Mountain Landscape
John Ruskin (1819-1900).
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
1860 - 1869
Materials
Black chalk and blue wash heightened with white on paper
Measurements
350 x 260 mm
Order this imageCollection
Wightwick Manor, West Midlands
NT 1287894
Summary
Black chalk and blue wash drawing heightened with white on paper, Mountain Landscape by John Ruskin (London 1819 - Brantwood 1900), signed with initials, 1860s. A landscape sketch with foreground trees to the left and blue mountains in the distance.
Full description
Ruskin was not only the most influential writer on art of the Victorian period but also a highly accomplished artist in his own right. His strong scientific interest in the natural world had a profound influence on his views on art. This drawing is probably of a landscape in Switzerland, which Ruskin visited often. It is a good example of his carefully observed studies of landscapes, mountains, rocks and plants reflecting his maxim "Go to nature..... rejecting nothing, selecting nothing, composing nothing". Ruskin's approach has been described by Timothy Hilton (The Pre-Raphaelites 1970) as "a style almost of absence of style", recording the natural world rather than consciously making pictures, with blank patches and no attempt to impose design on the subject. Ruskin saw in the work of the Pre-Raphaelites a similar emphasis on minutely detailed observation of nature which brought him to their defence against hostile criticism in 1851.
Provenance
Probably acquired by Theodore Mander before 1900, [1914 inventory: Great Parlour; 1937 inventory: Drawing Room]; transferred to the National Trust on the death of Sir Geoffrey Le Mesurier Mander (1882-1962)
Marks and inscriptions
J R (initialled in pencil in bottom right corner)
Makers and roles
John Ruskin (1819-1900). , artist