The Life of John Ruskin

"There have been so many biographies of Ruskin, short and long, new and old. One of the shortest—a very good one—is by James Dearden. The longest by far is a recent one by Tim Hilton, which is a two-volume affair. What I wanted for my dictionary—and for my endeavours in the exhibition—was to bring myself as close as possible to Ruskin by seeing him through the eyes of a man who knew him very well during his own lifetime—such as his secretary. This is why Collingwood was so important to me. You can feel Ruskin breathingly alive in that book. In fact, the copy of Collingwood that I bought, which dates from 1900 (the year of Ruskin’s death), even had newspaper cuttings from around that period—including an interview with Ruskin’s chief carer, Joan Severn. I felt extremely close to Collingwood as a result of that, and a very real sense of being close to Ruskin himself, and his unusual habits, and especially, for example, in Collingwood’s wonderful description of the musical evenings at Brantwood, I thought all this was absolutely wonderful. Absolutely right. I think Collingwood’s views of Ruskin, the way he champions and describes him, now more than 100 years later, create a kind of immediacy. What struck me is the way that Collingwood tries to understand and get into Ruskin’s shoes. He was so close to the anguish of dealing with all the Turner business, for example, and other tribulations. Ruskin had such a terrible time as Turner’s executor. There was such chaos in Turner’s studio. It involved seven years of hard and selfless labour. It really took its toll on his physical and mental health."