The Gloaming: Manse Garden in Berwickshire, 1863. Oil on canvas, 16 x 24 inches (40.6 x 61 cm). Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, accession no. 1971-164-1.
William Bell Scott painted this twilight scene from the walled garden of the manse in Berwickshire, Scotland, of his friend the Reverend J. C. Fairbairn. Beyond the wall in the distance rise the turrets of Ayton Castle, a mansion built in 1856 to the east of Ayton in imitation of a medieval castle. Scott may have intended the landscape to be interpreted symbolically, with the wall to represent the barrier between life and death.
Last modified 6 February 2022