IN THE ENGLISH LESSON
When Thomas Daniell was elected to the Royal Academy in 1799 he offered Hindoo Temples at Bindrabund , East Indies as his diploma piece , a work that distinguished him from his contemporaries and emphasised his knowledge and direct experience of India . His Indian subjects won him much acclaim , as reflected by a comment made by a contemporary who praised the artist for ‘ increasing our enjoyment by bringing scenes to our fireside , too distant to visit , and too singular to be imagined .’
Image credit : Scott Polar Research
Institute , University of Cambridge
Image credit : Rochdale Arts & Heritage Service
Image credit : Government Art Collection
– View of Beirut c . 1861 – Edward Lear ( 1812 – 1888 ) – Government Art Collection
Second only to Roberts as a great artisttraveller of the Victorian period was Edward Lear ( 1812 – 1888 ), best known for his nonsense poetry but also a talented landscape painter . Lear was epileptic , shy and prone to depression . Travel became a release for him and offered an escape from conventional society . Among the many countries he visited during his nomadic life were Albania , Greece , Egypt , Sri Lanka ( formerly Ceylon ), Palestine , Jordan , Lebanon and India . His foreign landscape paintings , many of which are topographically accurate and replete with observational details , form a fascinating visual travelogue from one of the most well-travelled artists of the Victorian period .
Image credit : IWM ( Imperial War Museums )
– Damascus and the Lebanon Mountains from 10,000 Feet 1920 – Richard Carline ( 1896 – 1980 ) – IWM ( Imperial War Museums )
Depicting places from the air required a rethinking of conventional perspective and Carline responded by using shapes , patterns and blocks of colour to convey the layout and appearance of cities from above . In his aerial view of Sammara in Iraq , he has shown the ancient city enclosed within its medieval walls . Other locations he depicted from the air included Jerusalem , Damascus and Baghdad .
Kyffin Williams ( 1918 – 2006 ) is best known for his impasto landscapes of rural Wales . Less well known are his paintings of Patagonia . Williams had spent much of his life painting the rugged Welsh landscape , but in 1968 he was awarded a Churchill scholarship to travel
IN THE ENGLISH LESSON
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