Summer Miscellany

4 July – 27 September 2009

An eclectic mix of ‘favourite things’ from the Whitehouse Collection: drawings, manuscripts and more.

The Museum staff chose their favourite things from the collection and together created an exciting exhibition – a ‘Summer Miscellany’. Amongst the personal favourites on display in this exhibition were new acquisitions and rarely exhibited items.

“[Sir James Clark] ordered me abroad before autumn, to be as much in open carriages as possible, and to winter in Italy.”
John Ruskin

Focusing on drawings of English churches and cathedrals gave us the opportunity to display a wonderful depiction of Rievaulx Abbey by Alexander MacDonald, the first Master of the Ruskin School of Drawing at Oxford in 1871 who later became Keeper of the University Galleries.

A watercolour of an abandoned abbey overgrown with plants. A cloud filled blue sky and trees form the background. — Alexander MacDonald, ‘Rievaulx Abbey, Yorkshire’, n.d., 1996P0745 © The Ruskin, Lancaster University

A variety of illuminated texts and medieval influences were shown, including the following three illuminated letters (the illuminated letter ‘B’ is in a letter Ruskin sent to a ‘Mrs Blackburn’).

A pencil, ink and bodycolour painting of an illuminated letter 'L'. — John Ruskin, ‘Illuminated Letter ‘L”, n.d., 1996P0935 © The Ruskin, Lancaster University

John Ruskin, ‘Illuminated Letter ‘L”, n.d., 1996P0935 © The Ruskin, Lancaster University

Also displayed were many pictures of ‘favourite places’ in England and on the Continent. This included Matlock, in Derbyshire, which Ruskin visited several times on his tours in England. Two suggestions have been made for the specific location of his drawing of Matlock: the lily pond of the New Bath Hotel at Matlock Bath, where Ruskin stayed on many occasions, and an area of Matlock Bath know as ’Lover’s Walk’, further up the valley and nearer to the hills of Masson and High Tor, which appears to feature within the drawing.

A pencil sketch of a hill range. — John Ruskin, ‘Matlock, Derbyshire’, 1871, 1996P0954 © The Ruskin, Lancaster University

Our then Director, Stephen Wildman, chose recently conserved work and new acquisitions. Becoming one of Ruskin’s finest Venetian watercolours, his drawing of part of a ruin in the Rio di Ca’ Foscari (Venice) was reproduced as a coloured lithograph in Examples of the Architecture of Venice, as Plate 9. It celebrates a piece of Byzantine architecture, but also includes “modern features” such as the window and gives a texture of romantic decay.

A pencil, watercolour and bodycolour painting of architectural details from a Byzantine Ruin. — John Ruskin, ‘Venice, Byzantine Ruin, Rio Di Ca’ Foscari. Stilted Archivolts’, 1849 © The Ruskin, Lancaster University

This page showcases just a small sample of the wide variety of work included in this exhibition; other featured artists included Edward Burne-Jones, Thomas Bewick, the Severn family and T.M. Rooke.