John Ruskin 1819-1900

Coniston, Ruskin Exhibition, 1900, no.42;

Royal Watercolour Society, 1901, no.299;

Fine Art Society, 1907, no.14

Vern A.Burd, The Ruskin Family Letters, Vol 1, Cornell University Press, 1973, pl.xli (and in the Ruskin Library Edition, vol XXXV, pl.11);

E.T.Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, eds., The Works of John Ruskin, 1903, no.1247

Ruskin was a student in Oxford between 1837 and 1842 and during these years he executed the present work.  The knotty style of this drawing reveals the influence of Prout whose work he admired in the rooms of his fellow student Lord Carew.  Ruskin himself resided at St Aldate's, but as a gentleman commoner, a rank which his father purchased, he enjoyed special privileges  - the best rooms in college, spearate tables at dinner and distinguished gowns and mortarboards.  In 1840 Ruskin was forced to take a break in his academic career due to ill-health caused by overwork.  He returned to Oxford, however, in November 1841 and, for the next three years, was a pupil of James Duffield Harding.  In May 1842 Ruskin took his finals and left the city to travel the Continent 

We are grateful to James Dearden for his help with cataloguing this lot