"In 1875 John Ruskin gave a large collection of drawings to the University of Oxford. These works, now in the Ashmolean Museum, form the basis for this study. Selecting the finest drawings in the collection, Nicholas Penny traces Ruskin's career as an artist and reveals the elaborate, but unfulfilled, educational programme that lay behind his gift." "The Ashmolean's collection of Ruskin's drawings is unrivalled, and this selection includes architectural drawings, landscapes, and studies of trees, flowers and birds."--BOOK JACKET.