John Ruskin was the most notable art critic in Victorian England. Because he saw the visual arts as expressions of the moral life of the societies and artists which produced them, Ruskin's writings reflected the religious concerns of the Victorians. His judgments of good and bad art depended heavily on the evangelical Christian attitudes which he developed early in life. However, he combined this moral perspective with a profound love of art, instilled in him by his father, and a passionate devotion to the beauty of nature, enhanced by the works of the English Romantic poets. All of his writing is informed by a deep awareness of the power of nature's beauty over the imagination.

Ruskin was born in London, England, on February 8, 1819. Although his parents were both of the lower middle class, Ruskin's father became a partner in a successful wine business and...