Ravine at Maglans, Valley of Cluse

Inscribed in pencil, verso: "Ravine at Maglans, Valley of Cluse / by John Ruskin"".

One of two highly detailed drawings of the same scene in the French Rhône Alps between Chamonix and Geneva. This taller version seems to be a careful rendering of the left part (as indicated by pencil markings) of a much larger drawing now cut down to probably less than half its original size. A pencil inscription identifies the subject, which corresponds to a Ravine near Maglans, no.7 in Ruskin’s retrospective list of sketches made in the neighbourhood of Mont Blanc, given a date of 1849.

Following in Turner’s footsteps, Ruskin sought out the site of a watercolour of 1802, in his own possession and engraved for the Liber Studiorum as L’Aiguillette: “The scene is one, which, in old times of Swiss travelling, you would all have known well; a little cascade which descends to the road from Geneva to Chamouni, near the village of Maglans."