Romantic Circles Gallery
Gallery Editors:
Theresa M. KelleyJacob Leveton
1778 |
Abraham kneels on a flat plain before three winged angels who stand conversing among themselves. Some hills and trees stand in the distance, and the sky is furrowed with thick, wavy lines that... 1782 |
The image portrays a sea dark with swells—no whitecaps—interrupted by large, sharp-edged, wildly-shaped icebergs that have been carved out at their bases by the incessant motion of the waves. Two... Delineator: Back, Sir George 1828 |
The art historian Pramod Chandra describes this miniature as follows:
[T]he man, seated on a chair, listens to a group of musicians squatting on a striped blue carpet. He is attended by... 1870 |
This image provides multiple illustrations of skulls and famous busts, providing measurements for each by which organ size can be determined. Note especially the famous political figures, as well as... Author: Fowler, Orson Squire 1847 |
An obese and rosy Lady Emma Hamilton in a white nightgown and nightcap sits up in her bed with arms and legs splayed outward, pushing the sea-foam green curtains of the canopy back. Her gaze is... Delineator: Gillray, James 6 February 1802 |
Across the upper half of this album page a map has been created in black ink and brown wash. Identified at the top of the page as a “Map of Matrimony,” it charts the imaginary terrain... |
c. 1829 |
At the center of this page an unknown artist has painted in watercolor two pink roses growing from a single stem--one almost in full bloom, the other just beginning to bud—and entwined it... |
The most intense aspects of the rage for ballooning had subsided by the late 1780’s, but balloons remained popular throughout the nineteenth century. This image appeared as part of a humorous 1845... Author: Mayhew, Horace 1845 |
Cutting a nearly perfect diagonal across the picture plane from the top left corner, the ruins of the Temple of Peace, or Basilica of Maxentius, loom large on the canvas, casting a shadow on the... 1779 |
Various ships are visible in the distance, and one ship in full sail sits directly beyond the coastal waters. Three poles emerge from the sea in the left foreground, indicating the shoreline; the... 1823 |
“Plate XIX” features eight figures to accompany the text entitled “Of Optics.” Figure 1 illustrates the manner in which light travels through a multiplying glass to the eye. Figure 2 diagrams the... Delineator: Ferguson, James Author: Ferguson, James 1764 |
This plate offers seven profiles (or cross-sections) of fragments of the coast of north-west America, as if seen from a passing ship or small boat, which range from Cape Mendocino (the westernmost... Delineator: Skyes, J., Alexander, William 1798 |
A Hindu woman, wearing a short-sleeved dress, walks away from the basket in which she has placed her baby. A scarf is draped over her head, and she holds one end in her left hand. Her right hand is... 1800 |
A jagged icy cliff on the left descends to a pool of water; beyond these immediate ice formations, a plain of ice or water extends to the far horizon, where more cliffs rise against building clouds.... Delineator: Back, Sir George 1828 |
This image depicts an icescape in fog. The immediate foreground features a prominent rock jutting out of the ground to the left, next to what appears to be a large vertebra. The center portion of the... Delineator: Back, Sir George 1836 |
Dressed as nursemaids with patriotic ribbons, Prime Minister Henry Addington, Lord Hawkesbury, and Charles Fox gather around Britannia as an oversized baby squeezed into a crib, the top of which... Delineator: Gillray, James 4 December 1802 |
The ruins of an elaborate entrance to the Palace at Madurai dominate the left register of the picture plane. Intricate stonework and molding decorates the inside of the edifice, while the outside is... Engraver: Daniell, William c. 1797-98 |
1826 |
Dorothy George describes this print:
A complicated piece of machinery fills the centre of a room in a fashionable establishment; an open door (r.) leads into a shop where, in the... 1828 |
In this print, Corinthian Tom’s tailor, Mr. Primefit, has come to Corinthian House to fit Jerry Hawthorn for a new suit. Jerry stands in the center, his back to the viewer, while Mr. Primefit... Author: Egan, Pierce 31 August 1820 |
The image shows a man sitting up in bed, lifting one hand, as if explaining something. Clothes are drawn in an elaborate fashion with a close attention to such details as buttons and wrinkles. The... 1818 |
This panoramic vista of the Valley of Mexico depicts Mexico City in the background, lying low in the landscape and surrounded by short vegetation and plants. A small Spanish church stands in the... Delineator: Bullock, William 1825 |
Dorothy George describes this print as follows:
A good-looking young woman, looking down and to the r., holds by two strings a jointed puppet (a pantin, a toy for ladies in vogue in the... Delineator: Cruikshank, Isaac 9 December 1818 |
1824 |
1819 |
The top image, labeled "Fig. 1," is a spider's nest, while the image directly below it depicts the accompanying valve. The figure below the valve is a card of silk made from the spider's thread,... 1791 |
This image comes from a text called, Illustrations of Natural Philosophy, which depicts the many properties of air. The central images feature a rendering of all of the highest mountain ranges... 10 December 1850 |
1793 |
Three men face each other, with the central figure looking toward the viewer. Each man is distinguished by his exaggerated expression, unusual head shape, and the phrenological map that has been... Delineator: Cruikshank, George 1 August 1826 |
1804 |
1787 |
During the latter part of their honeymoon in 1837-38, Hannah Palmer and her husband Samuel, also a painter and a follower of William Blake, spent much time sketching at Pompeii. For this view, she... 1838 |
The subject, Chepstow Castle, dominates most of the print, sitting across the water from the viewer. It is in a state of ruin: ivy climbs up the towers, and the tops of the rightmost towers are... Delineator: Cooper, Robert Bransby Author: Bloomfield, Robert 1813 |
Page thirty-two displays eight views from the ruined ground of Pevensey Castle. All images are black and white wood prints. Editor: Knight, Charles c. Early 19th century |
The engraving depicts the lower room of the “Old Ashmolean” building at the University of Oxford. Various natural specimens, including a giraffe and a dodo, are evident, as well as two groups of... Delineator: Delamotte, William Alfred 1 December 1834 |
A viscountess sits between a portrait of a peasant woman breastfeeding a baby, the frame of which reads “Maternal Love,\" and a window revealing a carriage waiting outside, its attendant holding its... Delineator: Gillray, James 15 February 1796 |
In this image, the French army attempts to cross the Alps during the Napoleonic Wars. Front and center in the image is an Asian man sitting on a boulder. Leading away from him are the caravans of... Delineator: Cruikshank, George Author: Combe, William 13 December 1814 |
c. 1816-17 |
The empress of the moths, a saturnia pavonia minor, perches on a leaf. She is reading her visitor's book. The emperor, a male of the same species, sits on the branch facing her. To their left, in the... 1831 |
The two remaining towers of Hadleigh Castle stand in the left register of the picture plane. Underbrush and foliage have over-grown the crumbling ruins. In the lower left corner, a shepherd boy,... 1829 |
A broad expanse of river fills the foreground of the image, narrowing in the center ground and stretching away from the viewer. A rocky bluff—descending in steep gradations to the water's edge—fills... Delineator: Gilpin, William 1798 |
A girl is sitting on a large grave in a cemetery, looking down. Behind her a large tree is depicted, a few tombstones, and a church. From beyond a fence bordering one side of the churchyard, a woman... Author: Sigourney, Lydia Howard Huntley 1834 |
These images depict the European landscape in 1832 as shaped by a Laacher See eruption. In the upper left corner, a farmer is plowing his field with the help of a mule. The village of Eich is... Delineator: Hibbert-Ware, Charlotte Author: Hibbert, Samuel 1832 |
This image corresponded to the scene depicted in “A Balloon Prospect from above the Clouds,” which was to be inserted on the facing page. The intention was that this print could be used to provide a... 5 January 1786 |
Here, on one of the four engraved and hand-colored pages interspersed among the blank pages of the Floral Album, the engraver has pictured a wreath of flowers formed from pink roses, blue... |
As noted by curator Andrew Stevens (Chazen Museum, University of Wisconsin), this “painting is a pastiche of second-hand Italianate architecture and geography imagery supplemented with the artist's... 1791 |
A young man, seated with a long rifle on a rock, wears a dark jacket and light trousers. A horn is strung around his neck and a brimmed hat lies at his side. He is addressed by a woman with a large... Author: Grellmann, Heinrich Moritz Gottlieb 1807 |
The Grand West Entrance to Jedburgh Abbey is at the perfect center of the composition. The sequence of intricately carved arches framing the comparatively small, rectangular door creates a tunneling... 19 September 1846 |