The Ruskin Museum, 101 Norfolk Street, Sheffield.

John Ruskin set up his museum in Sheffield in order to provide useful instruction to the artisans of that city. The museum
collection still exists, although displayed rather differently than in Ruskin's time. The museum originally occupied a single room,
the idea being, to quote Ruskin himself (as is hard to resist):

     "In all museums intended for popular teaching, there are two great evils to be avoided. The first is
     superabundance; the second, disorder. The first is having too much of everything. You will find in your own work
     that the less you have to look at, the better you attend. You can no more see twenty things worth seeing in an
     hour, than you can read twenty books worth reading in a day. Give little, but that little good and beautiful, and
     explain it thoroughly."

A visitor in the 1890s noted "an attention to minute detail which strikes the intelligent observor in all the arrangements of the
room". The original contents included a library, precious stones, and pictures. The stones were chosen with the eye of an artist
and placed on fabrics to emphasise their delicate colours. The pictures included sketches by Ruskin himself, most particularly of
alpine scenes (both for their beauty and because Ruskin had a great interest in geology, especially of landscapes created by
glaciers), of bird's feathers and of sculpture. There were sketches by Durer, bird pictures by Stacy Marks, studies of
architectural details by the Venetian artist Angelo Alessandri (specially employed by Ruskin for the purpose), and paintings
after Carpaccio's Legend of St Ursula by Fairfax Murray, one of Ruskin's many proteges. The collection was later much
augmented by Ruskin.

When Ruskin set up the museum, he called it the "Museum of St George", and it was one of four sites of the Guild of St
George, a body which existed to promulgate the views of Ruskin. As well as the museum, there was a botanical gardens at
Mickley in Derbyshire which researched methods of growing fruit trees in the Northern England climate, and at Bewdley an
estate of woodlands and fields which Ruskin aimed to protect from the rampant industrial development all around.

Although I have not visited the museum for several years, I recall the most beautiful drawings by Ruskin, including most
especially one of a single perfect feather.

URL: http://www.speel.demon.co.uk/other/ruskmus.htm

Any thoughts/comments/other regarding this site are always appreciated, though I cannot write back to everyone. Please note
that this is not a commercial site, and I neither buy nor sell artworks or prints, nor comment on prices.
(bob@speel.demon.co.uk).

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  jenna little
  Última actualización : 15/01/2001
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