The Art of Ruskin and the Spirit of Place

Download or read book The Art of Ruskin and the Spirit of Place written by John Dixon Hunt and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2020-10-14 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: English art critic John Ruskin was one of the great visionaries of his time, and his influential books and letters on the power of art challenged the foundations of Victorian life. He loved looking. Sometimes it informed the things he wrote, but often it provided access to the many topographical and cultural topics he explored—rocks, plants, birds, Turner, Venice, the Alps. In The Art of Ruskin and the Spirit of Place, John Dixon Hunt focuses for the first time on what Ruskin drew, rather than wrote, offering a new perspective on Ruskin’s visual imagination. Through analysis of more than 150 drawings and sketches, many reproduced here, he shows how Ruskin’s art shaped his writings, his thoughts, and his sense of place.