Norham Castle on the Tweed, Antique Engraving after D. McKewan, circa 1876

About this sheet

A quiet pastoral view of Norham Castle, its ruined keep half hidden among the trees on a rising, grassy mound. Below it a river meadow opens out, with cattle grazing and others standing at the water's edge among reeds and broad leaves. Hills close the view at right, where a thin plume of smoke rises from a cottage among the woods, and a flock of birds crosses a sky of heaped summer cloud.

The castle itself is kept small and distant, so the picture is as much about the river and the gentle borderland landscape as it is about the ruin. The foreground is worked in rich, varied textures of water plants and reflections.

Norham Castle stands on the English bank of the River Tweed in Northumberland, a border fortress that saw repeated sieges in the wars between England and Scotland. The plate is lettered "Norham Castle." with the painter D. McKewan (David Hall McKewan, a Victorian landscape watercolorist) at lower left and the engraver A. Willmore at lower right. The imprint beneath the title is that of Cassell, Petter & Galpin of London, the house that issued the plate.

It is a steel engraving of fine quality. The foliage is built from countless small flicks of the burin, the water from long horizontal lines broken by reflections, and the clouds from soft, open hatching that gives the sky real depth and light.

This is a calm, restful image for a bedroom, a hallway or a country kitchen, and it sits well in a natural wood frame.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.