John Ruskin's Correspondence with Joan Severn: Sense and Nonsense Letters (Legenda Main Series)

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A laudable position,” might come the retort. “But there is often a wide difference between what one says publicly and does privately. If we examine the second realm, we may find that less commendable thoughts swim beneath the surface.” In which light, consider: Joan Agnew Severn. by John McClelland. Half-plate glass negative, 1890s. Courtesy National Portrait Gallery, London NPG x12187. Princeton University; John Ruskin Collection (CO 196): Folder 11 (AM 15328). The collection contains 25 letters sent by Ruskin to members of the Layton family between 1884-87. May "Into town. Call at Mr Pritchard’s – found riding school! (Con and Mrs H[illiard] at lunch)" ( Diaries, II, 617). In 2008, the upper floor of Brantwood was renovated and converted into “The Eyrie,” guest accommodation. The Lodge was renovated and made into guest accommodation in 2012, and in 2017, the coach house was renovated, and the Trust took over the running of the cafe. Charlotte Robins succeeded Tony Cann CBE as Chair of the Trust in 2019, continuing the legacy of Brantwood for future generations to enjoy.

Brownell cites a letter of 24 June 1849 where Ruskin specifically alludes to the possibility of having children with Effie (PML MA 1338, H.34), a file apparently not consulted by others who wrote on the marriage. Flurried: 16. cf. her essay, “Ruskin as a Guide to Youth” and the letter he sent her when she was fourteen: LE 37.286. Although Hunt does not specify the year of this walk, since she was born in 1862, it almost surely was posted before 1870. It is likely that Ruskin was also thinking of Rose La Touche when making his response. Ruskin left London on 27 April, with his assistant Arthur Burgess, for the continent; to Verona, where he was gathering information on tombs and to Venice, his first visit since 1852. From Verona, he sent twelve books, unnamed, to various friends including Froude and Gordon ( Diaries, II, 672). Whilst abroad, Ruskin learnt that he had been unanimously elected first Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford University. Preparation for the task and series of important lectures began in early autumn. Brantwood was originally built as an 8-room cottage on a three-acre piece of land in 1797 by Thomas Woodville. Over the years, the cottage was expanded, with part of the drawing room and four more rooms on the ground floor added in 1830.

Gordon kept Ruskin, then staying in a Sacristan's Cell in a Roman Catholic monastery in Assisi, informed about his private and social life. There had been a gap in their relationship. Gordon, seemingly not knowing that Ruskin was abroad, had gone to see him in Oxford but learned that he "had departed the day before". He was planning to go to Shropshire the following day, 12 June, to visit his sister Jane at her country mansion Stanmore Hall, near Bridgnorth. He also wrote about his invitation, two weeks before, to dine with "Mr Ritchie" at Highgate, in north London: it was his first visit and he was "quite charmed with the view". "The house", he continued, "is about on the level of the Cross of St Pauls". Henry Ritchie had been John James Ruskin's trusted clerk in his Billiter Street office. * At the beginning of 1866, Ruskin was planning, or at least hoping, to remarry. He had become deeply attached to a young Irish girl, Rose La Touche (1848-1875) whom he had first met in 1858; she was then aged ten, he was thirty-nine. His proposal of marriage was neither accepted nor rejected by the eighteen-year-old; she kept him in suspense, asking him to wait three years for an answer. Rose's parents vehemently opposed the marriage; at one point, Effie Millais intervened and objected on the grounds that her former husband was not free to remarry under the terms of the annulment of 1854. In any case, Ruskin himself agonised over what Rose's decision would eventually be. He became more and more distraught. Rose's feelings oscillated between obsession and hatred. At a casual meeting in the Royal Academy on 7 January 1870, she rebuffed him: her ostensible reason was religious incompatibility. To which, it might be countered that pedophiles, pointedly aware that their erotic fixation on prepubescents is unacceptable in the world’s eyes, would surely make concerted efforts to hide the predilection. Why would Ruskin not have engaged in such obfuscations?

In 1985, in the first volume of his life of Ruskin, Tim Hilton, author of general interest books on Picasso, Keats, and bicycling, was the first to expose and label a previously overlooked, downplayed, or avoided aspect of his subject’s life. Without offering either any substantial evidence or anything resembling a definition of the term, he pronounced Ruskin . . . a pedophile. Hilton told his readers that, however admirable the genius who was his book’s focus may have been in many areas of life (as teacher, brilliant critic of art and society, faithful friend), in one way he was decidedly not deserving of applause: for, when it came to matters sexual, it had to be said, and said without palliation, that John Ruskin was sexually perverse, someone who obsessed about and harbored erotic desires for young women and little girls ( Early Years, 253-54). Going forward, Hilton and Robson will be my principal references for the argument that Ruskin was a pedophile. While (as noted) other biographers accept the allegation, they have made the case most assertively. Still, she says, some letters do seem to indicate sexual interest. One Ruskin posted to his friend, the artist Kate Greenaway, on 6 July 1883 (cf. Batchelor: 315). One of the things that had attracted him to Greenaway’s art was her delicate drawings of children. As their friendship deepened, as had been the case with other young artists he had taken under his wing, Ruskin began to instruct Greenaway on ways to better her technique. Here he comments, first, about a drawing of a sunset she has sent, then he remarks on three drawings of “sylphs” which arrived in the same post: Not surprisingly, given Ruskin’s love of the Bible and what he regarded as its enduring relevance, we find that Riblah (now part of Syria) was once an important city in ancient Canaan: cf. 2 Kings 25, 6-7, 18-21.A fire in the coach house in 1989 completely destroyed the upper floors, which had to be reconstructed. In 1991, Lord Lloyd died, and Michael Prince succeeded him as Chair of the Trust. Tony Cann CBE succeeded Prince as Chair of the Trust in 1992. On Ruskin's return from a three-month continental tour in France and Switzerland, Gordon was at Denmark Hill for dinner "unexpectedly" on 26 July ( Diaries, II, 595). In late August, he was invited to dinner where he made the acquaintance of William Henry Harrison, Ruskin’s "first editor" (of the magazine Friendship’s Offering) who had published many of the aspiring writer’s poems ( Diaries, II, 598). Gordon also came to know Joan (Joanna) Agnew (future Joan Severn) who was now living at Denmark Hill as a companion for Margaret Ruskin. Gordon and Joan became good friends and frequently corresponded over many years. Another visit by Gordon was noted in Ruskin's diary on 8 November ( Diaries, II, 602). Ruskin's sketch of Rose on her deathbed encapsulates the wasted life of the young woman, her hysteria and the demise of his longed-for happiness with her. Ruskin extended Gordon's circle of friends. At the beginning of November, he took him to dinner at the home of John and Jane Simon, probably at their London home in Great Cumberland Street, where he also met Mr and Mrs Hutchinson ( Diaries, II, 686). Mr Hutchinson was most likely Dr (later Sir) Jonathan Hutchinson (1828-1913) who became a surgeon at the London Hospital (1863-1883) in the East End and Hunterian professor of surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons. One of his great discoveries was the identification of three symptoms of congenital syphilis, known as "Hutchinson’s triad". The day after the dinner, Ruskin made a strange comment in his diary: "Had to talk at the Simons’; felt as if silent Mr. Hutchinson thought me conceited" ( Diaries, II, 686). Gordon decided to go to Denmark Hill for a short break 4-5 October 1869 soon after Ruskin's return from abroad. Such was their degree of friendship and so relaxed was their relationship that it was understood that Gordon could visit and stay any time he wished. This is exactly what he did! On this occasion Ruskin was obliged to explain, in advance to Mrs Cowper, Gordon's presence at the very special private dinner, on 5 October. The letter reveals much about Gordon's character and the absolute trust between the two men:

In early autumn (on 9 October 1867), Gordon travelled to Ireland for the wedding of his neighbour Lady Alice Hill (daughter of the Marquis of Downshire) and Lord Kenlis at Hillsborough (County Down). He was invited not only as a guest but he had a religious role. Along with the Venerable the Archdeacon of Down and the Rev. St. George, he assisted the Lord Bishop of Down and Connor in the performance of the marriage ceremony. It was a glittering occasion and in the evening the town was illuminated and bonfires blazed on the surrounding hills. On 11 October 1867 The Times reported that the festivities would continue on the Downshire estates "for some days" (9). Rudolf Diesel is issued a patent for his internal combustion engine; Diesel's engine eventually replaces steam power. Prime Minister Lord Rosebery resigns and is succeeded by Salisbury. Art and scienceThe Lumiere brothers hold the first public screening of movies at Paris's Salon Indien du Grand Café, featuring ten short films recorded with Leon Bouly's cinematographe device, recognised as the birth of cinema as a commercial medium. Among these accounts (all of which are empathetic to Effie while impugning Ruskin) are: “The Countess” (a play by Gregory Murphy), “Modern Painters” (an opera by David Larg and Manuela Hoelterhoff), “Effie Gray” (a film written by Emma Thompson and directed by Richard Laxton), and a six-part BBC television series, “Desperate Romantics” (written by Peter Bowden and directed by Paul Gay and Diamund Lawrence). continued to be a time of emotional turmoil with strain and uncertainties surrounding his relationship with Rose La Touche. In early March Ruskin consulted with his medical friend Dr John Simon about the nature of Rose's mysterious illness(es), suggesting to him that she might have some kind of "fatty degeneration" or heart disease. The reply was not particularly reassuring:

Another comment. The fact that a number of sub-types of male sexual obsessions for young females exists should make it clear that, in most public discussions, “pedophile,” the word commonly used to describe men with pronounced erotic attractions to young women (allowing for cases where it is accurate), is widely misused, a serious error given the reputational and social damage that descends once the label is affixed. The points to emphasize here are three. First, Webling’s description is typical of the reminiscences of the girls and young women whom Ruskin entertained at Brantwood; second, in none of the recollections do the authors (who, at the time of writing, are adults) include even the mildest of hints that their host was interested in them sexually; always when they were together the central theme of their day was sweetness and fun; third, none of those who have contended that Ruskin was sexually disturbed seems to be aware that such alternative accounts of his experiences with children and girls exist.