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A Utrecht Pastoral Annan, James Craig  (Scottish, 1864-1946)

A truly characteristic Dutch landscape, The high trees on one side of the picture, the sheep trotting along the road, the canal, and the grand masses of cloud all go to form a most pleasing whole, free from that hardness which is so often seen in photography. [1]

His compositions and his subjects are considered and studied and arranged as a painter arranges and designs his pictures, or an etcher his plates. He is scrupulous, too, as few are, and rarely exhibits a bad example. … An admirable composition of tall and leafless trees
. [2]

A lovely view with that very low lighting from the sun’s rays which project the long shadows of the trees into the lane. Along the canal on the right, some sheep are walking in a line, chewing the grass and the light from this is a little irregular. A cloudy sky, skillfully produced, completes the work. This rustic scene is a lovely, decorative panel piece. [3]

Another print of this image, is in the collection of the Royal Photographic Society, illustrated: Tom Hopkinson, Treasures of the Royal Photographic Society 1839-1919, London, 1980, p. 114. The caption note confirms Annan’s status as ‘the leading exponent in Britain of the photogravure process.’

Reproduced / Exhibited

Kruse, Margret. Kunstphotographie Um 1900: D. Sammlung Ernst Juhl; Hamburg: Museum für Kunst u. Gewerbe, 1989 pl. 13

Hopkinson, Tom. Treasures of the Royal Photographic Society 1839-1919. London, 1980. p. 114

References

[1] ‘North Holland in Glasgow’. The British Journal of Photography, vol. 39, no. 1695 (28 Oct. 1892), p. 697-98.

[2] Buchanan, William, and J C. Annan. The Art of the Photographer: J. Craig Annan, 1864-1946. Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland, 1992. plate 14. Cameron quote p. 96

[2] Edmond Sacre. ‘Exposition des Oeuvres de Craig Annan de Glasgow’ (‘Exhibition of Work by Craig Annan of Glasgow’). Bulletin de {‘Association Beige de Photographic vol. 24, no. 6 (June 1897), p. 405-17. Translation from French.