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Gordale Scar (A View of Gordale, in the Manor of East Malham in Craven, Yorkshire, the Property of Lord Ribblesdale)

James Ward1812

Tate Britain

Tate Britain
London, United Kingdom

Gordale Scar is a bank of limestone cliffs near Settle, Yorkshire. Ward painted this picture for Lord Ribblesdale, a local landowner. He emphasised the height and scale of the cliffs by subtly manipulating the perspective. In the foreground he shows deer and cattle, including a white bull from the (originally wild) Chillingham herd, who appears to guard the cleft of Gordale Beck. Working in the last years of the Napoleonic wars, Ward aimed to depict a national landscape, primordial and unchanging, defended by 'John Bull' in animal form. His painting also epitomised the awe-inspiring qualities of the fashionable 'Sublime' landscape.

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  • Title: Gordale Scar (A View of Gordale, in the Manor of East Malham in Craven, Yorkshire, the Property of Lord Ribblesdale)
  • Creator: James Ward
  • Creator Death Place: Cheshunt, United Kingdom
  • Creator Birth Place: London, United Kingdom
  • Date Created: 1812
  • Provenance: Purchased 1878
  • Physical Dimensions: w4216 x h3327 mm
  • Original Title: Gordale Scar (A View of Gordale, in the Manor of East Malham in Craven, Yorkshire, the Property of Lord Ribblesdale)
  • Type: Painting
  • Medium: Oil on Canvas
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