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Dimensions: 21 by 27 cm., 8 1/4 by 10 1/2 in.

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Provenance: THE PROPERTY OF A LADY AND A GENTLEMAN

given by the artist to Frederick Crawley;
Professor William Hume-Rothery, O.B.E., F.R.S. (1899-1968);
by descent to the present owners

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Notes: The present watercolour depicts the Stelvio Road from just above Trefoi and can be dated to Ruskin's continental tour of 1835, when he was just sixteen years old. The year before, on his fifteenth birthday, he had been given a copy of Horace-Benedict de Saussure's Voyage dans les Alpes, 1779-1796. The Swiss geologist's writings had broadened Ruskin's interest from stones to whole mountain ranges. Ruskin wrote of Saussure 'he had gone to the Alps, as I desired to go myself, only to look at them, and describe them as they were, loving them heartily - loving them, the primitive Alps, more than himself, or than science, or than any theories of science' (Works of John Ruskin, Vol VI, p.476). On the 2nd June 1835 Ruskin finally set off on his trip to the mountains. Accompanied by his parents he travelled through France and on to Switzerland where he spent three months making a very thorough exploration of the Alps. Throughout the trip he kept a diary, crammed with geological observations and sketches. His route was also mapped by the drawings he made that year, from Chamonix to the St.Bernard and Aosta, back to the Oberland and up the St Gothard; then back again to Lucerne. He then travelled via the Stelvio Road from Mals to Bormio. His journal entry for September 23rd 1835 describes the traverse of the Stelvio Road. It is the longest entry in the diary and contains interesting descriptions of the road and surrounding mountains. It was during this part of his trip that Ruskin executed the present watercolour. He then travelled on to Venice and Verona; and finally through the Tyrol and Germany homewards. He arrived back in England on 10^th December.

Of the recorded watercolours dating from Ruskin's 1835 tour, that of Mount Pilatus (Education Trust, Lancaster) is most similar to the present work (see Paul H.Walton, The Drawings of John Ruskin, 1972, p.16, no.13). Both watercolours are highly elegant and decorative in style. They have been carefully composed and Ruskin has used a wide angle of vision to create a sense of space and convey the vastness of the mountain scenery. These works also show a considerable attention to detail, particularly in their highly naturalistic foregrounds. Blades of grass and stumps of wood are minutely depicted in such a way that the viewer's eye is irrisistably drawn into the picture. This is indicative of the influence of Anthony Vandyke Copley Fielding from whom he had taken lessons in 1834.

The information on the provenance of this picture comes from an inscription on the verso. Frederick Crawley was Ruskin's personal servant and accompanied him on many of his Continental tours in the 1850's, 60's and 70's. The watercolour was later acquired by Professor William Hume-Rothery, O.B.E., F.R.S. (1899-1968), first Isaac Woolfson Professor of Metallurgy at Oxford.

We are grateful to Robin Campbell for his help in identifying the view shown in this watercolour