A View of the Church of Columb Kill, on the Island of Iona

Like the study of monastic ruins on Oronsay, this picturesque view of the church on the sacred nearby isle of Iona was made in London from on-the-spot drawings. The pointed contrast between the grand but overgrown and ruinous structure and the cottage aims to highlight the poverty of the landscape and its peoples, a comment often found in contemporary accounts of the islands. But the motif – a familiar one in painting and poetry of the period – also strikes a melancholic note, about the passing of time and the hard toil of the less fortunate.