RUSKIN GOES TO THE ASHMOLEAN

J Ruskin by J Millais-begun July 1853

completed Autumn 1854.

Millais' portrait of Ruskin is  a major work in the history of Pre-Raphaelitism and British culture and it is a matter for rejoicing that it has been accepted in lieu of death duties and will be part of the permanent collection at the Ashmolean. Because of Ruskin's long association with Oxford there  can be no more appropriate home for the portrait.It is a more substantial work than the somewhat undernourished Manet which the museum has recently acquired.

It seemed to me when I saw it last- a few weeks ago- to be a rather sad painting.The complicated  and often difficult circumstances of the commission may have something to do with this. One thing struck me:the proportions of the figure are not really satifactory and the head sits uneasily on the shoulders of a figure which is  not quite at ease.It portrays a very thin person. The proportions of head to figure are extreme but no where near so extraordinary as you get with Sargent.Where is Ruskin's waist? Is the mouth a little too "set"? That may or not be connected with Ruskin's childhood accident. Curiously enough John Dixon Hunt says that the figure had not been begun when the subject left Glenfinlas,"...although the background was almost complete,there was no  figure at all in the landscape...." But surely it would have been roughed in to some degree? If you are painting inch by inch, as Ruskin described there must have been some sketching in.An efficient painter does not look to waste effort by having to overlay areas already realised.

Again,the strained circumstances-the work being completed from life after Effie had left Ruskin and returned to her family in  Perth- are surely relevant.The personal relationship between Ruskin and Millais too was entering its  final stages.Any hope that Ruskin may have had of Millais becoming a great landscapist-in JR's view of things- was not to be.

I do not recall that Ruskin ever gave his own criticism of the portrait. It remained with his parents until they died.He gave it afterwards to his old friend Henry Acland. (revised Aug2013)

For another post on the portrait see here

The Wider Sea: John Dixon Hunt,London 1982.page 227.