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Artist J.M.W. Turner, RA. The Engravings. Perhaps the most famous English Romantic landscape artist. Turner
products many engravings and was very hands-on in there progress to printings.
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Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
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“And now, fair Italy!
Thou art the garden of the world, the home
Of all Art yields and Nature can decree.
Even in thy desert, what is like to thee?
Thy very weeds are beautiful, thy waste
More rich than other climes’ fertility;
Thy wreck a glory, and thy ruin graced
With an immaculate charm which cannot be defaced.”
BYRON: Uhilde Harold, Canto IV., xxvi.
UNFORTUNATELY these words are now applicable to this painting in a double sense. It is a glorious wreck—more beautiful even in it's
present sad state than the perfect work of other artists. Nevertheless,” writes Mr. Ruskin in 1857, “even in its present state, all
the landscape on this right-hand portion of the picture is exquisitely beautiful founded led on faithful reminiscences of the defiles
of Narni, and the roots of the Apennines. seen under purple evening light. The tenderness of the mere painting by which this light is
expressed is so great that the eye can hardly follow the gradations. hue; it can feel but it .cannot trace them.” The landscape
contains of Turner’s most beautiful stone-pines, and the effect of the sunbeams striking athwart the ruined arches on the left was at
one time magical; In the foreground are a festive party with a youth and girl dancing. On the left a figure is lurking in the shade,
but whether this is the contemplative poet or an assassin is not apparent. |
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