In the bicentenary of his birth, it’s time we looked again at the forward-thinking and influential ideas of the great Victorian, writes Daisy Dunn.

— Read on www.bbc.com/culture/story/20190207-was-ruskin-the-most-important-man-of-the-last-200-years

Indeed, Ruskin was not only an astute critic but a talented artist in his own right. He likened the “strong instinct” he felt to draw to the instinct to eat and drink. Drawings of gooseberry blossom and ragwort, mountains and clouds, minerals and birds, including an exquisite sulphur-crested cockatoo he sketched at the zoo, line the walls of the London exhibition. Art, he believed, should reflect nature.

(Daisy Dunn, “Was Ruskin the most important man of the last 200 years?”, BBC.com, 2-8-19)

(c) 2019 JMN.