Self-portrait in charcoal, c.1860s. NPG 7005, ©National Portrait Gallery, London.

John Wharlton Bunney (1828-1882) was an English artist who had been a student of Ruskin's at the Working Men's College. His ability was such that in 1859 he gave up his "day job" with Ruskin's publishers, Smith Elder & Co., to teach drawing, and to pursue his own artistic projects — often carrying out work for Ruskin. James Reardon explains that:

After working with Ruskin in Switzerland and Italy. Bunney finally left England in 1863 to settle in Florence, and later, in 1870, in Venice where he remained until his death in 1882. He executed many commissions for Ruskin. One of his last works was a large oil painting, 5' x 7', of the west front of St Mark's, painted for the Guild of St George, which took six hundred mornings to complete. [89]

In fact, according to E. T. Cook's introduction to Volume 30 of Ruskin's Works, it took "six hundred days' constant labour." Cook continues by quoting Ruskin to the effect that Bunney's name "will remain ineffaceably connected with the history of all efforts recently made in Italy for preservation of [a] true record of her national monuments" (lvi).

Works

Bibliography

Cook, Edward Tyas. Introduction. Works of John Ruskin. Vol. 30. Eds. E. T. Cook and Alexander Cook. London: George Allen, 1907. xxi-lxxvi. Internet Archive. Contributed by University of California Libraries. Web. 7 February 2019.

Reardon, James. John Ruskin: A Life in Pictures. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999.


Last modified 7 February 2019