Fifteen Things Ruskin Heartily Loathed

Iron Railings Your iron railing always means thieves outside, or Bedlam inside. The Houses of Parliament The most effeminate and effectless heap of stones ever raised by man. Wagner’s The Meistersingers Of all the bête, clumsy, blundering, boggling, baboon-blooded stuff...

Ruskin and Penguins

When I begin to think at all I get into states of disgust and fury at the way the mob is going on (meaning by mob, chiefly Dukes, crown princes, and such like persons) that I choke; and have to...

Heroism: The Face of Thomas Carlyle

A fitting way to end a conference entitled Rediscovering Carlyle is to rediscover the face and the character of the man himself. The Rediscovering Carlyle conference at Oxford has shown us all aspects of Carlyle’s influence and legacy. We know...

The Valiant by Aubrey Beardsley

The Valiant: A ballad by Aubrey Beardsley The valiant was a noble bark As ever ploughed the sea, A noble crew she also had As ever there might be. When once at night upon the deep The Valiant did sail,...

Visual Theology II Programme

We’re delighted to confirm a wonderful line-up of speakers below for our John Ruskin bicentenary event, Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites: Sacre Conversazioni  Timings and biographies will be published in our printed programme for the event. Booking is now live online and...

But it’s Easter, and we must suffer.

This monologue is extracted from the play Easter by August Strindberg (1901) Eleanor (aged 16) has been away in an asylum, and has returned to her family unexpectedly. Her family are disgraced because their father has been sent to prison...

The Burne-Jones Retrospective at Tate Britain

 

John Ruskin on The Light of the World

To the Editor of the Times Sir, I trust that, with your usual kindness and liberality, you will give me room in your columns for a few words respecting the principal Pre-Raphaelite picture in the Exhibition of the Royal Academy...

Edward Burne-Jones at the Tate

‘I mean for my pictures to be a beautiful dream’ Edward Burne-Jones Tate Britain’s major Edward Burne-Jones retrospective closes in a few weeks. The rich petrol teals, the deep blues and the nearly papal purples of the Tate’s sensuous exhibition...