Explorations in the footsteps of Turner, Cotman, Ruskin and others with Professor David Hill
This article represents a diversion for SublimeSites, away from its usual focus on Turner, Cotman and Ruskin, to an artist who may be less familiar to readers, but is a long-held interest of mine. John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836-1893) was a Leeds- born artist, who practiced most of his career in Leeds and who by any … Continue reading John Atkinson Grimshaw: The Fields of Headingley
I am pleased to report that Sublimesites has received a second commission from the Pilkington Anglo-Japanese Cultural Foundation. This will fund site research in May into the topography of a wonderful later painting by Turner of Heidelberg. I have always loved the extraordinary crowd, gathered as if at some prototype of Glastonbury to celebrate a … Continue reading Turner and Heidelberg: A second Pilkington Foundation Commission
I am delighted to announce that SublimeSites is now sponsored by the Pilkington Anglo-Japanese Cultural Foundation. Their mission is the Promotion of UK culture in Japan and promotion of Japanese culture in the UK through publications, exchange exhibitions and research projects. Please visit their website at: http://www.pilkingtonanglo-japaneseculturalfoundation.org/index.html The Foundation has made a grant to SublimeSites … Continue reading Sponsorship from the Pilkington Anglo Japanese Cultural Foundation
REVISED 12 April 2016 (DH) This is the first Sublimesites.co article to discuss John Sell Cotman. It marks the beginning of a three-year project in which I will catalogue the near-nine hundred drawings by him in the collection of Leeds City Art Gallery. The full catalogue will be published online by Leeds Museums and Art … Continue reading John Sell Cotman: Point Lorenzo, Madeira, 1828
This article gives some thought to a major painting by J.M.W.Turner, Rome from Mount Aventine, sold at Sotheby’s, London, on 3 December 2014 for £30.3m. Most previous accounts have accepted its topography more-or-less at face value: It turns out to be intriguingly deviant. I spent most of my teaching career extolling the imperative of drawing. … Continue reading Turner in Italy: Rome from Mount Aventine, 1836
In November 2012 I made a short site visit to the southern Swiss town of Bellinzona. It stands at the entrance to the Ticino valley above Locarno and for centuries served as the southern gateway to the St Gotthard Pass, controlling traffic between northern Italy, especially Lago Maggiore, Milan and Turin, and northern Switzerland including … Continue reading In Ruskin’s Footsteps: the Balconies of Bellinzona
This article identifies the exact subject of one of John Ruskin's most highly regarded Alpine watercolours. The Swiss town of Bellinzona guards the southern entrance to the Alps from Lake Maggiore, and commands the St Gotthard route from Italy to the north. In 1858 Ruskin found there one of the most important subjects of his … Continue reading In Ruskin’s Footsteps at Bellinzona
At the end of May I had the opportunity to spend a few days in Lucerne and explore in the footsteps of John Ruskin. Among the subjects that particularly interested me were three unidentified architectural drawings. On the face of it, the chances of identifying their subjects seemed remote. Two drawings record individual timbered buildings … Continue reading In Ruskin’s Footsteps: Three newly identified architectural subjects at Lucerne
On 10 July 2014 Christie’s in London will sell a Turner watercolour of Binger Loch and Mausethurm (lot 214, estimate £200,000 – 300,000). This is one of a series of fifty-one* watercolours that Turner made in 1817 when he made a tour of the river Rhine between Cologne and Mainz. On Turner’s return the whole … Continue reading Turner on the Rhine: Binger Loch and Mausethurm
This article is the third to explore Turner’s Sisteron subjects in the light of my recent visit to the site. Here I focus on a watercolour in the collection of the Museum of Rhode Island School of Design that records the view of the Pont du Buech from the west. The bridge spans the river … Continue reading Turner at Sisteron: The Pont du Buech, looking west
Sublime Sites 