Lot Essay
Ruskin passed through Abbeville on a number of occasions on his way to the Continent but his most important visits were in 1868 when he was there 25 August - 5 October and 9-21 October, with a stay in Paris in between. As he wrote to his mother on 9 September, 'I think I shall be able to write a little Stones of Abbeville [an allusion to his Stones of Venice] when I have done, as I shall know every remnant of interest in the town' (Works, vol. XIX, p. xli).
The drawing was housed at Oxford in 1872 as part of Ruskin's educational scheme. It was the third of three drawings in his Rudimentary Series, nos. 290-2, demonstrating the working up of a detailed composition, in this case with the use of white bodycolour to help in discovering 'what Correggio's foliage is' (Works, vol. XIV, p. 388). These drawings were themselves based on a photograph of the courtyard of a house in Abbeville including the motif, no. 289 in the Rudimentary Series (illustrated Works, vol. XIV, pl. VII). As Ruskin wrote in 'The Eagle's Nest' (a series of lectures given at Oxford in 1872), 'I have placed in your educational series the photograph of the door of a wooden house in Abbeville, and of the winding stair above; both so exquisitely sculptured that the real vine- leaves which had wreathed themselves about their pillars, cannot, in the photograph, be at once discerned from the carved foliage' (Works, vol. XXII, p. 188). Ruskin was appointed first Slade Professor at Oxford in 1869, a post he resigned in 1885. He moved his educational series to his house at Brantwood, from which this drawing was sold in 1931.
The drawing was housed at Oxford in 1872 as part of Ruskin's educational scheme. It was the third of three drawings in his Rudimentary Series, nos. 290-2, demonstrating the working up of a detailed composition, in this case with the use of white bodycolour to help in discovering 'what Correggio's foliage is' (Works, vol. XIV, p. 388). These drawings were themselves based on a photograph of the courtyard of a house in Abbeville including the motif, no. 289 in the Rudimentary Series (illustrated Works, vol. XIV, pl. VII). As Ruskin wrote in 'The Eagle's Nest' (a series of lectures given at Oxford in 1872), 'I have placed in your educational series the photograph of the door of a wooden house in Abbeville, and of the winding stair above; both so exquisitely sculptured that the real vine- leaves which had wreathed themselves about their pillars, cannot, in the photograph, be at once discerned from the carved foliage' (Works, vol. XXII, p. 188). Ruskin was appointed first Slade Professor at Oxford in 1869, a post he resigned in 1885. He moved his educational series to his house at Brantwood, from which this drawing was sold in 1931.