Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1976.7.139
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
landscape | genre subject | dock | country house | slipway | boats | castle | fort | house | river | men | smoke | cobblestone | night | light
Associated Places:
United Kingdom | England | Kent | Upnor | Medway
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
Art in Focus : The British Castle - A Symbol in Stone (Yale Center for British Art, 2017-04-07 - 2017-08-06)Painting in England 1700-1850 - From The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon (Yale University Art Gallery, 1965-04-15 - 1965-06-20)
Publications:
Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 178-179, N590.2 .A83 (YCBA)Painting in England 1700-1850 : collection of Mr. & Mrs. Paul Mellon : Exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, , , Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, 1963, p. 96 (v.1), no. 149, pl. 150, ND466 V57 v.1-2 (YCBA)Painting in England 1700-1850 from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, The Royal Academy of Arts Winter Exhibition 1964-65., , Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK, 1964, p. 48 (v.1), no. 177, N5220.M45 R69 1964 (YCBA)The British Castle : A Symbol in Stone, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2017, p. 22, cat. 14, V2722 (YCBA)Yale University Art Gallery, Painting in England, 1700-1850, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon : [exhibition at] Yale University Art Gallery, April 15-June 20, 1965, , vol. 1, W. Clowes and sons, New Haven, 1965, p. 40 (v.1), no. 150, ND466 Y35 (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
In 'Upnor Castle, Kent', Henry Pether (possibly the son of Sebastian Pether, whose 'Moonlight River Scene' also appears in this exhibition) paints a castle that once served as an Elizabethan artillery fort. Originally built to protect the dockyard and ships of the Royal Navy, it later became a naval ammunition depot for gunpowder, ammunition, and cannons. Pether’s depiction captures the passage of time and the changing function of the castle: he does not allude to the strategic role that Upnor Castle once played. Instead, the artist places the castle within an idyllic scene of daily life. Two men dock a boat while puffs of smoke drift out of a chimney on the right. The castle recedes into a moonlit background, a trait for which Pether was well known. Gallery label for Art in Focus: The British Castle - A Symbol in Stone (Yale Center for British Art, 2017-04-07 - 2017-08-06)