Valle Crucis Abbey, Denbighshire
Paul Sandby British
Not on view
This watercolor ranks among Sandby's largest, placing the picturesque ruins of the Cistercian abbey of Valle Crucis in the background, and devoting greater attention to a herd of Welsh long-horned cattle that drink from a stream. Framing trees contrast healthy young trunks with a decaying arborial patriarch to evoke the life cycle. Narrative action comes from two milkmaids, one of whom stands with full buckets on a small bridge in the left foreground as her companion runs from a bull in the field. Sandby applied monochrome washes and pen and ink, then added touches of color to accentuate animals and figures.
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