The Bard - YCBA Collections Search

John Martin, 1789–1854, British, The Bard, ca. 1817

Creator:: John Martin, 1789–1854
Title:: The Bard
Date:: ca. 1817
Medium:: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:: 50 x 40 inches (127 x 101.6 cm), Frame: 57 × 47 inches (144.8 × 119.4 cm)
Credit Line:: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:: Public Domain
Accession Number:: B1981.25.439
Classification:: Paintings
Collection:: Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:: B1981.25.439FR
Subject Terms:: army | banners | bard | cape | castle | cliffs | clouds | eagles (birds) | historical subject | king (person) | landscape | lyre | mountains | poet | river | rocks (landforms) | soldiers
Associated Places:: Conway | Cymru | United Kingdom | Wales
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:923
Export:: XML
IIIF Manifest:: JSON

Based on a dramatic poem by Thomas Gray, The Bard was painted by John Martin around 1817, at the height of the romantic period. Amid a powerful landscape with ominous clouds, a raging river, and gnarly walnut trees, the castle’s stony architecture parallels the peaks around it, making this emblem of English power a seemingly indestructible part of the landscape. Awestruck by the scene, the viewer must take care to notice the figure of the last remaining Bard, defiant after Edward I ordered all the bards to be put to death when he conquered Wales.

Gallery label for Art in Focus: The British Castle - A Symbol in Stone (Yale Center for British Art, 2017-04-07 - 2017-08-06)

After his conquest of Wales, the thirteenth-century English King Edward I was said to have ordered the massacre of all the Welsh bards. Following Thomas Gray’s treatment of the legend in his celebrated poem “The Bard: A Pindaric Ode” (1757), John Martin shows the sole survivor clutching his harp while cursing the king and his army before hurling himself to his death from a rocky crag. The popularization of the bard as a champion of independence and liberty against tyranny gained tremendous currency in the romantic period.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016

Painted around 1817, at the height of the Romantic movement, John Martin’s version of The Bard unites the drama of the poem by Thomas Gray, published in 1757, with a vision of sublime landscape. The Bard stands amid an overwhelming and powerful landscape with ominous clouds, a raging river, and dramatic cliffs evoking the sublime, a combined sense of awe and terror, in the viewer. The Bard’s disproportionate size, particularly in comparison to the advancing troops of Edward I below, makes him seem an element of the landscape, a landmark in his own right.

Gallery label for Art in Focus: Wales (Yale Center for British Art, 2014-04-04 - 2014-08-10)

Art in Focus : The British Castle - A Symbol in Stone (Yale Center for British Art, 2017-04-07 - 2017-08-06) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Art in Focus : Wales (Yale Center for British Art, 2014-04-04 - 2014-08-10) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Nobleness and Grandeur - Forging Historical Landscape in Britain, 1760 - 1850 (Yale Center for British Art, 2005-01-27 - 2005-04-24) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Painting in England 1700-1850 - From The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon (Yale University Art Gallery, 1965-04-15 - 1965-06-20) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Art, Lux, et Veritas 2012, Personal Responses to Collections at Yale , Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, 2012, pp. 28-31, V 2414:2 [ORBIS]

Thomas Balston, John Martin, 1799-1854, his life and works., G. Duckworth, London, 1947, pp. 36, 43, 45, 66, NJ18 M39 B35 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 156-157, N590.2 A83 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Ronald Hutton, Blood and mistletoe, the history of the Druids in Britain , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2009, fig. 21, BL910 .H88X 2009 (LSF) [ORBIS]

Barbara C. Morden, John Martin : Apocalypse Now!, , Northumbria University Press, Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2010, p. 27, NJ18 M39 +M67 2010 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Martin Myrone, John Martin, apocalypse , Tate Publishing, London, 2011, p. 76, NJ18.M39 A12 2011 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Painting in England 1700-1850 : collection of Mr. & Mrs. Paul Mellon : Exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, , 1,2, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, 1963, p. 97, no. 152, pl. 129, ND466 V57 v.1-2 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Painting in England 1700-1850 from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, The Royal Academy of Arts Winter Exhibition 1964-65., , Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK, 1964, pp. 51-2 (v.1), no. 188, pl. 36, ND466 R68 1964/65 (YCBA) [YCBA]

The British Castle : A Symbol in Stone, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2017, pp. 26-27, cat. 19, V2722 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Yale Center for British Art, Selected paintings, drawings & books, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1977, p. 44, N590.2 A82 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Yale Center for British Art, Wales, New Haven, 2014, p. 21, V2519 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Yale University Art Gallery, Painting in England, 1700-1850, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon : [exhibition at] Yale University Art Gallery, April 15-June 20, 1965, , vol. 1, W. Clowes and sons, New Haven, 1965, p. 36 (v.1), no. 131, pl. 36, ND466 Y35 (YCBA) [YCBA]

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