Port of Clwyd and South Brent, Devon, from Picturesque Selections 1860

James Duffield Harding created this lithograph entitled “Port of Clwyd and South Brent, Devon, from Picturesque Selections” sometime in the 19th century. The print presents a diptych of rural dwellings, rendered with meticulous detail. The stone and thatch of the buildings are captured through a dense network of lines and shading. The composition is divided horizontally, creating a comparative study in architectural form and texture. The upper scene shows a person sitting outside a stone building; the lower, a cluster of cottages. Harding’s strategic use of light and shadow accentuates the tactile quality of the materials. The linear precision, balanced with tonal variation, offers a vision of the picturesque—the irregular, asymmetrical qualities found in nature. Harding’s work here reflects the 19th-century interest in empiricism, in observing and documenting the world around them. The cottages are not simply buildings, but subjects of detailed scrutiny and artistic interpretation. The lithograph invites us to consider how Harding’s vision mediates our understanding of place and the poetics of rural life.