"Literary Remains."—James.
"Thomas Carlyle."—Conway.
"Thomas Carlyle."—Froude.
JOHN RUSKIN
(1819–1900)
The son of a Scotch millionaire who had settled in London, Ruskin received from private masters the best possible preparation for his future and also traveled extensively with his father and mother. Shortly after his graduation from Oxford he astonished the world with the first volume of "Modern Painters," a work designed primarily to show the superiority of Turner, and a few other modern artists, over the older painters of landscape; in later volumes he wanders over the whole field of art criticism, the burden of his advice being a return to the study of nature itself.
"The Seven Lamps of Architecture" discusses the moral principles which should underlie architecture. This subject was suggested to him by his continual studies of the work of painters and architects in Italy and France while in pursuit of material for his earlier work. "The Stones of Venice" carries on the task set in both these works, namely the problem of the moral basis underneath all art, the purpose which should lie at the back of the artist's mind.
As he grew older his religious views, formerly rather narrow, became broader, in common with the progress of the times, yet he laid more and more stress on the need of upright and godly character in all who have any purpose of attempting good work.