The Lizard Point, Cornwall, 1862 (w/c & bodycolour on paper)

Inspired by the early volumes of Modern Painters, Anna Blunden gave up her position as a governess in order to become a painter in the early 1850s. She trained at Leigh's Academy in London and in 1854 had her first picture accepted for exhibition at the Royal Academy. The following year she began a correspondence with Ruskin, with whom she fancied she was in love. Ruskin found her infatuation irritating but could not resist the temptation to instruct, particularly when the request came from a young lady; he commented favourably on her pictures in Academy Notes in 1858 and 1859. This watercolour, which dates from the year in which they last corresponded, shows Ruskin's influence in the detail of the geological formation of the cliffs.