DOMINIQUE MILLAR - Artist
  • Home
  • About
  • Teaching
    • Current / Upcoming Courses >
      • Drawing for Beginners - 2 Day Workshop
      • Still Life & the Art of Composition
      • The Golden Age of British Landscape Painting
      • The Elements of Drawing
      • Art and Anatomy in Early Modern Italy
      • Galileo and the Visual Arts - The Unity of Science and Design
    • Previous Courses >
      • 2017 >
        • The Principles of Life Drawing from the Masters
        • Sustained Life Drawing with Red, Black and White Chalk on Buff and Blue Coloured Paper
        • Painting the Nude - the limited palette approach
        • Portraiture and the Passions
        • Fundamentals of Drawing
        • Fundamentals of Drawing for Beginners at The Makery
        • Principles of Beginners Life Drawing Workshop
        • Artistic Anatomy for Beginners: In the Footsteps of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo
        • The Principles of Drawing for Beginners – from Basic Geometric Shapes to Living Forms
        • The Union of Art History and Practice: the Renaissance and the "Rebirth" of Art
      • 2018 >
        • The Creative Conventions of Portraiture
        • Fundamentals of Drawing Weekend Workshop
        • Landscape Drawing Lessons from the Masters Weekend Workshop
        • The Principles of Drawing for Beginners: Basic Geometric Shapes to Living Forms
        • Fundamentals of Drawing
        • Drawing the Nude - 1 Day Intensive Sustained Pose
        • Pastels for Beginners and Intermediate
        • Portrait Drawing: Beginners to Advanced
        • The Elements of Drawing for Beginners
        • Oil Painting for Beginners
        • The Art of Competition: From the High Renaissance to the Baroque
        • Sketching with Pen and Ink
        • Drawing the Animal Kingdom - One Day Workshop
        • Drawing the Nude in Chalk Pencil
        • The Creative Conventions of Portraiture
        • The Principles of Drawing for Beginners: Basic Geometric Shapes to Living Forms
        • The Elements of Drawing for Beginners
        • Drawing 101: A Beginner's Guide
        • Drawing the Figure from Life - Beginner to Intermediate
        • Drawing the Figure from Life - Beginner to Intermediate
        • Chalk Pastel Techniques of the Masters
        • Learning to Draw with Traditional Mixed Media
        • The Principles of Drawing for Beginners: Basic Geometric Shapes to Living Forms
        • Learn to Draw with Pastels - Beginners & Beyond
        • Paradigms of the Baroque: The Art of Italy and the Dutch Golden Age
        • Drawing for Beginners - From Shapes to Figures from Life
        • Drawing for Beginners - From Shapes to Figures from Life
      • 2019 >
        • Drawing Essentials for Beginners - One Day Workshop
        • Drawing with Red, Black & White Chalks on Coloured Paper
        • Drawing the Nude in Chalk Pencil
        • The Principles of Life Drawing from the Masters
        • The Elements of Drawing for Beginners
        • The Elements of Drawing for Beginners
        • The Principles of Drawing for Beginners: Basic Geometric Shapes to Living Forms
        • Life Drawing for Beginners
        • The Sensual and the Sexual in the Art of the Renaissance and the Baroque
        • Learning to Draw with Traditional Mixed Media
        • The Principles of Drawing for Beginners: Basic Geometric Shapes to Living Forms
        • Drawing with Traditional Mixed Media
        • The Political Artist: David, Delacroix and Courbet
        • Life Drawing for Beginners & Beyond
        • The Fundamentals of Drawing for Beginners
        • Life Drawing for Beginners & Beyond
        • Learning to Draw with Traditional Mixed Media
        • The Creative Conventions of Portraiture
        • The Principles of Drawing for Beginners: Basic Geometric Shapes to Living Forms
        • The Principles of Life Drawing from the Masters
        • Drawing Animals Workshop
        • The Creative Conventions of Portraiture
        • Learning to Draw the Landscape with Traditional Mixed Media
        • Life Drawing Beginners to Intermediate – The Sustained Pose
        • The "Divine" Raphael
      • 2020 >
        • Drawing for Beginners
        • Draw with Red, Black & White Chalk Pencils on Coloured Paper
        • Drawing the Nude in Chalk Pencil
        • Drawing Portraits
        • Drawing Landscapes
        • The Creative Conventions of Portraiture
        • Life Drawing Beginners to Intermediate – The Sustained Pose
        • The Principles of Drawing for Beginners - Basic Geometric Shapes to Living Forms
        • Figurative Compositions with Mixed Media
        • The Principles of Drawing for Beginners - Basic Geometric Shapes to Living Forms
        • Joseph Mallord William Turner - the Sun is God!
        • The Cultural Disconnect of “Contemporary Art” - How Did We Get Here?
        • Draw with Red, Black & White Chalks on Coloured Paper
        • The Elements of Drawing for Beginners (Online Class)
        • Sketching with Pen and Ink
        • How to Compose a Still Life Composition (Online Taster Class)
        • Drawing for Beginners: How Simple Geometric Shapes Can Help You Draw Anything You Want (Online Taster Class)
        • Painting in Spain: From the Escorial to the Enlightenment (Online Class)
        • Goya - A Painter for his Age (Online Class)
        • Still Life & the Art of Composition (Online Class)
        • Learning to Draw the Landscape with Traditional Mixed Media (Online Class)
        • The Principles of Drawing for Beginners: Basic Geometric Shapes to Living Forms (Online Class)
      • 2021 >
        • Drawing for Beginners: How Simple Geometric Shapes Can Help You Draw Anything You Want
        • The Fundamentals of Drawing for Beginners
        • The Fundamentals of Drawing for Beginners
        • Chalk Pastel Techniques of the Masters - Beginners to Intermediate
        • Chalk Pastel Techniques of the Masters - Beginners to Intermediate
        • John Ruskin - Victorian Art Critic & Social Activist
        • William Morris - Socialism & the Egalitarian Values of Craftsmanship
        • Drawing the Nude in Chalk Pencil
        • The Art Of Joseph Lycett & John Lewin: A Visual Window into Aboriginal Cultures of NSW
        • Learning to Draw with Traditional Mixed Media
        • The Principles of Drawing for Beginners: Basic Geometric Shapes to Living Forms
        • The Principles of Life Drawing - Beginners to Intermediate
        • Nicolas Poussin: Poetic Truth and Antiquarian Patronage in Baroque Rome
        • Art & Classical Subject Matter
        • Women Artists - from Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century
        • Art and the Bible
        • The Principles of Drawing for Beginners: Basic Geometric Shapes to Living Forms
        • Drawing with Mixed Media
        • The Elements of Drawing
        • The Principles of Drawing for Beginners: Basic Geometric Shapes to Living Forms
        • The French Rococo: From Charles de la Fosse to Fragonard
        • Art and the Saints
        • Joshua Reynolds' Discourses on Art
  • Short poses
  • Studies
  • Portraits
  • Istoria
  • My Collection
  • Contact

John Ruskin - Victorian Art Critic & Social Activist


No one had an impact on the art of Victorian England comparable to John Ruskin. Not only in writing but in practice, Ruskin married art criticism to social theory. Discover an individual who puts the “middle-class” newspaper armchair art critic of today to shame. As an art critic, Ruskin made Victorian Britain proud of their contemporary landscape tradition, describing it as the equal of anything on the Continent. He lionised the painter, J.M.W. Turner in his five volume work, Modern Painters. In his writings and via his philanthropy, he emphatically asserted the connection between a society’s cultural aesthetic and its social equity. Discover an individual who has inspired artists, civic planners, social reformers and politicians.

This class will be delivered face-to-face at WEA Sydney. Enrolling students need to ensure they have read the current COVID-19 Safety Guidance that WEA Sydney has put in place before enrolling.



SUGGESTED READING

  • Elizabeth Baigent, Nobler imaginings and mightier struggles : Octavia Hill, social activism and the remaking of British society (University of London: 2016).
  • Thomas Carlyle, Selected Writings (Penguin Classics: 2015).
  • Mark Frost, The Lost Companions and John Ruskin’s Guild of St George: A Revisionary History (Anthem Press: 2014).
  • Robert Hewison, John Ruskin: The Argument of the Eye (Princeton University Press: 1976).
  • Robert Hewison, Ruskin, Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites (Tate Gallery Publishing: 2000).
  • Rosemary Hill, God’s Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain (Penguin Books: 2007).
  • Tristram Hunt, Building Jerusalem: The Rise and Fall of the Victorian City (Penguin Books: 2019).
  • Linda Merrill, A Pot of Paint: Aesthetics on Trail in Whistler v. Ruskin (Smithsonian Institution Press: 1992).
  • John Ruskin, Modern Painters .,ed David Barrie (Andre Deutsch Limited: 1987).
  • John Ruskin, The Seven Lamps of Architecture (Dover Publications: 1989).
  • John Ruskin, The Stones of Venice .,ed.J.G. Links (Da Capo Press: 2003).
  • John Ruskin, Lectures on Art (Allworth Press: 1996).
  • John Ruskin, Unto This Last and Other Writings (Penguin Classics: 1997).
  • John Ruskin, Praeterita: The Autobiography of John Ruskin (Oxford University Press: 1978).
  • Sarah Quill, Ruskin’s Venice: The Stone’s Revisited (Lund Humphries: 2003).


COURSE OUTLINE

  • Ruskin the art critic: We will see how Ruskin’s writings on the visual arts, starting with the first volume of Modern Painters - a work that championed the career of the landscape painter, J.M.W.Tuner - became an immensely influential point of access into the visual arts for a new rising industrial middle class.
  • Ruskin the social thinker and activist: We will then examine Ruskin’s later career, as his attention turned more critically towards an attack on the laissez-faire economic system. We will see how Ruskin’s views on both art and society informed his aim to convince Britain’s middle classes to abandon the economic and social morality of the market-driven world. This social vision was first articulated in a series of articles entitled Unto This Last. A work held in high regard by the first MPs of the British Labour party and a highly transformative book for the young Gandhi.
  • Ruskin and our world: Finally, we will examine Ruskin’s 1884 lecture, The Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century. This atypical work can lay claim to being the first modern account of the symbiotic relationship of human society to ecology and a prefigurement of human-induced climate change.


PLANNED LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

  1. See Ruskin’s life within the broader cultural, intellectual, social and civic identity of Victorian Britain.
  2. Gain an appreciation for Ruskin’s significance today. How the social, economic and even aesthetic issues of his time, are still as pertinent to us now.
  3. Understand Ruskin from the perspective of his upbringing, personal relationships and mental health and how these influenced his views on art and society.


When:
Tuesday 16 Feb 2021
11.00 AM - 2.00 PM

Where:
WEA Sydney
72 Bathurst Street

  • Home
  • About
  • Teaching
    • Current / Upcoming Courses >
      • Drawing for Beginners - 2 Day Workshop
      • Still Life & the Art of Composition
      • The Golden Age of British Landscape Painting
      • The Elements of Drawing
      • Art and Anatomy in Early Modern Italy
      • Galileo and the Visual Arts - The Unity of Science and Design
    • Previous Courses >
      • 2017 >
        • The Principles of Life Drawing from the Masters
        • Sustained Life Drawing with Red, Black and White Chalk on Buff and Blue Coloured Paper
        • Painting the Nude - the limited palette approach
        • Portraiture and the Passions
        • Fundamentals of Drawing
        • Fundamentals of Drawing for Beginners at The Makery
        • Principles of Beginners Life Drawing Workshop
        • Artistic Anatomy for Beginners: In the Footsteps of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo
        • The Principles of Drawing for Beginners – from Basic Geometric Shapes to Living Forms
        • The Union of Art History and Practice: the Renaissance and the "Rebirth" of Art
      • 2018 >
        • The Creative Conventions of Portraiture
        • Fundamentals of Drawing Weekend Workshop
        • Landscape Drawing Lessons from the Masters Weekend Workshop
        • The Principles of Drawing for Beginners: Basic Geometric Shapes to Living Forms
        • Fundamentals of Drawing
        • Drawing the Nude - 1 Day Intensive Sustained Pose
        • Pastels for Beginners and Intermediate
        • Portrait Drawing: Beginners to Advanced
        • The Elements of Drawing for Beginners
        • Oil Painting for Beginners
        • The Art of Competition: From the High Renaissance to the Baroque
        • Sketching with Pen and Ink
        • Drawing the Animal Kingdom - One Day Workshop
        • Drawing the Nude in Chalk Pencil
        • The Creative Conventions of Portraiture
        • The Principles of Drawing for Beginners: Basic Geometric Shapes to Living Forms
        • The Elements of Drawing for Beginners
        • Drawing 101: A Beginner's Guide
        • Drawing the Figure from Life - Beginner to Intermediate
        • Drawing the Figure from Life - Beginner to Intermediate
        • Chalk Pastel Techniques of the Masters
        • Learning to Draw with Traditional Mixed Media
        • The Principles of Drawing for Beginners: Basic Geometric Shapes to Living Forms
        • Learn to Draw with Pastels - Beginners & Beyond
        • Paradigms of the Baroque: The Art of Italy and the Dutch Golden Age
        • Drawing for Beginners - From Shapes to Figures from Life
        • Drawing for Beginners - From Shapes to Figures from Life
      • 2019 >
        • Drawing Essentials for Beginners - One Day Workshop
        • Drawing with Red, Black & White Chalks on Coloured Paper
        • Drawing the Nude in Chalk Pencil
        • The Principles of Life Drawing from the Masters
        • The Elements of Drawing for Beginners
        • The Elements of Drawing for Beginners
        • The Principles of Drawing for Beginners: Basic Geometric Shapes to Living Forms
        • Life Drawing for Beginners
        • The Sensual and the Sexual in the Art of the Renaissance and the Baroque
        • Learning to Draw with Traditional Mixed Media
        • The Principles of Drawing for Beginners: Basic Geometric Shapes to Living Forms
        • Drawing with Traditional Mixed Media
        • The Political Artist: David, Delacroix and Courbet
        • Life Drawing for Beginners & Beyond
        • The Fundamentals of Drawing for Beginners
        • Life Drawing for Beginners & Beyond
        • Learning to Draw with Traditional Mixed Media
        • The Creative Conventions of Portraiture
        • The Principles of Drawing for Beginners: Basic Geometric Shapes to Living Forms
        • The Principles of Life Drawing from the Masters
        • Drawing Animals Workshop
        • The Creative Conventions of Portraiture
        • Learning to Draw the Landscape with Traditional Mixed Media
        • Life Drawing Beginners to Intermediate – The Sustained Pose
        • The "Divine" Raphael
      • 2020 >
        • Drawing for Beginners
        • Draw with Red, Black & White Chalk Pencils on Coloured Paper
        • Drawing the Nude in Chalk Pencil
        • Drawing Portraits
        • Drawing Landscapes
        • The Creative Conventions of Portraiture
        • Life Drawing Beginners to Intermediate – The Sustained Pose
        • The Principles of Drawing for Beginners - Basic Geometric Shapes to Living Forms
        • Figurative Compositions with Mixed Media
        • The Principles of Drawing for Beginners - Basic Geometric Shapes to Living Forms
        • Joseph Mallord William Turner - the Sun is God!
        • The Cultural Disconnect of “Contemporary Art” - How Did We Get Here?
        • Draw with Red, Black & White Chalks on Coloured Paper
        • The Elements of Drawing for Beginners (Online Class)
        • Sketching with Pen and Ink
        • How to Compose a Still Life Composition (Online Taster Class)
        • Drawing for Beginners: How Simple Geometric Shapes Can Help You Draw Anything You Want (Online Taster Class)
        • Painting in Spain: From the Escorial to the Enlightenment (Online Class)
        • Goya - A Painter for his Age (Online Class)
        • Still Life & the Art of Composition (Online Class)
        • Learning to Draw the Landscape with Traditional Mixed Media (Online Class)
        • The Principles of Drawing for Beginners: Basic Geometric Shapes to Living Forms (Online Class)
      • 2021 >
        • Drawing for Beginners: How Simple Geometric Shapes Can Help You Draw Anything You Want
        • The Fundamentals of Drawing for Beginners
        • The Fundamentals of Drawing for Beginners
        • Chalk Pastel Techniques of the Masters - Beginners to Intermediate
        • Chalk Pastel Techniques of the Masters - Beginners to Intermediate
        • John Ruskin - Victorian Art Critic & Social Activist
        • William Morris - Socialism & the Egalitarian Values of Craftsmanship
        • Drawing the Nude in Chalk Pencil
        • The Art Of Joseph Lycett & John Lewin: A Visual Window into Aboriginal Cultures of NSW
        • Learning to Draw with Traditional Mixed Media
        • The Principles of Drawing for Beginners: Basic Geometric Shapes to Living Forms
        • The Principles of Life Drawing - Beginners to Intermediate
        • Nicolas Poussin: Poetic Truth and Antiquarian Patronage in Baroque Rome
        • Art & Classical Subject Matter
        • Women Artists - from Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century
        • Art and the Bible
        • The Principles of Drawing for Beginners: Basic Geometric Shapes to Living Forms
        • Drawing with Mixed Media
        • The Elements of Drawing
        • The Principles of Drawing for Beginners: Basic Geometric Shapes to Living Forms
        • The French Rococo: From Charles de la Fosse to Fragonard
        • Art and the Saints
        • Joshua Reynolds' Discourses on Art
  • Short poses
  • Studies
  • Portraits
  • Istoria
  • My Collection
  • Contact