Gates at the Hermitage, Lansdown, Bath
1943
watercolor
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1943
watercolor
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Gates at the Hermitage, Lansdown, Bath is a 1943 watercolor by Clifford Ellis, a British Romanticism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This watercolor shows two tall, ornate gates with wrought-iron designs. The metalwork has swirls, arches, and small circles, like lacework. Behind the gates, faint shapes peek through—maybe buildings or trees—all blurred and pale. The paint is thin and weathered, with patches where the color has faded. The artist focused on the gates’ details, even though the background is vague. The light and shadow make the ironwork stand out against the dimmer backdrop. It looks like the artist was sketching something old and slightly forgotten. Next, check out the Victoria and Albert Museum to see more works like this.
A watercolour by Clifford Ellis from 1943, this work depicts an ornate iron gate at the Hermitage in Lansdown, Bath. It was created as part of the "Recording Britain" project, a wartime initiative that employed artists to document British landscapes and structures threatened by war or modernization. The scheme, led by Sir Kenneth Clark and funded by the Pilgrim Trust, aimed to preserve a visual record of national identity through detailed topographical studies. Over 1,500 works were produced by 97 artists between 1940 and 1943.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Clifford Ellis painted delicate watercolours of early-1940s Bath landmarks. In 1943 he recorded the wrought-iron Gates at the Hermitage in Lansdown and the quiet churchyard tomb of Miss Ann Nelson, sister of Horatio…
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