Naples

1834–1900 · Workplace

Great Britain

1837–1842

His first love, Adèle Domecq, becomes engaged to another

Ruskin is devastated to hear that his first love, Adèle Domecq, the second daughter of his father's business partner, has become engaged to a French nobleman.

1839

The Newdigate Prize and a meeting with Wordsworth

At the third attempt Ruskin wins the prestigious Newdigate Prize for poetry (Arthur Hugh Clough comes second) and at the ceremony meets William Wordsworth, who is receiving an honorary degree.

April 1840

Coughing blood and a long break from Oxford

While revising for his examinations Ruskin begins to cough blood; fears of consumption lead to a long break from Oxford, which he spends travelling with his parents.

late 1840 – autumn 1842

Italy with his parents: guided by George Richmond

For much of the period from late 1840 to autumn 1842 Ruskin is abroad with his parents, mainly in Italy, where George Richmond — introduced to the family by Joseph Severn, a friend of Keats — guides his study of Italian art. Back at Oxford in 1842 he sits for a pass degree and is awarded an unusual honorary double fourth-class degree in recognition of his achievements.

1843

In defence of Turner: the first volume of “Modern Painters”

The first volume of “Modern Painters” — an answer to Turner's critics — is published by Smith, Elder & Co. under the name “A Graduate of Oxford”; Ruskin controversially argues that modern landscape painters, above all Turner, surpass “Old Masters” such as Gaspard Dughet, Claude and Salvator Rosa in “truth to nature”, moral as well as material. Reviews are mixed, but Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell are impressed, and the book cements Ruskin's relationship with Turner.