Quicknation    John Ruskin

Images of John Ruskin: G Y AOL AV MSN Books of John Ruskin: B

"Upper: Steel-plate engraving of Ruskin as a young man, made circa 1845, scanned from print made circa 1895. Middle: Ruskin in middle-age, as Slade Professor of Art at Oxford (1869-1879). Scanned from 1879 book. Bottom: John Ruskin in old age, 1894, by photographer Frederick Hollyer. 1894 print. All public domain." Steel-plate engraving of Ruskin as a young man, made circa 1845, scanned from print made circa 1895. b (February 8, 1819 – January 20, 1900) was an English author, poet and artist, although more famous for his work as art critic and social critic. Ruskin's thinking on art and architecture became the thinking of the Victorian and Edwardian eras.

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Ruskin was born in London, and was brought up in south London. He was educated at the University of Oxford (Christ Church), where he was awarded a prize for poetry, his earliest interest. It was there that he met Joseph Mallord William Turner, whom he began to defend against critics in an 1836 essay. His i series was responsible for the early popularity of the artist as well as the pre-Raphaelite movement. Ruskin spent much of his later life at a house called Brantwood, on the shores of Coniston Water located in the Lake District of England.

He also worked with the artists Rossetti, Millais, Holman Hunt, John Brett, Burne-Jones and John William Inchbold. In [1848], Ruskin married Effie Gray. He is said to have rejected her after noting that she had pubic hair. Their marriage was annulled in 1854 on grounds of non-consummation (she later married the artist John Everett Millais). Ruskin's correspondence reveals a fear of babies, which may perhaps account for his lifelong attraction to prepubescent girls, who could not become pregnant and who also do not have pubic hair. Ruskin later fell deeply and tragically in love with Rose la Touche. He met her in 1858, when she was only nine years old, proposing to her eight years later and being finally rejected in 1872.

Ruskin taught first at the Working Men's College in London. Ruskin was the first Slade Professor of Art at Oxford, from 1869 to 1879. There he became friendly with Lewis Carroll and was photographed by him. After the parting of Carroll and Alice Liddell, she and her sisters pursued a similar relationship with John Ruskin, as detailed in Ruskin's i. Ruskin College, Oxford is named after him.

Upon the death of his father (who was a wealthy wine merchant), Ruskin declared that it was not possible to be a rich socialist and gave away most of his inheritance. He was friends with Sir Henry Acland. He founded the charity known as the Guild of St George in the 1870s and endowed it with large sums of money as well as a remarkable collection of art. He also gave the money to enable Octavia Hill to begin her practical campaign of housing reform.

In 1878 he wrote a review of a painting by James Whistler in which he accused the painter of "throwing a pot of paint in the face of the public" that led to a famous libel case. Ruskin lost, though the award of damages was only one farthing, and his reputation was tarnished which may have accelerated his mental decline. He suffered from a number of mental breakdowns as well as delirious visions.

His later works influenced many Trade Union leaders of the Victorian era. He was also the inspiration for the Arts and Crafts Movement, the founding of the National Trust, the National Art Collections Fund and the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.

He wrote over 250 works, which tended to connect art history to topics ranging from science, literary criticism, environmental conditions, and mythology. He is well known for his essay on economy i (Yale University Press, 2000).

Until 2005, biographies of both J. M. W. Turner and Ruskin had claimed that in 1858 Ruskin burned bundles of erotic paintings and drawings by Turner, in order to protect Turner's posthumous reputation. In 2005, these same works by Turner were discovered in a neglected British archive, proving that Ruskin did not destroy them.

Ruskin's influence extends far beyond the field of art history. The author Leo Tolstoy described him as "one of those rare men who think with their heart." Marcel Proust was a Ruskin enthusiast and translated his works into French. Mahatma Gandhi said that Ruskin had been the single greatest influence in his life.

Ruskin had quite a few unusual definitions at hand, which were collected by the Nuttall Encyclopedia. Some include:

dlthe name given by Ruskin to a series of letters to workmen, written during the seventies of the 19th century, and employed by him to designate three great powers which go to fashion human destiny, viz., i) the nail of Lycurgus. That is to say, Faculty waiting on the right moment, and then striking in. See Shakespeare's i The letters are represented as written at the dictation of the Third Fors, or, as it seems to the author, the right moment, or the occurrence of it.the unfortunate persistence of the clergy in teaching children what they cannot understand, and in employing young consecrate persons to assert in pulpits what they do not know."England needs," says Ruskin, "examples of people who, leaving Heaven to decide whether they are to rise in the world, decide for themselves that they will be happy in it, and have resolved to seek, not greater wealth, but simpler pleasures; not higher fortune, but deeper felicity; making the first of possessions self-possession, and honouring themselves in the harmless pride and calm pursuits of peace."The New Path The New Path (May, 1863 – December, 1865) was a short-lived but significant journal published in New York by the Society for the Advancement of Truth in Art. The society and its journal espoused the aesthetic principles of John Ruskin and the English Pre-Raphaelite movement.