
In Tate Britain
- Artist
- James Ward 1769–1859
- Medium
- Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions
- Support: 3327 × 4216 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased 1878
- Reference
- N01043
Display caption
Gordale Scar is a bank of limestone cliffs near Settle, Yorkshire. Ward painted this picture for Lord Ribblesdale, a local landowner. He emphasised the height and scale of the cliffs by subtly manipulating the perspective. In the foreground he shows deer and cattle, including a white bull from the (originally wild) Chillingham herd, who appears to guard the cleft of Gordale Beck. Working in the last years of the Napoleonic wars, Ward aimed to depict a national landscape, primordial and unchanging, defended by ‘John Bull’ in animal form. His painting also epitomised the awe-inspiring qualities of the fashionable ‘Sublime’ landscape.
Gallery label, March 2010
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