View of the Tamer River
Description:
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 the left portion of the image. Shrubs and trees are sparse on its rocky face. Further to the left and nearly obscured by the shadow of the bluff, an animal grazes in a cluster of trees. On the other side of the bluff, on a bit of land that juts out past its foot, is a low boxy (man-made) structure. Two more mountains rise in the background, their faces vaguely rocky, and their peaks blurring with the cloudy sky.
Copyright:
Copyright 2009, Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
Location:
Primary Works:
This image was printed in William Gilpin's Observations on the Western Parts of England, Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty. To Which are Added, a Few Remarks on the Picturesque Beauties of the Isle of Wight (London, 1798).
Height (in centimeters):
12
Width (in centimeters):
18
Printing Context
The aquatints engraved for Gilpin’s Tours were based on sketches made by Gilpin himself. A comparison of similar aquatints from the second, third and fifth editions reveals subtle variations among them and suggest that new aquatint etchings were used in each printing.Associated Events
Tours on the WyeAssociated Places
BoldreAssociated Texts
See the accompanying text, Observations on the Western Parts of England, and other editions for alternative versions of this view of the Tamer River.Subject
Nestled in the surrounding mountains, the small votive chapel along the Tamer River appears to be absorbed by the surrounding landscape. This seemingly organic mingling of land and man-made structures was highly valued by the picturesque aesthetic.Significance
The ruins of this votive chapel, built in the medieval period, are set against a dramatic, mountainous backdrop. In the aquatints depicting the ruins of Castle Abergavenny and Raglan Castle the mountains are pushed farther into the background. Furthermore, unlike the complex ruins that Gilpin typically depicts, this image features a man-made structure that is surprisingly simple. As a result, the ruins blend more easily with their surroundings, seeming to become a natural feature of the land.Over and about these ruins I . . . meditated . . . [on] the great improvements of the roads, which have introduced learning and the arts into the country and removed the (formerly wretched) families, who buried themselves in mud and ignorance, to the gay participation of wit and gallantry in the parishes [towns] of Marylebone and St. James! (Byng 89)Similarly, when Reverend Stebbing Shaw, an English antiquarian, was confronted with the ruins of Abingdon Abbey, he associated them with the importance of the West Saxons and the famed medieval Welsh historian Geoffrey of Monmouth (Mavor 156). Much tourist literature of the time engaged in similar historical reassembly or reconstruction, often blurring the lines between the cultures of the British Isles. The chapel on the Cornish Tamer River, nestled in a dramatic mountain range, can consequently be seen as both an artifact of English history and as a symbol of the diversity of the British nation.
Bibliography
Andrews, Malcolm. The Search for the Picturesque: Landscape Aesthetics and Tourism in Britain, 1760-1800. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1989. Print.Long Title
Observations on the Western Parts of England, Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty. To Which are Added, a Few Remarks on the Picturesque Beauties of the Isle of Wight. By William Gilpin, M. A. Prebendary of Salisbury; and Vicar o Boldre in New forest, Near Lymington. London: printed for T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies. 1798. [Plate 12, opposite p. 235]Featured in Exhibit:
Engraver:
Delineator:
Image Date:
1798
