Neal Auction 2012

W denotes the lot is illustrated at www.nealauction.com 49 174. John Ruskin (British, 1819-1900) , “The Roman Arch at Susa in Piedmont”, c. 1830s/40s or later, traces of graphite with black and white gouache on gray paper, unsigned, 6 1/4 in. x 6 1/2 in., on a decorated French mat, hinged to a modern mount. $2000/3000 Provenance: George Dicks; Durlacher, New York, 1956; James R. Lamantia, Jr., New Orleans and New York. Note: The Arch at Susa (9-8 B. C.), in the Piedmontese foothills of the Mont-Cenis Pass, was erected early in the sequence of Imperial arches to commemorate the alliance between Augustus and Julius Cottius, for whom the surrounding Cottian Alps are named—and which press close on this tiny town in Ruskin’s sketch. The structure’s simple, basic form is well represented in Ruskin’s admirable (and very dramatic) drawing: the uncompromisingly plain arch with its undecorated vault is framed on each façade only by a pair of engaged Corinthian columns, supporting a simple entablature with a continuous frieze, below an attic that is perhaps disproportionately low (and which Ruskin tactfully allows to run off the top of his sheet, thus implying its greater height). The arch’s one embellishment is the celebrated frieze that memorably marks Augustus’ early alliance: Ruskin beautifully catches its tribal warriors and sacrificial animals with strong highlights only on their lower anatomies, thus minimizing the damage to the weathered modillions above. The young artist probably crossed the Mont-Cenis with his parents in 1835, en route to his first experience of Venice; several other Continental journeys followed in quick succession, especially a Italian long sojourn in 1840-1841. This fine sheet may date at any time in those early decades, or even later— concentrating as it does on his two principal passions, those of monumental architecture and unusual topography. References: Guido A. Mansuelli et alia, Studi sull’Arco Onorario Romano, Rome, 1979, pp. 90, 120-122, 139, pls. 7, 12, and 13; Dinah Birch, “Ruskin,” Grove Dictionary of Art, Jane Turner, ed., London, 1996, 34 vols., vol. 27, pp. 350-356. 173. John Ruskin (British, 1819-1900) , “A Cave Seen in Sunlight”, and “A Cave Seen in Shade”: a pair of drawings, probably c. 1830s, graphite, watercolor, and gouache on light buff wove papers (both sheets laid down), unsigned, each 7 x 9 7/8 in. (both inscribed in a later hand en verso “17M”). $3000/4000 Provenance: Joseph Arthur Palliser Severn (1842-1931), Brantwood, Cumbria, by 1900; Christie’s London, 24 October 1967, lot 13 (to Lamantia); James R. Lamantia Jr., New Orleans and New York. Cave in Sunlight Published: William R. Cullison III and James Lamantia, An Eye for Architecture, Tulane University Library (Southeastern Architectural Archive), New Orleans, 1984, p. 25, no. 23. Note: One of the most important and influential critics of the entire 19th c., Ruskin was also a highly accomplished artist, having been trained as a youth— especially in watercolor—by Copley Fielding (1787-1855) and James Duffield Harding (1798-1863; the latter had been a pupil of Samuel Prout [1783-1852], a near neighbor and lifelong idol of Ruskin’s). The theme doubly presented here, of grottos presented at different times of the day, had been pioneered in various versions by Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-1797), showing Italian examples, and following the precedent of such painters as Pietro Fabris (known active in Naples c. 1756-1779). These two dramatic and impressive sheets, with their didactic aim of illustrating a similar but evidently landlocked natural feature in contrasting lights, emphasize the fact that young Ruskin was an eager student of natural science, especially of geology (and they were probably drawn in the English Lake District, the northwestern home of the Fielding family). His watercolor studies of rock formations have always been judged particularly fine; and as Anne Lyles has remarked, “Ruskin’s drawings of mountains attempt something more than an intelligent grasp of geology…they seek to show the inner construction, rhythms, and tensions of form—to reveal, in fact, the underlying structural order of the natural world.” After an enormously active lifetime of drawing and writing, Ruskin withdrew in the late 1880s to his own Lake Country home at Brantwood, on Coniston Water, just a few miles from Windermere. There he was cared for by his cousin Joan Agnew Ruskin, who in 1871 married the artist Arthur Severn; the Severns became the heirs of Brantwood, and the owners of these drawings—which thus have an unbroken provenance, directly from the artist himself. References: Anne Lyles and Andrew Wilton, The Great Age of British Watercolours, London and Washington, 1993, pp. 85, 138, 308, 320-321, pl. 164; Dinah Birch, “Ruskin,” Grove Dictionary of Art, Jane Turner, ed., 34 vols., London, 1996, vol. 27, pp. 350-356; Marcia Pointon, “Fielding,” ibid., vol. 11, pp. 59-61; David Cordingly, “Harding,” ibid., vol. 14, p. 166; Scott Wilcox, “Prout,” ibid., vol. 25, pp. 661-662; Frederick Cummings and Allen Staley, Romantic Art in Britain, Philadelphia, 1968, pp. 71-72, no. 30. 174 173