Writing from Rome on 3 December 1840 to his friend Edward Clayton, Ruskin enthused about J. D. Harding:' Harding is indisputably the highest and most accomplished landscape artist who gives lessons in England at the present day' ( Works, 1.425). Ruskin received drawing lessons from Harding in 1842. He described in Praeterita how he 'found his first lessons from Harding... very delightful for what they were worth, though I saw well enough his shortcomings. But it was lovely to see him draw' ( Works, 35.308). He travelled with Harding in Italy during 1845. 'In September, Mr. J. D. Harding, who after Copley Fielding, had been my master in water-colour, wrote to ask if he could join me in his autumn tour. I went down to meet him in Baveno' ( Works, 4.353). They then travelled on and worked together in Venice.
Ruskin offered Harding both praise and criticism. He wrote in his 1857 Academy Notes 'This is a clever drawing, but Mr Harding need not hope to draw Switzerland on these cheap terms' ( Works, 14.126). In the same year he noted in The Elements of Drawing: 'There are no lithographic sketches which for truth of general character, obtained with little cost of time, at all rival Harding's' ( Works, 15.112). Many ideas from Harding's teachings found their way into Modern Painters I, and Ruskin's debt to Harding was arguably significant.