Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Ruskin, John

​RUSKIN, John, M.A., art critic, son of a London merchant, born in London in Feb., 1819, having been educated at Christ Church, Oxford, gained the Newdigate prize for poetry in 1839, and devoted himself to the cultivation of the pictorial art, which he practised with success under Copley Fielding and J. D. Harding. A pamphlet in defence of Turner and the modern ​English school of landscape-painting was his first effort in the cause of modern art, and it was enlarged into a standard work, entitled "Modern Painters," the first volome of which appeared in 1843. The author's success as a writer on art was decided by the warm reception accorded to this volume, of which several editions have since been published. Mr. Ruskin's views, however, were combated with bitter asperity by some of the art critics of the day, who resented with an affectation of contempt his free expression of dissent from the trammels of their school. In his second volume of "Modern Painters," written after a residence in Italy, and published in 1846, he took a much wider survey of the subject originally entered upon, including the works of the great Italian painters, and discussed at length the merits of their respective schools. This, his chief work, has been completed by the publication of three additional volumes, the last of which, published in 1860, contains illustrations by himself. Mr. Ruskin temporarily diverted his attention from the study of painting to that of architecture, and wrote "The Seven Lamps of Architecture," published in 1849, as a first result, followed by the first volume of "The Stones of Venice," in 1851: the second and third volumes of which appeared in 1853. The illustrations in the last-named productions, which excited some of the same professional hostility that his first publication evoked, displayed to much advantage his artistic powers. Mr. Ruskin has expounded his views both in lectures and in newspapers and reviews, having, as early as 1847, contributed articles to the Quarterly on Lord Lindsay's "Christian Art." In 1851 he advocated Pre-Raphaelism, in letters to the Times; and in 1853 he lectured in Edinburgh on Gothic Architecture. In addition to the above-mentioned works, Mr. Ruskin has written "Notes on the Construction of Sheepfolds," and "King of the Golden River," illustrated by Doyle, in 1851; "Two Paths," "Lectures on Architecture and Painting," in 1854; "Notes to Pictures in the Royal Academy, Nos. 1 to 5," in 1854-9; "Giotto and his Works in Padua," written for the Arundel Society, of which he is a member, in 1855; "Notes on the Turner collection," in 1857; "Cambridge School of Art," and "Lectures on Art; Political Economy of Art," in 1858; "Elements of Perspective," and "Lectures on Art: Decoration and Manufacture," in 1859; "Unto this Last: Four Essays," republished from the Cornhill Magazine, in 1862; "Ethics of the Dust: Ten Lectures;" "Sesame and Lilies: Two Lectures;" and "Study of Architecture in our Schools," in 1865; "Crown of Wild Olive: Three Lectures," in 1866; and "The Queen of the Air: being a Study of the Greek Myths of Cloud and Storm." To the Art Journal he contributed "The Cestus of Aglaia," and he has written for various periodicals. Mr. Ruskin was appointed Rede Lecturer, at Cambridge, in April, 1867, and the Senate conferred the degree of LL.D. upon him, May 15. He was also elected Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford, and in 1872 published "Aratra Pentilici; Six Lectures on the Elements of Sculpture, given before the University of Oxford in Michaelmas Term, 1870." In 1871 he proposed to devote £5,000 for the purpose of an endowment to pay a master of drawing in the Taylor Galleries, Oxford, and this handsome offer was, with some modifications, accepted by the University in Jan. 1872. He was re-elected to the Slade Professorship of Fine Art, March 1, 1876. A collection of his letters, with a preface by himself, was published in 1880, under the title of "Arrows of the Chace."