Event Details

In 2020-2021, we explore the global significance of Ruskin’s legacy in our seminar series ‘Ruskin Beyond Britain’.

Writing in his diary in September 1882, Ruskin felt both renewed and disheartened by the changes he found in himself, and in his beloved mountains: ‘I never have been happier in seeing the Alps once more – … And I never was so persecuted by the storms and clouds.’

Suzanne Fagence Cooper will examine the interconnections between Ruskin’s observations of changing Alpine skyscapes and landscapes over 40 years, with his own concerns about personal fragility and decline. It will focus on his concerns about the spread of the ‘Storm Cloud of the Nineteenth Century’ – in the form of industrial pollution, climate change and the modern tourist industry – to the air and ice of the Alps. Ruskin consistently drew attention to the damage being done to the wild places he had known from boyhood. He also highlighted the harm to his own mental-health caused by the experience of loss of beautiful, diverse habitats, and clear skies. In this illustrated online lecture, Suzanne Fagence Cooper finds resonances between Ruskin’s time and our own.

Dr Suzanne Fagence Cooper is a writer, curator, historical consultant and lecturer, and Honorary Visiting Fellow in the Department of the History of Art at York University. Her research is focused on 19th and 20th Century British art and design, with a special interest in the history of women and the interior, the Pre-Raphaelites, the Arts & Crafts movement and John Ruskin.

She is the editor and curator of ‘Ruskin, Turner & the Storm Cloud’, York Art Gallery and Lake Land Arts; author of To See Clearly: Why Ruskin Matters (2019), The Ruskin Revival 1969-2019 (2019), Effie Grey (2010) and Pre-Raphaelite Art in the V&A Museum (2003); and co-curator of ‘The Victorian Vision’, V&A (2001). She is now writing At Home with Jane & William Morris.

Andrew Hill is an associate editor and the management editor of the FT. He is the author of Leadership in the Headlines (2016), and Ruskinland (2019), about the enduring influence of Victorian thinker John Ruskin.

Andrew has also worked as the FT’s New York bureau chief, foreign news editor and correspondent in Brussels and Milan. He was named Business Commentator of the Year at the 2016 Comment Awards and Commentator of the Year at the 2009 Business Journalist of the Year Awards, where he also received a Decade of Excellence award.

This event is part of the 2020-2021 Ruskin Seminar Series, 'Ruskin Beyond Britain'. The series will place Ruskin’s legacy in a global context, featuring presentations from an international community of researchers who are exploring how Ruskin’s ideas have affected societies from Russia to Brazil, from America to Italy, and from France to China. Each seminar will include a presentation and response, followed by questions and discussion with participants. The Ruskin Seminar Series is free, online and open to all. If you would like to join the seminar reading group, email the-ruskin@lancaster.ac.uk.