Artwork

Liber Veritatis: No. 7, An Island Scene of a Mountainous Country with Cattle

Liber Veritatis: No. 7, An Island Scene of a Mountainous Country with Cattle is a print by the Romanticist artist Richard Earlom. It dates from 1774 and is held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Liber Veritatis No.

About this work

Overview

Liber Veritatis No. 7, titled An Island Scene of a Mountainous Country with Cattle, is a print executed by the English artist Richard Earlom in 1774. The work forms part of Earlom’s Liber Veritatis series, a collection of landscape studies intended to record his visual observations. It is presently in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Subject & Meaning

The composition depicts a tranquil rural landscape: undulating hills give way to a winding path that leads the eye through the scene. Cattle graze near a rocky outcrop, while a solitary figure traverses the distance. A modest temple crowns a hill on the left, and a large, spreading tree leans over the right margin, suggesting a harmonious balance between nature and human presence.

Technique & Style

The rendering of hills and foliage is deliberately simplified, yet the gestural strokes convey a sense of vitality and atmospheric depth.

Earlom employs a light, sketch‑like line that modulates tone through varied pressure, creating subtle contrasts of light and shadow. The rendering of hills and foliage is deliberately simplified, yet the gestural strokes convey a sense of vitality and atmospheric depth. This approach yields a soft, almost reverie‑like quality, characteristic of the artist’s practice of recording landscapes with immediacy.

History & Provenance

Created in the late eighteenth century, the print was produced as part of Earlom’s systematic documentation of vistas, a practice that mirrored the earlier Liber Veritatis of Claude Lorrain. After its creation, the work entered private collections before being acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art, where it remains on view as an example of British printmaking and landscape recording of the period.