Note: Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came' is a narrative poem by English author Robert Browning, first published in 1855. The title, "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came", which forms the last words of the poem, is a line from William Shakespeare's play King Lear (ca. 1607). The setting of Childe Roland is nightmarish and hallucinatory in nature, and seems to act as a sort of mirror to Roland's psyche throughout the poem.
Exhibited: The British Institution, 1867
A reduced version of this work was sold at Sotheby's, Belgravia, in 1977, where it sold for £95.
John S. Clifton lived in Oxford for most of his working life. He exhibited at the Royal Academy and British institution between 1849 and 1869, showing literary subjects of a philosophical nature. It is believed that Clifton knew the Pre-Raphaelites, who clearly influenced the artist.
