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Sir Augustus Wall Callcott, 1779–1844, British, Windsor from Eton, between 1808 and 1809
- Title:
Windsor from Eton
- Former Title(s):
Windsor, from Eton [1809, Royal Academy of Arts, London, exhibition catalogue]
- Date:
- between 1808 and 1809
- Medium:
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions:
- 29 1/2 x 44 1/4 inches (74.9 x 112.4 cm)
- Credit Line:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Copyright Status:
- Public Domain
- Accession Number:
- B2001.2.235
- Classification:
- Paintings
- Collection:
- Paintings and Sculpture
- Link to Frame:
- B2001.2.235FR
- Subject Terms:
- castle | cattle | clouds | landscape | meadow | pond | river | sky | skyline | sunlight
- Associated Places:
- Berkshire | England | Eton | Thames | United Kingdom | Windsor | Windsor Castle
- Access:
- Not on view
Note: To make an appointment to see this work, please contact the Paintings and Sculpture department at ycba.paintings@yale.edu. Please visit the Paintings and Sculpture collections page on our website for more details. - Link:
- https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:38475
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Augustus Wall Callcott’s dramatic rendering of Windsor Castle—at the time, the residence of an elderly and infirm King George III—celebrates the ancient construction that Britain’s rulers called home. A famed landscape painter, Callcott depicted the looming, silhouetted Gothic palace, built originally in the eleventh century, from the bucolic pastures of Eton, just across the river Thames. Here, dark clouds part, casting the pastures and castle alike in the golden glow of sunlight. In this way, Callcott, who was knighted in later years, uses symbolism to laud the monarchy: Windsor Castle presides over the romantic British countryside. Gallery label for Art in Focus: The British Castle - A Symbol in Stone (Yale Center for British Art, 2017-04-07 - 2017-08-06)
Paul Mellon was christened in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, and spent some of the happiest days of his childhood on summer visits to Windsor: "From those distant summers I remember huge dark trees in rolling parks, herds of small friendly deer, flotillas of white swans on the Thames, dappled tan cows in soft green fields, the grey mass of Windsor Castle towering in the distance against a background of huge golden summer clouds; soldiers in scarlet and bright metal, drums and bugles, troops of grey horses; laughing ladies in white with gay parasols, men in impeccable white flannels and striped blazers, and always behind them and behind everything the grass was green, green, green...There seemed to be a tranquility in those days that was never again to be found, and a quietness as detached from life as the memory itself." He hung Callcott's painting in a place of high honor, over the fireplace in his study in New York. Malcolm Warner Warner, Malcolm and John Baskett. The Paul Mellon Bequest: Treasures of a Lifetime. New Haven : Yale Center for British Art, 2001, p. 10
The Paul Mellon Bequest : Treasures of a Lifetime (Yale Center for British Art, 2001-02-17 - 2001-04-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]
Duncan Robinson, Paul Mellon: a Cambridge tribute, , The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge [England], 2007, p. 8, N5220 M552 P36 2007 (YCBA) [YCBA]
The British Castle : A Symbol in Stone, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2017, p. 21, cat. 13, V2722 (YCBA) [YCBA]
Malcolm Warner, The Paul Mellon Bequest : treasures of a lifetime, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2001, p. 10, N5247 M385 P28 2001 (YCBA) [YCBA]
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