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

A view over the rooftops of Luzern from the Gütschwald. Part of the Kapellbrücke and the Vierwaldstätter See appear on the right edge, and in the centre rise the twin spires of the Cathedral (Sankt Leodegar). Part of the old wall, the Musegg Wall, is visible on the left, together with the Dachliturm. Behind rises a tree-covered mountain.

Cook and Wedderburn date this drawing to 1861 (XVII.cxv), when Ruskin based himself in Luzern from 16 October to 27 December, although 1866 is also a possible date, as he spent ten days there from mid-June in that year. Taylor agrees that 1861 seems the most likely date, as evidence suggests that Ruskin dated most of the drawings he made in 1866, and so any undated drawings are more likely to date from 1861.

First listed in the Drawing School in 1871, this drawing was included in Case V of the Educational Series, which contained 'Elementary Illustrations of Landscape', in both the first and second independent catalogues of the Educational Series: it was no. 72 in the 1871 catalogue, and 117 in the 1874 catalogue. It was framed with another drawing of the same subject. Although not mentioned in Ruskin's 1878 reorganisation of the Series, it seems likely that it retained its position, as it would certainly fit in the group of works which were intended to illustrate 'what German and Swiss life were in their happiest associations with landscape about the beginning of this Century' (Educational Series manuscript catalogue, fol. LXXV).

Ruskin included the drawing in his 1878 exhibition of drawings by himself and Turner: he described it as 'one of the outlines of general view, such as I meant to join these studies into. All little better than waste paper now' (no. 40 R = XIII.523).