Yale Center for British Art

Creator:
Cornelius Varley, 1781–1873, British
Title:
Harlech Castle
Date:
ca. 1803
Materials & Techniques:
Brown wash, brown gouache, graphite, and pen and brown ink on thick, moderately textured, cream wove paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 10 1/8 x 14 7/8 inches (25.7 x 37.8 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1977.14.5389
Classification:
Drawings & Watercolors
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
stream | landscape | hill | bank | trees | houses | castle | bridge (built work) | architectural subject
Associated Places:
Harlech Castle | Europe | United Kingdom | Wales | Cymru
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
Art in Focus : Wales (Yale Center for British Art, 2014-04-04 - 2014-08-10)
Publications:
Yale Center for British Art, Wales, New Haven, 2014, p.21, V2519 (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
In this work, the foreground trees and the background castle differ in style and medium. The windblown trees are wild and lush, with strokes that vary in fluidity and thickness, while the castle evokes precision and control. An optical device like a camera obscura may have been used to delineate it accurately, while the foreground may have been composed from memory, or as an expressive on-site reaction to frame the castle ruins; it is unclear which elements Varley executed on-site versus in a studio. Gallery label for Art in Focus: Wales (Yale Center for British Art, 2014-04-04 - 2014-08-10)
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:14830