Of Truth of Vegetation

Just the most gorgeous poisonous mushroom study, I'm seduced by The Sickener (Russula emetica) in its large-scale Ruskinian glory.

From our collection of Keswick Sketching Club watercolours, a really interesting group of amateur works (by two or more female hands, it seems) that show Ruskin's pedagogy in action in the 1870s. Keswick Sketching Club is believed to have been instigated in the 1870s by the artist and designer John William Oddie (1839–1923), who lived at Lyzzick Hall, Keswick. Oddie studied at Wadham College, Oxford in the 1860s and became a Life Fellow at Corpus Christi College. It appears that it was Oddie who facilitated Ruskin's obtaining rooms at Corpus, where Ruskin was admitted as an Honorary Fellow. Oddie and Ruskin were in regular contact, and in 1874 Oddie enlisted Ruskin's assistance with the club. Ruskin responded with enthusiasm as the club's activities gave him opportunity to put into practice what he was promoting in his Oxford Drawing School and his various drawing manuals.

As well as numerous Lake District landscapes, our collection includes a strawberry leaf study, which is the very subject recommended for the club by Ruskin. Writing to Oddie in 1874 he states that 'certainly there is one exercise — which I must send you example of, Outline of a strawberry leaf'. Our strawberry leaf drawing bears the inscription 'shown to Ruskin'. The sketching club is believed to be a forerunner to the pioneering Keswick School of Industrial Art (image 3).

VIEW THE FULL COLLECTION.