Modern Painters (Ruskin)
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| Modern Painters (Ruskin) | |
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| Name | Modern Painters |
| Author | John Ruskin |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Art criticism |
| Publisher | Smith, Elder & Co. |
| Pub date | 1843–1860 (five volumes) |
| Media type | |
Modern Painters (Ruskin) John Ruskin's Modern Painters is a multi-volume work of art criticism originally published between 1843 and 1860 that redefined Victorian attitudes toward painting, aesthetics, and landscape art. Written in defense of J. M. W. Turner and in conversation with figures such as John Constable, Paul Cézanne, Eugène Delacroix, Claude Monet, and William Turner, it engaged broader cultural debates linked to institutions like the Royal Academy and events such as the Great Exhibition. Ruskin's arguments intersected with personalities including Charles Dickens, William Wordsworth, Thomas Carlyle, Walter Pater, and John Ruskin's contemporaries across Europe and America.
Background and Publication History
Ruskin began Modern Painters as a pamphlet defending J. M. W. Turner against critics associated with the Royal Academy, particularly during controversies involving critics like John Wilson Croker and artistic debates connected to the Society of Painters in Water Colours. The first volume appeared in 1843 during discussions that also involved figures such as Charles Eastlake, Henry Fuseli, Benjamin Haydon, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and William Hazlitt. Subsequent volumes (1846, 1851, 1856, 1860) were published amid cultural shifts reflected in events like the Great Exhibition of 1851 and intellectual currents from German Idealism, the writings of G. W. F. Hegel, and the influence of Immanuel Kant. Patrons and correspondents ranged from Thomas Carlyle and John Henry Newman to art lovers such as Lady Eastlake and collectors like John Sheepshanks and Alfred Gentz. Editions and revisions engaged debates with critics like John Ruskin's rivals at journals such as the Edinburgh Review and persons including Leigh Hunt, Benjamin Disraeli, and William Makepeace Thackeray.
Structure and Contents
The five-volume arrangement addresses theory, practice, and moral philosophy across sections comparing works by Turner, Constable, Gainsborough, Hans Holbein, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci. Ruskin integrates close visual analysis of paintings by Titian, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Diego Velázquez, Peter Paul Rubens, Nicolas Poussin, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, and John Everett Millais. He juxtaposes historical artists such as Giotto di Bondone and Sandro Botticelli with modern figures like Eugène Delacroix and Honoré Daumier. Technical discussions invoke guilds and workshops associated with Florence, Venice, Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, and London while touching on materials used by artists such as William Morris’s circle and the practices debated by Samuel Palmer and John Ruskin's contemporaries.
Key Themes and Arguments
Ruskin argues that truthful representation of nature—exemplified in works by J. M. W. Turner and praised by John Constable—is the primary moral purpose of painting, countering formalist positions advanced by figures like Sir Joshua Reynolds and institutions such as the Royal Academy. He insists on moral and spiritual dimensions drawn from writers like William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge and philosophical resources including Aristotle, Plato, G. W. F. Hegel, and Immanuel Kant. Ruskin foregrounds visual perception informed by contemporaries such as Thomas Carlyle and John Henry Newman, and he draws parallels with the craft reforms advocated by William Morris, the social thought of John Ruskin's allies, and the medieval practices of the Guilds of Florence and Guildhall. He critiques industrial processes highlighted during the Industrial Revolution and events like the Great Exhibition of 1851, arguing that aesthetic degeneration accompanies social degradation—a view resonant with reformers including Octavia Hill and critics in journals such as the Quarterly Review.
Reception and Influence
Contemporary reception ranged from enthusiastic endorsement by admirers such as John Ruskin's supporters in the Pre-Raphaelite circle including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, and John Everett Millais, to sharp criticism from established authorities like Sir Joshua Reynolds’s successors and reviewers in the Edinburgh Review and Quarterly Review. The book influenced later critics and aesthetes including Walter Pater, Clive Bell, Roger Fry, Bernard Berenson, Kenneth Clark, and Ernst Gombrich. Its impact extended internationally to American figures such as Charles Eliot Norton, John Singer Sargent, James McNeill Whistler, and institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery. Scholars and artists across Europe—Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, Édouard Manet, Gustave Courbet, and Camille Pissarro—engaged with Ruskinian ideas in varied ways, as did educators at the Slade School of Fine Art and museums such as the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Critical Responses and Controversies
Criticism targeted Ruskin's moralizing tone and his polemical attacks on rivals such as John Ruskin's critics in the London Review; reviewers like Matthew Arnold and writers such as John Stuart Mill and Thomas Carlyle debated his epistemology and claims about perception. Controversies include disputes over Turner’s technique debated by figures like John Ruskin's antagonists in the Royal Academy and public scandals involving art forgery and attribution that implicated collectors such as Sir Charles Eastlake and scholars like Jacob Burckhardt. The series provoked legal and personal conflicts with contemporaries like Charles Dickens and intellectual disagreements traceable to philosophers such as Herbert Spencer and Benedetto Croce. Later critics, including Clive Bell and Roger Fry, contested Ruskin’s emphasis on moral content in favor of formalist analyses derived from Immanuel Kant and G. W. F. Hegel's successors.
Legacy and Impact on Art Criticism
Modern Painters established principles that shaped the trajectory of modern art criticism, influencing museum practices at institutions like the National Gallery, the Tate Gallery, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, and informing pedagogy at the Royal College of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art. Its arguments anticipated debates taken up by John Ruskin's intellectual heirs such as Walter Pater, Roger Fry, Clive Bell, Kenneth Clark, Ernst Gombrich, and Michael Fried. The work contributed to the formation of movements and networks including the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the Arts and Crafts circle around William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, and influenced curators and collectors such as John Sheepshanks, Samuel Courtauld, and Andrew Mellon. Modern scholarship links Ruskin’s methods to later interdisciplinary studies by figures like T. J. Clark and Rosalind Krauss, while museums and universities continue to debate his legacy in exhibitions referencing J. M. W. Turner, John Constable, Paul Cézanne, and Claude Monet.
Category:Books about art