A Chump at Oxford

Location

Country: Switzerland
City: Berne
Place: British Embassy

This etching is part of a set that was published as a book under the title 'Chris Orr's John Ruskin: History is a dead liberty', by Chris Orr and Robert Hewison in 1976. In this work Orr imaginatively recreates the life of John Ruskin (1819–1900), the art critic and artist, who was a patron of the Pre-Raphaelite artists Rossetti and Burne Jones and a champion of Turner. The etchings focus on Ruskin’s unhappy relationships with women. The first page of the set, however, contains a warning that these scenes have more to do with the artist than with Ruskin.

Chris Orr’s lively and inventive etchings contain references to literary sources such as Proust’s 'Remembrance of Things Past'. The painters Magritte and Balthus are also cited as important influences on the work that derives much humour from satirising the unfortunate difficulties and frustrations that John Ruskin experienced in his domestic life.

Born in London, Chris Orr studied at Ravensbourne College of Art, Hornsey, and the Royal College of Art (RCA). He later taught at the RCA and at the Ruskin School of Art in Oxford. In 1971, he held his first solo exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery and has exhibited regularly at the Thumb Gallery, London. In 1998, Orr was appointed Professor of Printmaking at the RCA, a position he held for ten years. He was awarded an MBE in 2008 for services to printmaking.

Places

England, Oxford

Subjects

rowing boat, bathing, rest/sleep, swimming, racquet, topography, genre, townscape/cityscape, tree, dog, butterfly, river bank, river, skull, boy, man, woman, academic gown, purse, college, student, kite, can, bottle, bridge (urban), university, house, church, punt

Materials & Techniques

etching, colour etching, aquatint

Artist

Chris Orr (1943 - )

Title

A Chump at Oxford

Portfolio Title

The Ruskin Portfolio

Edition

22/75

Date

1972

Medium

Colour etching and aquatint

Acquisition

Purchased from Thumb Gallery, October 1977

Inscription

below image: 22/75 / 'A Chump at Oxford' / Chris Orr 1972

GAC number

13486