View from Mount Hor
Watercolour
1845-1848 (painted)
1845-1848 (painted)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
Bartlett was a prolific topographical artist who travelled extensively in search of new and interesting subjects for his drawings. He visited North Africa and the Near East seven times, and made several other trips in Britain and Europe, as well as North America. Popular demand for travel books was high in the 1830s and 1840s and Bartlett contributed illustrations to several of them. After 1842 he wrote and illustrated about a dozen of his own travel books. His self-confessed purpose as one of `a flying corps of light armed skirmishers, who, going lightly over the ground, busy themselves chiefly with its picturesque aspect', was to give `lively impressions of actual sights.’ This quotation comes from his book The Nile Boat, 1850, and sums up the philosophy of many artist illustrators of that period. They and their public were romantic in outlook, not yet interested in serious quasi-photographic accuracy. They preferred colourful and picturesque views, based on some kind of reality, but an impressionistic one.
This scene is set on the Biblical Mount Hor, now Jabal Harun (Mount Aaron) in Jordan, where the Prophet Aaron, brother of Moses, died and was buried before he could enter the Promised Land (Numbers 20:28). When Bartlett drew this, the story was familiar to the Victorian Bible-reading public and no explanation would have been needed. The hunters are stalking wild goats, probably ibex, still to be found in Jordan. Again, with the Victorian obsession with hunting, this scene was a familiar theme set in unfamiliar surroundings.
This scene is set on the Biblical Mount Hor, now Jabal Harun (Mount Aaron) in Jordan, where the Prophet Aaron, brother of Moses, died and was buried before he could enter the Promised Land (Numbers 20:28). When Bartlett drew this, the story was familiar to the Victorian Bible-reading public and no explanation would have been needed. The hunters are stalking wild goats, probably ibex, still to be found in Jordan. Again, with the Victorian obsession with hunting, this scene was a familiar theme set in unfamiliar surroundings.
Object details
Category | |
Object type | |
Title | View from Mount Hor (assigned by artist) |
Materials and techniques | Ink, water- and bodycolour, and gum over pencil heightened with white, stuck down on paper |
Brief description | Watercolour, `View from Mount Hor' by William Henry Bartlett. About 1845 - 1848 |
Physical description | Watercolour drawing |
Dimensions |
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Styles | |
Marks and inscriptions | Inscribed with notes |
Credit line | Purchased with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Art Fund, Shell International and the Friends of the V&A |
Object history | According to Rodney Searight: `Bt. from P. H[eathcote]-W[illiams], July 1974 £40.' Possibly in Bartlett's studio sale 29.1.1855 (145) |
Historical context | Illustrated in Bartlett, Desert, 1848, facing p.121, engraved by C. Cousen; Bartlett, Scripture Sites, [1849], facing p.107, engraved by C. Cousen. Bartlett visited Petra in October/November 1845. |
Subjects depicted | |
Places depicted | |
Summary | Bartlett was a prolific topographical artist who travelled extensively in search of new and interesting subjects for his drawings. He visited North Africa and the Near East seven times, and made several other trips in Britain and Europe, as well as North America. Popular demand for travel books was high in the 1830s and 1840s and Bartlett contributed illustrations to several of them. After 1842 he wrote and illustrated about a dozen of his own travel books. His self-confessed purpose as one of `a flying corps of light armed skirmishers, who, going lightly over the ground, busy themselves chiefly with its picturesque aspect', was to give `lively impressions of actual sights.’ This quotation comes from his book The Nile Boat, 1850, and sums up the philosophy of many artist illustrators of that period. They and their public were romantic in outlook, not yet interested in serious quasi-photographic accuracy. They preferred colourful and picturesque views, based on some kind of reality, but an impressionistic one. This scene is set on the Biblical Mount Hor, now Jabal Harun (Mount Aaron) in Jordan, where the Prophet Aaron, brother of Moses, died and was buried before he could enter the Promised Land (Numbers 20:28). When Bartlett drew this, the story was familiar to the Victorian Bible-reading public and no explanation would have been needed. The hunters are stalking wild goats, probably ibex, still to be found in Jordan. Again, with the Victorian obsession with hunting, this scene was a familiar theme set in unfamiliar surroundings. |
Bibliographic reference | Khatib, Hisham et al., On the banks of the Jordan : British nineteenth century painters, Jordan : National Press, 1986
2 |
Collection | |
Accession number | SD.83 |
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Record created | July 13, 2007 |
Record URL |
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