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.
Taylor, Gerald, ‘John Ruskin: A Catalogue of Drawings by John Ruskin in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford’, 7 fascicles, 1998, Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, no. 122
Ruskin, John, The Ruskin Art Collection at Oxford: Catalogue of the Rudimentary Series, in the Arrangement of 1873, ed. Robert Hewison (London: Lion and Unicorn Press, 1984), cat. Rudimentary no. 44, RUD.044
Ruskin, John, Instructions in Practice of Elementary Drawing, Arranged with Reference to the First Series of Examples in the Drawings Schools of the University of Oxford (n.p., [1872]), cat. Rudimentary no. 44
Ruskin, John, Instructions in the Preliminary Exercises Arranged for the Lower Drawing-School (London: Smith, Elder, 1872), cat. Rudimentary no. 44
Ruskin, John, Instructions in the Preliminary Exercise Arranged For the Lower Drawing-School (London: Spottiswoode, 1873), cat. Rudimentary no. 44
Ruskin, John, ‘Rudimentary Series 1878’, 1878, Oxford, Oxford University Archives, cat. Rudimentary no. 43-44
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. Rudimentary no. 44
All students are to copy one or other of these: if the smaller hurts their eyes, they are to take the larger. The work is to be entirely with B and HB pencil, on our standard white paper. The subject is (R. 43,) the Venetian Sea Horse, natural size; (R. 44,) its tail enlarged, both from a dried specimen. The living creature is green, almost transparent; and is a kind of animated tendril of sea-grass; abides generally with his spiral tail twisted round a reed in the shallows; swinging, so, to and fro with the tide; swims, superbly, when he changes place, by quivering undulation of his transparent crest and dorsal fin. He is to be drawn that you may learn, first, how to manage an HB pencil so as to show spots, local colour, &c.; secondly, that it may be impressed on your mind that a fish, generally, is a floating head, breast, and stomach, with a tail rather awkwardly put on behind, to steer, or, as in this case, grip with.
All students are to copy one or other of these: if the smaller hurts their eyes, they are to take the larger. The work is to be entirely with B and HB pencil, on our standard white paper. The subject is (R. 43,) the Venetian Sea Horse, natural size; (R. 44,) its tail enlarged, both from a dried specimen. The living creature is green, almost transparent; and is a kind of animated tendril of sea-grass; abides generally with his spiral tail twisted round a reed in the shallows; swinging, so, to and fro with the tide; swims, superbly, when he changes place, by quivering undulation of his transparent crest and dorsal fin. He is to be drawn that you may learn, first, how to manage an HB pencil so as to show spots, local colour, &c.; secondly, that it may be impressed on your mind that a fish, generally, is a floating head, breast, and stomach, with a tail rather awkwardly put on behind, to steer, or, as in this case, grip with.
To be used at M.r. Macdonald’s discretion. Pen exercise.