US Teacher Attracts Large Audience for Harvard Lecture

Upper School Art History and English teacher Rob Leith lectured at Harvard University in April as part of the renowned M. Victor Leventritt Lecture series, the purpose of which is to “present outstanding scholars of the history and theory of art to the Harvard and Greater Boston communities.” Leith's lecture, titled Ruskin, the American Pre-Raphaelites, and Harvard examined Harvard's role in sustaining the Pre-Raphaelite movement in the United States beyond its peak in the 1860s.

“Tonight I'm going to tell a story of people and pictures, often told in their own words—a story of the words and images the Last Ruskinians left behind,” Leith said to an audience of close to 300 people, including scores of BB&N students, faculty, and parents.

Leith devoted particular attention to the little-known second generation of American Pre-Raphaelites, who carried the movement into the early years of the 20th century.
“In my hand I have one of the sacred texts of the American Ruskinians: Ruskin's Elements of Drawing . It is subtitled ‘In Three Letters to Beginners,' and much of it is a straightforward manual, still in print and still in use today,” Leith said. “Open to any page, point down, and...you're not likely to find a passage to guide your future or save your life.”

Ted Stebbins, the curator of American paintings at Harvard, asked Leith to give the lecture after Leith helped Stebbins and his team prepare for the Fogg Museum's current exhibition, The Last Ruskinians .

“They came to me because they had made extensive use of my previous publications on the exhibition topic,” Leith said.

In addition to the lecture, Leith was also appointed to the exhibition committee and was invited to participate in a May 4 scholarly symposium at the Fogg.

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