Gold in Oxide of Iron

Ruskin was a writer, draughtsman, painter and collector, and one of the most influential voices in the 19th-century art world. The study of geology was one of his life-long passions, and from early in his childhood he began to collect specimens of minerals. He made detailed studies of flowers, trees and rocks, and devoted a large part of volume IV of his Modern Painters to a detailed discussion of the geological formation of mountains. For him, a sound scientific understanding of natural forms was necessary in order for the artist to attain truthful representation in landscape, which for him superseded attempts at imaginative invention. According to his theories, laws regarding beauty and harmony in nature were manifest in the smallest fragments, and were best studied as such. To understand a mountain range, one had to study the formation of the rocks that composed it, a theory reflected in this drawing of gold and iron.