Page size 13 x 18cms.
David Scott (1806 - 1849) - his illustrations to The
Ancinet Mariner were completed at the age of 26 just before he began
his art education on the Continent of Europe. He was expected to join
his father's engraving business but he was struck by the High Art bacillus,
contracting an even more dour mutation of Benjamin Robert Haydon - high
ideals, a mad personality and low achievements, all with comic undertones.
Without the distraction of sheer elephantine scale, lugubrious
Academy colours, his illustrative work (later a Pilgrim's Progress) was
fresh original and highly personal. No slick draftsman he, but with
a sure sense of the ominous and dreamlike atmosphere of Coleridge's poem.
The poet is said to have much admired Scott's interpretation but happily
did not live to see Paton's more respectable and journey-man interpretations.
Compare how both artists interpreted the pose and gestures of the hands
throughout, and how drawing creates an awkward intensity throughout the
Scott set.
to
David Scott Miscellaneous works
to
Joseph Noel Paton's illustrations to the Ancient Mariner 1863 |