John Ruskin insisted that anyone who could learn Euclid could learn to draw, and The Elements of Perspective (1859) makes the case in practice: a short, exact course in perspective construction ‘arranged for the use of schools,’ proceeding by problem and proof, with the great art critic standing unexpectedly at the blackboard.
It is a curious and rewarding meeting of art and geometry — Ruskin at his most disciplined, teaching the mathematics beneath the picture plane. Download the free EPUB and learn to see as the draughtsmen of the nineteenth century were taught to.