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Lot 155

RUSKIN (JOHN)

22 November 2011, 10:30 GMT
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £6,250 inc. premium

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RUSKIN (JOHN)

Autograph letter signed, to "Arthur" (Severn), looking forward to their trip to Rome, without, he hopes, too much female distraction ("...We'll have a fine time of it – we three – if the three girls will only let us mind our own business. I'm terribly afraid of that distracting Rome for you. Always something turns up to stop study. This is no beginning of evasion – but do be a good boy, and work every day a little steady bit"; and praising his wonderful sketch ("...you can most certainly do work which will be recognised as of unquestionable quality and value..."), one page, headed paper, integral blank neatly inlaid onto an album leaf, 8vo, Corpus Christi College, Oxford, "Good Saturday" (30 March) 1872

Footnotes

'WE'LL HAVE A FINE TIME OF IT': Ruskin sets off for Italy. Arthur Severn, the recipient of this hectoring letter, was son of the Joseph Severn who had tended the Keats during his last days in Rome, where Severn still lived and served as British Consul. The previous year Arthur had married Ruskin's cousin Joan Agnew, who was to look after her cousin in his final years. Ruskin set off for Italy at the end of the Hilary Term, taking with him his pupil Albert Goodwin (who produced some fine watercolours during the tour), his secretary Laurence Hilliard, Laurence's wife Constance, and the Severns: 'the pages of Fors Clavigera which he wrote during the journey abroad reiterate the complaints about the destruction of monuments and the offensive behaviour of Italians. Rome in particular, where he met Arthur Severn's father once again, was "more repulsive than ever" and he told Fors readers' (John Dixon Hunt, The Wider Sea: A Life of John Ruskin, 1988 edition, pp. 344-5). Sold with two books, one by Ruskin and one from his library.

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