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Call Number:
MSS 46
Holdings:
Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
Creator:
Ruskin, John, 1819–1900
Title(s):
John Ruskin letter to Ellen Heaton
Date:
1856 December 13
Classification:
Archives and Manuscripts
Series:
Letters from John Ruskin to Ellen Heaton
Part of Collection:
Box 1, folder H.51
Provenance:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, The material passed from Ellen Heaton to her nephew John Heaton, and subsequently to his brother Beresford Heaton, then to Katherine Ogilvy Heaton, and finally to Elizabeth Maud Sackville Robertson. Sold at auction, Christie, Manson & Woods, July 16, 1969 (see catalog entry no. 117).
Conditions Governing Access:
The materials are open for research.
Conditions Governing Use:
Copyright Undetermined

The collection is the physical property of the Yale Center for British Art. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the Archives Department.
Scope and Content:
Ruskin tells Heaton that he has been enjoying Turner's <title>Aldborough</title> at a viewing by Thomas Richmond. He remarks: "it is most beautiful and it gives [him] intense pleasure to have it a little while by [him]." Ruskin gives Heaton the dates for her vignettes (1832 and 1833), stating that the drawings date from about a year earlier. Ruskin comments that they "are characteristic of Turners late middle period when everybody was already mocking & laughing at him." He says that Turner's "blazing" <title>Ulysses & Polyphemus</title> was exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1829. In a postscript, Ruskin claims he can't quite pinpoint the weakness in Heaton's writing but that if she reads Bunyan, Bacon and Helps, she will "feel it." He agrees to mark some passages for her. He admits that he has been so dazzled by Elizabeth Browning's work, he doesn't "feel able to describe or say anything, myself.".
Physical Description:
1 sheet (1 page) : autograph letter signed ; 32 x 21 cm
Genre:
Correspondence
Subject Terms:
Art
Art appreciation
Collectors and collecting
Conservation and restoration
Painters
Painting
Painting, British
Photography
Rhetoric
Turner, J. M. W. (Joseph Mallord William), 1775-1851. Aldborough, Suffolk
Turner, J. M. W. (Joseph Mallord William), 1775-1851. Ulysses deriding Polyphemus
Subject Period:
19th century
Associated Places:
Great Britain
Associated People/Groups:
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 1806-1861
Heaton, Ellen, 1816-1894
Richmond, Thomas, 1802-1874
Ruskin, John, 1819-1900
Turner, J. M. W. (Joseph Mallord William), 1775-1851
Finding Aid Title:
John Ruskin Letters to Ellen Heaton
Collection PDF:
https://ead-pdfs.library.yale.edu/5850.pdf
Archival Object:
https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/2362725
Metadata Cloud URL:
https://metadata-api.library.yale.edu/metadatacloud/api/aspace/repositories/3/archival_objects/2362725?mediaType=json&include-notes=1&include-all-subjects=1