Loch Orr Castle

of Eldin, John Clerk

1776

ink

From the collection of National Gallery of Art

Romanticism 18th Century

About this work

This sketch shows a crumbling stone castle on a rocky shore. Trees and bushes grow wild around it, and the water looks choppy. The castle walls are broken, with only a few towers still standing. The artist used a mix of dark lines and soft shading to show the castle’s decay. The paper looks rough, almost like the texture of old stone. Look up etching to see how this technique works.