Foilhummerum Bay, Valentia, Looking from Cromwell Fort: The Caroline a

A broad bay opens between rocky headlands under a heavy, cloud-filled sky. In the foreground, figures stand on a grassy cliff above the water, while two steamships and small boats float in the calm bay, with a cable-laying operation in progress. Soft washes and gouache highlights give the scene a luminous, atmospheric quality.

Look closer: Small figures and a cable-laying boat are visible along the cliff edge and in the bay.

Artist

Robert Charles Dudley

Date

1865–66

Medium

Watercolor over graphite with touches of gouache (bodycolor)

Source

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Size

3436 × 2422 px

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Cyrus W. Field, 1892