One of Twenty Vignettes - The Brave Roland
About this artwork
The Scottish National Gallery has the only set of Turner’s literary vignettes for ‘The Poetical Works of Thomas Campbell’. Campbell had visited the Drachenfels, a mountain near Bonn in Germany, in 1820. He was deeply moved by the view and by the experience of reading the 'Song of Roland' on this dramatic spot. Turner has set the moment in Campbell's own poem when Aude, in despair at rumours of Roland's death, enters a nunnery. As she takes the veil Roland's horn is heard. Although Turner had made sketches on his visits to Rolandseck, there are none which show this view which sets the events against the backdrop of the Drachenfels and the tower which Roland was supposed to have built after Aude died so that he could look out into the convent from the lighted window.
Updated before 2020
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artist:Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775 - 1851) English
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title:One of Twenty Vignettes - The Brave Roland
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date created:About 1835
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materials:Watercolour over pencil on paper
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measurements:12.00 x 11.50 cm
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object type:
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credit line:Accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to the National Gallery of Scotland, 1988
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accession number:D 5167
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gallery:
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Turner transformed the art of landscape painting in Britain. From detailed topographical studies to expansive, atmospheric vistas his works celebrate the diversity and emotive power of nature. He was born in Covent Garden, the son of a barber, and exhibited his earliest sketches in his father's...