River Scene, by William Widgery (1822-1893). Nineteenth Century. Oil on canvas. H 75 x W 152 cm. Collection: University of Exeter, Fine Art Collection. Accession no. FAC00298 (unknown acquisition method).
It is easy to understand Widgery's popularity. The tranquility of this scene, in which light falls on the silvery river, which is nevertheless not devoid of human interest and activity, is appealing. The wide banks with their rocky foreshores and trees, their distant hints of further activity on the calm waters, and the low misty mountains on the horizon, are all conveyed with entirely natural and subtle gradations of colour, picking up brightness as the river widens towards the foreground.
Image download and text by Jacqueline Banerjee. The image is available on Art UK under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (CC BY-NC-ND).
Bibliography
River Scene. Art UK. Web. 20 April 2024.
Created 20 April 2024