October_1965 — Page 37

An Amateur Architect

TH

by

Cedric

Astbury,

AA Dip,

FRIBA

HE_long reign of George I was drawing to a close. For the past nine years the king, blind and insane had been confined at Windsor.

In England immense social change had followed in the wake of the invention of the steam engine and the consequent establishment of the factory methods of manu- facture. Abroad the Government of India had passed from the hands of a commercial concern to come under the authority of the British crown. The abolition of the slave trade had recently been secured and British rule in America had been forcibly concluded.

At this time there lived in London a successful wine merchant and his wife. The Christmas of 1818 was one of anticipation, for Mrs. Ruskin was shortly to be deli- vered of her first and only child.

In February 1819, baby John was born in the family house in Bloomsbury. John's mother was a woman who spent much time reading the bible, and as John come to an age when he could understand, she often read to him.

John James Ruskin, the wine merchant, spent a not inconsiderable amount of time away from home.

It was essential for him to travel to collect business and his visits often took him to the great English houses.

This was fortunate for him, for being fond of paintings, he took the opportunity of seeing the art collections of the nobility.

The District of Bloomsbury where the Ruskins lived was still fashionable; but London was growing very rapid- ly and when their baby son was four Mr. & Mrs. Ruskin moved south to a new house on Herne Hill. In this house John Ruskin spent his formative years

as his parents preferred to have him educated at home and shield his obvious ability from harmful influences.

His studies included drawing and painting.

He was only fourteen when he began, with his parents, to tour Europe from time to time and to taste the natural and man-made beauties in the traditional cen- tres of culture of Switzerland, France and Germany.

Later he went up to Oxford to study at Christ Church but, as his mother moved into lodgings close by, we may assume that he did not savour to the full the customary joys of the undergraduate. Perhaps in a way it was fortunate that after three and a half years at Christ Church, he developed tuberculosis which interrupted his studies and further broadened his experience. In 1840 the hemorrhage which he suffered caused him to travel south to a warmer climate. He returned to finish his studies in 1842 and the summer of that year was spent in France with his parents.

At the age of 23, he started writing his first publish- ed work. It was a treatise clearly written in defence of the painter Turner. However, he did not publish the

Far East Architect & Builder October, 1965

work in his own name, preferring to remain disguised un- der the title "an Oxford graduate." At that time, Turner was attracting much adverse criticism.

He entitled the book "Modern Painters

and in it

the influence of his studies and travels in Europe were clearly shown when he wrote: "Mountains are the begin- ning and the end of all scenery". Eventually he was to write six volumes in the same series.

At the age of 26 he travelled again to Italy together with two henchmen, there to spend his time sketching Gothic architecture and studying Italian paintings. This resulted, on his return to England, in the publication of his second volume of "Modern Painters".

He married at the age of twenty-nine, Effie Gray, the daughter of a family friend but his judgement appears to have been at considerable fault as the woman he mar- ried divorced him six years later.

It may well be that he was not good company for his wife. After four months of marriage he took her to France although she had enjoyed the social life of London. By April of the next year Ruskin had produc- ed his defence of the Gothic tradition, called "The Seven Lamps of Architecture". By 1851 after another visit to Italy in 1849, he published "The Stones of Venice", which included a graphic description of the Ducal Palace. the year 1854 when Effie Gray left him. Ruskin started teaching at a working men's college.

In

His main interest then became the construction of the Oxford University Museum in the Gothic style. In 1857 he was invited by the National Gallery to sort out the legacy of Turner's paintings, and for almost a year this was his sole occupation.

During this time he became deeply interested in the elements of political economy on which subject he began to deliver lectures. The lectures were eventually publish- ed as the volume called "Unto This Last". The next year he visited Italy for the third time and produced his fifth volume of "Modern Painters".

By the age of forty in the year 1859 his last written work had been produced. He then continued to live with his mother at Denmark Hill until her death in 1871. During this time he wrote a series of "Letters to Work- ing Men", and two years later was appointed Slade Pro- fessor of Fine Art at Oxford.

In the year that his mother died he founded the "Company of St. George", and published for this society a journal called "Flors Clavigera". He sold the house at Denmark Hill and went to live at Coniston in the Lake District where a female relative kept house for him.

Ruskin suffered bouts of madness in 1878 and re- signed from his Professorship in Oxford that year. His last years were punctuated by periods of mental instabili- ty and in 1900 he died and lies buried at Coniston.

Ruskin's influence on art and architecture was very considerable. He felt that all beauty sprang from nature and from truth and he could see no beauty in architec- tural forms which did not have these roots. He believ- ed all good art had a spiritual basis even if not connected with the church.

He was a great believer in Gothic art, and saw in his lifetime a Gothic revival in architecture.

The cen- tury in which he lived has been described as the age of revivals.

John Ruskin was never in any great need to work because he was without question the son (the only son) of a wealthy man. When his father died in March 1864, he left his son £120,000 besides various properties and a fine collection of pictures which at that time must have provided a reasonable sense of security.

It may therefore appear strange that Ruskin showed a great concern for the working classes but this was pro- bably due to his strong protestant upbringing.

He felt that the craftsman and artisan should take pride in their work and he revolted against a social system which did not permit them to do so.

After his death various societies dedicated to the ful- fillment of his ideals continued to function until the dis- ruption of the world war in 1914. His influence also continued long after his death in the ideas of men like William Morris and Arnold Toynbee, one a socialist de- signer and one a social reformer.

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