Roslin Chapel by John Ruskin (original) (raw)

Christopher Newall points out that this drawing done when Ruskin was nineteen “shows extraordinary technical virtuosity; Ruskin has used the soft line of the pencil to describe the richly decorated stone surfaces of the chapel interior. It is one of a set of three interior views at Rosslyn (the others are titled Rosslyn Chapel, Interior, with Prentice Pillar and Rosslyn Chapel, Entrance Porch). In later life, he decried what he had come to see as the mannered and meretricious character of these drawings: "when I got a subject that suited my trick of style, the practised ease of it told," and this despite acknowledging that "one or two of those Scottish sketches have been extremely popular among the public of my friends” (78).

Bibliography

Newall, Christopher (with contributions by Christopher Baker, Conal Shields, and Ian Jeffrey. John Ruskin Artist and Observer. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada; London Paul Holberton Publishing, 2014. No. 1. [Review in the Victorian Web]

Ruskin, John. Works, "The Library Edition." eds. E. T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn. 39 vols. London: George Allen, 1903-1912.

Last modified 2 March 2014