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

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

Ruskin's Standard & Reference series (1872)

Exemplary works of art. In the catalogue of the Reference series, items marked 'M' are drawings "by my own Hand" (by Ruskin), P are photographs, E engravings and A by Ruskin's Assistant, Arthur Burgess.

Standard & Reference Cover

Ruskin's Catalogues: 1 object

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Ruskin assembled a diverse collection of artworks for his drawing school in Oxford, including watercolours by J.M.W. Turner and drawings by Ruskin himself.  He taught students to draw as a way of educating them in how to look at art and the world around them.  

Ruskin divided his Teaching Collection into four main series: Standard, Reference, Educational and Rudimentary. Each item was placed in a numbered frame, arranged in a set of cabinets, so that they all had a specific position in the Collection (although Ruskin often moved items about as his ideas changed). 

When incorporated into the Ashmolean’s collection in the last century, the works were removed from the frames and the sequence was lost.  Here, Ruskin's original catalogues, notes and instructions - in his chosen order and in his own words - are united with images of the works and links to modern curatorial descriptions.

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Mezzotint of Reynolds's "Portrait of John Armstrong, M.D." Edward Fisher

  • Ruskin text

    44. An English Gentleman. (Dr. Armstrong.) (Reynolds.)
  • Curator’s description:

    Description

    The print has been trimmed to within 10 mm of the plate-mark. There are a series of white dots within the image, many of which seem to coincide with small elevations on the print's surface, and are presumably the result of slight abrasion; otherwise, it is in reasonable condition. The plate seems not to have been wiped entirely clean before the print was pulled, as there is a definite tone to the backround behind the lettering - which also shows light rocker marks in places, having presumably not been fully burnished before printing.

    Dr Armstrong is shown half-length against a plain, dark background.

    Cook and Wedderburn (XXI.27 n.1) identify the sitter as John Armstrong, M.D. (1709-1779), by all accounts an indolent and misanthropic individual who combined the twin activities of physician and poet in a somewhat unsuccessful career. The young Ruskin quoted a phrase from his poem on "The Art of Preserving Health", published in 1744, in "The Poetry of Architecture" (§ 43 = I.38).

    The print was first listed in the Teaching Collection in 1870, when it was included in the "Catalogue of Examples" as no. 44 in the Reference Series, a position it retained in the 1872 catalogue of the series. The print formed part of a sequence of pictures by painters - all portrait-painters - who applied paint broadly, using the edges of the painted areas to denote outlines, rather than drawing them in with the point of the brush (Catalogue of Examples, p. 19).

  • Details

    Artist/maker
    Edward Fisher (active 1772 - 1785) (engraver)
    after Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723 - 1792)
    Object type
    print
    Material and technique
    mezzotint on laid paper
    Dimensions
    355 x 254 mm (plate); 368 x 268 mm (sheet)
    Inscription
    Recto, all engraved below the image:
    immediately below the image, left: S:r Joshua Reynolds Pinx..t
    immediately below the image, bottom right: Edw:d Fisher Sculp..t
    centre: JOHN ARMSTRONG M.D. | The Suffrage of the wise, The Praise that's worth Ambition, | is attain'd By sense alone, & Dignity of Mind.

    Verso, bottom right, in graphite: Very fine G. B. IX | before Publication £16,
    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.STD.044
  • Subject terms allocated by curators:

    Subjects

  • References in which this object is cited include:

    References

    Ruskin, John, Catalogue of Examples Arranged for Elementary Study in the University Galleries (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1870), cat. Standard no. 44

    Ruskin, John, Catalogue of the Reference Series Including Temporarily the First Section of the Standard Series (London: Smith, Elder, [1872]), cat. Standard no. 44

    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. Standard no. 44

Location

    • Western Art Print Room

Position in Ruskin’s Collection

Ruskin's Catalogues

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