RUSKIN, John (1819-1900). Modern Painters, London, 1851-60, 5 volumes, large 8vo, 84 plates. FINELY BOUND in dark green crushed morocco gilt. Mixed Editions, but the last 3 vols. FIRST EDITIONS. (5)

RUSKIN, John (1819-1900).  Modern Painters. London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 1851-60. 5 volumes, large 8vo (255 x 172mm). Half titles, 84 engraved, lithographed and mezzotint plates by J. C. Armytage, R. P. Cuff, J. H. Le Keux, T. Lupton and others after various artists including the author, wood-engraved illustrations, 16-pages of publisher's advertisements at the end of vols. one, III  and IV, 4-pages of publisher's advertisements at the end of vol. II, 32-pages of publisher's advertisements at the end of vol. V (some very light spotting and staining). FINELY BOUND in later dark green crushed morocco gilt by Henry Sotheran, spines with 5 raised bands and decorated in gilt, top edges gilt, others uncut, marbled endpapers, green silk markers (spines very slightly faded, some rubbing, scuffing and light dust-soiling to covers, more particularly to vol. III, inconspicuous line scored across lower cover to vol. V, one silk marker frayed). Provenance: S. C. Lister, Swinton Park (armorial bookplate); from the Collection of the late Professor Bernard Nevill (1930-2019). Mixed Editions. Volume One is a fifth edition; volume II is a third edition; volumes III, IV and V are FIRST EDITIONS. PMM 315: "... [Ruskin's] earliest major work was Modern Painters, of which the first volume, containing the celebrated defence of Turner, appeared anonymously in 1843. Modern Painters was to occupy Ruskin for another seventeen years, spanning the whole period of his writing on art ... The second volume, a survey of Italian art ... demands special notice as one of the direct causes of the foundation of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood ... The fourth volume (1856) was devoted to a favourite Ruskinian subject, mountain scenery and its formation. Both here and in the last volume, the illustrations are beautifully engraved - Ruskin took an infinity of pains with the quality of workmanship - often after his own exquisite drawings, which he thought of as merely diagrams but which are now valued as some of the most original watercolours ever executed. The fifth volume appeared in 1860, eliciting from Dante Gabriel Rossetti the gibe that its subjects would be Old Masters before Ruskin had finished." (5)