RUSKIN (JOHN) Group of seven autograph letters to various recipients, with envelope and annotate...

RUSKIN (JOHN) Group of seven autograph letters to various recipients, comprising: Autograph letter signed ('J Ruskin') to Helen Willis ('My Dear Miss Willis'), confirming he has sent her '...three small drawings from Fra Angelico's last judgement...', sending other tracings and Durer's woodcuts and suggesting she copy the two larger heads because she is '...rather too fond of Prettiness – Be assured that no great master even cared for regular features or long eyelashes...', warning against '...drawing faces as you like them instead of as you see them...', teaching her how to copy '...little bits at a time... Copy them so [Ruskin's sketch of stem and leaves]...', advising her to draw from life and out of doors, ending with two postscripts ('...if you had the power of Raphael – you must draw solidly and from real things – and honestly or you will never get on...'), integral address panel, 3 pages on a bifolium, dust-staining, marks, creases and small tears, pin holes where folds join, two tears with old tape repairs, remains of red wax seal, 4to (224 x 183mm.), [n.p., n.d.] Autograph letter signed ('J Ruskin') to Elizabeth Fox Tuckett ('Dear Miss Tuckett'), responding to her letter and hoping the second of February will be a happy day for her, but regrets he can not attend ('...Once... it was the happiest day of all my life. Now it is the saddest and all are sad...'), and wishing to send '...a book or two of my later writing...', 2 pages on a bifolium, creased at folds, 8vo (177 x 113mm.), Abingdon, 26 January 1871, with autograph envelope; and autograph letter of condolence signed ('J Ruskin'), to her husband, William Fowler, on her death 18 months later, describing how through his own sorrow he can understand the pain of others ('...My own life has been one of sorrow so poignant... that I have been made by mere pain, utterly cold & dead – but beneath the death there is still some power of understanding – better than most other men...'), 2 pages on a bifolium, creased at folds, 8vo (177 x 113mm.), Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 25 August [18]72 Autograph letter signed ('J Ruskin') to the architect John P. Seddon ('My dear Sir'), explaining why his paper for the Institute will not be ready until March, note in pencil on verso ('Return me this letter with information as to the dates of meetings in March & April') with Seddon's reply in ink, on mourning paper, 2 pages, 8vo, Denmark Hill, 16 January [n.y., possibly 1865]; autograph letter signed with initials ('J.R.') to scholar Dr A. S. Murray ( 'My dear Murray'), '...The note you sent in your last letter is very nice. I shall use it in next Fors... the interpretation... of the myth of Marsyas is entirely new to me...', one page, 8vo, Brantwood, [n.d.]; autograph letter signed ('Your tired old lecturer J Ruskin') to 'My dear Miss Woods', commenting that he has '...been nearly beaten by overwork and various trials lately...', recommending South Kensington and the National Gallery for the study of art ('...Don't go to either of the others...'), one page on a bifolium, 8vo, Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 23 December [n.y.]; autograph letter signed ('J Ruskin') to 'Dear Albert' [perhaps artist and travelling companion Albert Goodwin], arranging to meet '...unless we are all choked first by East wind...', one page on a bifolium, 8vo, [n.p., n.d.]; with printed section of a map of the Promontory of Sestri, annotated by Ruskin in baby-talk ('...Dee-est... this is a wee mappy for oo...'), one page, 147 x 178mm., [n.p., n.d. but probably during his tour of Italy in 1872] (9) Footnotes: 'BE ASSURED THAT NO GREAT MASTER EVEN CARED FOR REGULAR FEATURES OR LONG EYELASHES': RUSKIN ON BEAUTY, THE ART OF DRAWING & HIS GRIEF AT REJECTION BY ROSE LA TOUCHE. An eclectic group of letters in which Ruskin advises Helen Willis on the art of drawing from life ('...never be afraid of making them ugly... you will discover beauties at present quite unknown to you...'), and including a small illustrative sketch. In another, he recommends an appropriate place to study to one of his students, a Miss Woods (another letter to her published in the Letters, p.326). Other recipients include the architect John Seddon, who was greatly influenced by Ruskin's teachings, and served as Honorary Secretary to the Royal Institute of British Architects. On 15 May 1865, Ruskin addressed an Ordinary General Meeting of RIBA on 'An Inquiry into Some of the Conditions at Present Affecting 'the Study of Architecture' in our Schools', an influential lecture emphasising the importance of drawing on natural forms and the classical tradition, which may be the paper referred to here. Another recipient was Dr A.S. Murray whom Ruskin described as 'one of my kindest and best of teachers', a response to Murray's letter printed in Fors Clavigera LXXXIII. Perhaps the most poignant is that to Elizabeth Fox Tuckett (1837-1872), artist and Alpinist, prior to her marriage to William Fowler, MP for Cambridge and climbing companion of her brother Francis. He touches on his profound despair at being refused by Rose La Touche five years earlier when he proposed on 2 February 1866, although he seems to have made an error here as Elizabeth and William were married on 2 March, not 2 February. A mere eighteen months later after his letter of congratulation, he finds himself writing a letter of condolence to her widowed husband after Elizabeth's death in childbirth on 31 May 1872. Provenance: Purchased from Goodspeed's Book Shop, Boston, Massachusetts by the present owner in the early 1970's. 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