The old covered wooden bridge at Luzern, known as the Kapellbrücke, traverses the page from the left to meet the solid tower of the Wasserturm on the right. Above its roof the twin towers of the Hofkirche are visible. Below it flow the waters of the Reuss.
Although Ruskin dates the drawing to 1862 in his entry in the first Educational Series catalogue, Taylor proposes that it should be connected to diary entries 17 to 19 October 1861: 'Paint bit of Lucerne Bridge'; 'Painting Bridge. Get on badly'; 'Paint Bridge; get on well but stopped by cold' (Ruskin, Diaries, vol. II, p. 554) and to details in an unpublished summary of Ruskin's journeys of 1884 (Ruskin Library, University of Lancaster, L 8).
First catalogued in 1871 as no. 71 in the Educational Series, the drawing was listed in Case V, which contained 'Elementary Illustrations of Landscape'; it was renumbered as no. 116 in 1874. 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).
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. 083
Cook, Edward T., Studies in Ruskin: Some Aspects of the Work and Teaching of John Ruskin (Orpington: George Allen, 1890), pl. IV, f.p. 306
Ruskin, John, The Diaries of John Ruskin, ed. Joan Evans and John Howard Whitehouse, 3 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956-1959)
Ruskin, John, Catalogue of the Educational Series (London: Smith, Elder, 1871), cat. Educational no. 71
Ruskin, John, Catalogue of the Educational Series (London: Spottiswoode, 1874), cat. Educational no. 116
Hayman, John, John Ruskin and Switzerland (Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1990), no. 81, p. 105, no. 81, p. 105
Ruskin, John, ‘Unbound Letters to Various Correspondents’, n.d., Lancaster, Ruskin Library, University of Lancaster
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. VI, pl. A, f.p. 394
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. 116