SATURDAYS, NOV. 9 & 16, 9-10:30am [Pacific Standard Time]
In our Ruskin Art Club study sessions this past year, we have focused on Ruskin’s “popular” works, Sesame and Lilies and the Crown of Wild Olive. These books, widely read in Ruskin’s lifetime, are made up of public lectures delivered between the years 1864, when Ruskin’s father died, and 1870, when he took up the post of Slade Professor of Fine Arts at Oxford. “The Mystery of Life and Its Arts,” first delivered to the Royal College of Science in Dublin, is the final lecture/essay in Sesame and Lilies, one which Ruskin’s contemporary, the eminent critic Leslie Stephen considered “the most perfect of his essays.” As always, Ruskin approaches his audience in the guise of the gentle contrarian – speaking to scientists about the meaning of Art and insisting, as “the cheeriest of pessimists,” on the essential inscrutability of Life.
We are honored to have Rachel Dickinson, current Master of the Guild of St. George, a charity founded in 1871 by Ruskin himself, to lead us in our two informal Saturday study sessions. Rachel teaches Interdisciplinary Studies/English at Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK, specializing in 19th-century literature and culture, with particular focus on John Ruskin and textiles.
Please register for these sessions. Registrants will receive both the Zoom link and advance notice of the passages we will consider. “The Mystery of Life and Its Arts” is available in pdf form below. With the study session on November 9th focusing on Volume 18, pp. 145–176, paragraphs 96–129 and the study session on November 16th focusing on Volume 18, pp. 176–187, paragraphs 130–140.
Link to reading passage from “The Mystery of Life and Its Arts” here.