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The Arts

Page history last edited by PBworks 16 years ago

Victorian Arts 

 

 

 

John Ruskin

 

 John Ruskin was born on February 8 of 1819 at 54 Hunter Street, London. He was born in London and raised in South London. He was the only child of Margaret and John James Ruskin. His father was founding partner of Pedro Domecq Sherries, collected art and he also encouraged his son's literary activities. His mother on the other hand early dedicated her son to the service of God and wished him to become an Anglican bishop.

 

He was educated at home until he was twelve so he rarely associated with other children and had few toys. During his sixth year he went with his parents to the first of many annual tours of the Continent. His dad encouraged him to publish his first poem, "On Skiddaw and Derwent Water," when he was just eleven and four years later at the age of fifteen his first prose work, it was an article on the waters of the Rhine.

 

He went to study at King's College London and Christ Church, Oxford. In 1836, he matriculated as a gentleman-commoner at Christ Church, Oxford and he wrote a pamphlet defending the painter Turner against the critics, but he did not publish it as Turner requested. At Oxford he associated with a wealthy and often rowdy set but he did not stop publishing poetry and criticism. In 1839 he won the the Oxford Newdigate Prize for poetry. The next year, suspected consumption led him to interrupt his studies and he did not get his degree until 1842.

 

 

 

 

 

Works of John Ruskin

 

 

Christ Church, Oxford

 

This is Ruskin's own watercolor of Christ Church, Oxford.

 

"Whereas Ruskin's early drawings of architecture and later studies of trees and mountains show him following his own instructions to students at the close of the first volume of Modern Painters, this beautiful later work, which clearly reveals the influence of Turner, demonstrates that he never limited his ideas of non-student work to close imitation of nature."

 

 

 

Cottage near Altdorf by John Ruskin 1835

 

This drawing, that Ruskin made when he was sixteen appeared in his chapter on Swiss cottages in The Poetry of Architecture, and according to the editors of Library Edition, the name of the title was not added until 1893

 

 

 

 

The Ducal Palace, Venice by John Ruskin

 

In this painting of the Grand Canal, we see the Ducal Palace detailed drawn by Ruskin, which was later used in The Stones of Venice, on the right, as we see the library that faces it across the canal to Santa Maria della Salute.

 

 

 

Gothic Capitals by John Ruskin 1851-52

 

This is one of Ruskin's technical illustrations for The Stones of Venice.

 

 

 

 

Works Consulted

 

"John Ruskin (Life)" Wikipedia.

26 February 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ruskin#Life>

 

 

George P. "Prologue: Ruskin's life" The Victorian Web. May and June 2000

11 February 2008 <http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/ruskin/pm/prologue.html>

 

Miller, Ilana. "The Victorian Era (1837-1901)" VictoriasPast.

1 March 2008 <http://www.victoriaspast.com/FrontPorch/victorianera.htm>

 

 

 

 

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