The River Gorge
1879
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1879
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
You see a rocky gorge with a thin river winding through it, framed by steep cliffs and a hazy sky. This painting isn’t what it seems—it’s based on a photograph from the Second Anglo-Afghan War. The artist, John Burke, was actually a war photographer, not a painter. He took pictures of battle sites like this one, but the technology at the time couldn’t capture fast action, so he focused on landscapes instead. If you want to see more of Burke’s work, look up artist: John Burke (Irish, 1845–1915).
