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A Film presented by Michael Wheeler
We did not travel for adventures, nor for company, but to see with our eyes, and measure with our hearts. (John Ruskin. Praeterita).
John Ruskin (1819-1900) was a great traveller from an early age, both in Britain and on the Continent. His famous books on art and architecture are based upon journeys which he made to Switzerland, Italy and France, and from which he returned with notebooks crammed with measurements, chronologies and scribbled ideas. But the old coach road that he used to take with his parents came to symbolise for him a world that was being ruined in the modern age of the railway.
In this video, Professor Michael Wheeler revisits some of the sites that inspired Ruskin and informed much of his thinking: the magnificent Gothic cathedral at Rouen in France, the spectacular falls at Schaffhausen in Switzerland. ; his 'two homes on earth', Chamonix in the French Alps, and Venice; Oxford where he studied and later taught; and the English Lake District, where he lived from 1874 until his death in 1900.
Using original drawings, paintings and diaries from the Ruskin Library at Lancaster University, from Brantwood, Ruskin's home on Coniston Water, and from the Tate Gallery in London, Professor Wheeler examines John Ruskin's spiritual and intellectual journey through life.
Running time: 47 minutes.
Produced by Lancaster University Television for the Humanities Faculty at Lancaster University.
For further information about Ruskin's Journey or to order a copy, please contact:
Phone: 01524 593984
Ruskin's Journey is available throughout North America exclusively from:
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