John Ruskin was the leading and most influential English art critic of his generation and throughout the Victorian era. During his lifetime he became an important patron of the arts, supporting artists including J. M. W. Turner as well as the younger artists of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Such professional and public activities allowed Ruskin to become a prominent social thinker and philanthropist, producing a great many well-received publications which remain in print today. He was also an avid draughtsman and watercolourist in his own right. Such illustrative work accompanied much of his published written work.