Hobbits navigate through Argonath — Print & Oil Painting

The canvas is tall, which for this subject is almost unheard of. Nearly every treatment of these statues spreads sideways to fit both of them in. This one stands the format on its end and makes the picture about the height of the walls rather than the width of the river.

The gorge closes as it recedes. Two cliff faces lean in until they nearly touch in the far distance, and through the slot between them a shaft of sun comes down and lands on pale water, the one place in the whole frame where the picture opens up.

The statues have been half given back to the rock. The one at the right is the more complete: a standing figure in a crown with an arm raised, its surface streaked and eaten, its legs merging into the cliff without a seam. The other, high on the left, has lost nearly all of its detail and survives as a pillar with a suggestion of a head. Trees have taken root along both sets of shoulders.

Three small boats sit on the green-teal water below. The nearest carries two seated figures with paddles and even that one is far enough off that no face is available. The picture keeps everyone in it anonymous, which is unusual and rather good.

The pillars of the kings mark an old frontier, and passing under them means entering someone else's country whether or not anyone is left to enforce it. From our Lord of the Rings collection, beside the same statues at sunset from water level.