Visitor to a Moonlit Churchyard is a 1790 oil painting by the French-born British artist Philip James de Loutherbourg.Spira p.334 It combines elements of Gothic and the emerging romantic art trend. It is also known as A Philosopher in a Moonlit Churchyard.Myrone, Frayling & Warner p.108
Inspired by the work Night-Thoughts by the English poet Edward Young, it depicts a young man in the ruins of Tintern Abbey in the middle of the night. The ivy-covered ruins shown by Loutherbourg are a capriccio, Today the painting is in the Yale Center for British Art in Connecticut as part of the Paul Mellon Collection.https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:165
References
Bibliography Edney, Sue (ed.) EcoGothic gardens in the long nineteenth century: Phantoms, fantasy and uncanny flowers. Manchester University Press, 2020. Myrone, Martin, Frayling, Christopher & Warner, Marina. Gothic Nightmares: Fuseli, Blake and the Romantic Imagination. Harry N. Abrams, 2006. Preston, Lillian Elvira. Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg: Eighteenth Century Romantic Artist and Scene Designer. University of Florida, 1977. Spira, Andrew. The Invention of the Self: Personal Identity in the Age of Art. Manchester University Press, 2020