2-996-076 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Mountain Gloom - the Pass of Glencoe", by A.P. Newton in the Exhibition of the Water-colour Society, 1860. Engraving of a painting. 'This wild and rugged solitude is seen under the effect of sunset, the last glimmer of which still illumines the gathering clouds above, whilst in the hollow beneath the huge granite sides of the mountain all is wrapt in gloom. Far away to the light the eye travels along the tortuous windings of the pass, which are dotted here and there with patches of water, and around the jagged outline of which the mists of evening are already beginning to assemble. The huge mountain structure is more or less covered with snow, which lies more thickly on the broken table masses in the foreground than elsewhere. The hard, crystallised surface beams through the gloom, partly with latent partly with reflected light. No sign of life is seen throughout this vast mountain panorama, save in the foreground, where a collie is baying over a stray sheep, already half buried in the snow-drift, whilst above soars an eagle ready to pounce upon its prey. This fine picture, apart from its claims in point of picturesque interest, is remarkable as an evidence of the capabilities of water-colour painting for grand and massive effect'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.