image index
previous image next image


 


 
Thoughts on Outline, Sculpture, and the System That Guided the Ancient Artist in Composing Their Figures and Groups, by George Cumberland, London, 1796
book containing 24 engraved plates including 8 by Blake after Cumberland (NGV 41)
Acquired at an unknown date
OS.30.a-x
National Gallery of Victoria

George Cumberland - collector, amateur artist and writer - attended the Royal Academy Schools during the 1770s. He later spent five years in Italy studying classical sculpture and collecting Italian Old Master prints. In Thoughts on Outline he extols the character of neo-classical linearity which was inspired by classical vase painting, sculpture and gems. Cumberland's praise for the virtues of linearity echoed Blake's own advocacy of clear outline which he termed 'the hard and wirey line of rectitude'.

 




 
Psyche Disobeys

 
 
Psyche Repents

 
 
Venus Councels Cupid

 
 
The Conjugal Union of Cupid

 
 
Cupid and Psyche

 
 
Iron Age

 
 
Aristophanes' Clouds, Scene I

 
 
Anacreon, Ode LII

 
 

(c)1999 National Gallery of Victoria