The study at Brantwood (Ruskin's home), Lake Coniston

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The Study at Brantwood (recent photograph)

Lake Coniston, Lake District

Nine of the rooms at Brantwood are now open to the public. But perhaps the study, with its view over the lake, is the one in which the visitor feels closest to Ruskin: "Here, about him, were many of his most loved possessions. Beside the doorway stands his great terrestrial globe; above it, and flanking the door on either hand, several fine Turner water-colours" (Spielmann (134). [Commentary continues below.]

Photograph above by Simon Cooke; scanned image immediately below, text and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee; last image scanned by Caroline Murray.

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Marion Spielmann describes the rest of the "famous study at Brantwood" (139), as he remembers seeing it in Ruskin's time, in detail — the treasured della Robbia Madonna and Child above the fireplace, Ruskin's "old-fashioned, high-backed chair" (134) the many bookcases and cabinets, his precious, specially protected and stored Turners, his mineral collections and crystals, and, of course, "a collection, almost unmatched, of splendid books and manuscripts of all periods" (137) including manuscripts of some of Sir Walter Scott's novels. "For these MSS., as for the quintessence of Scott himself, Ruskin had the profoundest reverence and love, and he was ever on the watch to increase his collection" (139).

The study at Brantwood in earlier times. Left: as drawn by Arthur Severn, R.I. Source: Spielmann 135. Right: Photographed by Miss Brickhill, showing some of Ruskin’s chairs. Source: Collingwood, facing p.5.

Cocooned in this room, with its lovely view, and his most prized cultural artefacts and geological specimens around him, Ruskin could indulge "[t]he life of the eye" (Landow 76) right here at home — and be inspired by it as he had been during his rather solitary, precocious childhood.

Related Material

Bibliography

"Brantwood: Home of John Ruskin." GoLakes (Official website of the Lake District, Cumbria). Web. 3 September 2019.

Collingwood, W. G. Ruskin Relics. London: Isbister and Co., 1903.

John Ruskin's Home: Brantwood. Web. 3 September 2019.

Landow, George. Ruskin. London: Routledge (Routledge Revivals), 2015.

Spielmann, M. H. John Ruskin; a Sketch of His Life, Hisd Work, and His Opinions, with Personal Reminiscences. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1900. Internet Archive. Contributed by the University of California Libraries. Web. 4 September 2019.

Created 4 September 2019