Today marks the birthday of John Ruskin, the critic and painter who changed the way we talk about art. Unfairly maligned in popular culture as a prude and a snob, he was in fact the strongest force of British art criticism in the 19th century. Born in 1819 to a wealthy family, their affluence enabled him to travel across Europe throughout his youth. These experiences would shape the man, helping him become the most important man of letters in the century. His popular image may be overshadowed by his highly questionable (and unforgivable) colonial worldview, and his marriage to Effie Gray, which was never consummated for reasons still unknown, yet his lasting legacy is in the work itself, which inspires critics to this day. Here are the five things you need to know.
via The BBC
He Invented The Blog
Everyone has one now, expressing their opinions almost daily on every minutiae of life. Yet, it was arguably Ruskin who led the way, with his “Letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain” providing a monthly mix of personal detail, literary references and social critique. The style was confusing to many readers at the time; now they would fit in quite easily on any tumblr feed or Twitter thread.
“View Of Amalfi,” 1884 by John Ruskin
He Was A Master Painter
Whilst most art critics are steeped in history and theory, when it comes to composition they are quickly prone to falter. This is not the case with Ruskin, who ranks as a great painter and draughtsman in his own right. His intense appreciation for nature resulted in watercolours of the Swiss Mountains, studies of animals and views of the Seine. The word polymath truly applies to him.
“Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth,” 1842 by J.M.W. Turner
He Championed Turner
John Ruskin saw J.M.W. Turner’s genius from very early on. Believing that art should be a reflection of nature, revealing a moral truth about the world, he believed Turner completely fulfilled that aim. Whilst others were baffled by Turner’s paintings, he wrote that they “move and mingle among the pale stars, and rise up into the brightness of the illimitable heaven, whose soft, and blue eye gazes down into the deep waters of the sea for ever”.
“Crown Of Wild Olive,” 1873 by John Ruskin
He Redefined Art Criticism
Ruskin is famous for his deep level of description tempered with a forthrightness of opinion that is hard to disagree with. As Michael Bracewell writes: “Ruskin’s passionate championing of particular artists paved the way for such great later critics as David Sylvester and Robert Hughes. Such erudition, clarity and richly opinionated rigour is sorely missed in contemporary art criticism.” His Modern Painters books are a must read for anyone serious about art criticism.
“Storm Clouds Over A Landscape at Sunset,” 1823 by Turner
He Predicted Global Warming
Ruskin wasn’t really a man of the 19th century, but a man of the 20th. This can be seen by his commitment to the natural environment, criticising industrialisation as a potentially deadly force. He laments against the changing weather in “The Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century”, noting unlike few others that the present time will be “a period which will assuredly be recognised in future meteorological history as one of phenomena hitherto unrecorded in the courses of nature.” If only we listened to him then.