Vignette, Cassel Hôtel de Ville and Market Square

The editors of the Library Edition describe the image as a “sketch of a street with quaint architecture—in the foreground market women” (Ruskin, Works, 2:344 n. 1).

The vignette is drawn in the manner of Samuel Prout (1783–1852), suggesting without specifically copying such marketplace scenes as Hotel de Ville Brussels and Ghent in Facsimiles of Sketches Made in Flanders and Germany. Ruskin may have based the vignette on a larger sketch, probably made during the tour, “Hotel de Ville, Cassel”. See Drawings from the Tour of 1833, and Missing and Unidentified Drawings for the Composite‐Genre Illustrated Travelogue (MS IX) and Related 1833 Tour Sketches.

The Renaissance Hôtel de Ville in Cassel was nearly totally destroyed by German bombing in May 1940.