DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42850#0076
SCENE BETWEEN CAPEL CURIG AND LLYN OGWEN,
AT THE HEAD OF NANT FRANGON, N. W.
A MORE wild and dreary walk can scarcely be conceived than that from which our subject is taken
and yet there is a grandeur along the whole of the road, owing to the many huge mountain masses
by which it is surrounded. I well remember this spot, and the degree of awe it inspired. Vast wastes
of land, with upheaved stones rising from the surface almost at every step, mingled with peat, moss, and
blackened soil, served to make up the landscape in a most striking, uncommon, and effective manner. How
bleak it is at times those alone can tell who have encountered its violent gusts of wind and driving rain,
from which it is in vain to seek for shelter. With all this severity, the artist shrinks not from venturing
out to catch these lessons of storm, so calculated to give increased interest and sublimity to the efforts of
his pencil. The passing cloud, overshadowing those huge forms in its course, is ever fertile in producing
change, and offering suggestions of a pictorial character, each of which is laid up in memory’s storehouse,
to be placed at some future day upon canvas or paper. The sun’s vivid gleam escaping from its cloudy
prison, alights alternately upon each lofty and bare-headed summit, giving them such concentrated prominence
that seems to bury all else in mysterious gloom, producing a breadth of effect that could not otherwise
have been imagined. It is in the presence of Nature alone that the student’s ideas can be formed, enlarged,
and elevated. From constant converse with her the mind is led to reflect upon the beautiful and the grand,
from which to gather scenic knowledge, and thus bring Art to bear upon it. Laws of light, laws of
shadow, laws of perspective, are alone to be gleaned from studious observation; but when once they are
so gleaned, how great is the reward for all the trouble taken ! The result is certainly well worth the cost.
In the present subject, the foreground lies high, and the eye just discerns a peep of Llyn Ogwen
with its background of mountain. The left of the view is occupied by forms of some magnitude before
reaching the celebrated and sterile Trifaen. A barren and naked stamp pervades the whole landscape,
although the diversity of tint and colour afforded by different grasses, peats, and masses of stone, serves to
satisfy the spectator by its variety. A sameness there cannot be, and more especially when parts are
partially concealed by shadow and other features are bathed in sunshine. There is a constant play of
colour over the hoar masses of grey, of which our illustration is chiefly composed, which is repeated in
greater brilliancy upon the herbage of the foreground. The grey sides of the large stones, by their depth
of tone, serve to throw the mountains into distance, and impart aerial tones to them that without this
extra power would scarcely have been felt; while the high lights they receive, and the broad mass of soft
tints upon the road, are calculated to reduce the half-tones of the mountains, and to bring the white edges
of the clouds into the immediate front. For this purpose the single sheep is placed at the bottom of the
drawing, and also those at the far end of the bank. By carefully looking at this treatment, it will be
seen that the eye is led round the drawing by means of tender half-shade, that the whole may be encircled.
The heavy cloud helps to do this, and the straight portion of it shows out the several marked outlines
of the mountains more distinctly by contrast. To every portion of the scene there are continuous lines of
distance, all of which are of great value to show the position and surface of the separate masses. These
can only be given by a succession of washes, one after the other, preserving the sharpness and decision of
each. There must also be a preconceived intention to every touch or wash, in order that none of them
be meaningless or vague. It is in this that the pupil differs from the accomplished artist, a result which is
mainly to be attributed to the thoughtlessness of the one and the thoughtful study of the other. Whatever
AT THE HEAD OF NANT FRANGON, N. W.
A MORE wild and dreary walk can scarcely be conceived than that from which our subject is taken
and yet there is a grandeur along the whole of the road, owing to the many huge mountain masses
by which it is surrounded. I well remember this spot, and the degree of awe it inspired. Vast wastes
of land, with upheaved stones rising from the surface almost at every step, mingled with peat, moss, and
blackened soil, served to make up the landscape in a most striking, uncommon, and effective manner. How
bleak it is at times those alone can tell who have encountered its violent gusts of wind and driving rain,
from which it is in vain to seek for shelter. With all this severity, the artist shrinks not from venturing
out to catch these lessons of storm, so calculated to give increased interest and sublimity to the efforts of
his pencil. The passing cloud, overshadowing those huge forms in its course, is ever fertile in producing
change, and offering suggestions of a pictorial character, each of which is laid up in memory’s storehouse,
to be placed at some future day upon canvas or paper. The sun’s vivid gleam escaping from its cloudy
prison, alights alternately upon each lofty and bare-headed summit, giving them such concentrated prominence
that seems to bury all else in mysterious gloom, producing a breadth of effect that could not otherwise
have been imagined. It is in the presence of Nature alone that the student’s ideas can be formed, enlarged,
and elevated. From constant converse with her the mind is led to reflect upon the beautiful and the grand,
from which to gather scenic knowledge, and thus bring Art to bear upon it. Laws of light, laws of
shadow, laws of perspective, are alone to be gleaned from studious observation; but when once they are
so gleaned, how great is the reward for all the trouble taken ! The result is certainly well worth the cost.
In the present subject, the foreground lies high, and the eye just discerns a peep of Llyn Ogwen
with its background of mountain. The left of the view is occupied by forms of some magnitude before
reaching the celebrated and sterile Trifaen. A barren and naked stamp pervades the whole landscape,
although the diversity of tint and colour afforded by different grasses, peats, and masses of stone, serves to
satisfy the spectator by its variety. A sameness there cannot be, and more especially when parts are
partially concealed by shadow and other features are bathed in sunshine. There is a constant play of
colour over the hoar masses of grey, of which our illustration is chiefly composed, which is repeated in
greater brilliancy upon the herbage of the foreground. The grey sides of the large stones, by their depth
of tone, serve to throw the mountains into distance, and impart aerial tones to them that without this
extra power would scarcely have been felt; while the high lights they receive, and the broad mass of soft
tints upon the road, are calculated to reduce the half-tones of the mountains, and to bring the white edges
of the clouds into the immediate front. For this purpose the single sheep is placed at the bottom of the
drawing, and also those at the far end of the bank. By carefully looking at this treatment, it will be
seen that the eye is led round the drawing by means of tender half-shade, that the whole may be encircled.
The heavy cloud helps to do this, and the straight portion of it shows out the several marked outlines
of the mountains more distinctly by contrast. To every portion of the scene there are continuous lines of
distance, all of which are of great value to show the position and surface of the separate masses. These
can only be given by a succession of washes, one after the other, preserving the sharpness and decision of
each. There must also be a preconceived intention to every touch or wash, in order that none of them
be meaningless or vague. It is in this that the pupil differs from the accomplished artist, a result which is
mainly to be attributed to the thoughtlessness of the one and the thoughtful study of the other. Whatever