Lot Essay
There is a smaller version of this drawing on a single sheet of paper, in the Ruskin Collection at Bembridge (9¾ x 6¼in.; Hayman, op.cit., p.46, no.33, illustrated). The present drawing was made up from five separate sketchbook pages, as is stated in the 'Catalogue of Ruskin's Drawings' in E.T. Cook and A. Wedderburn, The Works of John Ruskin, Library Edition, 1903-12, XXXVIII, p.231: '... on five sketch-book leaves done separately, and not touched after mounting together'. Ruskin himself, in his 1878 exhibition catalogue, recorded how the drawing was 'coloured only in a quarter of it before the autumn leaves fell, then given up and cut into four (sic) - now pasted together to show how it was meant to be' (Library Edition, XIII, p.522). There is a preparatory drawing at Brantwood, Coniston, inscribed 'First try of large subject'.