Keswick Sketching Club Rushing River, Lake District

Keswick Sketching Club: Lake District Watercolours 1870s

This charming watercolour was painted in the 1870s as part of the Keswick Sketching Club, an amateur art group in the Lake District supported by John William Oddie (1839–1923) and John Ruskin (1819–1900). It is one of a collection of watercolours relating to the Club that we have for sale. The paintings are by at least two different hands, including 'Maggie' and 'S. Mattocks'.

As such, this painting represents the amateur artistic activity that was burgeoning in the Lake District towards the end of the 19th century. In particular, it is evidence of the pedagogical work of Ruskin, who so actively promoted education and learning, the appreciation of nature and local crafts.

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 he was admitted as an Honorary Fellow. Oddie and Ruskin were in regular contact, and in 1874 Oddie enlisted Ruskin's assistance with Keswick Sketching 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.

Ruskin advises Oddie on sketching exercises for the Club, and 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'. In the present collection of watercolours there is just such a subject, bearing the inscription 'shown to Ruskin'. In April 1875 Ruskin sends his critique to the Club, writing: 'To the Members of the Keswick Sketching Club, / In the work of the Club generally I find the sense of colour excellent, the industry great; the ability in many cases beyond that of most professed artists, several pieces of texture and local hue being given with singular feeling and skill.' One of the Club members mentioned by Ruskin is a 'Mrs Mallocks'. This possibly relates to the 'S. Mattocks' in our collection.

In the 1880s Ruskin and Oddie continued their involvement in art teaching in the Lakes, founding the Keswick School of Industrial Arts. Oddie later established the Lyzzick Hall Art School.