260: Ruskin at 205: “The Powers that cannot Die”

Ruskin was born on this date, February 8, in London in 1819. Had he lived (he didn’t), he would have been into his third century. However, even though he is long gone physically, he is not spiritually, a quality to which this blog has hopefully attested over the last few years. And so, happy birthday, Mr. Ruskin!

Dexter Benedict is my friend. He is also a very fine sculptor! In recent years, he has developed an international reputation, having recently completed, among other notable accomplishments, a bronze, life-size, depiction of the 33rd President of the United States, Harry S. Truman, an image which now welcomes visitors to the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, as well as a bronze portrait bust of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas. Although I never met Dr. King, I am old enough to remember President Truman, and I thought that Dexter had created, in his piece, an image vibrating the very essence of the man. If you would like to look at a wide sampling of Dexter’s work, visit his website, dexterbenedict.art.

Periodically, Dexter and I lunch. And so, it happened–on one of these delightful culinary excursions– that the thought occurred to me that I should ask my friend if he might create a bronze portrait bust of the subject of these posts. Happily, he thought it a great idea, and accepted the invitation. For the past few months, sandwiched between his other commissions (and other lunches), he has been at work creating just such an image. Given Mr. Ruskin’s physical unavailability, he has had to rely (as he has had to do with many other commissions) on the photographic record to get a sense of what our Great Victorian looked like. Below is a photo of the “working board” in his studio on which are mounted the images he used to get a sense of our man. In the top row, center, is my long-time favorite, Hubert von Herkomer’s watercolor portrait of 1878 which now is preserved at the National Portrait Gallery in London. I also provided Dexter with a number of Ruskin’s writings (about whom he knew little before) — so he might develop a sense of the spirit of the man and some sense of why I admire him so much. All this was discussed during subsequent lunches.

As it happens, the first step in fashioning a bronze sculpture (a process about which I knew nothing!) is to create a clay model of the figure. Because the model is in malleable clay, it can be adjusted more or less indefinitely; and so, as Mr. Ruskin started to re-emerge from the universal ether, I made a number of trips to Dexter’s studio to discuss his evolving concept (hair, eyes, mutton chops, the famous cravat, etc.). Below is the finished product, followed by images of, first, Dexter, myself, and Mr. Ruskin, and then, of Dexter and his creation.

The next step in the process is to create a wax mold into which molten bronze will be poured when it comes time to complete the project. This is called a “lost wax process,” and, below, is a picture of Mr. Ruskin’s clay image undergoing this penultimate step. In a future post, I will detail the creation of the finished bronze–with more pictures! In the meantime, I am content to register here my delight at being involved in all this creativity[ and register as well my sense of honor at having an artist of Dexter Benedict’s talent and cap9ber at the helm of it. If anyone deserves to be remembered for his contributions to the well-being of this world, even two centuries after his birth, it is John Ruskin.

I end with one of my favorite Ruskin quotes. I have cited it before in this series but, like all of the wonderful and reverential things he shared with us, it bears reading again and ruminating over. I love it because, like Dexter’s portrait, it depicts so much of the soul of this great man, and records again his abiding faith in the Goodness of this Universe and its greatest creation, humanity.

This is the thing which I KNOW–and which, if you labor faithfully, you shall also KNOW: that in Reverence is the chief Joy and Power of life; Reverence for what is pure and bright in your own youth, for what is true and tried in the age of others; for all that is gracious among the living, great among the dead, and marvelous in the powers that cannot die.

And so, good friends, please do continue well out there, as we, once again, wish our subject the happiest of 205th birthdays! (My grateful thanks to Joseph Clary and Jennifer Morris for technical assistance with this post!)

Until next time!

🙂

Jim