English School Russula emetica, commonly known as the sickener
£ 1,100
- Reference
- 11286 / KT727
- Category
- Botanical / A Box of Delights
KT727
English School, 1870s
Russula emetica, commonly known as the sickener
Watercolour
25.5 x 35.6 cm.; 10 x 14 inches
In the 1870s the Keswick Sketching Club, an amateur art group in the Lake District was founded by John William Oddie (1839–1923) with the support of John Ruskin (1819–1900). This drawing was made by one of its members.
Keswick Sketching Club is believed to have been instigated in the 1870s by the artist and designer John William Oddie (1839–1923), who lived at Lyzzick Hall, Keswick. Oddie studied at Wadham College, Oxford in the 1860s and became a Life Fellow at Corpus Christi College. It appears that it was Oddie who facilitated Ruskin's obtaining rooms at Corpus, where he was admitted as an Honorary Fellow. Oddie and Ruskin were in regular contact, and in 1874 Oddie enlisted Ruskin's assistance with Keswick Sketching Club. Ruskin responded with enthusiasm as the club's activities gave him opportunity to put into practice what he was promoting in his Oxford Drawing School and his various drawing manuals.
Ruskin advises Oddie on sketching exercises for the Club, and writing to Oddie in 1874 he states that 'certainly there is one exercise — which I must send you example of Outline of a strawberry leaf'. In April 1875 Ruskin sends his critique to the Club, writing: 'To the Members of the Keswick Sketching Club, / In the work of the Club generally I find the sense of colour excellent, the industry great; the ability in many cases beyond that of most professed artists, several pieces of texture and local hue being given with singular feeling and skill.'
In the 1880s Ruskin and Oddie continued their involvement in art teaching in the Lakes, founding the Keswick School of Industrial Arts. Oddie later established the Lyzzick Hall Art School.
