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| Bonchurch Downs |
Artist:John Brett (British, Bletchingly 1831–1902 London)
Date:1865
Medium:Watercolor
Dimensions:Sheet: 12 in. × 16 1/2 in. (30.5 × 41.9 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Harry G. Sperling Fund, 2015
Accession Number:2015.516
Precise natural details convey a dreamlike stillness in this Isle of Wight landscape. A sharply canted section of coastal down allows Brett to contrast purplish-gray rocks with pale grass and rusty winter foliage, as dappled touches of brilliant color describe a patch of distant sea. Wandering cows and a signal mast silhouetted against the sky suggest an unseen human presence. Brett’s early career had been molded by the leading critic John Ruskin, who acted as his mentor until a scientific argument caused a rift in 1865. Painted shortly after their parting, Bonchurch Downs still honors Ruskin’s famous advice that artists should "go to Nature in all singleness of heart . . . rejecting nothing, selecting nothing, and scorning nothing."
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