Forsythia and Dirt

This is a forsythia bush, now completely gone, or completely green, in Titusville, NJ.

In Modern Painters, John Ruskin says the following about dirt: "...this ought to be noted respecting modern painters in general, that they have not a proper sense of the value of dirt; cottage children never appear but in fresh got-up caps and aprons, and white-handed beggars excite compassion in unexceptionable rags. In reality, almost all the colors of things associated with human life derive something of their expression and value from the tones of impurity, and so enhance the value of the entirely pure tints of nature herself."