John Ruskin (1819-1900)
A well remembered Victorian Era poet, author and artist was none other than that of Mr. John Ruskin who was born on February 8th of 1819 and died some time in January of 1900. Throughout much of the Victorian and almost all of the Edwardian Era, John Ruskin’s essays that were about both art and architecture were well known for being an influential part of the times.
John Ruskin was born in the City of London and was the son of the founder of the Allied Domecq wine importing company. Even though he started his life home educated, he would later move on to attending not only King’s College but also the Christ Church in Oxford. While he was attending the schools, he was often absent from classes but was still able to impress the scholars at the Christ Church sufficiently enough to win the Newdigate Prize for Poetry while in attendance. Even with all of his absence from his studies, John Ruskin was still able to pull the fourth chair in his class’s graduation.
Immediately following his departure from the Christ Church, John Ruskin managed to get his first work published in the Loudon's Architecture Magazine in which he utilised the pen name of Kata Phusin. In this first rendition entitled The Poetry of Architecture, John Raskin argued the fact that the buildings themselves should be influenced by the natural environment around them and not the other way around. In this poem, he was able to emphasis a Wordsworthian belief that any building should be composed of locally found materials rather than shipping the materials in from another region.
Soon after writing the Loudon's Architecture Magazine poem, John Ruskin was to publish another poem in the Transactions of the Meteorological Society magazine in 1839. In this poem which was entitled Remarks on the present state of meteorological science, he would go on to criticise the current meteorological science beliefs and understanding.
Furthermore, John Ruskin would then go on into his life of art by acknowledging some Renaissance master as being one with nature, while others like Michelangelo being a corruption to the art.
Again, Ruskin would turn his attention towards architecture when he would write both The Seven Lamps of Architecture as well as The Stones of Venice. In both of these poems, John Ruskin successfully argued that the separation of mortality and architecture would lead to the falling of architectural beliefs. He went on further to state that the gothic style of architecture was considered to be the highest achievable form of architecture that was available at the time. The major differences between these two poems and all of his previous works were that these were written under his true name as he felt he no longer needed to hide behind a pen name.
John Ruskin would marry his first wife in 1848, only for it to be annulled in 1854. Although there was a wide spread belief that the marriage was an unhappy one, the reasons stated on the annulment was for an incurable impotency. During this short lived marriage, he would write his first fantasy novel which was entitled The King of the Golden River.
Towards the end of the 1850’s John Ruskin would fall into a crisis of religious beliefs in which he would then abandon his criticism on art and point his critical views on politics. This change came sudden, but was because there was a bit of influence coming from one of Ruskin’s dearest friends, Thomas Carlyle who was also a famous Victorian Era literate. Furthermore, this new turn in his life could not have happened at a more inconvenient time in Ruskin’s life as his father passed away during this time period and John Ruskin was quoted as saying, “it was not possible to be a rich socialist!” Immediately after which he gave away all of his inheritance as well as founded the Guild of St George in or around 1870.
John Ruskin had managed to make friends throughout his life time with many noteworthy literary geniuses which also included Lewis Carroll while teaching at Oxford College.
After a filed proposal to an eighteen year old Rose la Touche of whom he had originally met when she was only ten, John Ruskin fell into a series of depressive patches which were most prominently visible in his ever changing literary works and styles. Furthermore, he would go on to criticise both of Whistler’s works, Gold: The Falling Rocket and Nocturne in Black to the point that whistler took him to court over the issue. Although Whistler was awarded the case, the amount was but one farthing and the two had to split the costs of the court. Furthermore, the lawsuit had done worse to John Ruskin’s reputation than was thought possible. This eventually pushed Ruskin into a deep pit of depression that continued until his death.
John Ruskin published over 250 works of literature in his lifetime which covered a range of topics from art to architecture. He even managed to write about various sciences as well as criticising several master painters of the time and era. After his death, much like many of the great minds of the time, his works would be regarded as nothing less than amazing. Even Mahatma Gandhi was reported as quoting Ruskin’s work from time to time. His works of literary art even marveled the imagination of such great literary minds like Oscar Wilde.
Original Authors: Globel Team (Nick)
Edit Update Authors: M.A.Harris
Updated On: 23/07/2008
