WHAT IS AN " ARTIST ?"
(To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") S1R,—A short letter in your last number, headed "A Verinont Ruskin," and signed "J. T. C.," suggests the question put over these lines. "Mi. Ruskin is notoriously not an artist, but an .art critic." Well, if this be so, there must be some definition of an " artist " in your correspondent's mind quite different from any to which many of your readers are .accustomed. Can we persuade him to unfold it P That Mr. Ruskin is an "art critic," I, of course, entirely agree ; and. judging from the numerous works—to my mind, of very lovely art—from his hand. which have been, or are yet, accessible to the public —either in his " Seven Lamps of Architecture," in "Modern Painters," and other works, in the gallery of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours (of which he is an honorary member), or in the gallery of the Fine-Art Society, some few years ago— I should have thought there could be no question possible as to his well-founded claim to be considered au " artist " of no ordi- nary power and skill. At any rate, I maintain that he is a "conscientious painter," which your correspondent expressly says Mr. W. M. Hunt was not.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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