Megalithic Artists

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Ireland Full Index Wales Lake District Yorkshire Lancashire Peak District Cheshire Shropshire Rollright Stones Scotland Scottish Islands Aberdeenshire Dumfriesshire Dartmoor Cornwall Northumberland Avebury Stonehenge Stanton Drew Liverpool Brittany France 2003 Rock Art History Links Old Jokes Modern Circles Java Pages The Antiquarians Megalithic Artists Modern Megalithic Artists		In France the dolmen at Poitiers had been described in 1532 as a place where local scholars who, 'when they have nothing else to do, pass the time by climbing up onto the stone and banqueting there with large quantities of bottles, hams and pastries, and inscribing their names on the capstone with a knife'. This was illustrated as early as 1561 in Georg Hoefnagel's “Civitates orbis terratum” The dolmen at Poitiers, the Pierre Levee being used as a picnic site in 1561 The Rollright stones in Oxfordshire were a popular subject to early artists. This view of the circle and outlying stones was engraved by Kip in the 17^th century.
		Bachwen Cromlech - 18th Century 'Druidical remains' had become popular subjects by the end of the 18th century illustrators of topographical books were inclined to exaggerate their size. This can be seen in the engraving, published in 1801, from Sir Richard Colt Hoare's sketch of the Harold Stones at Trellech in Wales. The tallest is actually 15 feet (4.5 metres) high, the figure in the illustration below must have been very small! Harold Stones - 1801 Writers took to decorating their books with megalithic views, Stonehenge being ea popular subject. Throughout the nineteenth century it was a subject of constant interest to painters, including Constable and Turner, reflecting the ever-increasing appeal of megalithic sites to the public. Constable - 1836
		Caspar David Friedrich was a 19^th century German romantic painter whose landscapes are meticulous observations of nature. His use of colour, clear lighting, and sharp contours heighten the feeling of isolation against the forces of nature expressed in his paintings. Caspar David Friedrich - Burial Chamber in the Snow
		Richard Tongue actually specialized in prehistoric monuments and described himself as 'painter and of megaliths'. Only a few of Tongue's paintings have survived, but he is known to have worked around the 1830s in Brittany, Cornwall, Wales and Stonehenge. Richard Tongue - Pentre Ifan 1830 Castlerigg circle near Keswick in the Lake District, was illustrated by J.B. Pyne's in 1859. Castlerigg 1859 From the 1860s onwards the skills of the engravers became gradually obsolete with the advancement of photography. [ The Antiquarians ] [ Megalithic Artists ] [ Modern Megalithic Artists ]
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