in venice with ruskin

This book tells the long and fruitful story between John Ruskin (1819–1900) and the city of Venice. During his lifetime, the English critic visited Venice repeatedly: starting in 1835, in a span of about fifty years, he returned there eleven times in his quest to capture its most authentic essence. As is well known, as a result of his long stays in the city he published the Stones of Venice, the three-volume work on the history of this city, on its beauty, uniqueness and fragility, a work that would become a cornerstone of 19th-century culture and the Gothic revival. Less well known, however, is his extraordinary talent as a draughtsman and watercolourist, displayed in the Venetian views and architectural details of palaces, churches, St. Mark’s Square, and the Doge’s Palace. This huge body of work is preserved today in museums and collections around the world, and a wide selection of watercolours, sketches, drawings, studies and daguerreotypes, the novelty for the time to which Ruskin enthusiastically resorted, is presented here. The city, which had so fascinated him, becomes the great protagonist of his work. In Venice with Ruskin is a meditation on its art, its architecture, and its bittersweet relationship with nature, through more than one-hundred plates.