Tate Britain | Past Exhibitions | Ruskin, Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites

Room 1
Introduction
All great art is praise

Perhaps some of my hearers ... may occasionally have heard it stated of me that I am rather apt to contradict myself. I hope that I am exceedingly apt to do so
It is possible that one of the contradictions Ruskin had in mind was that between his love of Turner (nos.2,3,4) and his praise for the Pre-Raphaelites (nos.5,6,7,8,9). By placing such different works together, this room presents the challenge of the exhibition. On one side is Turner, Ruskin's artist-hero, who in works such as The Garden of the Hesperides (no.4) sums up and surpasses the great academic tradition of historical landscape. But Turner was also capable of presenting the forces of nature with breathtaking energy as in Snowstorm - Steamboat off a Harbour's Mouth (no.3). On the other side are young artists who challenge that same academic tradition and seek a fresh vision, free of previous artistic conventions, such as Millais in Christ in the House of his Parents (no.5)

Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1775-1851
Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth
exhibited 1842
© Tate Gallery

Audio extracts from the Tate Inform guide are available for selected works

Audio - wav file

The exhibition as a whole offers an explanation of this visual contradiction, but these artists embody Ruskin's idea of truth: a truth to nature that reveals the presence of the spiritual in the natural world.

Tate Britain