Paperback / softback
Description
John Ruskin (1819-1900) was the most prominent art and architecture critic of his day.
His books, pamphlets and letters to the press had an influence on all classes of society, from road-menders to royalty, and he still maintains a popular reputation today, though he is remembered less for his views than for his failed marriage to Effie Gray, who left him for the Pre-Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais.
Frequently imagined as a Victorian prude, there was far more to Ruskin than this derisory description suggests.
John Ruskin shows us how Ruskin's ideas gave a moral character to art, architecture and the Picturesque and reveals how and why his reputation endures.
Ruskin's devoted parents were convinced that their son was a genius and encouraged him to write about the moral and spiritual value of art rather than his other major passion, geology.
While his parents lived Ruskin wrote his best works: Modern Painters, The Seven Lamps of Architecture, The Stones of Venice and Unto This Last. After they died Ruskin seemed lost until he put himself in the hands of a younger cousin, Joan Severn, who guarded his reputation while his mental capacities declined, beyond the public gaze, in the Lake District.
This book weaves Ruskin's life and work into a fascinating narrative about Victorian society: Ruskin understood art, its beauty and wonder, as a solution to the miseries of the urban poor and the key to living a worthwhile life.
Offering fresh readings of Ruskin's major texts, this is an engaging biography ofthe artist's life and times.
Information
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Item not Available
- Format:Paperback / softback
- Pages:224 pages, 30
- Publisher:Reaktion Books
- Publication Date:01/05/2015
- Category:
- ISBN:9781780234298
Information
-
Item not Available
- Format:Paperback / softback
- Pages:224 pages, 30
- Publisher:Reaktion Books
- Publication Date:01/05/2015
- Category:
- ISBN:9781780234298