Loch Coruisk and Cuchullin Mountains, Isle of Skye thumbnail 1
Loch Coruisk and Cuchullin Mountains, Isle of Skye thumbnail 2
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, room WS , Case R, Shelf 96, Box R

Loch Coruisk and Cuchullin Mountains, Isle of Skye

Watercolour
1826 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Robson was born in the north of England, and exhibited mainly views over the border in Scotland, a total of over six hundred at the Old Watercolour Society, of which he became President. He showed views of Loch Coruisk on several occasions, but it is most likely that this painting dates from 1826. The critics much admired his epic scale, and agreed that his treatment of mountain and loch scenery was unsurpassed. One writer, in Ackermann's Repository of the Fine Arts, thought this picture perfectly illustrated Sir Walter Scott's lines in Lord of the Isles:
'Of desert dignity to that dread shore,
That sees grim Coolin rise and hears Corisken roar'.
Certainly this watercolour has a dramatic scale, the highland chieftain, rhetorically gesturing to the distant peaks, appears very much the Scott hero, and Robson did quote from Scott in the exhibition catalogues on at least two occasions when he showed such scenes. It might be that the foreground figures are actually characters from Lord of the Isles: Robert the Bruce, Lord Ronald of the Isles and his page.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleLoch Coruisk and Cuchullin Mountains, Isle of Skye (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Watercolour
Brief description
Watercolour depicting Loch Coruisk and Cuchullin Mountains, Isle of Skye, by George Fennel Robson. Great Britain, 1826.
Physical description
Robson was born in the north of England, and exhibited mainly views over the border in Scotland, a total of over six hundred at the Old Watercolour Society, of which he became President. He showed views of Loch Coruisk on several occasions, but it is most likely that this painting dates from 1826. The critics much admired his epic scale, and agreed that his treatment of mountain and loch scenery was unsurpassed. One writer, in Ackermann's Repository of the Fine Arts, thought this picture perfectly illustrated Sir Walter Scott's lines in Lord of the Isles:
'Of desert dignity to that dread shore,
That sees grim Coolin rise and hears Corisken roar'.
Certainly this watercolour has a dramatic scale, the highland chieftain, rhetorically gesturing to the distant peaks, appears very much the Scott hero, and Robson did quote from Scott in the exhibition catalogues on at least two occasions when he showed such scenes. It might be that the foreground figures are actually characters from Lord of the Isles: Robert the Bruce, Lord Ronald of the Isles and his page.
Dimensions
  • Framed (gilt) height: 85.2cm
  • Framed (gilt) width: 132.5cm
  • Framed (gilt) depth: 7.5cm
Dimensions taken from departmental notes
Credit line
Townsend Bequest
Subjects depicted
Places depicted
Bibliographic references
  • Evans, Mark et al. Vikutoria & Arubāto Bijutsukan-zō : eikoku romanshugi kaigaten = The Romantic tradition in British painting, 1800-1950 : masterpieces from the Victoria and Albert Museum. Japan : Brain Trust, 2002
  • Alison Smith, ed. Watercolour London: Tate Publishing, 2010. ISBN: 978-1-85437-913-9.
  • Coombs, Katherine British watercolours : 1750-1950 . London: V&A Publications, 2012 p.76, pl.64
Collection
Accession number
1426-1869

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Record createdDecember 15, 1999
Record URL
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