Nine Barrow Down. Isle of Purbeck Looking Towards St. Albans Head

John Charles Robinson

Sir John Charles Robinson, a close friend of Seymour Haden, was Superintendent of Collections at the South Kensington Museum and Surveyor of the Queen's pictures. He was a noted collector and curator and was a founder of the Fine Art Club and the Royal Society of Painter Etchers (with Francis Seymour Haden).

In his catalogue of Robinson's prints Arthur Hind notes, while discussing Robinson's use of atmosphere that in the etching Nine Barrow Down, "We can see that the scraper and burnisher have been used to break up the straight etched lines making p the rays of light coming from the sun; thus giving the effect of moving light and the haziness of dawn."

Nine Barrow Down is an elongated hill forming the northern ridge of the Purbeck Hills on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, England. The chalk down is part of the extensive Southern England Chalk Formation. The eastern end of the ridge, which carries the highest point, is also sometimes known as Godlingston Hill. The col of the railway cutting at Harman's Cross means that it has sufficient relative height that it qualifies as a "Marilyn".