Early in his writings, Ruskin expressed an admiration for Ruisdael. For instance, in a letter to Edward Clayton, collected in Letters to a College Friend (1840-45, and published in 1894), he wrote that 'Ruysdael looks to nature for her freshness and purity' ( Works, 1.421). However, he soon revised his opinion, and his references to the artist in Modern Painters I tend to the negative. They are concentrated in Section V, 'Of Truth of Water'. To Ruskin, his painting of water may be better and more agreeable than that of Bakhuizen and other Dutch marine painters ( MP I:340), yet it is still 'cold and valueless' ( MP I:324). For 'there appears to be no exertion of mind in any of his works... They are good furniture pictures, unworthy of praise, and undeserving of blame' ( MP I:340).