View towards Brantwood from the lodge.
Once settled in Brantwood, Ruskin was very far from either neglecting his larger life as Slade Professor at Oxford, or living the life of a recluse while at home. On the contrary, he exercised a considerable influence in both areas. At home in Brantwood, he not only made various additions to the house itself, and devised terraced gardens in the grounds attached to it, but took an active part in community life — calling on neighbours, visiting and talking at the local school, paying for a stained-glass window in the Catholic church, campaigning for footpaths, helping to fend off incursions by the railways, and so on. Characteristically, it was he who inspired Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley to set up the Keswick School of Industrial Art about twenty miles away (see Hanley 29).
Photograph (2019) by Simon Cooke, commentary and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee. You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL, or cite the Victorian Web in a print document. [Click on the image to enlarge it].
Related Material
- Brantwood (watercolor by A. Macdonald, 1880)
- Brantwood (Victorian postcard)
- Brantwood in early Spring
- Brantwood on a cloudy day
- Brantwood: View over Coniston Water
- Early daffodils in the gardens at Brantwood
- View from the Painters Glade in early spring
- The gardens at Brantwood
- View from Brantwood on a cloudy day, Lake Coniston (the Lake District)
- Trees near Lake Coniston in winter
- Ruskin's Bedroom at Brantwood
- The study at Brantwood
Bibliography
"Brantwood: Home of John Ruskin." GoLakes (Official website of the Lake District, Cumbria). Web. 3 September 2019.
Hanley, Keith. "Edinburgh — London — Oxford — Coniston." Cambridge Companion to John Ruskin. Ed. Francis O'Gorman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. 17-31.
John Ruskin's Home: Brantwood. Web. 3 September 2019.
Created 4 September 2019