This landscape by the Scotch painter, Alexander Nasmyth, is so unobtrusive
as to be easily overlooked by the visitor. For those who feel the spirit
of the little picture, however, it has an abiding charm. The artist was a
man of extraordinary versatility and enterprise, an able scene painter and
architect, and an inventor and engineer of eminence. In our painting one
sees little of the boldness expected from a mind given credit for
originating principles of steamboat propulsion and bridge construction.
The touch is formal, almost shy, in its reserve; the drawing is precise,
and the lighting and color conventional. Much of the charm of the work is
probably due to this reticence. The scene presents a restful tranquility,
and a quaint homeliness. The interest plays back and forth between the
romantic old ruin and the contrasting rural and domestic life which has
put past splendors to such strange modern uses. The theme is reminiscent
of Piranesi’s etchings of classical ruins. Out of death springs life;
from the decayed tree come strange fungus growths. After hundreds of
years, the castle wall of a feudal lord gives support to a peasant
cottage; his hall serves to shelter cattle.
Alexander Nasmyth was a pupil of the portraitist, Allan Ramsay
(1713-1784). Ramsay discovered him in Edinburgh painting armorial bearings
on carriage doors, and took him to London. Upon his return to Edinburgh,
he painted portraits, including a famous portrait of Robert Burns; but
turned his attention, after 1793, exclusively to landscapes.
[Psyche’s Wedding. Sir Edward Burne-Jones, 1833-1898]