{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O15076"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O15076/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AN6827/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AN6827/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AN6827","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JU9651","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O15076/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O15076","accessionNumber":"1010-1873","objectType":"Watercolour","titles":[{"title":"Thoughts in a Churchyard - Moonlight","type":"popular title"}],"summaryDescription":"This is the last work George Barrett junior painted before he died in 1842. A graveyard was a popular subject for painters following the publication of Thomas Gray's poem 'Elegy in a Country Churchyard' in 1750. Barret worked mainly in watercolours and was a founder member of the Old Watercolour Society. This professional body was set up in 1804 to represent and promote the works of watercolour artists. \r\nHere Barrett is trying to use watercolour to produce the same effects as painting with oil. He has overlaid heavy layers of colour with varnish to produce a surface that is unlike that of early watercolours.","physicalDescription":"This was the last painting by the artist before his death.  Ever since the publication of Thomas Gray's famous poem Elegy in a Country Churchyard in 1750, the setting of a graveyard, preferably, as here, in the moonlight, was greatly popular with painters.  Barret appended lines of verse to the title in the exhibition catalogue, written by himself:\n  Tis dusky eve, and all is hush'd around\n  The moon sinks slowly in the fading west\n  The last gleam lingers on the sacred ground\n  Where those once dear for ever take their rest.\"\nBarret is a good example of an accomplished and prolific professional artist, forging his long and successful career almost exclusively in the medium of watercolour, being a founding and prominent member of the Old Watercolour Society, where he exhibited over six hundred works,  and publishing The Theory and Practice of Water-Colour Painting.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Barret, George","id":"A2017"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"Watercolour","categories":[{"text":"Drawings","id":"THES48966"},{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"}],"styles":[{"text":"British School","id":"x30967"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2006AN6827","2017JU9651"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"WS","id":"THES49603"},"free":"","case":"R","shelf":"87","box":"R"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"watercolour","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"England","id":"x28826"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1842","earliest":"1837-01-01","latest":"1846-12-31"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Ellison Gift","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"65.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"framed","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"76.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"framed","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"652","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"frame","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"765","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"frame","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"83","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"frame","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Watercolour by George Barret junior entitled 'Thoughts in a Churchyard - Moonlight'.  Great Britain, ca. 1842.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"Evans, Mark et al. <i>Vikutoria & Arubāto Bijutsukan-zō : eikoku romanshugi kaigaten = The Romantic tradition in British painting, 1800-1950 : masterpieces from the Victoria and Albert Museum</i>. Japan : Brain Trust, 2002","id":"AUTH332409"},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"Architecture, Church","id":"AAT7466"},{"text":"Landscape","id":"x31100"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["1010-1873"],"accessionNumberNum":"1010","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1873,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-18","recordCreationDate":"1999-12-15","availableToBook":false}}