Chieftans, forego!

Charles Edmund Brock

Photomechanical reproduction of pen and ink drawing

5 x 3 inches

Walter Scott, The Lady of the Lake, facing 57

Brock’s reputation as an artist who was only concerned with static conversation pieces is roundly contradicted by compositions such as the one here – a dynamic and dramatic scenes from Scott's poem in which Roderick and Malcolm do battle. The rhyming of diagonals, with the sword on the wall echoing the drawn dagger, adds to the sense of action and urgency.

Scanned image and text by Simon Cooke.

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