About the Book
In 1851 John Ruskin came to the defence of the young artists of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood by writing two letters to The Times, refuting widespread criticism of their paintings. Soon afterwards he published a pamphlet entitled Pre-Raphaelitism, beginning almost a decade of public support for the work of William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and their associates. Already established as one of the leading writers on art, he took a personal risk in defending the Pre- Raphaelite cause, but saw a parallel in the hostile reaction to the paintings of his artistic idol J. M. W. Turner. In Millais especially, Ruskin hoped to nurture a worthy successor in landscape painting, arguing that the Pre-Raphaelites' attention to truth and detail offered the opportunity to establish a new and noble school of British art. This is the first compilation of all of Ruskin's published writings relating to the Pre-Raphaelites, beginning with the celebrated passage in the first volume of Modern Painters (1843) exhorting young artists to go to nature in all
. rejecting nothing, selecting nothing and scorning nothing, later claimed by Hunt to have been an inspiration. As well as Pre- Raphaelitism (1851), rarely reprinted since, and the fourth of the 1853 Edinburgh lectures, it includes all the comments on paintings in the annual Academy Notes (1855-9) which pertain to Pre-Raphaelitism, underlining Ruskin's significant contribution to the movement's popular success and the widespread acceptance of its principles. From the period after 1860, when Ruskin was concentrating more on social issues, come the the little-known articles published in the Nineteenth Century magazine under the title The Three Colours of Pre-Raphaelitism (1878), and a number of lectures, including the last of his Slade Lectures, The Art of England (1883), delivered just a few years before his mental faculties failed. Edited with a commentary and preface by Stephen Wildman, Director of the Ruskin Library and Research Centre, University of Lancaster, and with an introduction by Robert Hewison, one of Ruskin's successors as Slade Professor of Art at the University of Oxford.
Table of Contents:
Preface by Stephen Wildman..........................................................9
‘A New and Noble School in England: Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites’
by Robert Hewison......................................................................17
Editorial Note..........................................................................34
1 Modern Painters 1843-56: Holman Hunt and Millais..............35
1. modern painters 1 (1843) Part II, Section VI, Chapter III
Conclusion – Modern Art and Modern Criticism............................36
2. modern painters 1 (1843/1851) Part II, Section VI, Chapter I
Of Truth of Vegetation, §28 ..................................................38
3. modern painters 1 (1843/1851) Part II, Section VI, Chapter III
Conclusion §15 .............................................................................38
4. modern painters 111 (1856) Part IV, Section VI, Chapter III
Of Greatness of Style, §5 ........................................................41
5. modern painters 111 (1856) Part IV, Section VI, Chapter III
Of Greatness of Style, §9 .............................................................41
6. modern painters 111 (1856) Part IV, Section VI, Chapter III
Of Greatness of Style, §23 ............................................................42
7. modern painters 111 (1856) Part II, Section IV, Chapter III
Of the False Ideal, §20, 23 .............................................................42
8. modern painters 111 (1856) Part IV, Chapter VI
Of the True Ideal, §8..............................................................44
9. modern painters 111 (1856) Part IV, Chapter X
Of the Use of Pictures,§5 .............................................................44
10. modern painters 111 (1856) Appendix III Plagiarism...................46
11. modern painters 1v (1856) Part V, Chapter IV
Of Turnerian Mystery, §8..............................................................47
11 Engagement with the Pre-Raphaelites 1851-54......................49
The Pre-Raphaelite Artists (Letters to The Times)
12. letter to the times, 13 may 1851..............................................51
13. letter to the times, 30 may 1851..............................................54
14. letter to the times, 5 may 1854..............................................57
15. letter to the times, 25 may 1854..............................................60
16. pre-raphaelitism 1851..........................................................65
17. lectures on architecture and painting, 1854
Lecture iv, Pre-Raphaelitism .........................................................109
18. the stones of venice 111 (1853) I Early Renaissance, §39..........134
19. the stones of venice 111 (1853) II Roman Renaissance, §22......134
20. the stones of venice 111 (1853) IV Conclusion, §26....................135
21. the stones of venice 111 (1853) IV Conclusion, §36..................136
11i Academy Notes 1855-59, 1875.............................................137
22. academy notes 1855...................................................................140
23. academy notes 1856................................................................153
24. academy notes 1857.................................................................172
25. academy notes 1858.................................................................185
26. academy notes 1859.................................................................196
27. academy notes 1875.................................................................208
1v Other writings of the 1850s................................................213
28. the elements of drawing (1857) III On Colour....................214
29. the elements of drawing (1857) Things to be Studied.............214
30. speech on thomas seddon (1857)............................................216
31. pre-raphaelitism in liverpool 1857....................................223
32. generalization and the scotch pre-raphaelites 1858..........224
RUSKIN AND THE PRE-RAPHAELITES
v Writings of 1863-77, mostly on Edward Burne-Jones.............227
33. on the present state of modern art, with reference to the
advisable arrangements of a national gallery 1867..........228
34. lectures on art 1870 The Relation of Art to Religion..........232
35. lectures on landscape 1871 (published 1897) III Colour .....233
36. the eagle’s nest: ten lectures on the relation of natural
science to art 1872............................................................234
37. fors clavigera 1877 Letter 79, July 1877.................................236
v1 Last Words 1878-88...........................................................241
38. the three colours of pre-raphaelitism 1878..................242
39. notes by mr. ruskin on samuel prout and william hunt
1879-80......................................................................................264
40. the art of england 1883 Lecture I, Realistic Schools of Painting:
D. G. Rossetti and W. Holman Hunt .............................................267
41. the art of england 1883 Lecture II, Mythic Schools of Painting:
E. Burne-Jones and G. F. Watts ....................................................281
42. a lecture on landscape 1884 ................................................295
43. preface to ernest chesneau’s ‘the english school of
painting’ 1885 ..........................................................................296
44. notes on millais 1886 ............................................................297
45. præterita 111 1888 I The Grande Chartreuse ..........................298
Bibliographical Note..................................................................301
Further Reading.........................................................................307
Index..........................................................................................310
About the Author :
John Ruskin (1819-1900) was the foremost art critic in Victorian England, and one of the greatest writers and thinkers of his time. Stephen Wildman, Professor of Art History at Lancaster University, is the curator of the Ruskin Library and Collection, and one of the foremost authorities on Pre-Raphaelite art.
