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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'.
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