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JOHN RUSKIN (1819-1goo)

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 861 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JOHN See also:RUSKIN (1819-1goo)  , See also:English writer and critic, was See also:born in See also:London, at See also:Hunter See also:Street, See also:Brunswick Square, on the 8th of See also:February 1819, being the only See also:child of See also:John See also:James See also:Ruskin and See also:Margaret See also:Cox . They were Scots, first See also:cousins, the grandchildren of a certain John Ruskin of See also:Edinburgh (1732-1780) . In Praeterita the author professes small knowledge of his ancestry . But the See also:memoirs published on the authority of the fancily trace their descent to the Adairs and Agnews of See also:Galloway . In this See also:family See also:tree are men famous in arms and in the public service: See also:Sir See also:Andrew See also:Agnew of Lochnaw, See also:Admiral Sir John See also:Ross, See also:Field-See also:Marshal Sir Hew Dalrymple Ross, Dr John See also:Adair, in whose arms See also:Wolfe died at See also:Quebec, and the Rev . W . Tweddale of Glenluce, to whom the See also:original See also:Covenant, now in the See also:Glasgow Museum, had been confided . The name Ruskin is said to be a variant of See also:Erskine, or Roskeen, or Rogerkin, and even Roughskin . It is more probably Rusking, an Anglian family, which passed northwards and became Ruskyn, Rusken and Ruskin . John Ruskin, the author's grandfather, a handsome lad of twenty, ran away with See also:Catherine Tweddale, daughter of the Covenanting See also:minister and of Catherine Adair, then a beautiful girl of sixteen . He settled in Edinburgh and engaged in the See also:wine See also:trade, lived liberally in the cultivated society of the See also:city, lost his See also:health and his See also:fortune, and ended his days in See also:debt . His son, John James Ruskin (1785-1864), See also:father of the author, was sent to the High School at Edinburgh under Dr A .

See also:

Adam, received a See also:sound classical See also:education, and was well advised by his friend Dr See also:Thomas See also:Brown, the eminent metaphysician . When of See also:age, John James was sent to London to enter the wine trade . There, in 1809, he founded the See also:sherry business of Ruskin, See also:Telford & Domecq; Domecq being proprietor of a famous vineyard in See also:Spain, Telford contributing the See also:capital of the See also:firm, and Ruskin having See also:sole See also:control of the business . John James Ruskin, a typical See also:Scot, of remarkable See also:energy, probity and foresight, built up a See also:great business, paid off his father's debts, formed near London a most hospitable and cultured See also:home, where he maintained his See also:taste for literature and See also:art, and lived and died, as his son proudly wrote upon his See also:tomb, " an entirely honest See also:merchant." He was also a See also:man of strong See also:brain, generous nature and See also:fine taste . After a delay of nine years, having at last obtained an adequate income, he married his See also:cousin, Margaret Cox, who had already lived for eighteen years with his See also:mother, the widow of John Ruskin of Edinburgh . When this See also:marriage of the two cousins, who had known each other all their lives, took See also:place in 1818, neither of them was See also:young . John James was See also:thirty-three and Margaret was thirty-seven . In the following See also:year (8th February 1819) their only child, John, was born in Hunter Street, London . Margaret Ruskin, the author's mother, was a handsome, strong, stern, able, devoted woman of the old Puritan school, Calvinist in See also:religion, unsparing of herself and others, rigid in her ideas of See also:duty, proud, reserved and ungracious . She was the daughter of See also:Captain Cox, of See also:Yarmouth, See also:master mariner in the See also:herring See also:fishery, who died young; whereupon his widow maintained herself as landlady of the See also:King's See also:Head See also:Inn at See also:Croydon . Her younger daughter married Mr See also:Richardson, a See also:baker, of Croydon; the See also:elder, Margaret, married John James Ruskin . Jessie, a See also:sister of John James, married See also:Peter Richardson, a See also:tanner, of See also:Perth, so that the author had cousins of two Richardson families, unconnected with each other .

In his own memoirs he speaks much more of these than of any Ruskins, Tweddales, Adairs or Agnews . The child was brought up under a rigid See also:

system of See also:nursing, See also:physical, moral and intellectual; kept without toys, not seldom whipped, watched See also:day and See also:night, but trained from See also:infancy in See also:music, See also:drawing, See also:reading aloud and observation of natural See also:objects . When he was four the family removed to a See also:house on See also:Herne See also:Hill, then a See also:country See also:village, with a See also:garden and rural surroundings . The father, who made See also:long See also:tours on business, took his wife, child and See also:nurse year after year across See also:England as far as See also:Cumberland and See also:Scotland, visiting towns, cathedrals, castles, colleges, parks, mountains and lakes . At five the child was taken to See also:Keswick; at six to See also:Paris, See also:Brussels and See also:Waterloo; at seven to Perth-See also:shire . At fourteen he was taken through See also:Flanders, along the See also:Rhine, and through the See also:Black See also:Forest to See also:Switzerland, where he first imbibed his dominant See also:passion for the See also:Alps . His youth was largely passed in systematic travelling in See also:search of everything beautiful in nature or in art . And to one so precocious, stimulated by a See also:parent of much culture, ample means and great ambition, this resulted in an almost unexampled aesthetic education . In childhood also he began a systematic practice of See also:composition, both in See also:prose and See also:verse . His mother trained him in reading the See also:Bible, of which he read through every See also:chapter of every See also:book year by year; and to this study he justly attributes his See also:early command of See also:language and his pure sense of See also:style . His father read to him See also:Shakespeare, See also:Scott, See also:Don Quixote, See also:Pope and See also:Byron, and most of the great English See also:classics; and his See also:attention was especially turned to the formation of sentences and to the See also:rhythm of prose . He began to compose both in prose and verse as soon as he had learned to read and write, both of which arts he taught himself by the See also:eye .

His first See also:

letter is dated 1823, when he was only four . In it he corrects his aunt, who had put up the wooden pillars of his Waterloo See also:bridge " upside down." At five he was a book-See also:worm . At seven he began a See also:work in four volumes, with " See also:copper-plates printed and composed by a little boy, and also See also:drawn." His first poem, correct in See also:rhyme and See also:form, was written before he was seven . At nine he began " Eudosia, a poem of the Universe." From that year until his See also:Newdigate See also:Prize, at the age of twenty, he wrote enormous quantities of verse, and began dramas, romances and imitations of Byron, Pope, Scott and See also:Shelley . What remain of these effusions have no See also:special quality except See also:good sense, refined feeling, accuracy of phrase, and a curious correctness of See also:accent and rhythm . Of true See also:poetry in the higher sense there is hardly a single See also:line . His schooling was irregular and not successful . At the age of eleven he was taught Latin and See also:Greek by Dr See also:Andrews, a See also:scholar of Glasgow University . About the same See also:time he had lessons in drawing and in oil See also:painting from See also:Runciman . See also:French and See also:Euclid were taught by Rowbotham . At fifteen he was sent for two years to the day-school of the Rev . T .

See also:

Dale of See also:Peckham, and at seventeen he attended some courses in literature at King's See also:College, London . In painting he had lessons from See also:Copley See also:Fielding and afterwards from J . D . See also:Harding . But in the incessant travelling, drawing, See also:collecting specimens and composition in prose and verse he had gained but a very moderate classical and mathematical knowledge when he matriculated at See also:Oxford; nor could be ever learn to write tolerable Latin . As a boy he was active, lively and docile; a good See also:walker, but ignorant of all boyish See also:games, as naif and as See also:innocent as a child; and he never could learn to See also:dance or to ride . He was only saved by his See also:intellect and his fine nature from turning out an See also:arrant prig . He was regarded by his parents, and seems to have regarded himself, as a See also:genius . As a child he had been " a savant in petticoats "; as a boy he was a poet in breeches . At the age of seventeen he saw Adele, the French daughter of See also:Monsieur Domecq, Mr Ruskin's partner, a lovely girl of fifteen . John See also:fell rapturously in love with her; and, it seems, the two fathers seriously contemplated their marriage . The young poet wooed the girl with poems, romances, dramas and See also:mute See also:worship, but received nothing except chilling indifference and lively ridicule .

To the See also:

gay young beauty, See also:familiar with Parisian society, the raw and serious youth was not a possible parti . She was sent to an English school, and he occasionally saw her . His unspoken passion lasted about three years, when she married the See also:Baron See also:Duquesne . See also:Writing as an old man, long after her See also:death, Ruskin speaks of his early love without any sort of rapture . But it is clear that it deeply coloured his See also:life, and led to the dangerous illness which for some two years interrupted his studies and made him a wanderer over See also:Europe . As the father was resolved that John should have everything that See also:money and pains could give, and was one day to be a See also:bishop at least, he entered him at See also:Christ See also:Church, Oxford, as a See also:gentleman-commoner—then an See also:order reserved for men of See also:wealth and See also:rank . Ruskin's Oxford career, broken by the two years passed abroad, was not very full of incident or of usefulness . Though he never became either a scholar or a mathematician, he did enough accurate work to be placed in the honorary See also:fourth class both in classics and in See also:mathematics . By the young bloods of the " House " he was treated pleasantly as a raw outsider of genius . By some of the students and tutors, by See also:Liddell, See also:Newton, See also:Acland and others, he was regarded as a youth of rare promise, and he made some lifelong friendships with men of See also:mark and of See also:power . Both he and his college took kindly the amazing proceeding of his mother, who See also:left her See also:husband and her home to reside in Oxford, that she might See also:watch over her son's health . The one success of his Oxford career was the winning the Newdigate Prize by his poem "See also:Salsette and Elephanta," which he recited in the Sheldonian See also:Theatre (See also:June 1839) .

Two years of See also:

ill-health and See also:absence from home ensued . And he did not become " a See also:Graduate of Oxford " until 1842, in his twenty-fourth year, five years after his first entrance at the university . In fact, his desultory school and college life had been little more than an interruption and hindrance to his real education—the study of nature, of art and of literature . Long before Ruskin published books he had appeared in See also:print . In See also:March 1834, when he was but fifteen, Loudon's See also:Magazine of Natural See also:History published an See also:essay of his on the strata of mountains and an inquiry as to the See also:colour of the Rhine . He then wrote for Loudon's Magazine of See also:Architecture, and verses of his were inserted in Messrs See also:Smith & Elder's Friendship's Offering, by the editor, T . See also:Pringle, who took the lad to see the poet See also:Rogers . At seventeen he wrote for Black-See also:wood a See also:defence of See also:Turner, which the painter, to whom it was first submitted, did not take the trouble to forward to the magazine . At eighteen he wrote a See also:series of papers, signed Kata Phusin, i.e . " after Nature," for Loudon's Magazine, on " The Poetry of Architecture." In 1838 (he was then nineteen) Mr Loudon wrote to the father, "Your son is the greatest natural genius that ever it has been my fortune to become acquainted with." Having recovered his health and See also:spirits by care and See also:foreign travel, and having taken his degree and left Oxford, Ruskin set to work steadily at Herne Hill on the more elaborate defence of Turner, which was to become his first work . See also:Modern Painters, vol. i., by " a Graduate of Oxford," was published May 1843, when the author was little more than twenty-four . It produced a great and immediate sensation .

It was vehemently attacked by the critics, and coolly received by the painters . Even Turner was somewhat disconcerted; but the painter was now known to both Ruskins, and they freely bought his pictures . The family then went again to the Alps, that John might study See also:

mountain formation and ",Truth " in landscape . In 1845 he was again abroad in See also:Italy, working on his Modern Painters, the second See also:volume of which appeared in 1846 . He had now plunged into the study of See also:Bellini and the Venetian school, Fra See also:Angelico and the early Tuscans, and he visited See also:Lucca, See also:Pisa, See also:Florence, See also:Padua, See also:Verona and See also:Venice, passionately devoting himself to architecture, See also:sculpture and painting in each city of See also:north Italy . He wrote a few essays for the Quarterly See also:Review and other See also:periodicals, and in 1849 (aet . 30) he published The Seven Lamps of Architecture, with his own etchings, which greatly increased the reputation acquired by his Modern Painters . On the loth of See also:April 1848, a day famous in the history of See also:Chartism, Ruskin was married at Perth to Euphemia See also:Chalmers See also:Gray, a See also:lady of great beauty, of a family long intimate with the Ruskins . The marriage, we are told, was arranged by the parents of the pair, and was a somewhat hurried See also:act . It was evidently ill-assorted, and brought no happiness to either . They travelled, lived in London, saw society, and attended a " Drawing-See also:room " at See also:Buckingham See also:Palace . But Ruskin, immersed in various studies and projects, was no husband for a brilliant woman devoted to society .

No particulars of their life have been made public . In 1854 his wife left him, obtained a See also:

nullification of the marriage under Scots See also:law, and ultimately became the wife of John See also:Everett See also:Millais . John Ruskin returned to his parents, with whom he resided till their death; and neither his marriage nor the annulling of it seems to have affected seriously his See also:literary career . Ruskin's architectural studies, of which The Seven Lamps was the first See also:fruit, turned him from Turner and Modern Painters . He planned a book about Venice in 1845, and The Stones of Venice was announced in 1849 as in preparation . After intense study in Italy and at home, early in 1851 (the year of the Great See also:Exhibition in London) the first volume of The Stones of Venice appeared (aet . 32) . It was by no means a See also:mere antiquarian and See also:artistic study . It was a See also:concrete expansion of the ideas of The Seven Lamps—that the buildings and art of a See also:people are the expression of their religion, their morality, their See also:national aspirations and social habits . It was, as See also:Carlyle wrote to the author, " a See also:sermon in stones," "a singular sign of the times," " a new See also:Renaissance." It appeared in the same year with the Construction of Sheepfolds—a plea for the See also:reunion of See also:Christian churches—in the same year with the essay on Pre-Raphaelitism, the year of Turner's death (19th See also:December) . The Stones of Venice was illustrated with engravings by some of the most refined artists of his time . The author spent a See also:world of pains in having these brought up to the highest perfection of the re-productive art, and began the system of exquisite See also:illustration, and those facsimiles of his own and other sketches, which make his See also:works rank so high in the catalogues and See also:price-lists of collectors .

This delicate art was carried even farther in the later volumes of Modern Painters by the school of engravers whom Ruskin inspired and gathered See also:

round him . And these now rare and coveted pieces remain to rebuke us for our modern preference for the See also:mechanical and unnatural See also: