some LANDSCAPES

In The Literary Pilgrim in England, first published in 1917, Edward Thomas described the 'homes and haunts' of British writers. He...

This is a diptych dial that I saw in Oxford recently: incorporating a compass and astronomical data, it was designed by Paul Reinmann's ...

The ancient kings of Assyria had an interest in collecting animals and plants stretching back at least as far as Tiglath-Pileser I (reigned ...

This posting concerns King Lear , ‘which it is surely impossible for anybody who cares about poetry to write on without some expression of ...

Ubuweb has recently added to its archive four Charles Simonds films: Dwellings (1972) Landscape <--> Body <--> Dwelling ...

To Tate Modern for Cy Twombly: Cycles and Seasons . It’s difficult to be neutral about Cy Twombly, particularly given the extremes of pr...

Misty hills which might almost be a photograph. Zoom out to include the details of trees and a building and the painting looks more like a...

I’ve been looking back at some early editions of Modern Painters - this posting is essentially a continuation of my earlier one describing ...

James Thomson in 1726 by John Vanderbank 'From brightening fields of ether fair-disclos'd, / Child of the sun, refulgent Summer co...

Strange underwater landscapes are currently on display at the South Bank - the Institute for Figuring have brought their hyperbolic crochet...

The Book of English Rivers by Samuel Lewis (1855) contains brief descriptions of all the main rivers, noting down points of topographical i...

Caspar David Friedrich, Bohemian Landscape , c. 1810 Back in June 1991 composer David Matthews gave the first Peter Fuller memorial lec...

In his essay 'Painters as Writers' Stephen Spender wrote: 'The meeting place of words and painting is those drawings in which ...

The Plow that Broke the Plains (see previous posting ) is discussed in an essay by Denis Cosgrove, included in my friend Kathryn’s interdis...

High winds and sun . . . High winds and sun... a country without rivers and with little rain. Settler, plow at your peril! Las...

I have been reading rather enviously Gardenhistorygirl's recent posts about the gardens of Suzhou. The nearest I've got to seeing ...

Visiting somewhere like Orsanmichele in Florence, we are grateful for the opportunity to see the combined talents of artists like Donatello,...

Here's a movie quote you'll remember... "Well, all right, why is life worth living? That's a very good question. Well, t...

This is a detail from Whiling Away the Summer (1679) a handscroll by Wu Li (1632-1718). What an enticing image of scholarly retreat! As ...

Here's an extract from the interview Robert Smithson gave to Paul Cummings in 1972: "CUMMINGS: Would you like to say something abo...