This portrait depicts Lady Catherine Montagu as a figure of social unconventionality, sporting a dress reminiscent of both the piratical and the gypsy lifestyle as romanticized by writers of the era. More specifically, she seems to be portrayed as Haidée, a character from Byron's Don Juan.
This image depicts the encounter between a pirate and a gypsy, emphasizing their common status as nomadic outcasts at once romanticized and rejected by society.
A woman travels through a landscape with two children: an infant held to her back in a shawl, and a young child who stands beside her and holds the hem of her cloak. The woman has long hair and a scarf tied around her forehead; she clutches the shawl in which the infant rides with her left hand, and extends her right to reveal a coin.
Within a rocky landscape is situated a large, cave-like dwelling constructed of leaves and branches. Six adult figures and two small children sit or squat around a smoky fire, while two additional figures approach the encampment with freshly caught fish. Most of the figures have short-cropped hair and are partially covered by hooded cloaks.
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 pipe. A dog, standing on its hind legs, licks her chin, and a second canine companion lies in the foreground beside a scroll-handled mug.
A man, imprisoned, sits in the corner of a cell next to a barred window through which two figures stare. The captive wears a large brimmed hat, long curled wig, and cravat, which date the sitter to the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century. He wears a loose, patterned gown, which is lifted to reveal a stockinged leg with a shackle and chain at the booted ankle.
Repton's lavishly illustrated texts served to record past accomplishments as wells as to advertise his skills as a landscape architect. The over-slips that allow for "before" and "after" views of a property were particularly important as they testified to the dramatic results Repton promised.
Repton's lavishly illustrated texts served to record past accomplishments as wells as to advertise his skills as a landscape architect. The over-slips that allow for "before" and "after" views of a property were particularly important as they testified to the dramatic results Repton promised.
Epitomized by Caspar David Friedrich’s Wanderer Watching a Sea of Fog (c. 1817-18), and the Wordsworthian peripatetic, the gentlemanly or artistic wanderer is integral to the Romantic imagination. Wandering lies at the heart of picturesque sightseeing, blank verse poetry, specimen collecting, and the Romantic cultivation of self. However, these forms of sanctioned wandering exist against a backdrop of less desirable movements that, nonetheless, inform, color and at times literally converge with the endorsed amblings of the inquisitive artist-gentlemen.
This text and its illustrative plates demonstrate how to create optical instruments for recreational scientific experiments.
