- 241
John Ruskin
Estimate
8,000 - 12,000 GBP
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Description
- John Ruskin
- Mount Pilatus from Lake Lucerne, Switzerland
- Watercolour over pencil heightened with touches of bodycolour;
signed with the artist's monogram lower right - 130 by 270 mm
- 13.2 x 27.4 cm
Provenance
Sale, London, Sotheby's, 21 March 2001, lot 264;
where acquired by the late owner
where acquired by the late owner
Catalogue Note
‘I have made up my mind that the finest things one can see in summer are nothing compared to winter scenery about the Alps when the weather is fine. Pilatus looked as if it was entirely constructed of frosted silver, like Geneva filigree work – lighted by golden sunshine with long purple shadows; and the entire chain of the Alps beyond’, so wrote Ruskin from Lucerne on Christmas day 1861.1
Mount Pilatus is an isolated mountain at the west end of the Lake of Lucerne, rising opposite the Rigi. Ruskin visited it on a number of occasions during his trips to the Alps. Stylistically, this watercolour dates from the 1850s, when Ruskin made a series of Swiss tours. It can be closely compared to a watercolour of the same subject, dated circa 1854, which is now in the Ruskin Library at Lancaster University. Both works demonstrate the expressive and energetic technique he had perfected by this date.
1. E.T. Cook, The Life of Ruskin, vol. II, London 1911, p. 38