Ruskin and the Old Masters

9th January - 11th April 1999

Charles Fairfax Murray: Allegory of Good Government

Ruskin's understanding of Old Master painting is illuminated in his letters and diaries, and by the drawings and watercolours which he made in Milan, Assisi, Florence and Venice. Other works will be shown by his associates and copyists, including Edward Burne-Jones, Angelo Alessandri and Charles Fairfax Murray.

After several visits to Italy with his parents, Ruskin returned again and again to study painting and architecture. In 1845 Ruskin discovered the work of Fra Angelico in Florence and Tintoretto in Venice. He collected photographs and other reproductions but believed that far more could be understood during the act of drawing directly from the original. He did this himself, spending much time making sketches and highly detailed studies, many of which are exhibited here.

Ruskin published several items about or containing references to the Old Masters. Most of his later writings on art were on the Florentine and Venetian painters, beginning with Val d'Arno (1874) and the lectures published as Ariadne Florentina in 1875-77. Mornings in Florence (1875-77) was intended as a guide for cultured tourists. A winter stay in Venice in 1876 provided the material for Guide to the Academy at Venice (1877), largely devoted to the study of Carpaccio. Almost his last written work was a preface to A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery (1888), compiled by E.T. Cook using quotations from Ruskin.

Catalogues are available for many of our exhibitions - see our Publications List for details.

Top of the page - Welcome - Current Exhibition - Future Exhibitions - Previous Exhibitions

Ruskin Library Web Pages created and maintained by Jen Shepherd

All images and text (c)The Ruskin Library, unless otherwise stated.

(c) 2006-