The Ruskin

John Ruskin (1819-1900) was a spectacular public speaker. Various sources convey the stagecraft with which he used models, casts and diagrams to support his points. This panache is particularly evident in Ruskin’s large-scale lecture diagrams dating from 1853 to 1885, 45 of which form part of the Ruskin Whitehouse Collection.  This astonishing and pre-emintent collection was acquired by The Ruskin - Museum, Library and Research Centre in 2018, it is an unparalleled gathering of materials relating to John Ruskin (1819–1900), the great Victorian polymath, and his wide circle of friends.

The lecture diagrams comprise an essential counterpoint to the manuscript and published versions of the lectures. They represent an unparalleled documentary of the development of Ruskin’s ideas through his public speaking career.

Today, these diagrams constitute one of the largest collections of such materials in the world, and their rarity makes them nationally significant examples of material that has otherwise been lost because of its treatment as ephemera. In Ruskin’s lifetime the diagrams were rolled up and left in storage. Many have not seen the light of day for more than a century, and some of them are extremely fragile, their fragility exacerbated by their large size - each is approximately 2m by 1.5m.

Conservation of most of the diagrams is in progress but one, Four studies of buds, was treated in time for it to be displayed in The Ruskin’s major exhibition ‘Ruskin: Museum of the Near Future’, which ran from September 2019 to March 2020.  It was displayed alongside three other diagrams that did not require conservation and generated considerable interest. A campaign is underway to raise funds for the conservation of the remaining diagrams.

You can take a virtual tour of The Ruskin's exhibition Museum of the Near Future here.  The exhibition (26 September 2019 – 28 February 2020).celebrated The Ruskin becoming the permanent home of The Ruskin Whitehouse Collection.