To See Clearly: Why Ruskin Matters

by Suzanne Fagence Cooper

'To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, religion, all in one'John Ruskin - born 200 years ago, in February 1819 - was the greatest critic of his a critic not only of art and architecture but of society and life. But his writings - on beauty and truth, on work and leisure, on commerce and capitalism, on life and how to live it - can teach us more than ever about how to see the world around us clearly and how to live it.Dr Suzanne Fagence Cooper delves into Ruskin's writings and uncovers the dizzying beauty and clarity of his vision. Whether he was examining the exquisite carvings of a medieval cathedral or the mass-produced wares of Victorian industry, chronicling the beauties of Venice and Florence or his own descent into old age and infirmity, Ruskin saw vividly the glories and the contradictions of life, and taught us how to see them as well.

Genres: Art History, Nonfiction, Art, Architecture, Biography

178 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 7, 2019

About the author

Dr. Suzanne Fagence Cooper was educated at Merton College, Oxford, Christie's Education and the Courtald Institute before becoming the Victoria & Albert Museum Research Fellow at Buckinghamshire New University in 1999. Her involvement with the V&A dates back to 1996, when she was appointed curator, and in 2001 she co-curated the V&A's major exhibition 'The Victorian Vision.'

Suzanne's published work includes the book Victorian Women (V&A Publications, 2001) and two essays for the book that supported the exhibition 'The Victorian Vision' in 2002. Her book Pre-Raphaelite Art in the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A Publications, 2003) brought together objects normally dispersed around the museum to examine the relationship between the V&A and this group of Victorian artists.

Her renowned knowledge of Victorian art and culture has led to numerous broadcast opportunities. She has been interviewed for Radio 4, the BBC World Service, and the television programme Victorians Roadshow (BBC2), and has worked as a consultant for the programmes What the Victorians Did for Us, (BBC2), presented by Adam Hart-Davis, and Simon Schama's series History of Britain (BBC2). She has also given many public lectures, including regularly on Cunard's Queen Mary II, as part of the Oxford University Discovery programme (2004).

Suzanne lives between London and York with her husband and two daughters

Reviews

[Marcus Hobson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thirty-eight years ago I acquired several books by Ruskin. Most are dated 1897; there are two volumes of The Stones of Venice, four volumes of Modern Painters, and two collections of speeches and essays called Two Paths and Sesame and Lilies. They have sat patiently waiting for my attention for the entire thirty-eight years. At the time I acquired them, I spent a lot of time inside Modern Painters, and still vividly recall Ruskin’s drawing of the aspen tree – ‘unidealised’ he called it. That particular page was twice as thick as the others, made of card and not the glossy surface of the other plates and pictures. There was a frame embossed around the aspen page. I loved the plates, the drawings and sketches, but the dry looking essays never got read.

This book on Ruskin is the prefect remedy for my problem – how to understand more about the man and his ideas without having to plough through the 39 fat volumes of his work. It is also a book for modern times, showing a man who in many ways was ahead of his time, but also one caught up in the thinking of the time. What I love most are the little snippets of Ruskin’s lasting legacy. What he did in his own lifetime is in small places very much alive today.

The author’s encounter with Ruskin sounds a little like mine: “My own encounter with Ruskin began as a teenager. I was swallowed up by The Stones of Venice, as some of my friends became absorbed in Middle Earth.” “He offered a new way of experiencing and interacting.” “As William Morris, the poet/maker said, Ruskin seemed ‘to point out a new road on which the world should travel’. He made it possible for me to say, as Morris said, that I wanted to ‘devote my life to art’.”

There are several themes that flow through the book – about how keenly Ruskin saw things, with incredible clarity for the small details, about his thoughts and concerns for the working man which he translated into his own form of philanthropy, his love of nature and the outdoors and finally his declining mental health in his later years.

The result is a mass of quotes and interesting passages that I could include in the review. For the sake of brevity I will try to distil this down to a handful that I enjoyed the most. However, I do have to confess to a bias, since I was delighted to see that Ruskin had a huge concern for the Yorkshire city of Sheffield. That is where I was born and where both my parents’ families originate from, so I have included a disproportionate number of references to the city.

“Many of the copies he commissioned were given to his museum in Walkley, three miles outside the centre of Sheffield. The site was deliberately chosen. It was to be a destination, the end point of a pleasant stroll up from the city. The walk and the objects on display were equal parts of the project. Visitors could enjoy the exercise and the view of the Rivelin and Loxley valleys before stepping inside, to explore further afield. (Since the collections have moved to the Millennium Galleries in the heart of Sheffield, visitors now hear recordings of birdsong as they enter the modern space, to remind us of the origins of Ruskin’s enterprise.)”
“How were the working people of Sheffield supposed to respond to the fragmentary glories of Italy? Ruskin suggested that the best museum should ‘give little, but that little good and beautiful’. And, he said, ‘explain it thoroughly’. It was no good lining up ‘a thousand specimens…what is the use of that to a man who has only a quarter of an hour to spare in a week?’”

"Ruskin hoped that those who came would be encouraged to turn their hands and minds to new things. He wanted the metalworkers of Sheffield to think differently about their own skills, and to take pride in their productions.”

I did enjoy the description of Ruskin on his travels – he was certainly not travelling for a rest.

“When he was travelling, he would set out straight after breakfast with his notebooks and tape measures, and sketch old houses and churches for six hours a day. He drew their details, adding notes in the margin. He copied the colours of their marbles and mosaics with his paints. He set up tripods and captured their light and shade, the ivy clinging to their surfaces, with daguerreotype photography. He organised teams to create plaster casts of the most delicate carved capitals and traceries. He climbed ladders, stuck his head out of windows, cajoled, protested and preserved. He loved buildings.”

Ruskin was a huge fan of Gothic architecture, but I was interested in his definition of what might characterise a Gothic building:

“He suggests six characteristics to help identify a true Gothic building. The list is typically idiosyncratic, but it does open up new ways of thinking about structure and decoration. It also focuses on the intentions of the architect and workers, as much as on the finished building. There should be savageness, changefulness, naturalism, grotesqueness, rigidity and redundance. Gothic art is never perfect. It is strange and bold, never spare, never simply pretty, always rooted in the understanding of nature.”

Ruskin lived a long life – he died in 1900 at the age of 80. But it is clear that his later years were much disturbed by mental illness and so I was interested to read one theory about what might have been a reason behind his heightened visual experiences:

“Is it possible that his hypersensitivity to visual experience might be related to his later ill-health? At times he really does seem to be able to see more intensely, exploring a painting or a landscape with his eyes in a way that makes the rest of us seem half blind. Occasionally people who have suffered strokes can be left with altered perception.”
“I learnt of this possibility when talking to a stroke survivor. We were on an art tour of Tuscany, and standing on a terrace, watching the sun set over Florence. He described an extraordinary world of visual beauty that had opened up to him in the wake of his stroke – colours were more vivid, greens beyond anything he had known before. He had simply fallen in love with looking. (At the same time, he said, his musical ear had been deadened, and his favourite pieces now sounded harsh.)”
Was this a way to explain Ruskin’s clear-sightedness?


And finally I had to include this piece about Ruskin and his feud with the painter James Whistler. Again, this was all information that was new to me:

“In the summer of 1877 a new gallery opened in London, The Grosvenor Gallery – a shop window for more advanced painters who found The Royal Academy stultifying.
Ruskin did not make the opening night, but when he did review the show he singled out Whistler as a charlatan, who was asking ‘two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face.’ His display, especially his Nocturne in Black and Gold: the Falling Rocket, was an act of ‘ill-educated conceit’ and ‘wilful imposture’. In Ruskin’s opinion, Whistler’s Nocturne was a hasty sketch, dressed up in a gold frame, and offered as a finished work of art. Anyone who bought it was being conned. It was not worth the money.”

He had attacked Whistler before. This time Whistler sued him for libel. Anxiety about defending his views caused a collapse in Ruskin’s health.

“Ruskin lost the case. But Whistler did not fare much better. He was only awarded a farthing in damages, and was driven to bankruptcy, because of the legal costs – losing his house and his position as a portraitist.”
Rapidly it became shameful to have a piece by Whistler.
It did not help his case when the picture was accidentally shown to the jury upside down.


This short book is wonderful – an ideal guide and starting point for all things Ruskin.

[Christina Baehr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a slim primer on Ruskin’s thought and life and it just succeeds so well at what it sets out to do. Cooper is one of my favourite living historians. She is generous, thoughtful, and empathetic, and does not give disproportionate weight to speculations about sexuality. In fact, I felt like her tasteful discussion of Ruskin’s sexuality was the most insightful thing I’ve seen on the subject.
This is not a comprehensive book, but for anyone who has been wondering where to start with reading Ruskin (and that’s a real conundrum given his prolific and catholic output), this is just perfect.
It’s also a beautiful little pocket-sized book. I’d recommend it as a lovely gift for anyone who wants to understand aesthetics or 19th century social theory better, or long to be more attentive to the world around them.
UPDATE: I forgot to mention that Cooper's treatment of Ruskin's faith/religious beliefs is also nuanced and generous.

[Rachel Loh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introduction to Ruskin and his perspectives as well as how his life impacted what he came to speak about on art, politics, capitalism. I also liked that the author was honest and pointed out how clouded Ruskin’s opinions were at some points as well as his questionable love for underage girls. A good and short book overall with enjoyable writing.

[Cate Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely riveting introduction to Ruskin's thinking outside of his relationships with the Pre-Raphaelites. Ruskin's ideas about nature, the natural order of things, are as relevant today (perhaps more relevant) than they were when he wrote them down. His concerns over climate change and clean air ring very modern, for instance, but his ideas about how the world is ordered and how one should live in the world are eternal. A lovely, beautifully-written book.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ruskin was a genius, but a frustrating genius. He was a very imperfect man, whose strange cosseted upbringing and personal oddities hampered his usefulness, and led to much of his personal unhappiness. In this short “appreciation“, the author outlines Ruskin’s abiding value, drawing out important themes.

1.Ruskin teaches us how to see and observe, and with his consummate skill in drawing, how to see through the medium of recording through drawing and writing. He shows us the spiritual value of careful observation of the world in which God has placed us.

2. Ruskin helps us to understand the importance of “place“, the buildings and structures we inhabit and what they mean. This includes the vital importance of the care of creation-I don’t like the phrase environmentalism. Ruskin saw in the industrial revolution much of the negative impact on nature, as well as on the lives of workers through the wage system and functional work.

3. Ruskin teaches us about the meaning of work, and the need for “personal work“ rather than impersonal rationalised processes, upon which the factory system was based.

4.Ruskin teaches us and indefatigable work ethic and care for this. His complete works amounted to nearly forty fat volumes.

This book was a pleasure to read and enjoy, it is just the right type of book to be a true appreciation, albeit not uncritical, of its subject.

[Candy Wood]

The 200th anniversary of John Ruskin’s birth has prompted some new considerations of the Victorian critic of art and society for general readers. As Suzanne Fagence Cooper’s subtitle, “Why Ruskin Matters,” indicates, she argues that “Ruskin speaks to us. He shows that we are all connected by our choices - what we wear and eat and read, how we travel, how we spend our money, how we teach our children.” While the lavishness of his prose style, his attitudes toward women, and the sad details of much of his private life might deter 21st-century readers, his writings about social justice and care for the environment do have resonance and relevance today. Through carefully selected quotation, Cooper conveys the pleasure she felt when first reading The Stones of Venice as a teen and continues to feel as an art historian and parent. This is an excellent introduction to a complex figure, but I’m sorry that only the ebook version was available to me--tiny illustrations and multiple blank pages between chapters, as well as shifting page numbers depending on the screen size, distract from the experience.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a short book and so well written that I have to give it 5*

Anyone interested in John Ruskin/Victorian life/mindfulness/care of our precious environment will benefit from reading this little book.

Ruskin was way ahead of his time. Today we think of Greta Thunberg and David Attenborough as drawing our attention to the danger our planet is in; John Ruskin was saying all of this (and more) 200 years ago!!!

Well done to Suzanne Fagence Cooper for giving us yet another timely reminder of the need to care for the earth, and with it, our souls.

[Cassandra Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful overview of Ruskin's legacy in both art and environmental spheres. That said, the book delves into Ruskin's views on why beauty matters and how beauty is displayed and preserved in the world. It is this view on beauty and mindfulness that makes him an important figure in art, literature, and naturalism.

[Freya Nedderman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully written love letter to Ruskin's way of viewing the world and a passionate encouragement to open our eyes and actively see and engage with the world around us. Ruskin is, as it turns out, just as relevant today as he ever was!

[Sara Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really knew nothing about Ruskin before I started this book, and it proved to was a good short, readable introduction to the man, his art and concerns - some of which (around climate and capitalism) still feel relevant today.

[Catherine Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant companion to the Ruskin Turner exhibition on at York Art Gallery. Beautifully written and a great introduction to Ruskin.

[Emma]

This didn't delve nearly as deeply into each topic as I thought it might have. Every chapter felt only discursive.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short, simple, beautiful biography

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an absolute gem. Succinct, thoughtful, and full of insight into Ruskin's mind and beliefs. Not a biography as such, though there's plenty of detail about Ruskin's family and upbringing and how that formed him.

The one thing that most people know about Ruskin is his unfortunate and unconsummated marriage to Effie Gray, and inevitably he doesn't come out of that particular story well. Suzanne Fagence Cooper (who has also written a biography of Effie) doesn't shy away from this particular part of his life or his other relationships (if that's the right word) with young girls, which to a modern reader seem highly questionable. But what she does is reveal his thought processes in so many other areas; how he tried to get people to look closely at objects, at buildings, at the natural world and to value them more; how he recognised the threat of pollution and climate change long before the term was coined; how he believed that people from all walks of life should keep looking and learning, and that this could enhance all our lives. Cooper puts herself in the frame too, drawing the reader in as she looks at a view or a building and imagines Ruskin doing the same.

A beautiful piece of writing and highly recommended. For some reason Goodreads won't let me add a rating at the moment but I'm giving this five stars.

[Elif · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must for all Ruskin lovers!

English: https://elifthereader.com/books/to-se...
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[Steve Dragon · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's something gentle about this book. It is delicate in how it is written, it moves like a soft breeze through Ruskin's life and work. It is brief, but instead of being sparse on detail it has been written to be clear on what details it wants to focus on. The chapters are not organised in chronological order, but it prefers to jump around and discuss aspects of Ruskin's life. Each chapter starts anew, taking us to a part of his life and sometimes back to the very beginning. Then, it unfolds him carefully and selectively.

I have criticisms. I feel Cooper may be a little too sympathetic to Ruskin in some parts, the sensitivity of some of the more controversial discussions feel under-appreciated. In other places, the book feels repetitive. A number of the chapters will re-iterate his childhood, and sometimes feel like they are saying nothing new. Finally, I wish the quotations from Ruskin himself were more extended, we are told he is a beautiful writer but not offered enough of this writing. (Though on this last point, I am being pedantic. This is a quick guide, not a detailed companion. I must go and read Ruskin for myself).

At its core, however, this is a brilliant book. Despite my criticisms, there was not a moment where I wanted to put this book down. The book does not merely discuss Ruskin, but it is written in a way that reminded me of the Pre-Raphaelites and Ruskin's work. Cooper has interesting things to say, and the book is a very charming read. It is inspiring in the right ways.

It may not be as enjoyable for everyone as it was for me. However, if you are into art, then it is a wonderful introduction to a towering figure of the 19th century.

[Jeroen Van de Crommenacker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice, thoughtful introduction.