Information AboutJohn Ruskin |
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John Ruskin ( February 8 , 1819 – January 20 , 1900 ) is best known for his work as an Art Critic and Social Critic , but is remembered as an Author , Poet and Artist as well. Ruskin's essays on art and architecture were extremely influential in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. LIFE Ruskin was born in London , and raised in south London. He was educated at the University Of Oxford ( Christ Church ), where he was awarded a prize for Poetry , his earliest interest. In 1848 , Ruskin married Effie Gray . Their marriage was Annulled in 1854 on grounds of his "incurable Impotency ," a charge Ruskin later disputed. (She later married the artist John Everett Millais). Ruskin later fell deeply in love with Rose La Touche . He met her in 1858 , when she was only nine years old, proposed to her eight years later, and was finally rejected in 1872 . Ruskin taught at the Working Men's College In London and was the first Slade Professor Of Fine Art at Oxford , from 1869 to 1879 . There he became friendly with Lewis Carroll , another don, 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 ''Praeterita''. 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. 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. WORK While still a student at Oxford, Ruskin met Joseph Mallord William Turner , whom he began to defend against critics in an 1836 essay. His ''Modern Painters'' series was responsible for the early popularity of the artist as well as the Pre-Raphaelite movement. He also worked with the artists Rossetti , Millais , Holman Hunt , John Brett , Burne-Jones and John William Inchbold . In . The episode tarnished Ruskin's reputation, and 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 '' Unto This Last '', the essay ''The Nature of Gothic'', and the early fantasy novel '' The King Of The Golden River ''. Ruskin's views on art, wrote Kenneth Clark , "cannot be made to form a logical system, and perhaps owe to this fact a part of their value." Certain principles, however, remain consistent throughout his work and have been summarized in Clark's own words as the following:
LEGACY 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. BIOGRAPHIES The defining work on Ruskin for the 20th century was "The Darkening Glass" (Columbia UP, 1960) by Columbia professor John D. Rosenberg, backed by his ubiquitous paperback anthology, "The Genius of John Ruskin." Neither book has ever been out of print. Rosenberg, who began teaching at Columbia in 1963, and is still teaching in 2006, produced countless Ruskinians who are now the Victorianists at countless American universities. A definitive (and very readable) two-volume biography by Tim Hilton appeared as ''John Ruskin: The Early Years'' (Yale University Press, 1985) and ''John Ruskin: The Later Years'' (Yale University Press, 2000). CONTROVERSIES Turner erotic drawings 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. {Link without Title} Sexual orientation Ruskin's one marriage was annulled for non-consummation; his wife is said to have written to her parents claiming that he found her person repugnant. He later fell in love with a nine-year-old girl — although he did not approach her as a suitor until she was seventeen. Ruskin is not known to have had any other romantic liaisons or sexual intimacies. This has given rise to suggestions that he was a paedophile. One biographer, Mary Luytens, speculated that he rejected his wife, Effie Gray, because he was disgusted at the sight of her pubic hair. Luytens argued that Ruskin must have known the female form only through Greek statues lacking pubic hair and must have found the reality shocking. This speculation has been repeated by later biographers and essayists and it is now something that "everyone knows" about Ruskin. However, there is no proof whatsoever for this speculation, and some dissagree such as Peter Fuller in his book Theoria: Art and the Absence of Grace in which he writes "It has been said that he was frightened on the wedding night by the sight of his wife's pubic hair; more probably, he was perturbed by her menstral blood" PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
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DEFINITIONS Ruskin had quite a few unusual definitions at hand, which were collected by the Nuttall Encyclopedia . Some include: ;''Fors Clavigera'':the 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., ''Force'', wearing, as it were, (''clava'') the club of Hercules; ''For''titude, wearing, as it were, (''clavis'') the key of Ulysses; and ''For''tune, wearing, as it were, (''clavus'') the nail of Lycurgus. That is to say, Faculty waiting on the right moment, and then striking in. See Shakespeare 's ''Time and tide in the affairs of men,'' &c., the '' Flood '' in which is the ''Third Fors.'' 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. ;''Modern Atheism'':ascribed by Ruskin to ''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.'' ;''The Want of England'':"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." EXTERNAL LINKS
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