John Ruskin was a leading English art critic of the Victorian era who was also an artist, writer, and social thinker. He emphasized the connections between nature, art, and society in his writing and produced detailed sketches and paintings of natural subjects like rocks, plants, birds, and landscapes. Ruskin was inspired by the work of J.M.W. Turner and defended his reputation early in his career. Two of his own artworks shown are a 1870 watercolor study of a velvet crab using bright body colors and a 1879 watercolor study of a kingfisher that uses cool plain colors lifted from a light blue background.

1. JOHN RUSKIN
Brief Biographical Details:
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of
the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman,
watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and
philanthropist.
Born: 8th February 1819 in London.
Died: 20th January 1900 in Coniston.
In all Ruskin’s writing, he emphases the
connections between nature, art and the society,
and made indicate detailed sketches and paintings
of rocks, plants, birds, landscapes, architectural
structures and ornamentation.
John Ruskin was inspired by the artwork of J.M.W
Turner. As his early work was defended by the
reputation of J.M.W Turner.
Study of Velvet Crab
Autumn 1870
Body Colour over graphite on blue wove paper.
Study of a Kingfisher
1879
Watercolour and Body Colour over
graphite on wove paper
John Ruskin was one of the six main artists, who have influenced one of my own observations of a
crab to use bright body-like colours to show the intricate detail and the form.
Just like the body colours used within Ruskin’s observation studies of everyday things,
furthermore another reason, why he influenced me was the way he uses cool, plain colours to lift
the carb of the wove paper from the light blue background.
From a feature, that can be reveal across all John Ruskin’s studies is that he uses natural colours
whilst using watercolours, graphite and bodycolours to describe the ‘beauty’ and define the
individual markings to tell the form of the animal.