to

urban

landscape, but the foundations of

a

cultural

geography are

seen in

his

first

work

of

scholarship.

RUSKIN's

THEORY

OF

LANDSCAPE

Ruskin's

theory

of

landscape was largely

formulated and

developed

during the

writing

of

"Modern

Painters."38 The

work, which began as

a defense

of the landscape

paintings

of

J.

M.

W.

Turner, developed

and changed over

the

course of writing the

five

volumes.39

A

coherent

scheme may

be traced from the

five key ideas that

Ruskin

claimed

for

art in

volume one: the ideas of

Power, of

Imitation, of

Truth, of Beauty,

and of

Relation.

For the

purposes

of interpreting

"Modern

Painters" as a

geographi-

cal

theory

of

landscape I

condense this five-fold

schema to a

two-part

approach to

distinguish

between the

observation of

form in landscape

and the

"association" of

forms

symbolically

and to produce

"orders" of landscape.

36

"The Poetry of Architecture," 1873(The Works, Vol. 1,

p.

40).

"Ibid.

(The

Works,

Vol. 1,

pp.

74-75).

See

Walton,

op. cit.

[see footnote 2

1

above], p.

33.

Although ne

does

not

use the

term

"national

character,"

Wilbur

Zelinsky's

discussion

of American

cultural

character-

istics and

their

expression in the

American

landscape is

essentially

woven

aroundthe

concept, "the

cultural

personality

and

behavior of

American

man."

Wilbur

Zelinsky:

The

Cultural

Geography of the United

States

(Prentice

Hall,

Inc.,

Englewood

Cliffs, N.J.,

1973),

p.

5.

38

Ronald

Rees

(op.cit.

[see

footnote

15

above]

p.

59)

describes

"Modern

Painters"

as

offering

"a

course

in

physical

geography for

landscape

painters." It

is far

more

than

merely

physical

geography

but is

concerned

with the

"art of

geography"

and

the

relationship

between

imagination

and

empiricism.

9

Landow, op. cit.

[see

footnote

io above]

p. 23.



52

THE GEOGRAPHICAL

REVIEW

4,;All

.. .....,..

_

S I L S

L 6s

tA.~~~~~~~~~~~~~o

Xv tq

,'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~i,.

9 0 ' 9, F i f ' < P r~~~~~~~~

F I 3

ok at G e f n a i 5 ;

e e i

n i l t y o

t n s a c r i n

o t e r k n a

idealty

o

grnte

n

lte.

n

t is in th utos andmst

exle exiito ofsc nivda

hr

ace,odr n se htalielt of art cnist"( ldr Paner,ol.; II, 4 [TeW rk,Vl

4,P.I73)Poogahcutsy

of'' Asmla Muem

xod



RUSKIN AND

GEOGRAPHICAL IMAGINATION

53

.

..

..

...

.... . ..

i. . . . .

1m. :. .. .. ..

* . .

..

.

U.

.......|R

FIG.

4-Market

Place, Abbeville,

i868;

"I am

nearly

convinced

that,

when

once

we

see

clearly enough,

there is very little

difficulty

in

drawing

what we see"

("The

Elements of

Drawing

and

Perspective," 1894,

[The

Works,

Vol.

15,

p.

131).

(Photograph courtesy

of

Ashmolean

Museum, Oxford)

OBSERVATION

OF FORM IN LANDSCAPE

Ruskin's concern.with accurate

observation has already been mentioned. His own

perceptual ability

and

his

powers

of

description

were

consciously developed through

drawing

and

painting

and

through adopting prose

models from

recognized

authori-

ties

in

the use

of

language. Ruskin's sketches

and

watercolors

show

a

consistent eye

for detail in landscape: rock formations, the branches of trees, the structure of leaves,

and architectural decoration

(Figs.

3

and

4).

In

1894

he

published

a

text

arising

out

of

his

experience

in

teaching

at

the

School of

Drawing

at

Oxford.40In it

he made clear

the value

of

measured and accurate

drawing

of the forms in

landscape.

I

am

nearlyconvincedthat, when

once we see keenly

enough,

there is

very

little

difficulty

n

drawing

whatwe

see;

but,

even

supposing

hat this

difficulty

e still

great,

I

believe hat the

sight

is

a more

mportant

hing

than the

drawing;

and I would rather

teach

drawing

hat

my pupils may

learn

to

love

Nature,

than

teach the

looking

at

Naturethat

they may

learn to

draw."

Landscape

is best

understood by a drawing

of its constituent

forms without

theoretical

presupposition.

Ruskin directed

much

of his

criticism

of

landscape paint-

ers at their inaccurate

representation

of forms.

Detailed

separation

of

the forms

of

topography-geology,

rock

structure, vegetation, clouds,

and skies-and

of

human

40

"The Elements

of

Drawing

and

Perspective,"

1894 (The Works, Vol. 15).

4I

Ibid.

(The Works,

Vol.

15,

p.

13).



54

THE

GEOGRAPHICAL

REVIEW

artifacts, and their analysis

through drawing

lead us to see the

landscape because

each

element has its

unique form, which

reflects "that form

to which every

individual

of

the species has a

tendency to

arrive," but which none

fully attains."2

This is the

meaning of a rather

confusing discussion

contained in the

Preface to the

second

edition of "Modern

Painters,"" in which Ruskin

attacked the

theory that the

landscape painter

should paint "ideal"

landscapes by generalizing the

visual scene.

In

this sense, idealism

suggests the

presupposition of

forms and arrangements

in

nature

deriving from ideas in

the human

mind, initially divorced

from the facts of

landscape

and

subsequently imposed

on

them.

Claude

Lorraine was singled out as

particularly culpable

in this

regard.

Such an approach

Ruskin

labeled "patently

absurd," an excuse for

indolence. The ideal form

might

only be found by careful

observation of

unique examples

in

nature.

Therefore the task of the painter, in his pursuit of ideal form, is to attain accurate

knowledge, so far as may be in

his power, of the peculiar

virtues, duties, and

characters

of

every species

of

being,

down

even to

the

stone,

for

there

is

an

ideality

of

stones

according

to

their

kind,

an

ideality

of

granite and slate and

marble,

and it is in

the

utmost and most

exalted

exhibition of such

individualcharacter, order, and

use,

that all

ideality

of

art

consists. The more

cautious he is

in assigning the right species

of moss to

its favourite trunk,

and the right kind of weed

to its

necessary stone; in marking the

definite and

characteristic leaf,

blossom, seed, fracture,

colour, and inward

anatomy of

everything,

the more

truly

ideal

his

work

becomes."

It is

through

concentration of

observation

on

the

unique

that we come

to

see essential

character. Ruskin left us exquisite studies of form in landscape and a record of his

own

experience

in its

perception through concentration.

During

one

of

his

trips

to

Italy

he

sat down

by

a roadside to

sketch an

aspen

tree:

Languidly,

but

not

idly,

I

began

to draw

it;

and as I

drew, the languor passed

away: the

beautiful lines insisted on

being

traced,-without weariness. More

and

more beautiful

they

became,

as each rose out of

the rest,

and

took its

place

in

the air. With wonder

increasing every instant,

I saw

that

they "composed"

themselves, by

finer laws than

any

known

of men. At

last, the tree was

there,

and

everything

that I had

thought

before

about

trees, nowhere.

But that all the trees of the wood ... should be beautiful-more than Gothic tracery,

more than Greek

vase-imagery,

more

than

the

daintiest embroiderers

of the East could

embroider,

or the artfullest

painters

of

the West could

limn,-this

was indeed

an

end

to

all

former

thoughts

with

me, an

insight

into a new

silvan

world.45

For

Ruskin,

the

discovery

of

truth

in

landscape

was

comparable

with that

experience

and

knowledge

that

other writers

have referred to

as

"essence"

or

"inscape.""

The medium

for

expression

and

study

of

form

in

landscape

used

by

Ruskin

was

literary

as well as

pictorial.

His

prose

can be

tortuous,

but

it can also

reach

dizzy

heights

of

descriptive power.

It was

always

conscipusly

constructed.

At different times

42

Preface to the second edition of "Modern Painters," Vol. I, 1844 (The Works, Vol. 3, p.

27).

49 bid.

(The Works,

Vol. 3, pp.

6-52).

""Modern

Painters," Vol. II, 1846(The Works, Vol. 4, pp.

1

73- 174). In a later footnote

to

this

passage

Ruskin claimed that

"I never

really meant 'all' ideality

of art consisted

in specific

distinctions," but that

the

passage was intended

as a criticism of

the kind of

pictorial idealism seen

in Claude

and

his

school.

"

"Praeterita,"

Vol. II, 1885 (The

Works, Vol. 35, pp.

314-315).

46

Relph,

Place and Placelessness

[see

footnote 2above],

pp.

42-43.

Clark

(op.

cit.

[see

footnote

8 above],

p.

351)

has drawn

attention

to

the parallel betweeri

Ruskin's approach to

seeing

"truth"

in

landscape

and

Gerard

Manley Hopkins' concept

of 'inscape."



RUSKIN

AND GEOGRAPHICAL

IMAGINATION

55

Ruskin

modeled

his

prose

on such

stylists

as Carlyle

and Hooker, and

his mastery

of

the English

language made

it a

vehicle for accurate expression

of Ruskin's

perception

U

.

.......,:,..:; ..

.

:.

W.~~

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~

S~~~~~ lW - w..-

?:e

FIG. 5-Debris Curvature;"The hand of God, leading the wrath of the torrent to minister to the life of

mankind, guides

also its grim

surges by the laws

of their delight;

and

bridles the bounding

rocks,

and

appeases

the

flying

foam, till they lie

down in the same

lines that

lead forth the

fibres

of the down on a

cygnet's

breast" ("Modern

Painters,

"

Vol. IV,

1856,[The Works,

Vol. 6,

opposite p.

345,

and

pp. 345-46]).

of truth

in

landscape

form-as

where

he discussed the inadequacy

of Claude's

mountain

landscapes:

No mountain

was ever

raised to the level

of

perpetual

snow, without

an

infinite

multiplicity

of

form. Its foundation

is built

of

a hundred

minor

mountains,

and, from

these,

great

buttressesrun

in

converging

ridges

to the central peak.

There is

no

exceptiono thisrule;no mountain

15,000

feethighis everraisedwithout uchprepara-

tion and variety

of

outwork.

Consequently,

in

distant effect,

when chains of such peaks

are visible

at

once,

the

multiplicity

of form

is

absolutely

oceanic.47

ASSOCIATION

OF FORM

IN

LANDSCAPE

Association that

follows from accurate

observation and

description

of

the constitu-

ent

forms of

landscape

was the second

part

of

Ruskin's geographical

theory.

Associa-

tion

was used

in two

senses,

the

association

of

ideal

forms observable

in distinct

elements

and

revelatory

of

God's goodness,

and a more general

association of

individual elements that

produced

the

unique

landscape-a

geographical

morphol-

ogy.

Ruskin

was fascinated

by

the apparent

occurrence

of certain

lines and

shapes

elemental

to one

part

of the natural

world

in

a

quite

different part.

For example,

in an

illustration

from volume four

of "Modern Painters"Ruskin

demonstrated

the similar-

ity

of

form

between

the wing of a bird

and

the curvature

of a scree slope

(Fig.

5).

He

47"Modern

Painters,"

Vol. 1, 1844

(TheWorks,Vol.

3, p. 438).



'4-

* ~

'

r

q

-.

*C

.. ....

A.'~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

FIG. 6-The

Vine,

Free and in

Service;

"From the vine-leaves

of that

archivolt,

though

there is no direct imitation

of

nature

in

them,

... we may

yet

receive the

same

kind of

pleasure

which we have

in

seeing

true vine-leaves

and

wreathed

branches

traced

upon golden light;

. . .

I believe

the man who

designed

and the man

who

delighted

in

that archivolt

to have been

wise,

happy,

and

holy"

("The

Stones

of

Venice,"

Vol.

II,

1853,

[The

Works,

Vol.

io,

opposite

p.

ii5,

and

p.

117])



RUSKIN AND

GEOGRAPHICAL IMAGINATION 57

demonstrated

the

truth

of these

forms

through

their

homology

and

by associating

them with

what

they

revealed

of the

mastery

of God's handiwork

in

selecting

a

perfection

of form for function.

Examples

of

such association

were common and

related to the point stressed already by Ruskin in

"The Poetry

of

Architecture,"

that

man too must follow these forms in his work of

transforming,

and

building in, the

landscape. The superiority claimed by Ruskin

for

medieval art over Classical

and

Renaissance art resulted precisely from this

argument.

Gothic

art and

architecture

followed those pure lines and forms because the free builder

of

the

Age

of

Faith

humbly recognized his duty

to follow nature and God

(Fig. 6).

Classical

and Renais-

sance art was

arrogant

in

its

geometry,

placing

faith

in

man and his mind rather

than

nature and

the

revelation

of

God.

It was

an

architecture of

slavery.

Association

had a second

and more

geographical

sense. Individual

elements of the

landscape,

first

separated out

for

observation and

description,

were

then synthesized

to derive orders of landscape-"we separate to obtain a more perfect unity."'8 The

unity

of each order

of

landscape

came from an

understanding

of the

relationship

between

geology, climate,

and

physical process:

The

level

marshes

and

rich meadows

of

the

tertiary,

the rounded

swells

and

short

pasturesof the chalk, the square-built liffs and clovendells

of

the

lower

imestone,

he

soaringpeaks

and

ridgy precipices

of the

primaries,

have

nothing

n

common

among

them,nothingwhich s not distinctive

nd

incommunicable. heir

veryatmospheres

re

different,

heir clouds

are

different,

heirhumoursof

storman-d unshineare

different,

their flowers,animals,and forestsare different.

By

each order of

landscape,

and its

orders, repeat,are infinite n number, orrespondingotonlyto the several peciesof

rock,

but to

the particular ircumstances

f

the rock'sdeposition

r after

reatment,

nd

to the incalculable

arieties

f

climate,aspect,

and human

nterference; y

each

orderof

landscape,

say, peculiar essonsare intended

o be

taught.'9

These lessons were the lessons of truth and divine

revelation,

the

harmony

of

God,

which man must follow.

To

summarize Ruskin's theory,

landscape

is

first to

be

accurately

observed and

described

in

terms

of

its constituent forms. Each element of its

morphology has

a

characteristic form that is a reflection

of

a

perfect

or ideal form in

which is revealed

the goodness and mastery of God, and which is frequently observable in other

elements of the

natural

world.

These

distinct

forms are then combined in

particular

situations of

climate, aspect,

and human

agency

to

generate

orders of

landscape.

HUMAN AGENCY

IN

LANDSCAPE

So far

I

have concentrated

largely

on the

physical landscape,

with

only occasional

reference

to

man

and to human agericy. Ruskin's attitude to man's place in nature

has

already been mentioned in discussing

"The Poetry of Architecture." The subject

was

a

difficult

one for him.

Yet he

struggled with it and finally emerged with a

concern for society rather than nature-a concern that occupied the second part of his

life. In

his discussion of

landscape the place of man was ambiguous. At times Ruskin

appeared

to

reject human agency

in

the

landscape as always destructive, insisting on

"can

arnest,

faithful

and

loving study

of

nature as she

is, rejecting with abhorrence all

that man

has done to alter and modify her."

Yet the concern devoted to architecture

48

Preface to

the

second edition

of "Modern

Painters", Vol. I,

1844 (The

Works,

Vol.

3,

p.

37).

49

Ibid. (The

Works, Vol.

3,

p.

39).



58 THE GEOGRAPHICAL

REVIEW

and the worksof man in adorning the natural world outweighs, in its frequency and in

its

urgency,

this statement. In

the "Seven Lamps of Architecture" Ruskin was explicit

in

valuing human occupance for adding to the beauty and harmony of landscape.

When he

considered

a view

over the

Ain

Valley in the Jura, he attempted "in order

more strictly to arrive at the sources of its impressions" to imagine it as a scene in the

North American

wilderness:

The

flowers in an

instant lost their light, the river its music; the hills became oppres-

sively

desolate ....

Those

ever

springing flowers and ever flowing streams had been

dyed by

the

deep colours of human endurance, valour, and virtue; and the crests of the

sable hills that

rose against the evening sky received a deeper worship, because their far

shadows

fell

eastward over the iron walls of Joux, and the four-square keep of Gran-

son.50

Human endurance, the recognition of man's place in the order of nature as an

aspect

of

his

place

in a

beneficent

creation, was Ruskin's resolution to the problem of

human

artifacts

in

the natural landscape. Harmony between cultural and natural

forms

in the

landscape

would be

achieved only by

free men

who were aware of their

humanity

and of

God's immanence

and

who were allowed

by

their social

and political

system

to

express

that

truth

and love in

their art. Man's

work

harmonized with

nature's

if he

acted

with

authenticity.51

Ruskin expressed

this idea

in

what is

perhaps

his finest

piece

of

large-scale

geographical description.

The charts of the world which have been drawn up by modernscience have thrown into

a narrow

space the expression of a vast amount of knowledge, but I have neveryet seen

any

one

pictorial enough to enable the spectator to imagine the kind of contrast

in

physical

character which exists between

Northern and Southern countries.

We know

the differences

in

detail,

but we

have

not

that

broad

glance

and

grasp

which would

enable

us to

feel

them

in

their fulness.

We

know that

gentians grow

on the

Alps,

and

olives

on

the

Appenines;

but

we do

not

enough

conceive for ourselves that

variegated

mosaic

of

the world's

surface which a bird

sees

in

its

migration,

that difference between

the

district

of the

gentian

and

of the

olive which

the

stork and

the

swallow see

far

off,

as

they

lean

upon

the sirocco

wind.

Let

us,

for a

moment, try

to

raise ourselves

even

above

the level of their

flight,

and

imagine

the Mediterranean

lying

beneath

us like an

irregular lake,

and all

its

ancient

promontories sleeping

in the

sun:

here and there an

angry spot

of

thunder,

a

grey

stain

of

storm, moving upon

the

burning field;

and here

and there

a

fixed

wreath of white volcano

smoke,

surrounded

by

its circle

of

ashes;

but

for the most

part

a

great peacefulness

of

light, Syria

and

Greece, Italy

and

Spain,

laid

like

pieces

of

a

golden pavement

into the

sea-blue, chased,

as

we

stoop

nearer to

them,

with bossy

beaten work

of

mountain

chains,

and

glowing softly

with terraced

gardens,

and flowers

heavy

with

frankincense,

mixed

among

masses

of

laurel,

and

orange,

and

plumy palm,

that abate with their

grey-green

shadows

the

burning

of the

marble

rocks,

and of

the ledges

of

porphyry sloping

under

lucent

sand.

Then

let us

pass

further

towards the

north,

until we see the orient colours

change gradually

into a

vast

belt

of

rainy green, where the pastures of Switzerland, and poplar valleys of France, and dark

"0"The

Seven Lamps

of Architecture,"

1849

(The Works,

Vol. 8, pp. 223-224). In volume three of

"Modern Painters" Ruskin

displays an almost Shakespearean humanism: "Therefore

it is that all the

power of nature depends

on subjection to the human soul. Man is the sun

of the

world;

more than the real

sun. The fire of his wonderful

heart

is

the only light and

heat worth gauge

or

measure.

Where he

is,

are the

tropics; where he is not,

the ice-world." (The Works,

Vol. 5, p. 262).

51

Relph (Place and Placelessness

[see

footnote

2

above], pp. 78-82) discusses

the idea of

authenticity

with respect to place.



RUSKIN AND GEOGRAPHICAL

IMAGINATION

59

forests of the Danube

and

Carpathians

stretch

from

the mouths

of

the Loire to those

of

the

Volga,

seen

through

clefts

in

grey

swirls of rain

cloud and

flaky

veils

of

the mist of

the brooks,

spreading low

along

the

pasture lands: and

then,

farther north

still,

to see

the earth heave into

mighty masses

of

leaden rock and

heathy moor,

bordering

with a

broad waste of gloomy purple that belt of field and wood, and splintering into irregular

and grisly

islands amidst the

northern seas, beaten

by

storm,

and chilled

by

ice

drift,

and

tormented by furious

pulses

of

contending

tide,

until the

roots

of the

last forests fail

from among the

hill ravines, and the

hunger

of the

north

wind

bites their

peaks

into

barrenness;

and,

at

last,

the wall

of

ice,

durable like

iron,

sets, deathlike,

its white

teeth

against

us out of the

polar twilight.

And, having

once traversed

in

thought

this

gradation of the zoned

iris of

the

earth

in

all its material

vastness, let us go

down nearer

to

it,

and watch the

parallel change

in the

belt of animal

life;

the

multitudes

of

swift and

brilliant

creatures that

glance

in

the air and

sea,

or tread the

sands

of the

southern

zone;

striped

zebras and

spotted

leopards,

glistening serpents,

and

birds

arrayed

in

purple

and scarlet. Let us contrast their delicacy and brilliancy of colour, and swiftness of

motion, with

the

frost-cramped

strength,

and

shaggy

covering,

and

dusky plumage

of

the

northern

tribes; contrast the Arabian horse with the

Shetland,

the

tiger

and

leopard

with

the wolf and bear, the

antelope

with

the

elk,

the bird

of

paradise

with the

osprey;

and

then,

submissively

acknowledging

the

great laws by

which the earth and all that it

bears are ruled

throughout their

being,

let us not

condemn, but rejoice

in

the

expression

by

man of

his

own

rest

in

the

statutes

of the

lands that

gave

him birth.

Let us watch him

with reverence as he sets

side by side the burning

gems, and

smooths

with soft

sculpture

the

jasper

pillars,

that are to reflect

a

ceaseless

sunshine,

and

rise

into a

cloudless

sky:

but not with

less reverence let us stand

by him,

when,

with

rough strength

and

hurried

stroke, he smites an uncouth animation out of the rocks which he has torn fromamong

the

moss

of the

moorland,

and

heaves

into

the darkened air the

pile of iron buttress

and

rugged wall, instinct with

work of an

imagination as wild and

wayward as the

northern

sea; creatures

of

ungainly shape

and

rigid limb,

but

full

of

wolfish life;

fierce

as the

winds that beat, and

changeful as

the clouds that shade

them.2

JOHN

RUSKIN

AND

LATER

GEOGRAPHICAL

THOUGHT

I

am

unaware

of

any specific reference

by

Ruskin

to

geography or

geographers. He

was

primarily interested

in

landscape as a subject

for art

and

as

a

medium for moral

uplift and education. A brief comparison, however, of his concepts and methods with

those of

Carl Sauer and

modern

phenomenological

geographers

reveals a closeness in

spirit

and word.

Ruskin

advocated

the rejection of

an eclectic approach

among

artists

who

attempted

to

compose ideal

landscapes

by imposing

ideas on the facts,

and he

advised

the artist

to see the forms

of

landscape as revealed in

nature. Carl

Sauer

claimed

that

geography

springs

from a

naYive

awareness of

actual scenes, and

that

landscape is

the unit concept of

geography

because of a common

curiosity about the

real

variations

of the earth's surface.53

For

both writers the

unique is the

fountainhead of landscape

study, yet

neither

wished to

remain at the

level of pure

description. Ruskin

studied the unique in

order

to

see the ideal of

which it

is a

reflection,

but

without a

priori notions as to the

nature

of the

ideal-"that

generalization then is right,

true, and noble, which

is based

on the

2

"The

Stones

of

Venice," Vol.

II,

1853(The

Works, Vol.

io, pp.

185-188).

53

Sauer, The

Morphology

of

Landscape

[see

footnote

2

above],

p.

316.

Donald Davie

(Landscape

as

Poetic

Focus, Southern

ev.,

New

Series, Vol.

4,

1

968, No. 3,

pp.

685-69

1,

reference on

p.

688)

commends

Carl

Sauer's

essays as

"exceptionally

instructive

for

poets and

students

of

twentieth-century

poetry"

because

they

demonstrate how

geography

may serve

as a

poetic

focus and as

a

check upon

the

poet's

manipulation

of

the

historical

record.



6o THE GEOGRAPHICAL

REVIEW

knowledge of the distinctions and observance of the

relations of individual kinds."54

Sauer too rejected

a

priori theory for landscape and claimed that his morphological

method was "a purely evidential system, without prepossession regarding the mean-

ing of its evidence, and presupposes a minimum of

assumption; namely, only the

reality of structural organization,"5 so that "the geographic landscape is a general-

ization derived from the observation of individual scenes."56

The morphologic method

of separating component parts of the structure of

landscape, of examining them

individually, and

of

synthesizing them to produce generic orders of landscape seemed

to be what both writers proposed. It would not be amiss to

refer to Ruskin's theory of

landscape

as

chorology.57

This

method

demands close attention to the facts of

landscape, to its observation

by slow and careful perambulation through it, and to its accurate description. In

discussing the training of a geographer, Sauer echoed a point often repeated by

Ruskin: "There is, I am confident, such a thing as the 'morphologic eye,' a spontane-

ous

and critical

attention

to form

and

pattern....

We work

at the recognition and

understanding

of

elements

of form

and of their

relation

in

function."58

It was

to

the

training

and

development

of

the

morphologic eye that Ruskin devoted much of

his

attention

in

"Modern Painters."

For both Ruskin and Sauer the key elements of the landscape's morphology were

the same. According to Sauer, the

forms of

natural landscape

produced by "geognos-

tic, climatic,

and

vegetational

factors"

operated

to form

"a

unit of

organic

or

quasi-

organic quality....

The

harmony

of

climate and

landscape, insufficiently developed

by the schools of physiography,has become the keystone of geographic morphology in

the physical

sense."59Such

a

unit

corresponds

to

Ruskin's

order of

landscape,

which

was a function primarilyof the same factors. Concept and method

were

thus

the

same

for

an

understanding

of

the natural

landscape.

Man's

place

and

works

in

the

landscape

were also

significant

for both

writers,

and

neither

accepted

environmental determinism.

Man's

work blended into the natural

scene, according

to

Ruskin,

only

when

he

submitted

voluntarily

to the

great

laws

of

nature because

they

revealed the

divine

purpose.

That

man is

free not to do

so was

constantly implicit

in

Ruskin's

criticism

of

discordance between

man's

artifacts

and

5' Preface to the Second Edition of

"Modern Painters,"

Vol. 1, 1844(Vol.

3,

p. 38).

5 Satuer,

[rhe

lorphology

of Landscape

[see

footnote

2

above], p.

327.

'Ibid.,

p.

322.

"

The

Oxford

English l)ictionary (O.E.D.)

defines chorology as "the

scientific study of

the geographical

extent or

limits of anything," suggesting

the notion

of

spatial science. Richard Hartshorne

(The Nature of

Geography:

A

Critical

Survey of Current Thought

in the Light of

the Past [Association of

American

Geographers,

Lancaster,

Pa., ig61i,

pp.

78 and 56)

followed this

meaning when

he

contrasted

'relation-

shjps

... based on areal position," or chorology,

to "historical

sequence,"

or

chronology.

However

he

earlier

referred to

Carl

Ritter's notion of the "formation

of the multiplicity

of

features

into the essential

character

of

an

area"

as

chorology. This meaning is closer

to that given

by the O.E.D. for "chorography":

"The

art of

practice

of describing, or delineating on a

map

or

chart, particular

regions

or

districts.

"

This is

the sense

in which

chorology

has generally been applied

in landscape

geography and in which it

is used

here.

?8 Sauer,

The

Education

of a

Geographer

[see

footnote i8 abovel,

pp.

392-393.

Rees (op.

cit.

[see

footnote

15

above],

pp.

62

and 70) mentions

the

parallel

between Constable and

Sauer,

claiming that

Constable

too

possessed the "morphologic

eye." George

Perkins Marsh, Sir Francis

Younghusband, and Sidney

William

Wooldridge

stressed the

importance of seeing to the heart

of landscape. George Perkins

Marsh:

Man and

Nature (edited by 1)avid

L,owenthal;

Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge,

Mass., 1965),

p. io; Sir

Francis

Younghusband: NatuLral

Beauty

and Geographical Science, Geogr.

ourn.,

Vol.

56,

1920,

pp. '-13,

reference

on

p. 8;

and Sidney

William Wooldridge: Address

at

the

Annual

Meeting

of the Field Studies

Council

(Field StuLdies

Council;

Retrospect

and Prospect, nd., 4 pp.),

p.

3.

5 Sauer, The iMorphology

of

Landscape [see

footnote

2

above],

pp.

337,

326, and

336.



RUSKIN AND GEOGRAPHICAL IMAGINATION

6i

landscape. Harmony was

achieved

by free, humble, and authentic

experience and

being

in

the world.60

For

Carl Sauer

the

cultural

landscape

arose from the

operations

of culture

in

the natural

landscape:

"The

culttiral landscape

is

fashioned

from

a

natural landscape by

a

culture group. Culture

is the

agent,

the

natural area is the

medium,

the

cultural

landscape

the result.""' Sauer

was

not concerned with

the

morality

of

human agency,

but the

agency

of

man in

landscape

transformation was a

major

theme

in

Sauer

as well as

in

Ruskin. The moral

question

raised

by Ruskin,

however,

is one

that has

recently

been

taken

up by geographical

writers.

If

Ruskin and Sauer came to a strikingly similar position

concerning concept

and

method

in

landscape study, we might argue that either Sauer was reducing geography

to little more than literary landscape art, or that Ruskin was reducing landscape

art

to topographical draftsmanship.

Both

approaches have indeed been

so

attacked

by

other writers

in their

respective disciplines,62but

such a

claim,

I

believe,

is

inaccurate.

Sauer's geography is scientific; it aims to describe and explain human agency in

producing the unity and harmony of which we are all naTvely

ware.

It

recognises

the

limits

of

science, however, and claims that

an

aspect of the essence

of

landscape lies

beyond

the

grasp

of

scientific

method.63

Geographers contemporary

with

Sauer,

notably Vaughan Cornish

in

England and Ewald Banse in

Germany, attempted

to

develop

a

geography

aimed

directly

at

this dimension

of

landscape.64

Ruskin's

aim

was moral and

artistic, yet

he

recognized

that

such

an

approach

would

veer

into a

dangerous

idealism

without

the

rigor of scientific observation.

The moral imperativethat Ruskin saw in landscape was

expressed

in

the

Evangel-

ical terms of a particular form of Christianity. But this imperative has a more

universal

significance

that

geographers

have

increasingly

touched

upon

in

the

past

few years.

Yi-Fu Tuan

has stressed the value

of

"topophilia,

"

that

sense

of

unity

with

the

beauty

and

transcendental power of landscape."6Relph has taken the

argument

further:

place

is a

profound

human

experience

that

can

only

be

fully

realized

by

a

wholehearted commitment to and

caring

for

our

world. To

be

in

place,

at one with

the

landscape,

is basic to

our ordering of experience

in

the world. Human

agency

in

building landscapes

out of

nature creates

"a

place

made

visible, tangible,

and

sensible."

In

order

to

create and maintain

harmonious

and

significant

places

and

landscapes

man

must act

with

"authenticity," that is, "a

complete awareness and

acceptance

of

responsibility

for

your

own

existence."66

60?"The Stones of

Venice,"

Vol.

II, 1853 (The

Works,

Vol.

io, pp.

190

ff).

61

Sauer,

The

Morphology

of

Landscape [see

footnote

2

above],

p.

343.

62

Richard

Hartshorne's discussion

of

"landscape"

as a

concept

in

geography, focusing

to some extent

on

Sauer,

makes this

criticism.

Hartshorne,

op.

cit.

[see

footnote

57 above], pp. 149-174.

Walton

(op.

cit.,

[see

footnote

21

above])

refuted

the

suggestion

that Ruskin was

merely

a

draftsman.

e "A good deal of the

meaning

of area lies

beyond

scientific

regimentation.

The best

geography

has

never disregarded

the esthetic qualities

of

landscape,

to

which

we know

no

approach

other than

the

subjective....

Having

observed

widely

and

charted

diligently,

there

yet

remains a

quality

of

understanding

at

a

higher plane that may not be reduced

to

formal

process." Sauer,

The

Morphology

of

Landscape [see

footnote

2

above], pp. 344-345-

64

Vaughan Cornish: Harmonies of Scenery: An Outline of Aesthetic Geography, Geography, ol. 14,

1928, pp.

275-283 and 382-394. See

also Andrew Goudie: Vaughan Cornish:

Geographer (with a

bibliogra-

phy of his

published works), Trans. Inst. Br. Geogr.,

No.

55.

1972,

pp.

I-i6. Ewald Banse's aesthetic

geography,

developed in the

1920'S,

is discussed in Eric

Fischer, Robert D.

Campbell, and Eldon S. Miller:

A

Question of

Place: The Development of Geographical

Thought (Dept. of

Geography, The George Wash-

ington Univ.,

Washington, D.C.,

1969),

pp.

167-174.

66

Yi-Fu Tuan:

Topophilia, or Sudden Encounter with

the Landscape,

Landscape,

ol.

1l,

1961,pp.

29-

32;

and

Tuan,

Topophilia [see

footnote

i

above].

66

Relph,

Place and Placelessness [see footnote

2

above], pp.

23 and

78. On p. 63 Relph quoted

Ruskin

in

support

of his

argument

on

authenticity.



62

THE

GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

Relph sees two of

the purposes of a

phenomenologicalgeography as being

to reveal

the nature

of the

place experience

and to

wage

a conscious

battle against

in-

authenticity

of

place

and the "forces of

placelessness,"

that

result fromn n

inauthentic

mode

of human experience.

"What is required is an

approach and

attendant set of

concepts that respond to

the unity

of

'place, person, and

act'

and

stress the links

rather

than the division between

specific

and

general features

of

places."67

Such

an

approach

and

set

of

concepts

are

found

in

Ruskin's

landscape

geography.

His

concern was precisely with man's truth

to himself and to

God's revelation

in

nature. His approach

was

phenomenological, but it

was

adopted before that word

was coined and

the

philosophical position laid out

by German

thinkers. His imagina-

tion was

geographical,

but

his

concern

was for

man

and the

nature

of

man's

true

existence.

In

many ways Ruskin went

beyond

the

position

of

modern

geographical

phenomenologists.

During

the second

part

of

his career when he turned from

land-

scape, architecture, and art to the study of political economy, he attempted to develop

a

clearer

understanding

of

the

relationship, implied in "The

Poetry

of

Architecture,"

between social

structure

and the

limits that

it

imposed

on men's

freedom to find

and

express

truth.

Authenticity depends

on

both

individual committment and

the nature

of

the social order. This is

perhaps

Ruskin's most

important

message,

and we

geographers

would

do

well

to examine the later work of

John Ruskin,

as well as

his

landscape study,

if

we are to

relate

the

truth of what

phenomenology has

shown

us of

our

need for

significant places with what radical

geographers

have, through

examina-

tion

of

the

spatial

implications

of

the

prevailing

social

relations of

production,

demonstrated about our ability to create such places.

67

Ihid.,

p -

44.

1979 1 cosgrove, d. john ruskin and the geographical imagination

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