"We Never See Anything Clearly:" John Ruskin and Landscape Painting

Museum of Art Museum of Art

Exhibition: "We Never See Anything Clearly:" John Ruskin and Landscape Painting

Dates:

Location:

Becker Gallery
John Ruskin (1819-1900), a prominent English art critic of the Victorian era, discussed in his writings possibilities for the reconciliation of two adverse trends in British art of his time: the atmospheric effects that characterize art by J.M.W. Turner and his circle and the heightened detail cherished by the Pre-Raphaelites and their emulators. The exhibition, drawn from the permanent collection, features several of Ruskin's own drawings and those of English and American artists whose struggles with pictorial detail and effect echoed his own.

Selected Works

About

John Ruskin (1819-1900), a prominent English art critic of the Victorian era, discussed in his writings possibilities for the reconciliation of two adverse trends in British art of his time: the atmospheric effects that characterize art by J.M.W. Turner and his circle and the heightened detail cherished by the Pre-Raphaelites and their emulators. The exhibition, drawn from the permanent collection, features several of Ruskin's own drawings and those of English and American artists whose struggles with pictorial detail and effect echoed his own. 

Art majors Ben Livingston, class of 2013, and Ursula Moreno-VanderLaan, class of 2013, worked with Pamela Fletcher, Associate Professor of Art History to research and organize the exhibition, as part of Bowdoin College course ART 352, "The Pre-Raphaelites."