Grand Woody Banks near Ross-on-Wye
Description:
The river bends to the right, wrapping around bushes and a tree in the right foreground. To the left, more shrubbery and trees border a ruined house or manor. In the background, non-detailed, wooded banks stand shrouded in shadow.
Copyright:
Copyright 2009, Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
Location:
Primary Works:
William Gilpin's Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; Made in the Summer of the Year 1770, first published in 1782.
Accession Number:
RPZN G42 W Cutter
Height (in centimeters):
11
Width (in centimeters):
17
Printing Context
Grand Woody Banks near Ross-on-Wye was originally sketched in the travel journal of William Gilpin. This and other sketches were eventually published in the printed version of Gilpin’s journal. Gilpin first made the journey down the Wye in 1770, but his book was not published until 1782, due in large part to his resistance to publishers’ inability to accurately recreate the watercolor-and-wash sketches Gilpin made in his original travel journal (Andrews, In Search of the Picturesque 86). In the first published edition of Gilpin’s Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; Made in the Summer of the Year 1770, the sketches were reproduced by an unusual combination of etching and aquatint techniques. However, starting with the publication of the second edition in 1789, only aquatinting was used. This recreation is an aquatint.Associated Events
The Wye TourAssociated Places
The Wye RiverAssociated Texts
The Banks of Wye: a Poem in Four Books by Robert Bloomfield (1811)Till bold, impressive, and sublime,Note how the ruins of Goodrich Castle are capable of telling “noble truths,” a direct interaction that Gilpin et alia would have either not noticed or summarily dismissed. Other passages focusing on the direct effect of natural images on the viewer include the following:Gleam’d all that’s left by storms and timeOf GOODRICH TOWERS. The mould’ring pileTells noble truths,—but dies the while.(Bloomfield 1.149-52)
Then CHEPSTOW’S ruin’d fortress caughtandThe mind’s collected store of thought,A dark, majestic, jealous frownHung on his brow, and warn’d us down.(Bloomfield 2.315-18)
TINTERN, thy name shall hence sustainThe first of these passages features not only personification of Chepstow Castle, but also describes the ruins’ ability to catch “the mind’s collected store of thought,” as well as its capacity to “warn” viewers. This warning is likely related to mortality, given the nearby mention of the “setting sun” (Bloomfield 2.313), a typical symbol of waning life. The second passage also utilizes one of the Wye Tour’s most famous spectacles (Tintern Abbey) to illustrate scenery’s ability to influence the viewer. The mere name of the Abbey is enough to call to the poet’s mind “a thousand raptures,” some of which included “priest[s] or king[s]” (2.124), “some BLOOD-STAIN’D warrior’s ghost” (2.125), or “grass-grown mansions of the dead” (2.114). The capacity of Nature to wreak such significant alterations in a viewer’s psyche runs diametrically opposed to the strictly evaluative eye of the picturesque tourist, and embodies a decidedly post-“Lines” worldview.A thousand raptures in my brain;Joys, full of soul, all strength, all eye,That cannot fade, that cannot die.(Bloomfield 2.131-34)
Subject
"Grand Woody Bank near Ross-on-Wye," an aquatint recreation of a sketch in Gilpin's travel journal, illustrates Gilpin's editing of natural scenery and serves as an example of a "picturesque" landscape. This was one of the first scenes a tourist witnessed on the Wye Tour.Theme
Ruin. River. Picturesque. Wye.Significance
During the Romantic period in England, Gilpin helped popularize picturesque tourism—that is, sightseeing centered on experiencing the Romantic notion of the picturesque: a natural object, like a stone, tree, etc., that stood out in stark contrast to its surroundings and often impressed the viewer with a feeling of the sublime. In this work, picturesque elements can be recognized in the organization of nature and vegetation, as well as the juxtaposition of the human world (the ruins) and the natural world (the trees overrunning the ruins). Hints of the sublime also can be found in the nebulous border between the distant wooded banks and the horizon. As is typical of picturesque landscape drawing, there is no effort made to represent the landscape accurately; instead, Gilpin was more concerned with creating harmonious drawings that incorporated elements of the picturesque and sublime. For example, it is likely that Gilpin invented the ruins near the center of the sketch in order to embellish the landscape, and it is probable that he removed any trees, shrubbery, etc. that he found unsightly. Consequently, Gilpin used his sketches to convey to readers what he saw as reinvented by his own mind, and to encourage them to pursue similar views. However, the boatmen that acted as de facto tour guides on the Wye scoffed at Gilpin’s (mis)representations, and advised tourists familiar with Gilpin’s guidebook not to bother looking for the scenes “recreated" there since they did not, in fact, exist (William Mason, qtd. in Barbier 71).Bibliography
Andrews, Malcolm. “Gilpin, William (1724–1804).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP, 2004. 28 Mar. 2009.Long Title
OBSERVATIONS ON THE RIVER WYE, AND SEVERAL PARTS OF SOUTH WALES, &c. RELATIVE CHIEFLY TO PICTURESQUE BEAUTY; Made in the Summer of the Year 1770, By WILLIAM GILPIN, M.A. VICAR of BOLDRE near LYMINGTON. LONDON: PRINTED FOR R. BLAMIRE IN THE STRAND. SOLD BY B. LAW, AVE MARY LANE; AND R. FAULDER, NEW BOND STREET. M.DCC.LXXXII.Featured in Exhibit:
Illustrator:
Image Date:
1782