Information

John Ruskin was an Oxford graduate and had many later connections with the University, being appointed the first Slade Professor of Fine Art 1868. He also assisted Sir Henry Acland in raising funds for the building of a University Museum (chiefly of Natural History) and its decoration in the late 1850s. Ruskin made ten designs for the sculptural ornament of the Gothic Revival building's windows, although few of his ideas were implemented.

The influential writer John Ruskin was an Oxford graduate and had many later connections with the university, being appointed the first Slade Professor of Fine Art in 1868. He also assisted Sir Henry Acland in raising funds for the building of a University Museum (chiefly of natural history) and its decoration in the late 1850s. Ruskin made ten designs for the sculptural ornament of the Gothic Revival building's windows, although only a little was ever executed.

  • Presented by the Trustees of the Sir John Middlemore Estate, 1972.
  • © Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery

Makers

Association Artist Organisation
Artist John Ruskin -

Inscriptions

Type Position(s) Method Date(s) Notes
J.R.'s design for Oxford Museum window.
Inscription below image Handwritten - Inscription by Ruskin's cousin Joan Severn.. Pencil.
 

Exhibitions

Catalogue No. Venue Date(s)
Ruskin Exhibition
67 Fine Art Society, 148 New Bond Street, London 1907-3 - 1907-04
 
British Nineteenth-Century Drawings and Watercolours
79 Art Museum of the Socialist Republic of Romania, Bucharest 1982-12-08 - 1983-01-02
79 National Art Gallery and Alexander Soutzos Museum, Athens 1983-01-12 - 1983-03-06
79 Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest 1983-03-17 - 1983-05-08
 
John Ruskin and Victorian Art
118 Isetan Museum of Art, Tokyo 1993-02-25 - 1993-03-30
118 Ishibashi Museum of Art, Kurume 1993-04-04 - 1993-05-09
118 Nara Sogo Museum of Art, Nara 1993-05-12 - 1993-06-06
118 Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Art, Utsunomiya 1993-06-13 - 1993-08-15
 
Ruskin, Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites
90 Tate Britain, London 2000-03-09 - 2000-05-26
 
Gaudi: Surroundings
- Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona 2002-05-30 - 2002-09-08
- Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid 2002-10-15 - 2003-01-06
 

Literature

Author(s) Date(s) Publisher Pages
Ruskin Exhibition: Catalogue of an Exhibition of Water-Colours and Drawings by the late John Ruskin
1907 The Fine Art Society, London p. 16
 
Works of Ruskin, XXXVIII, Catalogue of Drawings
Alexander Wedderburn, E T Cook 1912 George Allen, London p. 272, no. 1255
 
John Ruskin and Victorian Art
1993 Tokyo Shimbun p. 293, repr. p. 165
 
Ruskin, Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites
Ian Warrell, Robert Hewison, Stephen Wildman 2000 Tate Gallery Publishing, London p. 110, repr. p. 110

Provenance

Purchased by John T. Middlemore at the Ruskin exhibition, Fine Art Society, 148 New Bond Street, London, 30th October 1908; presented to Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, 1972.

Associated places

Name Type
Oxford University Museum, Oxford, England. Associated with

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