Ruskin's Standard & Reference series (1872)
Exemplary works of art. In the catalogue of the Reference series, items marked 'M' are drawings "by my own Hand" (by Ruskin), P are photographs, E engravings and A by Ruskin's Assistant, Arthur Burgess.
Ruskin's Catalogues: 1 object
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Mezzotint of Reynolds's "Portrait of John Armstrong, M.D." Edward Fisher
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Ruskin text
44. An English Gentleman. (Dr. Armstrong.) (Reynolds.) -
Curator’s description:
Description
The print has been trimmed to within 10 mm of the plate-mark. There are a series of white dots within the image, many of which seem to coincide with small elevations on the print's surface, and are presumably the result of slight abrasion; otherwise, it is in reasonable condition. The plate seems not to have been wiped entirely clean before the print was pulled, as there is a definite tone to the backround behind the lettering - which also shows light rocker marks in places, having presumably not been fully burnished before printing.
Dr Armstrong is shown half-length against a plain, dark background.
Cook and Wedderburn (XXI.27 n.1) identify the sitter as John Armstrong, M.D. (1709-1779), by all accounts an indolent and misanthropic individual who combined the twin activities of physician and poet in a somewhat unsuccessful career. The young Ruskin quoted a phrase from his poem on "The Art of Preserving Health", published in 1744, in "The Poetry of Architecture" (§ 43 = I.38).
The print was first listed in the Teaching Collection in 1870, when it was included in the "Catalogue of Examples" as no. 44 in the Reference Series, a position it retained in the 1872 catalogue of the series. The print formed part of a sequence of pictures by painters - all portrait-painters - who applied paint broadly, using the edges of the painted areas to denote outlines, rather than drawing them in with the point of the brush (Catalogue of Examples, p. 19).
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Details
- Artist/maker
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Edward Fisher (active 1772 - 1785) (engraver)after Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723 - 1792)
- Object type
- Material and technique
- mezzotint on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 355 x 254 mm (plate); 368 x 268 mm (sheet)
- Inscription
- Recto, all engraved below the image:
immediately below the image, left: S:r Joshua Reynolds Pinx..t
immediately below the image, bottom right: Edw:d Fisher Sculp..t
centre: JOHN ARMSTRONG M.D. | The Suffrage of the wise, The Praise that's worth Ambition, | is attain'd By sense alone, & Dignity of Mind.
Verso, bottom right, in graphite: Very fine G. B. IX | before Publication £16,
- Provenance
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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.
- No. of items
- 1
- Accession no.
- WA.RS.STD.044
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Subject terms allocated by curators:
Subjects
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References in which this object is cited include:
References
Ruskin, John, Catalogue of Examples Arranged for Elementary Study in the University Galleries (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1870), cat. Standard no. 44
Ruskin, John, Catalogue of the Reference Series Including Temporarily the First Section of the Standard Series (London: Smith, Elder, [1872]), cat. Standard no. 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. Standard no. 44
Location
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- Western Art Print Room
Position in Ruskin’s Collection
Ruskin's Catalogues
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Ruskin's Catalogue of Examples (1870)
44. An English Gentleman. (Dr. Armstrong.) (Reynolds.) -
Ruskin's Standard & Reference series (1872)
44. An English Gentleman. (Dr. Armstrong.) (Reynolds.)
