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

Later Victorian Portraits Catalogue

Sitter in 72 portraits
Art critic, 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'.