(1819–1900), English art and social critic. His prolific writings on art and architecture include Modern Painters (five volumes, 1843–60), The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849), and The Stones of Venice (three volumes, 1851–3). After 1860 he devoted himself to social and economic reform, campaigning for the recovery of medieval piety and Christian ideals and against the scientific advances of his times.
Definition of Ruskin, John in US English:
Ruskin, John
proper nounˈrəskin
(1819–1900), English art and social critic. His prolific writings include attacks on Renaissance art in The Stones of Venice (1851–53), capitalism in “The Political Economy of Art” (1857), and utilitarianism in Unto This Last (1860).