Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1976.7.9
Gallery Label:
Charles Brooking’s use of the term “fort” denotes the castle’s purpose as a military stronghold, and yet the building seems eerily abandoned, its gray-green stone melting into the glassy sea. The tranquility of the scene is interrupted by a burning ship being evacuated not far off shore. The haunting image juxtaposes the ideal function of a fort with its visible emptiness and contrasts the symbolic strength of a castle with the ephemerality of fire and human existence. The burning ship embodies the sublime in both scale and sudden disaster, simultaneously evoking fear and awe in a viewer. This is Brooking’s earliest known work, painted and signed when he was seventeen. A talented marine painter, he died at age thirty-six, leaving behind a collection of atmospheric seascapes. Gallery label for Art in Focus: The British Castle - A Symbol in Stone (Yale Center for British Art, 2017-04-07 - 2017-08-06)