February in the Isle of Wight

John Brett

Date: 1866 

Materials: Watercolour

Striking character

Brett brilliantly evokes this chilly early Spring landscape, with carefully observed detail and delicate handling of the tracery of the tree branches.

The light which bathes the scene gives the work its striking character. The unexplained presence of the two children and the almost ghostly ship passing off the coast all contribute to its mood.

Mirror's work 

Ruskin was generally critical of Brett's work, preferring "historical landscape ... with a meaning and a use".

He deplored the "absence of sentiment" apparent in Brett's work, in this case "peculiarly indicated by the feeble anger of the sky ... there is no majesty in the clouds"

Ruskin commented "I never saw the mirror so held up to Nature; but it is Mirror's work, not Man's"