Early Morning, Lake Como, 1861

Adela 'Ada' Dundas was the daughter of William Pitt Dundas, the Registrar General for Scotland, and a pupil of William Ward, a protégé of John Ruskin. Ruskin wrote of Ada: 'Her sense of colour is superb - she ought never to work but in colour...' (J. Ruskin, Works, ed. E.T. Cook & A. Wedderburn, vol XXVI, p. 343). Afflicted by curvature of the spine, Ada needed constant care and never married. The three albums, sold at Christie's London, from which the drawing came, are a testimony to the power and intensity of Ruskin's influence over his followers.