Ruskin, John

Autograph letter signed ("J Ruskin"), 1 1/2 pages (7 x 4 7/16 in.; 178 x 112 mm) plus integral address leaf stamped, [Keswick, Cumbria], 4 August 1867, to Robert Thom in Edinburgh, re-directed to Cavers House, Hawick; formerly folded, some soiling, seal stains, 4 postmarks, docketed in pencil.

Advice against buying a Turner.

Ruskin (1819-1900) had a long and tangled relationship with J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851); some unknown personal affront occurred early on, which however did not suppress his admiration for the artist. The Fifth Plague of Egypt (1800, now in the Indianopolis Museum of Art) and the Tenth Plague of Egypt (1802, now at the Tate Gallery) were two of the artist's earliest paintings, establishing his reputation as a Romantic painter of moody landscapes.

Ruskin was on vacation in Cumbria when he wrote to a lawyer in Edinburgh in his role as art critic: "W. Howell sent me on your letter — I should strongly recommend you not to buy any of the Plague of Egypt Turners — They are heavy in colour and out of his proper sphere of conception though they all belong to a magnificent period of his power and all the figures in them, as well as in all his oil pictures, are his own. He never allowed the touch of another hand in his grave work — and even when Stothard figures occur in vignettes, they use always only S's improvements or the engravers proof. I don't remember one introduced in the drawings. It is in rare exception if ever. But you had better let the 'plague' alone."