First met on 3 January 1858 and First Date in 1867 and engaged in 1867
and finalized in 1872 with separation. met, for the final time on 15 February 1875. After a long illness, she died on 25 May 1875
Ruskin met La Touche when she was nine years old (3 January 1858) as a private art tutor (Cook and Wedderburn lxvi), and the two maintained an educational relationship through correspondence until she was 18. Rose's mother, Mrs. Maria La Touche, was a friend of Louisa, Lady Waterford, and wrote to Ruskin on assistance with her children's education after a formal introduction from Lady Waterford. Ruskin recalls the correspondence in Praeterita:
"Soon after I returned home, in the eventful year 1858, a lady wrote to me from—somewhere near Green Street, W.,--saying, as people sometimes did, in those days, that she saw I was the only sound teacher in Art; but this farther, very seriously, that she wanted her children—two girls and a boy—taught the beginnings of Art rightly; especially the younger girl, in whom she thought I might find some power worth developing" (Praeterita, 525).
Although some debate exists over the nature of Mrs. La Touche and Ruskin's first correspondence, Tim Hilton notes in John Ruskin: The Early Years that he did not call as immediately as his autobiography suggests. Rather "he sent William Ward to see her, being too busy to call himself" (262).
When Ruskin did call on the La Touches for the first time, he was "taken with them" and "felt there was something exceptional about Rose" (Hilton 264). Upon first meeting Rose, Ruskin wrote in the final pages of Praeterita that
"...presently the drawing room door opened, and Rosie came in, quietly taking stock of me with her blue eyes as she walked across the room; gave me her hand, as a good dog gives its paw, and then stood a little back. Nine years old, on 3rd January, 1858, thus now rising towards ten; neither tall nor short for her age; a little stiff in her way of standing. The eyes rather deep blue at that time, and fuller and softer than afterwards. Lips perfectly lovely in profile;--a little too wide, and hard in edge, seen in front; the rest of the features what a fair, well-bred Irish girl's usually are; the hair, perhaps, more graceful in short curl around the forehead, and softer than one sees often, in the close-bound tresses above the neck" (Praeterita, 525)
Ruskin gradually fell in love with her. Their first meeting came at a time when Ruskin’s own religious faith was under strain. This always caused difficulties for the staunchly Protestant La Touche family who at various times prevented the two from meeting. Ruskin’s love for Rose was a cause alternately of great joy and deep depression for him, and always a source of anxiety. Ruskin proposed to her on or near her eighteenth birthday in 1867, but she asked him to wait three years for an answer, until she was 21.A chance meeting at the Royal Academy in 1869 was one of the few occasions they came into personal contact thereafter.
When Ruskin later sought to become engaged to her, Rose's parents were concerned. They wrote to Effie Gray (Ruskin's first wife, virgin) to ask about the marriage; she replied by describing Ruskin as an oppressive husband. The engagement was broken off.
They still occasionally met, for the final time on 15 February 1875. After a long illness, she died on 25 May 1875, at the age of 27. These events plunged Ruskin into despair and led to increasingly severe bouts of mental illness involving a number of breakdowns and delirious visions. He convinced himself that the Renaissance painter Vittore Carpaccio had included portraits of Rose in his paintings of the life of Saint Ursula. He also took solace in Spiritualism, trying to contact Rose's spirit.
Rose and Ruskin's romance is alluded to in Nabokov's novel Lolita. According to Wolfgang Kemp "the whole work is riddled with allusions and direct references to the la Touches".