View of Kensington Gardens, London

1812

Not on view

Compact, luminous, and intense, this unkempt view of Kensington Gardens is deliberately unidealized. Beneath dense clouds and distant trees, two wooden poles and a shed with a tiled roof punctuate a raw, sloping patch of earth. Just twenty years old, Linnell had recently converted to a nonconformist Protestant sect, acquired a camera obscura, and, influenced by William Paley’s Natural Theology, sought direct proof of God’s creation in landscape. The meticulous representation of nature became a moral imperative. To achieve it Linnell developed a distinctive technique using small touches of pure color that anticipated the work of Samuel Palmer and the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The artist probably added the identifying annotation at the bottom of the sheet at a later date.

Artwork Details

Title: View of Kensington Gardens, London
Artist: John Linnell (British, London 1792–1882 Redhill, Surrey)
Date: 1812
Medium: Watercolor over graphite
Dimensions: Overall: 4 x 5 1/2in. (10.2 x 14cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Purchase, Guy Wildenstein Gift, 2000
Object Number: 2000.238
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

By John Linnell

In the same medium

From the same time and place

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Portrait of a mother and child, John Linnell British, Graphite with watercolor and gouache (bodycolor) — Portrait of a mother and child
John Linnell
1823

Underriver–The Golden Valley, John Linnell British, Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, over graphite — Underriver–The Golden Valley
John Linnell
ca. 1833

Study of the artist's son, John, John Linnell British, Black and white chalk on light brown paper — Study of the artist's son, John
John Linnell
May 1835

The Lake of Zug, Joseph Mallord William Turner British, Watercolor and bodycolor (gouache) with reductive techniques over graphite — The Lake of Zug
Joseph Mallord William Turner
1843

Loggia of the Ducal Palace, Venice, John Ruskin British, Watercolor over graphite — Loggia of the Ducal Palace, Venice
John Ruskin
1849–50

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