The tales and trials of a flawed genius

The theme running through this month's blog is John Ruskin. A man of genius but with many flaws. An Arts Society lecture led me to find out more about him and then, partly due to his association with them, to visit the Pre-Raphaelite Sisters exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery before it ended.

(John Ruskin by John Everett Millais, 1853-4)

John Ruskin (1819-1900) was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era. His talents were many and varied. As well as being an art patron, draughtsman and watercolourist, he was also a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. His writing was equally varied, writing essays, lectures, travel guides, manuals, letters and poetry.

Ruskin was educated at home by his strict, but very different parents. They were fiercely ambitious for him and shared a passion for the works of Byron, Shakespeare and Walter Scott. His mother taught him to read the Bible from beginning to end and learn great passages by heart. Ruskin grew up to hold very different views from his parents, many of which were influenced by the extensive travels he enjoyed in his youth. On European tours he had the opportunity to observe and to record his impressions of nature in poetry. He was also visually sophisticated and technically accomplished and his early notebooks are full of maps, landscapes and buildings, remarkable for a boy of his age. Ruskin was the first great Art Historian and came to widespread attention with the first volume of Modern Painters (1843), an extended essay in defence of the work of J. M. W. Turner in which he argued that the principal role of the artist is "truth to nature." At that time, painting had rules governed by the Royal Academy with which Ruskin disagreed, feeling that artists should 'paint what you see'. Truth before beauty was important and became the mantra of the Pre-Raphaelites, who were influenced by his ideas. His work increasingly focused on social and political issues.

His technical drawing abilities led him to become fascinated by architecture on his tours of Europe and in 1851 he published a three volume treatise on Venetian Art and Architecture The Stones of Venice,

for which he did all the drawings and illustrations. He was convinced of the moral superiority of gothic architecture which he felt was the style of democracy and freedom, particularly in the hands of the craftsman.

Ruskin was influenced in this opinion by William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, founders of the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Ruskin was also a geologist and fascinated by Darwinism. He saw environmental change long before others. Almost by chance, I came across an example of this in a visit before Christmas to the small but beautiful House of Illustration situated in Granary Square, a few minutes' walk from King's Cross station in London. The gallery has a permanent exhibition of Quentin Blake work (QB was the founder of the museum) and in the bookshop I found a beautiful new publication: The King of the Golden River, written by John Ruskin, published 1851; new edition illustrated by Quentin Blake 2019. To quote the blurb: "first published 150 years ago, John Ruskin's only children's story is still relevant today, with its message about life, greed and the environment'.

The story is full of mountain vistas and dramatic weather and Blake was tempted to illustrate this when he realised that today's colour printing can show such scenes in a way that the 19th century publishers could not. It is a wonderful fairy tale and would still be enjoyed by any serious reader from the age of 8 or so.

John Ruskin had written The King of the Golden River for Effie Gray, the daughter of family friends and in 1848 they were married, though the marriage was not a happy one. In the next few years, Ruskin became a great champion of the pre-Raphaelite painters when the Royal Academy was highly critical of them. In the summer of 1853 he and Effie travelled to Scotland with John Everett Millais and his brother. Effie had already modelled for Millais and they became even closer. The Ruskin marriage was eventually annulled on the grounds of non-consummation and Effie married Millais in 1855, bearing him five children. A 2014 film of her life, written by Emma Thompson, with a stellar cast, is well worth watching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LtfRGQXSyE

Effie Gray Millais was one of the twelve women celebrated in the Pre-Raphaelite Sisters exhibition, (now closed but you can read a review here), which also included Christina Rossetti, Elizabeth Siddall, Georgiana Burne-Jones, Jane Morris and Evelyn De Morgan. The creative world to which they contributed spanned five decades from 1850-1900 as they found a place within the masculine art world of their time. They were variously model, wife, artist and muse, and their stories were fascinating. There were drawings, letters and photographs and many interesting connections: a photograph of the Rossetti family by Lewis Carroll; drawings by Christina Rossetti who I only knew as a poet (her famous Goblin Market illustrated by her brother Dante Gabriel); and embroidery by Jane Morris who was a leading member of the Arts and Crafts movement in her own right.

Just as Ruskin had questioned accepted ideas of painting, so he began to question the economic and political status quo in society. He espoused the views of John Stuart Mill, based on theories of laissez-faire and drew on the work of Adam Smith. He argued that the false science of political economy failed to bind communities together and thought that all societies and economies should be founded on the politics of social justice. His essays on this were originally published in the Cornhill Magazine but the magazine's editor, William Makepeace Thackeray, was forced to abandon the series by the outcry of the magazine's largely conservative readership. The reaction of the national press was hostile but some were enthusiastic. His friend Thomas Carlyle wrote: "I have read your paper with exhilaration... such a thing flung suddenly into half a million dull British heads .. will do a great deal of good". This could be said today! His ideas, however, were gradually taken up by many influential people and the founders of the British Labour party have credited them as an influence.

I hope you have enjoyed this brief peep into the art and culture of the late 19th century and might be tempted to find out more!