Romantic Circles Gallery
Gallery Editors:
Theresa M. KelleyJacob Leveton
 This image depicts a death's-head moth on a white background, with wings outstretched. 1831 |
 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... 1847 |
 Lucifer and his fellow angels are cast out of Heaven, falling into a deep chasm with sheer rock walls textured by what appears to be tree roots. The chasm is illuminated by light from the opening... 1826 |
 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 |
 In the center background, a man-made structure—appearing, though distant, to be composed of walls and towers—crests an imposing promontory. To the right of this bluff a high, wooded hill rises to the... Delineator: Gilpin, William 1798 |
 Carefully annotated sketches such as this one, which served as a basis for explanations of how hot air balloons were filled, were included in books such as Tiberius Cavallo’s 1785 The History and... 1 January 1785 |
 This painting exists in two states: the first portrays the actual, "unimproved" prospect from the house at Tatton Park, as it was when Repton first visited the Park, on 8 Nov. 1791; the second... 1794 |
 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 |
 “Plate XVII” features ten figures that accompany a section of the text discussing optical illusions and tricks. Figures 52 and 53 depict an illusion using decanters of water and a concave mirror.... 1803 |
 Engraver: Daniell, Thomas 1795 |
 In the saloon of Covent Garden Theatre, Tom and Jerry stand in the center surrounded by women in elegant evening dress, “gay Cyprians,” or courtesans (Egan 173). On the left sits a woman in a rigint-... Delineator: Cruikshank, George, Cruikshank, Isaac 1 July 1821 |
 In a small, dark, cave-like dwelling, a woman with a creased brow and elongated nose sits crouched with her knees to her chest. She wears a white bonnet and large cloak, and she smokes a slender clay... 1820 |
 A ship is tipped towards the viewer, almost completely submerged by a wave crashing over it. Only the main mast, part of a second mast, and a sliver of the deck rise above the tumultuous water. Men... Illustrator: Turner, Joseph Mallord William 1835 |
 A view of the ruins of Tintern Abbey. Editor: Knight, Charles 1845 |
 A conventional edge-painting uses one of the edges of a closed book as a canvas—usually the edge furthest from the binding or spine (the fore-edge), but sometimes the top or bottom. They are... 1821 |
 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 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 |
 The work depicts a “building designed in imitation of the ruins of a church or chapel…intended to be placed, as those houses generally are, by the side of a piece of still water…or built by the side... |
 Depicting roughly 35 miles of the Eifel mountain range, this topographic map is color coded to indicate rock type. Volcanoes are depicted by sets of lines, each which culminates in a circle to... 1832 |
 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 |
 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... 31 August 1820 |
 This image, like Cavallo’s image of the process for inflating hot air balloons, was a popular element of accounts of balloon in late eighteenth-century print culture. Its focus on the means by which... 14 January 1784 |
 Fielding’s "view" of the castle occurs at sunset, and is taken from the banks of a river flowing in the lower register of the painting. A large tree seems to grasp the right riverbank with its... 1816 |
 "Plate II" features seven illustrations to accompany Priestley’s text, including: a parabolic or burning mirror; a diagram of a convex lens used for magnification; a diagram of how light passes... 1772 |
 Delineator: Pugin, Augustus Charles, Rowlandson, Thomas 1808 |
 The Chronometer and Planetarium System plate is accompanied by an explanatory key on the preceding two pages of the text. Most of the bottom of the print is taken up by Fig. 5, a rectangular... 1791 |
 Five "Arab scholars" attend to their lessons. All the boys wear loose white robes and colored turbans. The central figure sits cross-legged, his body turned to the right. He draws in the dirt with... 1806 |
 Doctor Syntax and the bookseller occupy the center of the piece. Syntax gestures demonstratively at his travel journal while the bookseller looks upward. To the left, the bookseller’s wife is seated... 1 May 1812 |
 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... |
 c. 1829 |
 In the center of the image, a nude male figure sits on the edge of a bed, one leg resting on the floor. He looks up at a female figure who stands between his legs undressing, untying the strings of... Delineator: Calvert, Edward 1831 |
 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... 1807 |
 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 |
 A young man has two caged doves which he holds up for display. |
 1795 |
 In the catalogue Indian Miniature Painting, Chandra describes Portrait of a Lady: “The lady wears a pink skirt and a white robe. She is sensitively drawn, the linear rhythms,... 1800 |
 The engraving depicts the exterior of the “Old Ashmolean” building at the University of Oxford. We see it at a slight distance, with a good view of the street on which it is stationed. Three figures... Delineator: MacKenzie, Frederick 1 December 1834 |
 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 |
 This image, Plate 17 of Bell's illustrations, depicts the three small bones of the ear. Bell describes it as such:
The natural size of these bones is shown in Fig. 1 Plate 17, (the... c. 1830s |
 Engraver: Rooker, Edward, Rooker, Michael Angelo 1775 |
 1778 |
 In this etching, a young woman and man who are courting make music together. The woman plays a harp and leans over to read the music from the music book that the young man is holding. They both... 1805 |
 Two ships are portrayed in the center right of the image, a rowboat between them. The ship on the right is British, its flag displayed on the right side. It is more brightly colored and has more... 1783 |
 These scientific diagrams depict "vibrations in solid bodies," including rods and plates. 1830 |
 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 1832 |
 The central image, figure 9, depicts one half of an Egyptian pebble, the interior of which seems to contain the image of a small, white face. This large, oblong pebble is encircled by other, much... 1791 |
 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 |
 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 |
 A phrenologist, identified as J. De Ville, places his right hand on the forehead of a young man who is kneeling at the center of the image. A well-dressed woman, probably the young man’s mother,... 4 February 1826 |
 This image portrays three ships and a row boat, presumably transporting the pilot to the central frigate. The ocean is rough with small waves, and the sails of the ships billow with wind. Both the... 1797 |
