Edward Calvert

The Brook

1829

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment
Artist
Edward Calvert 1799–1883
Medium
Wood engraving on paper
Dimensions
Image: 51 × 89 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Presented by S. Calvert 1912
Reference
A00160

Display caption

In Calvert's engraving of 'The Bride' which hangs nearby, nature's abundance is evoked by the inclusion on the central tree of a huge bunch of grapes on a vine, one oozing great drops of juice. In this print pastoral richness is indicated by a hive in the left-hand tree, around which bees hover and from which honey gushes forth in streams. As with the 'Cyder Feast', Calvert later removed from the block of this print its Christian inscription, 'THE WATERS OF THIS BROOK SHALL NEVER FAIL TO THE MARRIED WIFE OF THE LORD GOD'. The female figures strongly recall those on antique gems, which George Richmond remembered Calvert collecting and studying.

Gallery label, August 2004

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