John Ruskin: Art and Wonder

Sheffield Museum Gallery

25 May – 15 September 2019

To mark the 200th birthday of John Ruskin, Sheffield Millennium Gallery presents ‘Art and Wonder’.  Ruskin was known for his art criticism and writing on architecture and social theory however ‘Art and Wonder’ aims to equally highlight his lesser appreciated thinking on science and natural history. He held a strong connection to Sheffield and was invested in bettering the lives of its citizens through art and education, a relationship now preserved and furthered by the collaboration of the Guild of St George, The Ruskin and Sheffield Millennium Gallery.

From childhood Ruskin displayed a keen capacity for observation and a strong interest in collecting, with a wide range of subjects and objects from both the natural and the built world. This manifests in the exhibition’s display of his extensive mineral collection alongside examples of his observational studies, from dead leaves to crocodiles. In the spirit of bringing new light to Ruskin’s deep and wide-ranging interests, a number of works from the Ruskin Collection are on display for the first time. Also included are the ornithological prints of John James Audubon, that Ruskin owned the image plates of. Both men displayed environmental consciousness that was both prescient and dismissed by their contemporaries.