John Ruskin

On verso in black ink, J Ruskin, one of six made under Copley Fielding. Typescript on separate piece of paper affixed to frame backing, On back of water color with tear in lower right corner: / by J Ruskin 19[the "9" gone over with an "8" in blue ink]36 [sic] / One of the drawings done by J.R. / when having lessons under Copley Fielding. / Referred to by J.R. in Praeterita.; below this in the hand of Van A. Burd, in blue ink, Came to V. Burd through Mrs. H. G. Viljoen (1974). Typescript by Van A. Burd on second piece of paper affixed to frame backing, Van Burd's comment: This appears to be another study of Loch Achray / which Ruskin made under Copley Fielding. The technique matches his / description of his efforts in Praeterita, Works, 35: 215. "...Fielding / taught me to wash colour smoothly in successive tints, to shade cobalt / through pink madder into yellow ochre for skies, to use a broken scraggy / touch for the tops of mountains, to represent calm lakes by broad strips / of shade with lines of light between them..., to produce dark clouds / and rain with twelve or twenty successive washes, and to crumble burnt / umber with a dry brush for foliage and foreground." / It seems less likely that it is the drawing of this lake which / the editors list of No. 34 in Works, 38: 225 painted on 24 June 1838 / when Ruskin visited this lake.