John Ruskin

John Ruskin
(1819–1900)

Rocks in Unrest

Inscribed in border, in pen and brown ink, at lower left, Drawn from my favorite St. Gothard, for Mod. Painters 4th vol. / (J. Ruskin Brantwood. 23d Aug. 86)

Watercolor, point of brush, scratching out, over pencil
7 5/16 x 12 1/8 in. (185 x 308 mm)

Thaw Collection

Item description: 

Ruskin learned to draw by copying the works of Samuel Prout and David Roberts and studying under Anthony Vandyke Copley Fielding. Turner, however, would prove the greatest influence. Ruskin built a sizeable collection of Turner's early watercolors. The first volume of Ruskin's Modern Painters resulted from his reading a negative review of Turner's work. This drawing is a copy of the lower part of the Turner watercolor The Pass at Faido, St. Gotthard, which Ruskin commissioned. His own drawing of a detail of the Turner work is reproduced as plate 81 in the final volume of Modern Painters.