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Scene on the Tummel, Perthshire
Creswick, Thomas, born 1811 - died 1869 - Enlarge image
Scene on the Tummel, Perthshire
- Object:
Oil painting
- Place of origin:
Britain (painted)
- Date:
1844 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Creswick, Thomas, born 1811 - died 1869 (painter (artist))
- Materials and Techniques:
oil on canvas
- Credit Line:
Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857
- Museum number:
FA.61[O]
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, Room 122, case WN
Object Type
Landscape painting in oil became steadily more popular throughout the 19th century. John Constable and J.M.W. Turner take credit for establishing landscape as a suitable theme for oil painting. Until then, history paintings had been considered more important, but increasingly naturalistic oil paintings of picturesque views of the British landscape appealed to a wider section of the art-buying public.
Subjects Depicted
The scene is the falls of the River Tummel, near Pitlochry in Scotland. The Pass of Killicrankie is in the background, while the promontory on the left is 'The Giant's Steps.' The image of a stream flowing through a mountainous landscape was a favourite of the artist, and is indeed one of the most commonly represented in Victorian landscapes.
People
Thomas Creswick (1811-1869) was a native of Sheffield but settled in London in 1828. He exhibited 139 works at the Royal Academy, which were mostly landscapes and coastal scenes. Creswick was admired particularly in the later 1840s and 1850s for his truth to nature and the charm of his compositions; his later works were criticised as being too dark and brown in tone.
