Ruskin, John (1819-1900), was probably the most influential English critic of the 1800’s. His many writings on art, literature, and social issues helped form the tastes of Victorian England.
Ruskin was born on Feb. 19, 1819, in London. While a student at Oxford University, he became a strong supporter of the British artist J. M. W. Turner, whose paintings had aroused much controversy. Ruskin’s first book, Modern Painters I (1843), defended Turner’s style (see Turner, J. M. W.). Ruskin’s other works on art and architecture include four more volumes of Modern Painters (1846-1860), The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849), and The Stones of Venice (three volumes, 1851-1853).
Ruskin believed that education, morality, and healthy social conditions were needed to produce good art. As a result, he concerned himself with social and economic issues. In lectures, essays, and books, Ruskin questioned the operations and motives of the free enterprise system. He attacked the quality of mass-produced products and encouraged workers to express their individuality. Ruskin had little political effect on his own time, but his ideas later influenced many British socialists, such writers as D. H. Lawrence and Leo Tolstoy, and the Hindu spiritual leader Mohandas Gandhi.
Ruskin’s writings on social issues include four essays, published as Unto This Last (1862), and Fors Clavigera, a series of letters to British workers published from 1871 to 1884. In his last years, Ruskin’s last important work was an unfinished autobiography, Praeterita, written from 1885 to 1889. Ruskin died on Jan. 20, 1900.
