Waterfall with Rocks 

This is John Sell Cotman's pencil drawing of a waterfall with rocks. The composition of the sketch is immediately striking, organized around the contrasting textures of the rough rocks and the smooth flow of the waterfall. Cotman uses line and shading to create depth. Darker, more intense lines define the edges of rocks and trees, suggesting a rough materiality. The waterfall, in contrast, is rendered with softer, flowing lines, giving it a fluid, almost ephemeral quality. This contrast destabilizes traditional landscape art expectations by focusing not on idealized nature, but on the raw, elemental aspects of the scene. The sketch reflects a move away from Romantic landscape painting towards a more direct, almost structural investigation of form. This drawing is not simply a representation of a scene, but an exploration of how pencil strokes can capture the essence and structure of nature.