Francis Danby (1793–1861), The Procession of Cristna
, Watercolor and gouache, heightened with white gouache, with gum arabic, some scratching out, on paper, Purchased on the Sunny Crawford von Bülow Fund
, 2001.18
In the summer of 1825, Danby traveled through the mountains of Norway and sketched the terrain. Afterward he remarked, "These kind of scenes are better in pictures than reality, and faith I own I was heartily sick of them." Nevertheless the Norwegian landscape haunted him for years, informing a number of later works, including the present drawing. This sublime fantasy has been speculatively named for Cristna, a lost poem by Danby that he referred to as "no more than a romance." Lacking an extant narrative, the interpretation remains mysterious: Nordic rocks loom over an exotic caravan, dwarfing elephants and a faceless throng of travelers.