John Ruskin, Cuthbert Bede and Robert MacPherson

This work provides a revisionist history of John Ruskin’s involvement with photography. This revisionist approach consisted of providing an up to date account of Ruskin’s own photographic production including the recently discovered Daguerreotypes and salt prints taken in Venice almost certainly during his visit there in 1849-50; re-contextualising his connection to a range of individuals interested in photography such as William Downey; correcting misconceptions such as William Collingwood’s assertion that Ruskin was the first to photograph the Matterhorn; and finally demonstrating that, contrary to prevailing thinking about Ruskin, he maintained a lively (though sometimes critical) interest in photography even unto his very last years.

Ruskin produced photographs (albeit with assistance by others, usually his factotum at the time) although he is known to have been underneath the photographer’s ‘black cloth’ on at least one occasion. Beyond this, Ruskin’s interest was expressed in his activities as an educationalist, his commentaries and critical writing, his collecting and his publications, many of the latter carrying illustrations based on photographs and occasionally including tipped-in photographs.

The research was focused on Ruskin’s collected works (39 volumes), his correspondence, autobiographies by members of his circle which refer to him, and a wide range of secondary sources.

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