Moonlight on the Yare

c. 1816/1817

John Crome

Artist, British, 1768 - 1821

Two windmills are backlit by silvery moonlight along the horizon of this loosely painted, horizontal landscape. The horizon comes about a third of the way up the composition. The left half of the painting is nearly filled with a towering tree with muted olive-green leaves and a tan trunk. Some dark branches dip toward the river that runs from the bottom center of the painting into the distance, in front of the windmills. Light shimmers on the gently rippling surface, which is lined to our right with grassy vegetation. A hollowed out, gnarled, broken tree trunk twists against the sky from the riverbank to our right. The windmills are in the near distance, facing off to our left. Their sails create Xs against the screen of pearly white clouds floating against a muted blue sky.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.
On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 58

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Paul Mellon Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 98.4 x 125.7 cm (38 3/4 x 49 1/2 in.)
    framed: 122.4 x 149.9 x 9.2 cm (48 3/16 x 59 x 3 5/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1983.1.39

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Kirkman Hodgson [1814-1879], of Ashgrove, Sevenoaks, Kent; by descent to his son, Robert Kirkman Hodgson [1850-1924], of Gavelacre, Hampshire. H. Darell Brown, London, by 1908;[1] (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 23 May 1924, no. 17); (Thos. Agnew & Sons, London); sold that same day to the Hon. (later Sir) Arthur Howard [1896-1971].[2] (Thos. Agnew & Sons, London), by 1973;[3] purchased July 1974 by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia; gift 1983 to NGA.
[1] The painting was included in the Franco-British Exhibition, Fine Arts Palace, White City, (London, 1908), no. 73.
[2] Stockbook no. 6277, Thomas Agnew & Sons, London
[3] Letter, Sir Geoffrey Agnew to J. Carter Brown, 8 August 1973, in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1817

  • Probably Norwich Society, 1817, no. 14, as Moon Rising.

1908

  • Franco-British Exhibiton, Fine Art Palace, London, 1908, no. 73.

1911

  • International Fine Art Exhibition, British Fine Art Palace, Rome, 1911, no. 19.

1919

  • English Eighteenth Century Pictures, Thos. Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London, 1919, no. 19.

1921

  • Crome Centenary Exhibition, Castle Museum, Norwich, 1921, no. 29.

1934

  • British Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1934, no. 447 (Commemorative Catalogue, no. 332, repro. pl. xcviiib).

1951

  • Treasures from Sussex Houses, Art Gallery, Worthing, 1951, no. 167.

1958

  • Crome and Cotman, Thos. Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London, 1958, no. 52, repro.

1968

  • John Crome, Arts Council of Great Britain, Castle Museum, Norwich; Tate Gallery, London, 1968, no. 12.

1986

  • Gifts to the Nation: Selected Acquisitions from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1986, unnumbered checklist

1987

  • William Wordsworth and the Age of English Romanticism, New York Public Library; Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington; Chicago Historical Society, 1987-1988, no. 280, 187 color repro., fig. 173.

Bibliography

1905

  • Dickes, William Frederick. The Norwich School of Painting. London and Norwich, n.d. [1905]: 98, repro.

1921

  • Baker, C.H. Collins. Crome. London, 1921: 149, pl. xxxv.

1968

  • Clifford, Derek and Timothy. John Crome. London, 1968: 200-201, no. P43, pl. 88.

1978

  • Goldberg, Norman L. John Crome the Elder. 2 vols. Oxford, 1978: 1:186, 218, no. 99; 2:pl. 99.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 108, repro.

1992

  • Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 48-50, repro. 49.

Wikidata ID

Q20183937

You may be interested in

Loading Results