Thomas Hardy - Journal entry. January 1887.

Untitled. oil on wood. 120x120cms

After looking at the landscape ascribed to Bonnington in our drawing room I feel that Nature is played out as a beauty, but not as a Mystery....I want to see the deeper reality underlying the scenic, the expression of what are sometimes called abstract imaginings.

The exact truth as to material fact....is a student's style - the style of a period when the mind is serene and unawakened to the tragical mysteries of life; when it does not bring anything to the object that coalesces with and translates the qualities that are already there - half hidden, it may be-and the two united are depicted as the All.