A thought

Hesketh David Bell - 1849-1872

Can one ever imagine  Stonehenge as peaceful and open as this painting, the clawed hand of industrial farming is still not to be seen as are also the trees.  Sometimes romantic versions of what we want and not what we have are just flights of fancy, as I am sure this painting is, though obviously painted when the dreaded car was yet to be seen.  I have seen elsewhere discussion about the rocks in the foreground, not to be seen today, but I think a certain artistic licence is granted to  artists, and Bell's other work features dramatic rocky landscapes.  Strangely it reminds me of the North York moors, featureless except for the open space but coloured by the vegetation of its underlying stone.  Subject matter contrasts our lowly 'peasant' with his two cows and smattering of sheep against the far off prehistoric stones.  Judge against the 'horror' of the traffic laden road which is the subject of  controversy today and weep ;)