Land's End, Cornwall by Thomas Creswick RA, oil on canvas, Britain, signed and dated 1842.

Oil on canvas, coastal landscape.

Bequeathed by Miss Eleanor Robinson

Bequeathed by Miss Eleanor Robinson, 1890

The 'last bleak rocks of England...suggesting the power and vastness of Nature's barrier', as a contemporary critic described them, have always held a Romantic appeal. Across the waters of the Atlantic Ocean lie the United States of America. While the subject is rich in Romantic overtones, the handling of pigment is meticulously used to render the textures of the water and the rocks, and later in the nineteenth century, in the age of Impressionism, commentators found this tightness too mechanical for their taste. In recent years, the painting has retrieved its status as one of the great landscapes of the last century. Of particular interest is the unusually elevated viewpoint Creswick has chosen, which invests the scene from the outset with an astonishing power. A quietly distinguished artist, Creswick is seen here in the 1840s at the height of his powers, and indeed he won the annual British Institution prize for this picture when it was exhibited in 1843.

232-1890