“Well, among all the mechanical poison that this terrible 19th century has poured upon men, it has given us at any rate one antidote, the Daguerreotype. It is a most blessed invention, that’s what it is…” — Ken and Jenny Jacobson
John Ruskin (1819–1900), the influential 19th-century art historian, critic, writer, and social thinker, had a complex relationship with daguerreotypes and early photography. Although he was deeply invested in traditional artistic techniques, he recognized the potential of photography, particularly the daguerreotype, as a tool for capturing architectural details and landscapes with precision. His writings on daguerreotyping reveal his efforts, even struggles, to fully understand and harness their capabilities. And while he at times strongly decried photography as an artistic endeavor, as he did so famously in his 1868 letter to Julia Margaret Cameron when he wrote that photography ‘has nothing to common with art’, he also commonly described the ‘beautiful effects’ of the daguerreotype and ultimately created at least 325 of them in his life, as we know from the comprehensive volume Carrying Off the Palaces: John Ruskin’s Lost Daguerreotypes by Ken and Jenny Jacobson, which includes a catalogue raisonné.
The Maillet Collection of Daguerreotypes includes three impressive European half-plates by Ruskin made in Florence c. 1846, each of which are annotated ‘F. Crawley’ in pencil on the frame backing, and each of which were purchased at auction in 1978. In 1853, Ruskin hired an Englishman Frederick Crawley as his valet. Together, Ruskin and Crawley traveled through France, Switzerland, and eventually Italy, documenting both landscapes and detailed architectural scenes. There is no record of Crawley accompanying Ruskin in Florence until c. 1870; therefore, although Ruskin and Crawley were a known partnership in creating daguerreotypes, Crawley's name on the verso of this lot is likely an indicator of ownership rather than authorship. Each of the plates is detailed in the aforementioned catalogue raisonné.
According to the Jacobsons, the stunningly detailed image of the Tower of Giotto in Florence presented in lot 53 (cat. no. 181), was likely Ruskin’s second attempt at capturing the detail of the architectural element so that he could more accurately create the engraving for plate 9 in his second edition of The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1855). The first edition omits certain features and is likely based on a different daguerreotype (cat. no. 177). Apparently, Ruskin subsequently created the present daguerreotype, likely from the roof of the Duomo, and presented a new and more faithful engraving based on this example.
Florence. View towards Fiesole presented in lot 10 also appears in the catalogue raisonné (cat. no. 183), where it is noted that Ruskin may have misidentified the image as ‘Florence. Cypresses on San Miniato Road’ in his personal manuscripts, where he detailed the daguerreotype he made.
Referring to Lot 47, Florence. The Church of San Miniato al Monte (cat. no. 186), the Jacobsons transcribe the following, from Ruskin’s diary entry on June 7th, 1846:
‘I have passed a happy evening at San Miniato, which has remained, and grateful I am for this, entirely untouched; not a rosebush cut, nor a stone replaced, and I never thought it so beautiful. It is a strange church, one of the most singular mixtures of classical ornaments, especially friezes, with barbarous figures and quaint mosaics.’ Apparently, this was a church that Ruskin visited regularly.
A year after the 1839 announcement of Daguerre’s invention, Ruskin, now twenty years old, obtained his first two daguerreotypes. In April of 1845, we know that Ruskin left London for a long tour of Europe, for the first time without his parents, on which he undertook extensive studies of Tuscan and Venetian architecture. While in Venice, Ruskin was exposed to daguerreotypes of the city that excited him and initiated the use of daguerreotypes for his drawings and studies starting then and for the next fourteen years.
“It is certainly the most marvelous invention of the century… As regards art, I wish it had never been discovered, it will make the eye too fastidious to accept mere handling.” — Ken and Jenny Jacobson
Ruskin took, commissioned and collected daguerreotypes, particularly of Gothic cathedrals and European cityscapes, using them to support his arguments about the beauty and significance of historical architecture. His use of photography reflected his belief in the importance of close observation and faithful representation of nature and human craftsmanship. Today, many of the daguerreotypes he collected and made remain valuable records of historic architecture, reflecting both his passion for preservation and his appreciation of photography’s role in capturing the world. Through his writings and images, Ruskin contributed to a broader conversation about the role of photography in art and society in the quickly evolving world of visual representation.
The 325 known, extant Ruskin daguerreotypes are currently housed in the following institutional collections: ‘The Ruskin’ at Lancaster University; the Ruskin Museum in Coniston; and the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford. The “Penrith Collection”, a group of 188 previously unidentified daguerreotypes that emerged at a Penrith, Farmers’ & Kidd’s auction in Cumbria in 2006 where they were identified and acquired by the Jacobsons, remains in their personal collection. Additionally, the Jacobsons identified 62 daguerreotypes that Ruskin may have also worked on, but to this day have not been located, found or seen. Aside from the Penrith Collection, the lots on offer here are three of the only four known, extant Ruskin daguerreotypes in private hands.