![]() Ruskin became fond of Lily and visited her in Ireland in May 1868 when he had been invited to give a lecture in Dublin. In his correspondence Ruskin specifically calls her ‘Lily, my Lily of the Ethics of the Dust.’ Lily Armstrong was the daughter of Richard Armstrong, a Serjeant-at-Law in Dublin and Member of Parliament for Sligo. Their purpose was merely to awaken in the minds of young girls, who were ready to work earnestly and systematically, a vital interest in the subject of their study.’ As a cultural and moral interpretation of natural history, The Ethics of the Dust can be understood as a precursor to later works by Ruskin.Īlthough Ruskin took pains to describe the characters in the book as imaginary, he explicitly identified the persona of ‘Lily’ as Lily Armstrong. As Ruskin acknowledged, the ‘lectures were not intended for an introduction to mineralogy. The lectures were ostensibly on Egyptian mythology and crystallography, but are filled with the Old Lecturer’s tales of ‘singing serpents’ and Egyptian Goddesses The Ethics of the Dust is steeped in the mythological realms as much as the realm of science. He also actively engaged with the girls, enlisting them, for example to make the index to Modern Painters V.Īs a result of Ruskin’s time at Winnington he conceived The Ethics of the Dust a dramatic dialogue consisting of ten lectures given by a Lecturer of ‘incalculable age’ – Ruskin was forty-six at the time – to a group of schoolgirls between the ages of four and twenty. The atmosphere was friendly and informal and Ruskin developed strong and lasting relationships with several pupils. There were only about thirty-five girls in the school, and Winnington was an unregimented home of learning. When lessons ended he joined the girls in games of cricket, croquet or hide and seek. He taught art, divinity and many other subjects. Ruskin spent months living at the school and took part in all its activities. In 1859 Ruskin became an unofficial patron and teacher at Margaret Bell's progressive school for girls at Winnington in Cheshire. It is notable that this portrait was made at the height of Ruskin’s devotion to Rose La Touche, only eighteen-months Lily’s senior, she was the tragic object of Ruskin’s obsessive devotion and her death in 1875 precipitated the first of his mental collapses. ![]() ![]() This beautiful and complex study of Lily Armstrong is therefore an exceptional example of Ruskin’s portraiture and testament to his sensitivity to adolescent girls. Despite being an enormously prolific draughtsman, Ruskin made only twenty portraits in his lifetime, six of which are self-portraits. Lily was one of the pupils who inspired Ethics of Dust, first published in 1865, she became one of Ruskin’s intimate correspondents and he, in turn, rhapsodised about her beauty and pureness. This exquisitely worked drawing is a rare portrait by Ruskin of one of his ‘pets’, Lily Armstrong, a favourite pupil at the progressive Winnington School which Ruskin helped to fund and where he taught. ![]() ![]() ‘She is not quite eighteen – perfectly simple, gentle, and resolute – the nurse and firm governess of the younger children – and the most beautiful creature in face and form I ever saw anywhere… For a perfect woman, I never saw Lily’s like with her dark-eyed delicate head and white shoulders.’ ![]()
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