Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00011091Budding Sycamore
by John Ruskin
About the Artwork
The most influential art critic in Britain during the 19th century, John Ruskin was also an amateur artist for whom drawing was the cornerstone of artistic practice. Since his early youth, a keen perception of the world and obsessive desire to capture nature in all of its details found expression in his drawings. In this study of a leafing sycamore in early spring, Ruskin combined exquisite detail with atmospheric rendering of space, leaving the edges of the drawing unresolved. This sheet exemplifies his belief that drawn fragments, if sensitively observed, were capable of suggesting the profound mysteries of the natural world.
Inscriptions
signed and inscribed, in brown ink, at lower right: 1875 / Budding Sycamore / Sketched at Greta Bridge / 1875 / J. Ruskin
Provenance
?-?: G.R. Roxburgh ?-1989: (Artemis Fine Arts, London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH) 1989-: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
The Year in Review for 1989. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 6-April 15, 1990). Nature Sublime: Landscapes from the 19th Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 15-November 14, 2004). British Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art . The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-May 26, 2013).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- John Ruskin (British, 1819–1900)
- Date
- c. 1876
- Medium
- black and gray wash, gouache, and graphite
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 34.8 x 44.8 cm (13 11/16 x 17 5/8 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund
- Accession no.
- 1989.14
More by John Ruskin in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00011091
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