Brugg 1863

John Ruskin made this watercolor painting of Brugg, Switzerland, sometime in the 19th century. In it, you see architecture and landscape intertwined, reflecting Ruskin’s broader interest in the relationship between the natural world and human society. Ruskin was a towering figure in Victorian England, an art critic who saw art as a powerful force for social change. He believed that by carefully observing and representing the world around us, we could gain a deeper understanding of our place in it. Brugg, with its blend of natural beauty and human construction, would have been an ideal subject for him. Ruskin was interested in how the built environment could either harmonize with or detract from its natural setting. In his writings, he championed the Gothic style of architecture as an ethical building practice because it celebrated the labour of individual craftsmen. To understand Ruskin fully, we need to look at his writings and the broader intellectual currents of his time. His aesthetic theories were closely tied to his social and political beliefs, and to the Victorian era's debates about industrialization and its impact on society.