Book: The Elements of Drawing - John Ruskin’s Teaching Collection at Oxford

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Author: John Ruskin
Location: Ashmolean (Ruskin)

• John Ruskin was a Victorian writer, art critic, draftsman and watercolorist. He is most well-known for his defense of the fledgling Pre-Raphaelite group of painters. That group was also influenced by Ruskin's own writing, particularly his elevation of "truth to nature" as a high ideal for artists. That philosophy, and Ruskin himself, first attained prominence with an essay in Modern Painters in 1843 in which he defended the work of J.M.W. Turner.
• Ruskin was also the author of a treatise on drawing entitled The Elements of Drawing, that is still relevant and continues to be reprinted and valued today. Among his other accomplishments, Ruskin was a professor of fine art at University of Oxford, where he established the Ruskin School of Drawing, which continues today as The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art (usually referred to as simply "The Ruskin").
• Associated with the university is the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, which has placed online a resource titled The Elements of Drawing - John Ruskin’s Teaching Collection at Oxford. It features digitizations of much of Ruskin’s collection of almost 1500 works that he assembled for use in his school. The collection includes drawings and watercolors by himself and a number of other artists as well as prints and photographs.
• You can browse and search the collection in several ways, but the best introduction is probably the highlights assortment of 50 objects. The objects listings have pages describing the works, and most are linked to larger versions of the images.