- 243
Attributed to John Ruskin
Estimate
3,000 - 5,000 GBP
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Description
- John Ruskin
- Recto: A Swiss Alpine Village in Winter Verso: Study of Mountains
- Watercolour over traces of pencil;
signed lower right, verso: Ruskin - 186 by 390 mm
- 18.5 x 39 cm
Provenance
Sale, London, Sotheby's, 30 November 2000, lot 341;
where acquired by the late owner
where acquired by the late owner
Catalogue Note
When the present watercolour was last sold, it was suggested that it dated from 1845 and depicted the Swiss villages of either Visp or Reinfelden. This theory has, however, been rejected by current day scholars, who are unsure of how to place this double-sided sheet within Ruskin’s oeuvre. Stylistically and tonally, it is similar to Ruskin’s circa 1858, Grütli, Uri-Rotstock from Lake Lucerne.1 However, if one considers the sheet size as being important, the unusual dimensions of the present work are comparable with his watercolour Dawn at Coniston.2 He created that work in 1873, at a time when he was increasingly interested in the atmospheric effects of skies.
1. C. Newall, John Ruskin, Artist and Observer, Ottawa 2014, p. 290, no. 100
2. Ibid., p. 308, no. 108