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A blue wall with images of shells on it. Attached to the wall are a row of clear boxes displaying large shells inside and there is a large framed painting of a shell attached to the centre of the wall.

‘Radiant Form’: Ruskin and Shells

Blue Gallery, Brantwood

The Ruskin – hosted at the Blue Gallery, Brantwood

30 July – 29 September 2024

Exhibition Leaflet: ‘Radiant Form: Ruskin and Shells’

A painting of a spiral shell.
A painting of a white cockle shell.
A collection of small shells on a white table surface
A detailed drawing of a spiky spiral shell.
Top left to right:
John Ruskin, ‘Shell: a spiral’, n.d., 1996P2047 © The Ruskin, Lancaster University
Japanese Moon Scallop, n.d., R3 © The Ruskin, Lancaster University
John Ruskin, ‘Cockle shell’, n.d., 1996P1510 © The Ruskin, Lancaster University
Bottom left to right:
Polished mother of pearl Turbo Marmoratus shell, n.d., R3 © The Ruskin, Lancaster University
Selection of small shells, n.d., R200 © The Ruskin, Lancaster University
John Ruskin, ‘JR: Nautilus 1868 Wks XXI pl 31 CW 1183’ Glass Negative Box C:20 © The Ruskin, Lancaster University

From childhood, Ruskin was a keen collector of shells, intrigued by their patterns, shapes and colours. ‘But to paint shells in quite true perspective – and with their exact pearly lustre or grain, is beyond all skill but the highest’ he wrote. This fifth exhibition curated by Sandra Kemp in the series ‘John Ruskin in the Age of Science’ explores the technical and philosophical challenges presented by Ruskin’s shell studies from The Ruskin Whitehouse Collection, Lancaster University, the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, alongside his shell collection at Brantwood, where his original shell cabinets remain in the drawing room.

Wooden box with small round boxes containing small shells. There are also loose shells in and around the box. Next to the box is a notebook.
Box (wooden) – inlaid lid, containing trays of sea shells, n.d., R76 © The Ruskin, Lancaster University