I have recently been enjoying the web site of the French architect
Jean-Claude Golvin. Over the years, he developed a specialism in Roman amphitheatres and an aptitude for re-imagining them in watercolours into a wider project to recreate all manner of ancient and medieval scenes. All of them are wonderful.
I was particularly taken by Golvin’s painting of the Hadrian’s Wall fort at Chesters near Chollerford in Northumberland. It could reasonably be said that this fort is iconic. Having been one of the first to be investigated in the middle years of the nineteenth century, it is a perennial visitor attraction. The reconstruction painting by Ron Embleton is well-known.
It is perhaps unfair to compare it with Golvin’s version. Embleton was pioneering. Both are tremendously evocative.
