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

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

Ruskin's Rudimentary series, 3rd ed. (1872)

Items marked 'M' are drawings "by my own Hand" (by Ruskin), P are photographs, E engravings and A by Ruskin's Assistant, Arthur Burgess.

Rudimentary 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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A Frontispiece (at Farnley Hall) Turner

Location

    • Western Art Print Room

Position in Ruskin’s Collection

Ruskin's Catalogues

  • Ruskin's Rudimentary series, 3rd ed. (1872)

    R|14} Drawing of armour, standards, and documents at Farnley Hall. Turner.
  • Ruskin's Rudimentary series 4th ed. (1872)

    R|14} Drawing of armour, standards, and documents, at Farnley Hall. Turner.
  • Ruskin's Rudimentary series, 5th ed. (1873)

    R|14} Drawing of armour, standards, and documents, at Farnley Hall. Turner.
  • Ruskin's revision to the Rudimentary series (1878)

    remains 14.

    An example of Turner’s early heraldic work. Examine with lens the beautifully legible signature of Oliver Cromwell on the smallest of the fallen papers; also under the helmet the writing of the pedigree of the Farnley family. As brush-work, the sentence they are sometimes, and the perfectly free Hawkesworth and Richmond will give a general idea of the ease of Turner’s hand in minute lines. The colour of the shields on the principal scroll, and the lion rampant on the standard of Fairfax are to be copied by all students as soon as they have attained some facility in water-colour. The lion being executed with a wash of grey over the underlying vermilion bars, and the roughnesses given by only one process of retouching, with a scratch or two of the knife to conquer the vermilion, is of extremest value as a water-colour exercise. The drawing once belonged to M.r. Fawkes of Farnley and had been frightfully R. injured by ill usage on the left hand side of it before it came into my possession.

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