Note 76 — LETTERS ON ART.
Reading edition
Shenstone: Elegy xxvi. The subject of the poem is that of the picture described here. The girl speaks—
“If through the garden’s flowery tribes I stray, Where bloom the jasmines that could once allure, Hope not,” etc.
The prize of the Liverpool Academy was awarded in 1858 to Millais’s “Blind Girl.” Popular feeling, however, favored another picture, the “Waiting for the Verdict” of A. Solomon, and a good deal of discussion arose as to whether the prize had been rightly awarded. As one of the judges, and as a member of the Academy, Mr. Alfred Hunt addressed a letter on the matter to Mr. Ruskin, the main portion of whose reply was sent by him to the Liverpool Albion and is now reprinted here. Mr. Solomon’s picture had been exhibited in the Royal Academy of 1857 (No. 562), and is mentioned in Mr. Ruskin’s Notes to the pictures of that year (p. 32).