Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/661

In England. 631 but he also produced many beautiful and poetic sketches of English scenery in water-colours, one of which — a view from Richmond Park — is in the South Kensington Museum. Francis Danby (1793 — 1861), a man gifted with a vivid sense of the pathos of human life and the touching sadness of natural scenery in its lonely beauty, painted alike in oils and water-colours. Amongst his most striking pictures we may name the Upas or Poison tree of Java (now in the South Kensington Museum), which exercises a peculiar fascination on the spectator : Disappointed Love, also in the same museum, is remarkable for the manner in which the gloom of the stagnant waters harmonises with the dejection of the young girl beside them. The Sunshine after a Shower, the Sunset at Sea after a Storm, and the Overthrow of Pharaoh and his Host in the Red Sea, are all in private possession. Effects of gloom, and the glow of sunset or sunrise, were the peculiar province of this artist. David Roberts (1796—1864), like Stanfield, began life as a scene-painter in a theatre, and in his oil paint- ings and water-colour drawings retained much of the rapidity of execution and mechanical dexterity which he had acquired in the early portion of his career. His works are characterised by picturesque grouping of figures and truthful rendering of architecture. He is most popularly known by a series of studies in Egypt and the Holy Land, published in lithography from his sketches. These show his power and accuracy as a draughtsman. His oil-paint- ings, which include representations of most of the famous buildings of the world, evince, in addition to a masterly though often careless power of drawing, a profound know- ledge of effect, and a keen eye for the picturesque— with, however, but indifferent feeling for colour. Among his