‘Precious Records’: Ruskin’s Daguerreotypes of Tuscany
27 March – 27 June 2010
Looking through the lens at great Tuscan landscape and architecture.
“I have brought away some precious records from Florence […] It is certainly the most marvellous invention of the century.”
John Ruskin, in writing to his father, 1845
The Museum’s Whitehouse Collection contains 125 daguerreotypes: one-off plates using the first popular process of permanent photography. As the first display in a series of four, this exhibition focused on Ruskin’s scenes of Tuscany, Italy.
John Ruskin & Le Cavalier Iller, ‘Florence. The Church of Orsanmichele. Window tracery’, 1846, 1996D0049 © The Ruskin, Lancaster University
John Ruskin & Le Cavalier Iller, ‘Florence. Panorama from the south’, 1845, 1996D0052 © The Ruskin, Lancaster University
Many of the photographs included in this exhibition depicted the Tuscan landscape, while others featured the region’s architecture, including the great Gothic buildings of Florence, Pisa, Pistoia, Lucca and Venice. The photographs were complemented by some of Ruskin’s drawings and watercolours of the same subjects, along with related archive material.
