The Elements of Drawing, John Ruskin’s teaching collection at Oxford

The Elements of Drawing, John Ruskin’s teaching collection at Oxford

Browse: 1470 objects

Reference URL

Actions

Send e-mail

Contact us about this object

Send e-mail

Send to a friend

Fribourg, Switzerland: Pen sketch John Ruskin

  • Curator’s description:

    Description

    This is an incomplete view taken from near the Pont du Gotteron, across the rooftops of Auge (the lower quarter and oldest district of Fribourg), and over the River Sarine to rocky cliffs beyond, on which stand the tower of the Porte de Bourguillon and the Chapelle de Lorette. The houses and trees in the bottom left are sketched in using graphite alone.

    Ruskin is known to have visted Fribourg in 1854 and 1856. Because the documentary evidence for his stay in 1854 is scarce, apart from a letter from Fribourg dated 6 August, Taylor concludes it most likely that this drawing was executed in 1856, when Ruskin was in Fribourg from 9 to 14 July and from 22 August to 2 September.

    The drawing was first catalogued in the Teaching Collection in 1871, as no. 64 in the Educational Series, housed in Case V, 'Elementary Illustrations of Landscape'; it was renumbered, as no. 114, in the 1874 edition of the Educational Series catalogue, but remained in the same position. The drawing was not moved in Ruskin's 1878 reorganisation of the series, where Ruskin stated that he intended it as the first in a group of 'illustrations of what German and Swiss life were in their happiest associations with landscape about the beginning of this Century'. He was particularly pleased with his portayal of foliage, but disappointed with his inability to convey the wall and rocks correctly.

  • Details

    Artist/maker
    John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)
    Object type
    drawing
    Material and technique
    pen and graphite with white bodycolour on brown wove paper
    Dimensions
    372 x 317 mm
    Associated place
    Inscription
    Verso, towards bottom right, the Ruskin School's stamp
    Provenance

    Presented by John Ruskin to the Ruskin Drawing School (University of Oxford), 1875; transferred from the Ruskin Drawing School to the Ashmolean Museum, c.1949.

    No. of items
    1
    Accession no.
    WA.RS.ED.114.a
  • Subject terms allocated by curators:

    Subjects

  • References in which this object is cited include:

    References

    Taylor, Gerald, ‘John Ruskin: A Catalogue of Drawings by John Ruskin in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford’, 7 fascicles, 1998, Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, no. 061

    Cook, Edward T., Studies in Ruskin: Some Aspects of the Work and Teaching of John Ruskin (Orpington: George Allen, 1890), pl. V, f.p. 308

    Ruskin, John, Catalogue of the Educational Series (London: Smith, Elder, 1871), cat. Educational no. 64

    Ruskin, John, Catalogue of the Educational Series (London: Spottiswoode, 1874), cat. Educational no. 114

    Ruskin, John, ‘Educational Series 1878’, 1878, Oxford, Oxford University Archives, cat. Educational no. 114

    Hayman, John, John Ruskin and Switzerland (Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1990), no. 50, p. 66, no. 50, p. 66

    Ruskin, John, ‘The Works of John Ruskin’, Edward T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, eds, The Works of John Ruskin: Library Edition, 39 (London: George Allen, 1903-1912), vol. V, pl. F, f.p. xxxiv

    Ruskin, John, ‘The Ruskin Art Collection at Oxford: Catalogues, Notes and Instructions’, Edward T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, eds, The Works of John Ruskin: Library Edition, 39 (London: George Allen, 1903-1912), 21, cat. Educational no. 114

    Ruskin, John, ‘Notes By Mr. Ruskin ... on His Drawings by the Late J. M. W. Turner, R. A., [and] on His Own Handiwork Illustrative of Turner’, Edward T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, eds, The Works of John Ruskin: Library Edition, 39 (London: George Allen, 1903-1912), 13

Location

    • Western Art Print Room

Ruskin's Catalogues

  • Ruskin's Educational series, 2nd ed. (1874)

    114. Fribourg, Switzerland. Pen sketch, with old print beneath.M
  • Educational, manuscript (1878)

    R 114.

    This group will consist, when it is completed, of illustrations of what German and Swiss life were in their happiest associations with landscape about the beginning of this Century. The pen-drawing in the upper subject is very good in the foliage, but I could not express what I wanted in the rock wall and rocks and so gave in.

    I leave the remainder of the pieces in this group without further comment at present.

© 2013 University of Oxford - Ashmolean Museum