John Ruskin 1819-1900

David Villiers;
Ray Livingston Murphy, New York,  his estate sale at Christie’s 19^th November 1985 (lot 210)

The present watercolour, clearly influenced by Turner, is close in style to Ruskin's views of Fribourg dating from circa 1856 and may well originate from the same region.  The detailed and linear quality of this work also reflects the artist's interest in Durer's engravings and on two occasions in the 1850's Ruskin referred to his admiration for the artist's depictions of towers, turrets and pinnacles that characterise the skyline of old German towns  (see Paul H.Walton, Master Drawings by John Ruskin: Selections from the David Thomson Collection, 2000, pp.88-90).

Between 1842 and 1852 Ruskin acquired a number of late Swiss subjects by Turner and, after that, he became convinced of the superiority of these late mountain drawings.  In 1851 he was appointed an executor of the estate of J.M.W.Turner and his initial selection of Turner drawings for exhibition focused upon the Swiss subjects.  By 1856 he had formed a plan to supplement Turner's drawings for the exhibition with his own.  The Swiss towns project enabled Ruskin to revisit and reinterpret the places he had described with such delight during his Swiss tour of 1835 and 'the result was a series of remarkably expressive drawings, showing a marked change of style, and certainly his best work' (Paul H.Walton, The Drawings of John Ruskin, 1972, p.88).

The present watercolour, executed during the time when Ruskin was examining and arranging the Turner bequest, clearly reflects the influence of Turner's Swiss mountain drawings.  Here, light touches of colour sometimes mixed with opaque white are touched over delicate pencil work on blue paper, in an attempt to achieve the impressionistic effect of Turner's later works.   In Paul Walton's words, however, 'despite the obvious debt to Turner, this phase of Ruskin's art remains a very personal and original achievement' (op.cit., p.92)