Sheffield at Temple Place

Actually, it's called 'RUSKIN' at 2 Temple Place

and this was an unexpected exhibit.
It portrays two young workers in the cutlery industry: Jane Gill and Maggie Herrick, painted in 1909 by Will Rothenstein.  Their job was to polish knives after manufacture, and they were called 'buffer girls',  so I'm guessing this was employment commonly taken after leaving school at 13 and before marrying, in a trade that was originally a family affair, with sons apprenticed to cutler fathers and daughters doing less skilled tasks.  

According to the label, wages for Jane and Maggie were five shillings a week  - not very much in 1919 - and they received the same posing for half a day to Rothenstein, so a neat albeit brief addition to  their earnings.

The painting is at Temple Place because most of the exhibits  come from Sheffield Museums, where  Ruskin's 'teaching items' are now, mainly through his 'museum' or collection assembled for the benefit of working people [for which read working men].   Arguably Jane and Maggie, or their families. might have had  access to the Ruskin collection,  and they represent the traditional workers whose cutural experience concerned him in his essays and speeches.

Cutlery is also on display, amid an extremely disparate exhibition,  with very many watercolour records of medieval architectural details from Venice, Lucca and  elsewhere, this being Ruskin's specialism as a lecturer and popular educator.  

For example, this large drawing of pointed arches.

Geology was another interest, dating from Ruskin's boyhood, and he had mineral collections of rocks, crystals and  suchlike.  

Then there are samples of his observational studies of nature - more rocks, plants, birds like this dead duck.

Ruskin's pedagogic impulse was part philanthropic and part parsonical.  He was raised to be a bishop  and took the preaching and teaching  role seriously, if idiosyncratically.   Hence the 'museum' for Sheffield, the lectures and endless stream of publications, and the creation of his personal 'church' called The Guild of St George, for followers who were willing to join him in philanthropy.  

There's no end to Ruskin's interests and endeavours, so for those in London the Temple Place show is a good way to sample them.  It's free, but very popular.  i regret there isn't a section on Ruskin's relationship with women artists,  which although fully entwined with gender bias was also very positive in many ways and would have contributed a significant addition to the Sheffield/Temple Place show.