University LibraryPrint Collection

Title:

View of Lochwinnoch exhibition label

Narrative 1

Narrative:

Historian Kenneth Guichard described Henry J. S. Brown as “one of the best of the British landscape etchers at the beginning of this century, and no one excelled him in conveying a feeling of plein air”. In the print View of Lochwinnoch, it is highly probable the image was created in the picturesque Scottish landscape, as Brown was known to take his copper plates and etching tools outdoors. The loose line work suggests spontaneous mark making that is a direct response to transitory effects of the weather. The viewer’s attention is caught by the dark hills and dense mass of vegetation in the upper picture plane, framed by storm clouds overhead. In contrast large areas of the foreground remain unmarked, save for the loose sketch like lines that delineate a human figure in the landscape. To understand this print, the viewer must actively seek out the printmaker’s lines tracing the geography and the landscape where the absence of detail informs the meaning of the artwork as much as the visible mark.

Authors:

Fung, Viona

McKean, Monica

Type:

Student exhibition

Objects:

View of Lochwinnoch