Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Can We Still See Nature Through John Ruskin’s Eyes?


If you've just had a bad week at the office,” suggests Keith Broomfield in a recent article in The Scotsman, “then spare a thought for 19th-century artist John Everett Millais whose famous painting of the art critic and social commentator John Ruskin is now being celebrated by a new trail in the Trossachs.” For 140 years, the exact spot where Millais and Ruskin stood to make the painting was lost, but now anyone can find inspiration at that intersection of trail and waterfall. However, can simply standing where Ruskin stood and looking upon nature cure “a bad week at the office”? From the perspective of 2011, can we still see nature through John Ruskin’s Victorian, “Last Romantic” eyes? Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Can We Still See Nature Through John Ruskin’s Eyes?"

[Image: John Everett Millais. John Ruskin (detail), 1853-1854.]