Modern Painters.

Pp. lxiii, 423, xvi 224, xix 348, xii 411, xvi 384, some pages uncut/unopened/unread + 87 steel engraved plates + 8 wood engravings, (as listed), very good condition. Original half morocco gilt. Raised spine bands with gilt decorated panels. Gilt top edge. John Ruskin (1819 -1900) was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolorist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He emphasized the connections between nature, art and society. Ruskin first came to widespread attention with the Modern Painters, in defense of the work of J. M. W. Turner in which he argued that the principal role of the artist is truth to nature.