The Rookery

The Rookery 1854 oil on canvas by William James Blacklock (1816-1858).

This oil painting shows Dalston Hall near Carlisle surrounded by ancient trees on a summer’s day. A young couple wearing seventeenth century dress walk along the path leading to the hall, their backs to the viewer. To right, a second couple sit and a another woman stands in parkland beside the trees which surround the hall. Distant fells rise beyond sloping woodland. The figures cast strong shadows and almost have a photographic quality.

The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1854. In this painting we can see Blacklock’s characteristic and very unusual painting style. The trees are almost three-dimensional.

 Blacklock is one of Cumbria’s most important landscape painters. He painted the scenery of Cumbria, the Lake District and the Borders and particularly favoured remote areas. He painted these landscapes in his own uniquely precise style.