Montañas Rocosas, Canadá

John Ruskin, the Victorian art critic who championed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, believed artists should study nature with intense devotion. This sketch of the Canadian Rockies shows him practicing what he preached, using rapid, scribbled pencil lines to capture the jagged, imposing spine of the mountains. The loose, energetic style reflects the movement's interest in truth to nature, prioritizing raw geological structure over a polished, pretty finish. The foreground dissolves into sweeping strokes, suggesting a vast valley, making it feel like a page ripped from a sketchbook where he was racing the setting sun.

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