Two Flocks, Two Folds — Black, White

Abstract

‘All men, completely organized and justly tempered, enjoy colour,’ writes Ruskin: ‘it is meant for the perpetual comfort and delight of the human heart: it is richly bestowed on the highest works of creation, and is the eminent sign and seal of perfection in them, being associated with life in the human body, with light in the sky, and with purity and hardness in the earth, — death, night, and pollution of all kinds being colourless.’¹ Beautiful colour is the mark of perfection in nature: love of colour is the badge of health in man. The celebration of colour seems simple and complete. But it is not so. All through his life Ruskin’s love of colour vied with other impulses which persuaded him that colour was not at all the most important of material qualities, and love of colour not the best sign of an upright character.