TREES IN MODERN PAINTING 237 



of completeness and detail as could be given 

 without loss of the higher qualities of breadth 

 and general truth". In this endeavour, how- 

 ever, he by no means always succeeded ; and 

 the studied sketches are often finer in the parti- 

 cular quality he sought than are the finished 

 pictures. For some purposes, then, the detailed 

 truth that Ruskin missed in his work was not 

 desirable. Ruskin would have held this to be 

 a sacrifice of the higher to the lower qualities. 

 To Redgrave the qualities that Constable sought, 

 with as much detailed truth as was compatible 

 with them, were the higher ones. 



We shall find this comment on Constable's 

 studied sketches useful when we come to con- 

 sider the work of Turner, who, born in 1775, 

 was Constable s senior by just a little more than 

 a year. Perhaps it may be well to give one or 

 two more dates. Wilson was born in 17 14, 

 Gainsborough in 1727, "Old Crome" in 1768. 

 Constable's art is closer to nature in one way 

 than that of his predecessors. Turner's art is 

 closer to nature in a different way, and farther 

 from it in other ways. But before dealing with 

 Turner it is necessary to say something about 

 the early school of English water-colour painters. 



