George Fennell Robson, 1788–1833, British, Loch Coruisk, Isle of Skye, Dawn, between 1826 and 1832
- Title:
- Loch Coruisk, Isle of Skye, Dawn
- Date:
- between 1826 and 1832
- Medium:
- Watercolor, gouache, scraping out and gum on thick, moderately textured, cream wove paper mounted on card
- Dimensions:
- Sheet: 17 3/4 x 25 3/4 inches (45.1 x 65.4 cm)
- Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Inscribed on verso in graphite, center right: "11112"
- Credit Line:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Copyright Status:
- Public Domain
- Accession Number:
- B1977.14.6254
- Classification:
- Drawings & Watercolors
- Collection:
- Prints and Drawings
- Subject Terms:
- goats | landscape | moon | mountains | night | reflection
- Associated Places:
- Coruisk, Loch | Scotland | Skye, Island of
- Access:
- Accessible by request in the Study Room [Request]
Note: As a COVID-19 precaution, the Study Room is closed until further notice. - Curatorial Comment:
- <double click to display>
- <double click to hide>This dramatic watercolor is presumably one of the six views of Loch Coruisk that Robson exhibited at the Society of Painters in Water-Colours between 1826 and 1832. The watercolor shown in 1826, probably the one in the Victoria & Albert Museum, which is similar in composition to the version here, was accompanied by a poetic tag from Sir Walter Scott’s “Lord of the Isles”: “Stranger! If e’er thine ardent step hath traced The northern realms of ancient Caledon, Where the proud Queen of Wilderness Hath placed By lake and cataract her lonely throne . . .” (canto 4, lines 1.-.4) Although critical of Robson’s drawing, color, finish, and compositional sense, John Ruskin, in “Modern Painters I”, commended the sensitivity of the artist’s depiction of mountains in a passage that almost seems to been written with this watercolor of Loch Coruisk in mind: “They are serious and quiet in the highest degree, certain qualities of atmosphere and texture in them have never been excelled, and certain facts of mountain scenery never but by them expressed; as for instance, the stillness and depth of the mountain tarns, with the reversed imagery of their darkness signed across by the soft lines of faintly touching winds; the solemn flush of the brown fern and glowing heath under evening light; the purple mass of mountains far removed, seen against clear still twilight” (Ruskin, “Works”, vol. 3, p. 193).--Scott Wilcox,2007-01
- Exhibition History:
- <double click to display>
- <double click to hide>
Presences of Nature - British Landscape 1780-1830 (Yale Center for British Art, 1982-10 - 1983-02)
Metropole London 1800 - 1840 (Kulturstiftung Ruhr, 1992-06-04 - 1992-11-08)
- Publications:
- <double click to display>
- <double click to hide>
John Baskett, Paul Mellon's legacy, a passion for British art : masterpieces from the Yale Center for British Art , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, p. 290, no. 103, pl. 103, N5220 M552 P38 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)
John Ruskin, The works of John Ruskin, vol. 1-39, George Allen, London, 1903-1912, p. 193 (v. 3), , PR5251 C66 1903 (YCBA)
- Link:
- https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:15258
- Export:
- XML | RDF
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