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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Study of a Capital of one of the Upper Pinnacles of the Tomb of Cansignorio della Scala, Verona John Ruskin

Location

    • Western Art Print Room

Position in Ruskin’s Collection

Ruskin's Catalogues

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

    R|98} Study of a Capital of one of the upper pinnacles of Tomb of Can Signorio (Pisan school). M.
  • Ruskin's Rudimentary series 4th ed. (1872)

    R|98} Study of a Capital of one of the upper pinnacles of Tomb of Can Signorio (Pisan school). M.
  • Ruskin's Rudimentary series, 5th ed. (1873)

    R|98} Study of a Capital of one of the upper pinnacles of Tomb of Can Signorio (Pisan school). M.
  • Ruskin's revision to the Rudimentary series (1878)

    remains 98.

    Finished study of the capital of one of the niches of the later tomb, in the upper story of it. It is drawn with all this care, first, to shew the lovely qualities of colour and pretty accidents of stain given to marble by age when the surface is undestroyed, and, partly, to shew the different inclination of the leaves at the angles, those toward the front of the niche being thrown forward and those at the back kept vertical - but this with so delicate a difference that any modern architect would think it the effect of accident & clumsiness. But it is a part of a great system throughout all the Veronese monuments, under which the action of the foliage, in every minor ornament, has reference to its position on the building.

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