Editing John Ruskin (section)

===Pre-Raphaelites===
[[File:Millais Ruskin.jpg|thumb|''[[John Ruskin (painting)|John Ruskin]]'' painted by the [[Pre-Raphaelite]] artist [[John Everett Millais]] standing at [[Glen Finglas]], Scotland, (1853–54).<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 886970|title = Ruskin and Millais at Glenfinals|journal = The Burlington Magazine|volume = 138|issue = 1117|pages = 228–234|last1 = Grieve|first1 = Alastair|year = 1996}}</ref>]]

[[John Everett Millais]], [[William Holman Hunt]] and [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]] had established the [[Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood]] in 1848. The Pre-Raphaelite commitment to 'naturalism'&nbsp;– "paint[ing] from nature only",{{sfn|Cook and Wedderburn|loc=12.357n}} depicting nature in fine detail, had been influenced by Ruskin.

Ruskin became acquainted with Millais after the artists made an approach to Ruskin through their mutual friend [[Coventry Patmore]].<ref>[[Derrick Leon]], ''Ruskin: The Great Victorian'' (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1949), pp. 137–49.</ref> Initially, Ruskin had not been impressed by Millais's ''[[Christ in the House of His Parents]]'' (1849–50), a painting that was considered blasphemous at the time, but Ruskin wrote letters defending the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood to ''[[The Times]]'' during May 1851.{{sfn|Cook and Wedderburn|loc=12.319–335}} Providing Millais with artistic patronage and encouragement, in the summer of 1853 the artist (and his brother) travelled to Scotland with Ruskin and Effie where, at [[Glen Finglas]], he painted the closely observed landscape background of [[gneiss]] rock to which, as had always been intended, he later added [[John Ruskin (painting)|Ruskin's portrait]].

Millais had painted a picture of Effie for ''[[The Order of Release|The Order of Release, 1746]]'', exhibited at the [[Royal Academy]] in 1852. Suffering increasingly from physical illness and acute mental anxiety, Effie was arguing fiercely with her husband and his intense and overly protective parents, and sought solace with her own parents in Scotland. The Ruskin marriage was already undermined as she and Millais fell in love, and Effie left Ruskin, causing a public scandal.

During April 1854, Effie filed her [[annulment|suit of nullity]], on grounds of "non-consummation" owing to his "incurable [[impotence|impotency]]",<ref>Mary Lutyens, ''Millais and the Ruskins'' (John Murray, 1968) p. 236.</ref><ref>Sir William James, ''The Order of Release, the story of John Ruskin, Effie Gray and John Everett Millais'', 1946, p. 237</ref> a charge Ruskin later disputed.<ref>Phyllis Rose, ''Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages'', 1983, p. 87</ref> Ruskin wrote, "I can prove my virility at once."<ref>Mary Lutyens, ''Millais and the Ruskins'' (John Murray, 1968) p. 192.</ref> The annulment was granted in July. Ruskin did not even mention it in his diary. Effie married Millais the following year. The complex reasons for the non-consummation and ultimate failure of the Ruskin marriage are a matter of enduring speculation and debate.

Ruskin continued to support [[William Holman Hunt|Hunt]] and [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti|Rossetti]]. He also provided an annuity of £150 in 1855–1857 to [[Elizabeth Siddal]], Rossetti's wife, to encourage her art (and paid for the services of [[Henry Acland]] for her medical care).<ref name="ReferenceA">''ODNB'': "Critic of Contemporary Art".</ref> Other artists influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites also received both critical and financial assistance from Ruskin, including [[John Brett (artist)|John Brett]], [[John William Inchbold]], and [[Edward Burne-Jones]], who became a good friend (he called him "Brother Ned").<ref>W. G. Collingwood, ''Life and Work of John Ruskin'' (Methuen, 1900) p. 402.</ref> His father's disapproval of such friends was a further cause of tension between them.

During this period Ruskin wrote regular reviews of the annual exhibitions at the [[Royal Academy]] with the title ''Academy Notes'' (1855–1859, 1875).{{sfn|Cook and Wedderburn|loc=vol. 14}} They were highly influential, capable of making or breaking reputations. The satirical magazine ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' published the lines (24 May 1856), "I paints and paints,/hears no complaints/And sells before I'm dry,/Till savage Ruskin/He sticks his tusk in/Then nobody will buy."<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=udKymsQhKMEC&q=I+paints+and+paints%2C%2Fhears+no+complaints%2FAnd+sells+before+I%E2%80%99m+dry%2C%2FTill+savage+Ruskin+sticks+his+tusk+in%2FThen+nobody+will+buy&pg=PA31] {{dead link|date=January 2018|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

Ruskin was an art-philanthropist: in March 1861 he gave 48 [[J. M. W. Turner|Turner]] drawings to the [[Ashmolean]] in [[Oxford]], and a further 25 to the [[Fitzwilliam Museum]], [[Cambridge]] in May.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/gallery/turner/info.htm |title=Fitzwilliam Museum Collections Explorer |website=Fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk |access-date=18 July 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903031532/http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/gallery/turner/info.htm |archive-date=3 September 2014  }}</ref> Ruskin's own work was very distinctive, and he occasionally exhibited his watercolours: in the United States in 1857–58 and 1879, for example; and in England, at the Fine Art Society in 1878, and at the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour (of which he was an honorary member) in 1879. He created many careful studies of natural forms, based on his detailed botanical, geological and architectural observations.<ref>The relation between Ruskin, his art and criticism, was explored in the exhibition Ruskin, Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites (Tate Britain, 2000), curated by Robert Hewison, Stephen Wildman and Ian Warrell.</ref> Examples of his work include a painted, floral pilaster decoration in the central room of [[Wallington Hall]] in Northumberland, home of his friend [[Pauline Trevelyan]]. The [[Stained glass|stained glass window]] in the ''Little Church of St Francis'' Funtley, [[Fareham, Hampshire]] is reputed to have been designed by him. Originally placed in the ''St. Peter's Church'' Duntisbourne Abbots near [[Cirencester]], the window depicts the Ascension and the Nativity.<ref>Malcolm Low & Julie Graham, ''The stained glass window of the Little Church of St. Francis'', private publication August 2002 & April 2006, for viewing Fareham Library reference Section or the [[Westbury Manor Museum]] Ref: section Fareham, hants; [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/m.low1/funtley/funtleychurch.htm The stained glass window of the Church of St. Francis. Funtley, Fareham, Hampshire] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930232049/http://homepage.ntlworld.com/m.low1/funtley/funtleychurch.htm |date=30 September 2007 }}</ref>

Ruskin's theories also inspired some architects to adapt the [[Gothic architecture|Gothic style]]. Such buildings created what has been called a distinctive "Ruskinian Gothic".<ref>J. Mordaunt Crook, "Ruskinian Gothic", in ''The Ruskin Polygon: Essays on the Imagination of John Ruskin'', ed. John Dixon Hunt and Faith M. Holland (Manchester University Press, 1982), pp. 65–93.</ref> Through his friendship with [[Henry Acland]], Ruskin supported attempts to establish what became the [[Oxford University Museum of Natural History]] (designed by [[Benjamin Woodward]]) — which is the closest thing to a model of this style, but still failed to satisfy Ruskin completely. The many twists and turns in the Museum's development, not least its increasing cost, and the University authorities' less than enthusiastic attitude towards it, proved increasingly frustrating for Ruskin.<ref>Michael Brooks, ''John Ruskin and Victorian Architecture'' (Thames and Hudson, 1991), p. 127.</ref>