A vast canvas with an apocalyptic vision of death and destruction? It must be one of John Martin’s, then. Another distinctive British narrative painter.
Cole
Declared sublime, and named after the throat, they’re painted from the mid-18th century. Works by Wolf, Turner, Ward, German Romantics and more.
From sacred symbols in a mosaic of Theodora and the Adoration of the Lamb, to roadside watering holes, and the town’s fresh water supply.
In case you missed or have forgotten them: some of the highlights of articles on paintings published here from Jan to June last year.
Born in Haiti, raised in France, emigrated to the US when he was 18, he assembled a unique collection of paintings of birds from his many field trips.
His working methods were traditional, in making copious drawings and oil sketches in front of the motif, then composing those into large finished oil paintings.
From Corot to Sérusier, the American Thomas Cole to the British John Brett, a collection of superb landscapes of the city.
We journey on, through Thomas Cole’s classical city, to the Garden of Armida, briefly to Paradise, past the submerged city of Ys, ending up in a Surrealist vision of the Dorset coast.
Atlas, who bears the heavens on his shoulders. Prometheus, who deceived Zeus and was bound by chains as punishment, an eagle eating his liver each day. Epimetheus, who married Pandora.
Hosting Lord Byron’s Alpine Witch, as the birth canal for Thomas Cole’s ‘Voyage of Life’, and an attempt by Courbet to return to the womb? The versatility of caves.
The Eclectic Light Company 