_(attributed_to)_-_A_View_of_Dovedale%2C_Looking_toward_Thorpe_Cloud_-_206.4_-_Tabley_House.jpg&width=1200)
A View of Dovedale, Looking toward Thorpe Cloud
Thomas Lawrence·c. 1800
Historical Context
A rare landscape from Lawrence's hand, this view of Dovedale in the Derbyshire Peak District shows the picturesque limestone gorge that attracted artists and tourists throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Lawrence was overwhelmingly a portrait painter, making this landscape an unusual and revealing departure that reflects the broader Romantic interest in dramatic English scenery. Dovedale was celebrated by poets and painters as one of England's most sublime natural landscapes.
Technical Analysis
Lawrence's unfamiliarity with landscape convention may actually benefit this painting, bringing the freshness and directness of observation of a portrait painter encountering nature without the formulas of established landscape tradition. The handling of light and atmosphere shows competence but a different sensibility from the specialist landscape painters of the period.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the limestone gorge and dramatic Dovedale scenery: Lawrence is attempting the picturesque landscape tradition quite different from his portrait work.
- ◆Look at the handling of light and atmosphere: Lawrence brings a portrait painter's directness of observation to landscape convention.
- ◆Observe the freshness of a painter encountering landscape without the formulas of specialist landscape tradition.
- ◆Find the romantic quality: Dovedale's sublime scenery appealed to the same Romantic sensibility that drove Lawrence's portraiture.
_-_Isabella_Anne_Hutchinson_(1771%5E%E2%80%931829)%2C_Mrs_Jens_Wolff_-_537611_-_National_Trust.jpg&width=600)
%2C_Later_Countess_of_Derby_MET_DP169218.jpg&width=600)
_MET_DP162148.jpg&width=600)
