John Ruskin (18191900) was the most prominent art and architecture critic of his day. His books, pamphlets and letters to the press had an influence on all classes of society, from road-menders to royalty, and he still maintains a popular reputation today, though he is remembered less for his views than for his failed marriage to Effie Gray, who left him for the Pre-Raphaelite artist John EverettMillais. Frequently imagined as a Victorian prude, there was far more to Ruskin than this derisory description suggests.