''Modern Painters'' (1843–1860) is a five-volume work by the Victorian art critic,
John Ruskin
John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...
, begun when he was 24 years old based on material collected in Switzerland in 1842. Ruskin argues that recent painters emerging from the tradition of the
picturesque
Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in ''Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year ...
are superior in the art of landscape to the
s. The book was primarily written as a defense of the later work of
J. M. W. Turner. Ruskin used the book to argue that art should devote itself to the accurate documentation of nature. In Ruskin's view, Turner had developed from early detailed documentation of nature to a later more profound insight into natural forces and atmospheric effects. In this way, ''Modern Painters'' reflects "Landscape and Portrait-Painting" (1829) in ''
The Yankee
''The Yankee'' (later retitled ''The Yankee and Boston Literary Gazette'') was one of the first cultural publications in the United States, founded and edited by John Neal (1793–1876), and published in Portland, Maine as a weekly periodical ...
'' by American art critic
John Neal by distinguishing between "things seen by the artist" and "things as they are".
Ruskin added later volumes in subsequent years. Volume two (1846) placed emphasis on symbolism in art, expressed through nature. The second volume was influential on the early development of the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He produced three more volumes, with the fifth and final volume appearing in 1860.
The fifth volume marked the end of the formational and important part of Ruskin's life in which his father had a great influence.
[''John Ruskin: the early years 1819–1859''. Tim Hilton. 1985. ]
References
Citations
Sources
*Mark Jarzombeck, "Recognizing Ruskin: "Modern Painters" and the Refractions of Self", ''Assemblage'', No. 32 (Apr., 1997), pp. 70–87
External links
* ''Modern Painters
Volume IVolume IIVolume IIIVolume IVVolume V
' at Project Gutenberg
''Modern Painters''
at Ruskin Library & Research Centre, Lancaster University
''The Works of John Ruskin: Modern Painters'', V.1–5
John Wiley and Sons (1890) public domain at Google Books
Art history books
Books by John Ruskin
1843 books
1846 books
Smith, Elder & Co books
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