The Ruskin Collection: Capturing Colour

The Guild of St George’s Ruskin Collection celebrates the visionary ideas of the Victorian artist and writer, John Ruskin (1819-1900). The gallery looks at how Ruskin established his collection in Sheffield to help people find inspiration in art and nature, and explores the relevance of his ideas today.

This new redisplay considers how colour is made, what colour can tell us about the natural world and how light is key to how we see and understand colour. It concludes by looking at how artists today use natural colours and materials to create meaning in their work.

John Ruskin was in awe of the endless colours and beauty he saw in nature and wrote “There is not a leaf in the world which has the same colour visible over its whole surface”.

He believed that art could never compete with the beauty of nature and that artists must reflect the unique effects of light to truly capture the colours of the natural world.

The display explores Ruskin's ideas through over 50 examples of beautifully crafted drawings, watercolours, manuscripts, textiles, decorative metalwork and more. These highlights from the Ruskin collection go on display alongside works by contemporary artist Abigail Reynolds and students from Brantwood Specialist School.