Nobody, in all England, at that time,—and Turner was already sixty,— cared, in the true sense of the word, for Turner, but the retired coachmaker of Tottenham, and I.

John Ruskin , Praeterita Vol 2 Chapter 1

John Ruskin: champion of JMW Turner and author of Modern Painters

John Ruskin the writer and art critic championed JMW Turner in his first critical work Modern Painters.  And it was at BG Windus’s house that Turner thanked Ruskin for the magnificent defence of his work in his publication. 

Ruskin records visits to Windus’s house to see and study the Turner paintings, in February, May, November and December 1843: on 5 December, ‘spent a pleasant evening, wandering from Turner to Turner’.

John Ruskin first met Turner in 1840 at Thomas Griffith’s, through whom his father, John James Ruskin, had bought their first Turner the year before.

Letter from John Ruskin to BG Windus:

"...I am going to beg of you a very great favour if it be safe - to leave the drawer with the Bible drawings unlocked - because I want to begin with them. I will not of course touch or look at anything else in the Cabinet. I know they are in the second drawer - and I want to begin with them - because the attention necessary to discover their refinement is not so readily given - after people have exhausted their admiration on the walls, because I think the size & fulness of the large drawings is only to be appreciated after the attention has been fixed to details by the small - people otherwise glance at them too generally & slightly..."

while attempting not to be distracted by his host's generosity

"...I really cannot make an inn of your house every time I come - I have a great deal of work to do there - by your kind permission - and I shall not be comfortable unless you allow me to come without putting you to all the trouble of providing meat & pastry..."
From The Windus Papers - Turner, Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites - sold at Bonhams on 24 March 2009

I want very much to introduce a young lady to you who I think will quite eclipse & extinguish your Irish friend - though that is bold vouching - for a Scotch demoiselle - as she is.../... Miss Gray - I need scarcely say was delighted with your collection. She has fine natural taste - & fixed instantly - without any hints from me - on the Nemi - Florence - Assos - & Caius Cestius, -- of the Byron series. She is however a mere child. - and as she got a little tired before I had done drawing - I gave her leave to look at some of your books - I hope none of them were injured..."
​From The Windus Papers - Turner, Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites - sold at Bonhams on 24 March 2009

On 20 April 1842 Ruskin’s father, John James wrote:

I saw Windus & asked him about Turner – he has been writing to him.  He does not take one of the drawings we saw nor of those to be done. I thought G. said he had taken one.  I asked him confidentially what G. was.  He said very frankly – Why I am an acquaintance but be on your guard.  He is the cleverest and the deepest man I ever met with – but I myself have kept to the best Turners & am safe.
The Ruskin Family Letters ed Van Akin Burd. p734

The following day he added:
Mr Windus gave us leave to come any Monday to see Oberwessel by Turner done 2 years ago for Findens something which Windus gave 100 guineas for.
The Ruskin Family Letters ed Van Akin Burd. p 735

Richmond from the moors by JMW Turner © Fitzwilliam Museum

15 May 1843 Ruskin took his new wife, Effie Grey, to see the Windus collection.

​In March 1861 Ruskin donated from his collection 48 drawings by JMW Turner  to the Ashmolean in Oxford, and 25 to the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge.  He placed restrictions on his gifts which mean that the drawings may not be lent outside the Museums.

​In Praeterita Ruskin wrote about Turner's paintings:
Certainly the most curious failure of memory - among the many I find - is I don't know when I saw my first!  
I feel as if Mr Windus's parlour at Tottenham had been familiar to me since the dawn of existence in Brunswick Square.

In 1856 George Eliot read and reviewed volumes III and IV of Ruskin's Modern Painters. 
​What books his last two are!
she exclaimed to Barbara Leigh Smith. 
​I think he is the finest writer living.

There is no wealth but life.
Life, including all its powers of love, of joy, and of admiration.
That country is the richest which nourishes the greatest number of noble and happy human beings;
that man is richest who, having perfected the function of his own life to the utmost,
has always the widest helpful influence, both personal,
and by means of his possessions, over the lives of others.