John Ruskin

Beards, Men of Mark, Portrait: Men, Supports

Dimensions

Image Dimensions: 24.9 x 19.5 cm
Support Dimensions: Detail: 45.7 x 33.1 cm (Van Gelder Zonen plate paper)

John Ruskin (1819-1900), Writer, artist and social reformer:

One of the great thinkers and critics of the Victorian period, whose writings profoundly influenced attitudes to art, architecture and aesthetics; published ‘Modern Painters’, 1843-60, ‘Seven Lamps of Architecture’, 1849, and ‘Stones of Venice’ 1851-3; later turned to social and political problems, advocating socialistic reforms; keenly interested in science and an accomplished watercolourist. His unfinished autobiography, Praeterita is a highly selective account, and a radically different approach to autobiography, intended as an ‘informal assemblage of memories’.  (1.)

Originally taken in 1882 by Elliott & Fry in London, this defining portrait of John Ruskin is part of the Corpus Imaginum: “Authentic Portraits of the Past and Present” portrait collection published as folio-sized gravures by the Photographische Gesellschaft in Berlin. (known as the Berlin Photographic Company in The United States and London)

1. biography: John Ruskin: National Portrait Gallery: London: online resource accessed July, 2014