John Ruskin

A spray of juniper emerges in vivid detail against a sketchy snow-covered landscape. John Ruskin, whose reverence for nature is evident in his watercolors, made this study from direct observation of natural specimens he gathered while traveling in France. He drew the frostbitten sprig to scale, giving particular attention to the mottled berries and the tonalities of the needles, some of which are aglow with light. The contrast between the high finish of the plant and the scumbled gestural background highlights Ruskin’s remarkable powers of observation.

Ruskin was the foremost art critic of his day and a great proponent of the work of J.W.M. Turner. Among other endeavors, he was also a landscape artist. His botanical studies, such as this one, were the culmination of an intensive investigation into the faithful representation of the details of nature. He used them as teaching aids in his lectures at Oxford University.