Legend says the greatest Victorian was put off sex by the sight of his wife's naked body. A new film will try to establish the truth
Vanessa Thorpe The Observer, Sunday 14 March 2010
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/mar/14/john-ruskin-wedding-effie-gray
I also worried about Ruskin's views on female sexuality, but for a slightly different reason.
ReplyDeleteFor the last decade of Turner's life, the artist lived in blissful happiness with a woman to whom he wasn't married. After Turner's death, Ruskin apparently destroyed Turner's work from this "immoral" decade, to protect his late friend's reputation. But perhaps it was to save himself having to think of a naked Turner, romping around the bed with Mrs Booth.
Whatever his reasons, Ruskin was definately a bit odd, and his near-worship of the very young Rose la Touche has obvious pyschologica overtones. But in other ways he was touched with genius.
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