Near Harlech, by Henry Moore (1831-1895). 1871-76. Oil on canvas. 36 X 66 cm. Accession no. DUNUC ARTS: 91. Collection: University of Dundee Fine Art Collections. Gift of James Nicoll, 1951. Kindly released on the CC BY-NC-ND (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence), so that it can be reused and attributed, unmodified in any way, for non-commercial purposes. Click on the image to enlarge it.
Another of Moore's landscape paintings, this is quite different in tone from the earlier Cattle Fording a Stream. It was painted around the time when Moore was turning more exclusively to seascapes: "From 1860 until 1873 Moore painted landscapes as well as coastal scenes and sea pieces, but in the last twenty years of his life his major works were almost all seascapes" (Dodson and Pottle). Indeed, Harlech in North Wales is on the coast, and this might perhaps be called a coastal scene, in that Moore is looking at the cattle across sandy ground; but he is looking towards the distant mountains. With some sunlight on their slopes, these are also suffused with a golden glow. Within this mellow context, the native Welsh cattle, predominantly black, really stand out. They are so important in giving interest to the painting. — Jacqueline Banerjee
Bibliography
Dodgson, C., revised by Mark Pottle. "Moore, Henry (1831–1895), marine painter." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Web. 28 July 2018.
Created 28 July 2018