''Lord Byron's Dream'' is a

landscape painting Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent compos ...

by the British

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

and future

president of the Royal Academy This is a list of the officers of the Royal Academy of Arts. Presidents (PRA) Keepers Other posts References {{reflist External linksFull list of Academicians RAs, Senior RAs, Honorary RAs, Honorary Fellows and Honorary Members
...

Charles Lock Eastlake Sir Charles Lock Eastlake (17 November 1793 – 24 December 1865) was a British painter, gallery director, collector and writer of the 19th century. After a period as keeper, he was the first director of the National Gallery. Life Eastlake ...

, from 1827.

History and description

Painted in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

in 1827 while Eastlake was on an artistic

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...

, it was shipped to England and placed in the care of his friend

J. M. W. Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbulen ...

, who had admired it while he himself was in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. Turner assisted in the painting's exhibition at the 1829

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition The Summer Exhibition is an open art exhibition held annually by the Royal Academy in Burlington House, Piccadilly in central London, England, during the months of June, July, and August. The exhibition includes paintings, prints, drawings, sc ...

, while Eastlake was still abroad. The painting is inspired by

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...

's 1816 poem '' The Dream'' and depicts the

Romantic poet Romantic poetry is the poetry of the Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. It involved a reaction against prevailing Enlightenment ideas of the 18t ...

on his travels taking a rest by a ruined

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

and dreaming his future poem. It refers specifically to lines 114–122 of the poem, and may have inspired Turner's own later work ''

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage ''Childe Harold's Pilgrimage'' is a long narrative poem in four parts written by Lord Byron. The poem was published between 1812 and 1818. Dedicated to " Ianthe", it describes the travels and reflections of a world-weary young man, who is dis ...

'' (exhibited in 1832), based on another of Byron's poems. The painting is now in the collection of

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, which acquired it in 1872.https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/eastlake-lord-byrons-dream-n00898 An

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ...

of 1833 by

James Tibbits Willmore James Tibbits Willmore (Birmingham September 180012 March 1863 London) was a British engraver. Biography He was born at Bristnal's End, Handsworth (then Staffordshire, now West Midlands). Contemporaneous authorities differ on the spelling of ...

based on Eastlake's work is now in the

Yale Center for British Art Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the worl ...

References

Bibliography

* Beevers, Robert. ''The Byronic Image: The Poet Portrayed''. Olivia Press, 2005. * Beaton, Roderick. ''Byron's War: Romantic Rebellion, Greek Revolution''. Cambridge University Press, 2013. * Heffernan, James. ''Cultivating Picturacy: Visual Art and Verbal Interventions''. Baylor University Press, 2006. * St Clair, William. ''Who Saved the Parthenon?: A New History of the Acropolis Before, During and After the Greek Revolution''. Open Book Publishers, 2022. * Solecki, Sam. ''The Etruscans in the Modern Imagination''. McGill-Queen's Press, 2022. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lord Byron's Dream Paintings by Charles Lock Eastlake 1827 paintings Collection of the Tate galleries Adaptations of works by Lord Byron Oil on canvas paintings Cultural depictions of Lord Byron