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J. Craig Annan
The Dark Mountains
1890
Photogravure
15 x 21 cm
National Galleries of Scotland
Acc. No. PGP 45.34
LL/56779
(Curatorial caption, accessed 23 November 2014)
This photograph was taken on Ben Vorlich, a mountain to the north of Loch Lomond. Its sombre, introspective mood is typical for this period of Annan’s work and the result of his skilled use of the photogravure technique. Over the years, the subject matter of this image has been interpreted in different ways. Soon after its first publication in 1895, it was thought to refer to the Old Testament, in which Moses receives the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. In 1901, another critic read into it: "Dantesque dreams, ideas of massive, awful grandeur, unknown threatening dangers". By 1986 the image was described as a Romantic landscape in the tradition of the painter Caspar David Friedrich.
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