About this artwork
The Scottish National Gallery has the only set of Turner’s literary vignettes that remain together in one collection, his twenty illustrations for ‘The Poetical Works of Thomas Campbell’. These were made to be engraved in Edward Moxon’s edition of Campbell’s poems, published in 1837. A copy of this book is in the collection of the Scottish National Gallery Print Room. In the poem Campbell recounts a walk to the summit of Camp Hill from where, surveying the landscape beneath the setting sun, he imagines the scene on the night before the Battle of Hastings. In the foreground of his illustration Turner has included a still life, consisting of shields, a sword, crossbow and mace. At the right, a blood-stained arrow placed inside a discarded crown signifies King Harold’s impending death.
Updated before 2020
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artist:Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775 - 1851) English
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title:One of Twenty Vignettes - On Camp Hill, near Hastings
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date created:About 1835
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materials:Watercolour over pencil on paper
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measurements:15.00 x 12.50 cm (framed: 45.60 x 40.00 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 5169
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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...