Woodland path
(c. 1820)

John CROME

Medium: oil on wood panel
Measurements: 51.0 × 42.3 cm
Accession Number: 454-4
Department: International Painting
Credit Line: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1938
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Gallery location: 19th Century European Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work: John Crome, also known as ‘Old Crome’, founded the Norwich Society of Artists in 1803 and became a leading painter of the Norwich School. His sometimes dark and broodingly monochromatic landscapes are a highly original amalgam of sharp observations of nature and a style influenced by seventeenth-century Dutch landscape artists such as Meindert Hobbema and Jacob van Ruisdael, both of whom are represented in the NGV collections. Old Crome was an influential teacher in Norwich and James Stark, whose work can be seen in this room, was one of his pupils.
Subjects (general): Landscapes
Subjects (specific): forests (cultural landscapes) paths trees wooded landscapes

Frame

This frame is in the form of Louis XIV revival frames made up from composition decorative work on a wooden base. These are frames that have been used extensively as the default frame for many paintings, particularly the paintings of the French Impressionists. Here the frame carries the addition of a linen covered slip. The frame has minimal relationship to the presentation of the painting at the time it was painted in the early nineteenth century. We have no record of whether the painting came into the collection with this frame in 1938 or if this is a later reframing. A number of frames in this form were made by the John Thallon company for the NGV, notably to replace the original frames on nineteenth century Australian paintings.
Framemaker: Unknown - 20th century