british watercolours and drawings

Transcription

BRITISH WATERCOLOURS AND DRAWINGS
Cover illustration:John ‘Warwick’ Smith, OWS (1749-1831),
A bridge over the river Trient, near Chamonix, on the border of France and Switzerland, no. 68 (detail)
Back cover illustration: Giovanni Battista Cipriani, RA (1727-1785),
Young girl playing the violin, with an attentive cat, no. 10
MARTYN GREGORY
Catalogue 95
AN EXHIBITION OF
BRITISH WATERCOLOURS AND DRAWINGS
1750 to 1900
MARTYN GREGORY
Catalogue 95
2016
34 Bury Street, St. James’s
London SW1Y 6AU
Tel. 020 7839 3731
Fax. 020 7930 0812
[email protected]
www.martyngregory.com
1.Lady Margaret Arden (c.1762-1851)
Beach at Ryhope, Durham
Pencil and watercolour
6 ½ x 9 ¼ in (16.5 x 23.5 cm)
Inscribed as title and dated June 4. 1811.
Provenance: private collection, England
2.Lady Margaret Arden (c.1762-1851)
From Gillingham Bridge, Chatham
5 ½ x 8 ¾ in (14 x 22.2 cm)
Inscribed ‘Chatham’ and dated 1810. Verso: inscribed and dated 1810
Lady Margaret Arden was a patron and pupil of David Cox (17831859). N. Neil Solly records in his Memoir of the Life of David Cox that
Lady Arden was introduced to Cox in his first years of residence in
London. She was one of his first pupils, contemporary with Lady
Julia Isabella Lavinia Gordon (1772-1867) who also took drawing
lessons with David Cox at that time. Lady Arden gave financial
help to Cox in order to assist with the expenses of his removal to
Hereford with his family in 1814. To pay back the debt, he painted
on commission for her A Fish Market at Hastings (see Solly, 1973, p.32).
4
3.Samuel Bough, RSA (1822-1878)
Figures on a storm-tossed beach
Watercolour with scratching-out
9 x 14 in (22.7 x 35 cm)
Signed ‘Sam Bough’ and dated 1869
Carlisle-born Bough travelled and painted widely throughout England
and Scotland. The landscape and marine painter was a key figure in
establishing watercolour as a significant medium in Scottish art.
Bough’s fresh and atmospheric watercolours, much admired by his
friend Robert Louis Stevenson, were largely executed directly from
nature. His favourite sketching grounds were his native Cumberland
and Scotland where he spent the last three decades of his life.
5
4.William Callow, RWS (1812-1908)
The river Seine at Caudebec
Watercolour
4 ½ x 13 in (11.8 x 33 cm)
Provenance: with Agnew’s
The present watercolour possibly dates to 1835 when, in May,
Callow took his first walking tour in France from Rouen, along the
Seine to Jumièges, Quillebeuf and Honfleur. In his autobiography,
Callow recalls ‘we followed the right bank of the Seine to
Quilleboeuf [sic], but before reaching there we had to cross in a
ferry boat over the river where it is very broad, and, being at low
tide, there was a great extent of mud-bank, which prevented our
boat approaching the land, so the ferryman had to carry each of
us ashore, complaining at our weight, as well he might, with our
knapsacks included.’ (William Callow, an Autobiography, ed. H. M. C.
Cundall, 1908, p.28).
Born in Greenwich, Callow was apprenticed at an early age to
the Fieldings, initially assisting with colouring prints and aquatint
engraving. He first travelled to France as a young man in 1829 at the
request of Thales Fielding, to work on an engraving project of Swiss
views for the publisher Jean-Frederic D’Ostervald. Callow settled
in Paris, living in the Rue St Honoré by the early 1830s. He first
met Thomas Shotter Boys in 1831; Boys was to have an important
influence on Callow’s style of watercolour painting. He also took
inspiration from Richard Parkes Bonington.
6
5.William Callow, RWS (1812-1908)
Namur, Belgium
13 x 19 ¡ in (33 x 49 cm)
Signed
Exhibited: Fine Art Society, June 1950 (no.5474); Martyn Gregory,
An exhibition of Early English Watercolours and Drawings, catalogue 45,
1986, no.20
Namur is situated at the confluence of the rivers Meuse and Sambre.
Callow’s view shows the high walls of the Citadel on the left bank of
the Meuse, looking towards the arched Pont de Jambes.
Callow settled in Paris in 1829, and there his reputation as a
watercolour painter flourished. Between 1835 and 1840 Callow
travelled around France, Germany and Switzerland gathering a
wealth of subject-matter for later finished watercolours, and keeping
detailed diaries of his visits.
7
6.George Chambers OWS (1803-1840)
Fishing vessels in choppy seas
Watercolour with scratching-out
8 ½ x 13 in (21.5 x 33.2cm)
Signed and dated ‘G. Chambers 1837’
Provenance: Gerald Collins collection; private collection, England
Exhibited: Martyn Gregory, English and Dutch watercolours and
drawings, catalogue 9, 1973, no. 12
Whitby-born Chambers was brought up in a humble maritime
family; he went to sea as an apprentice at a very early age, and his
abilities as a draughtsman developed during his adolescence. He
went on to paint ships’ portraits in oils, became a theatrical scene
painter and gained major commissions from aristocratic and royal
patrons for marine paintings, long before developing his skill as a
watercolour artist.
8
This watercolour is dated to the year of Chambers’ first visit
abroad. He travelled to Holland, encouraged by the strong
influence on British marine painting of the Van de Veldes.
Chambers’ fluency in handling watercolour is apparent in
this work. The subject is perhaps another version of a Dutch
shipping scene in the collection of the Whitworth Art Gallery,
University of Manchester, which he also painted in oil (see
illustrations in Alan Russett, George Chambers 1803-1840 : His
life and work, the sailor’s eye and the artist’s hand, 1996, p.146, pls.38
and 39).
7.George Chambers OWS (1803-1840)
Fishing vessel off shore
Watercolour with scratching out
6 ¼ x 9 ½ in (15.8 x 24.2 cm)
Inscribed in pencil, verso: ‘Liegh [sic] Nr Southend’
8.George Chinnery (1774-1852)
Two studies of a Chinese blacksmith’s equipment, one with a standing figure
Pencil
10 √ x 7 ½ in (27.5 x 10 cm)
Provenance: Philip Harari, by whom given in 1965 to Mr and
Mrs Joseph Verner Reed, Greenwich, CT; by descent to Samuel P.
Reed; W. M. Brady & Co., New York; Charles Ryskamp, New York
Chinnery took delight in sketching Chinese figures going about their
everyday life. He drew various tradesmen, including barbers, food vendors
and blacksmiths at work; the latter seemed to be one of his favourite figure
subjects. His drawings in pencil and pen and ink also show the interest he
took in the tools of the trades. In the present drawing Chinnery makes a
careful study of the blacksmith’s equipment, including a rectangular bellows
box, anvil, hammers and earthenware pot.
9
9.George Chinnery (1774-1852)
Portrait of Mrs William Trant (Charlotte Lumsden of Cushnie) and
her daughter, Maddalena Trant (1813-1898 ), later the wife of Neil
Edmonstone
12 x 9 in (30 x 22 cm)
Signed and dated ‘G. Chinnery f. 1815’
With a handwritten 19th-century label identifying the
sitters:
‘Portrait by Chinnery, 1815. / Mrs William Trant of
Drumonethy / (Charlotte Lumsden of Cushnie) and / her
daughter, Maddalena, (born 1813, / died 1898) afterwards
wife of Neil Edmonstone’
Provenance: by descent within the family of the sitters
Literature: Mildred Archer, India and British Portraiture 17701825, p.378, illustrated pl.285
Charlotte Trant, formerly Charlotte Lumsden, was the
daughter of John Lumsden of Cushnie (1761-1818),
a Director of the East India Company, who left a
substantial inheritance to his son-in-law William Trant.
Charlotte died in 1837.
Madalina (or Magdalene) Elinor Trant, seen here as an
infant, was married in 1840 to Neil Benjamin Edmonstone
(1809-1872), who had also been portrayed as a child by
Chinnery: see P. Conner, George Chinnery 1774-1852 , artist
of India and the China Coast, p.127. For a portrait by Thomas
Hickey of Neil’s father, also Neil Benjamin Edmonstone
(Member of the Supreme Council of India), see Martyn
Gregory catalogue 83, 2007-8, no.42.
William Trant (1781-1859), who is absent from this
picture, was in the employ of the East India Company
from 1798 to 1819; returning to Britain, he became a
Member of Parliament in 1824. His own father Dominick
Trant was an Irish barrister who killed a man in a duel,
and ‘did good business on behalf of the smuggling gentry
of the south-west’.
10
10. Giovanni Battista Cipriani, RA (1727-1785)
Young girl playing the violin, with an attentive cat
Black and red chalk and pencil on laid paper
6 ¼ x 3 √ in (15.7 x 9.8 cm)
Provenance: Leonard G. Duke (1890-1971)
Inscribed on old support ‘D3847 / G B Cipriani, RA (1727-1785) /
LGD’
Cipriani was born in Florence and moved to Rome in 1750, settling
in England in 1755. He was a decorative artist and draughtsman,
known for his classical designs, and became particularly associated
with the neo-classical interiors created by Robert Adam and William
Chambers. A founder member of the Royal Academy, Cipriani
created the design for the RA diploma medal. Like many of his
designs, this was engraved by Francesco Bartolozzi. Cipriani was a
teacher of drawing at the Duke of Richmond’s Academy in Whitehall
and at the Royal Academy Schools. His Rudiments of Drawing,
engraved by Bartolozzi, was published posthumously in 1786-92.
Cipriani was a prolific draughtsman; he favoured red and black chalk
as his medium for drawing. His formal drawings are in the classical
Italian tradition influenced by his years in Florence. Informal
sketches such as the present drawing can be found in the Royal
Collection and Tate.
11
11. Luke Clennell, AA, AOWS (1781-1840)
Fishermen mending baskets, Isle of Wight
Watercolour and traces of pencil
11 ¾ x 17 ¼ in (30 x 44 cm)
Verso: study of a fisherman’s hut; inscribed with title, name of artist
and the number ‘4R’
Provenance: Prof. Ian Craft; Martyn Gregory, 1989; private
collection
Exhibition: Martyn Gregory, An exhibition of fine English watercolours,
catalogue 27, 1981, no.20; Martyn Gregory, Early English Watercolours
and Drawings, catalogue 54, 1989, no.22
Illustrated: Huon Mallalieu, The Dictionary of British Watercolour Artists up
to 1920, vol. III, p.130
Northumberland-born Clennell was apprenticed in 1797 to the
engraver Thomas Bewick, who was at this time at the height of his
powers, having just published his celebrated volume, A History of
British Birds. Clennell worked ably for Bewick as a wood-engraver
before taking up painting.
Clennell’s success in his engraving work spurred a move to London.
Here he flourished and moved into a wider circle of artists. His talent
was recognised by Benjamin West who encouraged him as a
painter. He began exhibiting at the various artists’ societies, and in
1812 Clennell was elected an associate of the Society of Painters in
Water Colours.
His watercolours (many of them beach scenes) often include
rustic figures at work, who are invested with a sense of solidity and
permanence. Clennell’s career was tragically curtailed in 1817 by
mental illness, so that his watercolours are rare. Examples held by
public collections can be found in the Yale Center for British Art,
New Haven, the British Museum and the Natural History Society of
Northumbria, Newcastle upon Tyne.
Clennell exhibited an oil with the title ‘Fishermen mending their
tackle’ at the British Institution in 1811.
12
13
12. David Cox, OWS (1783-1859)
Homend, Ledbury, Herefordshire
Watercolour and pencil with touches of bodycolour
9 ¬ x 14 ¡ in (24.5 x 41.8 cm)
Signed
Inscribed in pencil on original backboard: ‘Homend ... 1818 / David Cox Pinx.. Presented by:
Miss Gadesden. “Homend” Stretton Grandison, Ledbury’, and in ink ‘Lady Hopton / Hayley
Court’ (Cox taught the daughters of the Hoptons of Canon Frome after his move to Hereford
in 1814). Old framer’s label attached to backboard: ‘T. Cooke, Carver, Gilder and Auctioneer,
Hereford’
David Cox moved his family to Hereford in the autumn of 1814. He took up the position of
drawing master at Miss Croucher’s school for young ladies where he continued to teach until
1819. He also began teaching drawing at the Hereford Grammar School in 1815.
‘The Homend’, built in the seventeenth century, was remodelled by Sir Robert Smirke in the
early nineteenth. The house was in the ownership of Augustus William Gadesden (see Burke
and Savill, Guide to Country Houses, vol. II, 1980). The estate was split up in the 1970s and the
house is no longer a single dwelling.
The broad viewpoint and arrangement of this composition is comparable with Cox’s
watercolour Buckingham House from the Green Park, 1825 (Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery,
no.1911P68, illustrated in Scott Wilcox, Sun Wind and Rain: the Art of David Cox, Yale, 2008,
no.32, p.165).
14
13. David Cox, OWS (1783-1859)
Ruined tower with village beyond
Black chalk
12 x 19 in (35 x 48.3 cm)
Inscribed in the foreground: ‘dark sky’ and
‘green weed’
14. David Cox, OWS (1783-1859)
Vale of Clwyd with figures carrying corn
Watercolour and bodycolour
14 x 24 in (35.5 x 61 cm)
Wilcox describes the developments in Cox’s watercolour style of this
period:
‘By 1848, when he painted Vale of Clwyd, Cox was in full command
of a technique holding freedom of handling, …the sky ranges from
a moderate blue-grey to a deep brilliant blue; the distant mountains
are an intense cobalt blue; and the sombre browns and greens of the
landscape are shot through with glimmers of ochre, emerald green
and red’. Ibid, pp.41-2.
This is possibly an unfinished sheet or sketch relating to Cox’s
views of the Vale of Clwyd, in the old counties of Flintshire and
Denbighshire, North Wales. Cox first visited the area in the summer
of 1842 and again in 1844, both times going on to Betws-y-Coed.
The landscape depicted in our view may be compared with the
watercolour, Vale of Clwyd, 1848 (British Museum), and to the oils
of the same title, 1846 (Towneley Hall Art Gallery and Museum,
Burnley) and 1849 (Fitzwilliam Museum). For illustrations of the
above pictures see Wilcox, Sun, Wind and Rain: the Art of David Cox,
Yale, 2008, p.221.
15
15. David Cox, OWS (1783-1859)
Welsh hill pastures: sheep being driven into a lane
Watercolour
8 ½ x 11 ½ in (21.5 x 29.4 cm)
Watermark: J Whatman 1849
Provenance: with Anthony Reed, London, 1976; Davis and Long
Co., New York; collection of Mimi and Sandford Feld, 1976-2016;
with Davis and Langdale, New York
Exhibited: ‘David Cox Drawings and Paintings’, Anthony Reed,
London, September – October 1976 and Davis and Long, New York,
November 1976, no. 61; British Watercolours and Drawings 17501910’, Emily Lowe Gallery, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY,
1980, no.20; ‘Selections from the Collection of Mimi and Sandford
Feld’, Pennsylvania State University Museum of Art, March – May
1981; and Aspen Center for the Visual Arts, Colorado, October –
November 1981, no. 37.
This extremely fresh watercolour dates from Cox’s annual visits to
north Wales in the later part of his career.
16
16. David Cox, OWS (1783-1859)
The waterfall, Betws-y-Coed
Watercolour with black chalk, gum arabic and bodycolour on eight
joined sheets of paper
27 ¼ x 40 ¾ in (69 x 103.4 cm)
Signed
Inscribed on label attached to old frame ‘No 1 / The Waterfall /
Bettwys y Coed / NW / David Cox’
Provenance: Arthur W. Nicholson Esq, Arisaig House, Fort William
Exhibited: Royal Academy, ‘Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters’,
1892, (80) (exhibition label attached to old frame); Corporation of
London, Guildhall, ‘Loan Exhibition of Watercolour Drawings’, 1896
(fragment of exhibition label attached to old frame)
north of England), which Cox commonly used. The two long strips
at either side, one of which is laid paper, are ream wrappers. The
creases or seams, which can be seen here horizontally, are where the
wrapper was folded around a ream of watercolour paper.
This experimental watercolour, made in Cox’s later life, has the sense
of being worked and reworked. The watercolour was not exhibited
during Cox’s lifetime, but was loaned to the Royal Academy winter
exhibition in 1892 by its then owner, A. W. Nicholson, where it was
described in the catalogue as a ‘view looking up the falls’.
Cox had a particular fondness for Betws-y-Coed. Views of the
village and its vicinity appear frequently in his works, especially
from 1844 onwards when he visited every year during his annual
sketching tours to north Wales.
Cox appears to have spent some considerable time on this ambitious
watercolour. It is painted on eight sheets of paper, joined together.
Most of the paper is “Scotch” wrapping paper (produced in the
We are grateful to Peter Bower for his comments on the paper.
17
17. David Cox, OWS (1783-1859)
On the road to Capel Curig
Oil on canvas
16 ½ x 23 ¼ in (42 x 59 cm)
Old labels on back of stretcher: ‘J & W Vokins, London’; ‘David Cox
Exhibition, Birmingham 189[0]’ and inscribed in ink on a partly torn
label ‘...informs me that you wish to ... the ... of an oil sketch of Cox’s.
I remember the picture very well. It was painted at Capel Curig, the
cottage is on the old r[oa]d behind the Post Of[fice] at Capel Curig, and is
still in existence / Kind regards/ from ... / yours truly’ / [W. Hall signature].
Provenance: Charles Wallis Esq; J & W Vokins, London; private collection
Exhibited: Birmingham, 1890, no.71
When shown in the 1890 Birmingham exhibition of the works of David
Cox, it was catalogued as follows: ‘On the road to Capel Curig – an unfinished
work, 1853, Lent by Charles Wallis, Esq. The Late William Hall was with
Cox when this painting was commenced. It is the work of a single sitting.
The cottage is on the Old Road, behind the Post Office at Capel Curig,
and is still in existence. Cottage on left (roughed in only); mountain
beyond; cloudy sky.’ (William Hall was the author of the biography of Cox
published in 1881.)
This late canvas gives an insight into Cox’s method of sketchingout a composition. The sky and mountain has reached a fair stage of
completion, while the cockerels in the foreground and cottage are left
unresolved. Hall’s biography describes how on visits to Betws in later life
the artist would ‘for a few hours sit, making “outlines”, colouring a “bit” that
pleased him, or perhaps watching for fine sky effects, which he would dash
upon his ready canvas with the facility of lifelong practice’ (Hall, 1881,
p.116). Capel Curig is a few miles west of Betws-y-Coed in north Wales.
18
19
18. David Cox, OWS (1783-1859)
Unsted Wood near Shalford, Surrey
Pencil
7 ¼ x 12 ¼ in (18.5 x 31 cm)
Inscribed verso ‘Unsted Wood Surrey (Cox)’
19. Henry Dawson (1811-1878)
Studies of figures, a tree and a bull
9 √ x 7 in (25 x 17.8 cm)
Signed with initials and dated 1854
Dawson’s early life was spent in Nottingham where he worked in a lace factory to support
his family. He started painting at a young age and eventually left his employment to
set up as a professional artist in 1835. Mainly self-taught, he took only twelve formal
lessons, from James Baker Pyne in London, and later studied at the Liverpool Academy
after moving there in 1844. Dawson exhibited twenty-eight landscapes at the Royal
Academy between 1838 and 1874, and also exhibited at the British Institution, the
Society of British Artists and the Liverpool Academy. He settled in London in 1850 and
was encouraged by John Ruskin. Dawson’s later work in oil shows a strong influence by
J. M. W. Turner, though his watercolours were mainly sketches for paintings.
Examples of Dawson’s work are found in many UK museum collections including the
Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Castle Museum, Nottingham and the Ferens
Art Gallery, Hull. He had two sons; both were also painters. The youngest son, Alfred,
wrote a biography of his father: The Life of Henry Dawson Landscape Painter, 1891.
20
20. William Day (1764-1807)
The Manifold River, possibly below Thor’s Cave, Derbyshire
Watercolour and ink
13 ¬ x 18 ¾ in (34.5 x 47.5cm)
Inscribed on the original backing ‘25’.
The son of a wealthy linen-draper, William Day exhibited regularly
at the Royal Academy from 1782 to 1801, displaying a particular
interest in natural scenery and wild plants. As a young man he was
befriended by John Webber; the two artists shared a love of ruggedly
dramatic scenery and craggy outcrops, and Day appears to have
adopted his mentor’s lighter tones and subtlety of colour. In 1789
they made a sketching tour together of Derbyshire and the Peak
District. It is possible that this drawing dates from that tour.
William Day’s work was informed by a deep interest in geology;
his finest works are those which demonstrate this passion.
His descendants nicknamed him ‘Rocky Day’ to distinguish him from
his ichthyologist grandson Francis, who was known as ‘Fishy Day’.
21
21. Edward Dayes (1763-1804)
‘A view of a cascade and pillars of basalte in the Island of Osteroe, one of the Faroe Isles’
Pen and ink and watercolour over pencil
13 √ x 19 ½ in (35.4 x 49.5 cm)
Signed and dated 1790; inscribed as title on the artist’s original washline
mount.
Verso: Extensively inscribed in ink: ‘…are in a place so beautifull [sic]
as in the cascade presented in this Drawing. They were too high
above us to form any exact conjecture concerning their proportions,
but are imagined … / …from the waters edge to the top of the highest
column to be nearly four hundred feet higher, where the columns are …
perpendicular from the gully through which the torrents begin to rush
down / the hill, a pillar has detached itself and lies across the opening.
Some others threaten to fall in the same manner as this has done, many
others have done so already and are stood in fragments on the sides of /
the mountain. The scenery on either side, the straits through which we
were rowing is beautifull [sic] and varied. Numberless cascades fall from
the heights on the side of Osteroe and high mountains / of the most
picturesque shapes tower one above another on the Island of Stromvoe
[Streymoy]. The highest of these and of any of the Faroe Islands is
Skellingfell [Skælingsfjall]. Mr Wright …formed by a very / accurate
measurement and by the Barometer, that the highest was 2000 feet.’
Provenance: Lord Stanley of Alderley; Thos. Agnew and Son (no.25603);
Marilyn Pink, Los Angeles, USA; Laurence Strenger, New York
In May 1789, encouraged by the naturalist and patron of science Joseph
Banks, John Thomas Stanley (later First Baron Stanley of Alderley) set
off on an expedition to Iceland, accompanied by a crew of twenty-six.
His exploration of Iceland and the Faroe Islands produced numerous
sketches drawn by Stanley himself and by other crew members. Lord
Stanley commissioned Edward Dayes (and Nicholas Pocock) to prepare
completed drawings from these amateur studies. Two oil paintings
depicting geysers in Iceland, both thought to be based on sketches by
Stanley, are in the Government Art Collection.
Here, a twelve-man crew row the expedition party along the coast
of the island of Osteroe (Eysturoy) situated at the northern end of
the Faroe Islands. The boat flies the flag used by Denmark, Iceland
and Norway in the 18th century. Mr Wright, referred to in the long
inscription on the verso of this drawing, was James Wright, who was
among the researchers on the expedition.
22
23
22. Peter De Wint, OWS (1784-1849)
Lincoln Cathedral
Watercolour
6 ¾ x 11 ¼ in (17.2 x 28.6 cm)
Provenance: with Spink, London; Andrew Wyld
De Wint first visited Lincoln in 1806 and in 1814 bought a house
there. He returned to Lincoln annually until 1848. He is closely
associated with painting the rural landscapes and figures of
Lincolnshire. The imposing outline of the city’s cathedral, seen from
the south-east, appealed to De Wint, who used this view frequently
in his watercolours.
24
Still life with basket, cloth, earthenware jar and brush
Watercolour over traces of pencil
9 ¾ x 13 in (24.8 x 32.9 cm)
Provenance: Matthew Pryor collection; his sale at Sotheby’s, London,
4 July 2002, lot 362
Study for A timber yard
Watercolour and pencil
9 ¿ x 10 ¬ in (23 x 27 cm)
De Wint used still-life painting as a method in teaching his pupils:
see Hammond Smith, Peter De Wint 1784-1849 , 1982, pp.89-90,
illustrations on pp.80 and 84. The group of objects to be painted
usually consisted of earthenware jars and pails or baskets, often with
a white cloth casually draped against them.
Two watercolours of a timber yard were shown in the Fitzwilliam
Museum’s 1979 Peter De Wint exhibition. This may be a study for
the watercolour in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
See David Scrase, Drawings and Watercolours by Peter De Wint, A loan
exhibition inaugurated at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 1979, nos. 8
and 9.
25
A country road, with figures and building materials
Watercolour
14 x 20 in (35.3 x 50.6 cm)
26
Horses and figures on a riverside path
12 ¿ x 18 ½ in (30.8 x 47 cm)
De Wint often used a broad panorama for his landscapes depicting
riverside scenes, with a dense mass of trees painted in deep tones of
green, brown and blue. The scratched-out lines or areas of untouched
white paper lend sparkling highlights to the river. De Wint sketched
in the Thames valley, which is possibly the location of the landscape
depicted here.
27
27. Edward Dodwell, FSA (1767-1832)
The Phlegraean Fields (Campi Flegrei), Naples
24 ¼ x 39 √ in (61.5 x 101.4 cm)
Provenance: Richie’s, Canada, 3 Dec 1996, lot 182; with Spink Leger,
London; Christie’s, London, 5 June 2003, lot 31; private collection,
USA
The Irish-born Edward Dodwell graduated from Trinity College
Cambridge in 1800, and in the following year travelled to Italy and
Greece with Sir William Gell. In Italy he was taken prisoner of war
by the Buonaparte government, but was allowed to travel to Greece
on parole in 1805-6. On some of his journeys the wealthy Dodwell
took with him a hired draughtsman, Signor Pomardi, and a camera
obscura (which was finally kicked to pieces by his donkey); Dodwell
was an accomplished artist himself, and their surviving works form a
valuable record of Greece before many of the spoliations of the 19th
century.
Dodwell divided his subsequent life between Naples, close to the
ever-threatening Mount Vesuvius, and Rome, where he married
the daughter of Comte Giraud and established his own museum of
antiquities; after his death most of his these were acquired by the
Munich Glyptothek and by King Ludwig of Bavaria.
In his book A Classical and Topographical Tour Through Greece During the
Years 1801 , 1805 , and 1806 , 1819 , Dodwell describes his experience
as he sailed down the Neapolitan coast:
‘We [also] enjoyed one singular point of view, that is not to
be equalled in any other part of the globe; we distinguished,
from the same spot, the three active volcanoes of Aetna,
Stromboli, and Vesuvius, all smoking at the same time, and
impressing our minds with the awful reflection that the vast
furnace by which those mighty craters are supplied with
their ignited matter, has probably its deep abyss beneath the
sea upon whose surface we were then sailing’ (vol. 2, p.466).
28
29
28. John Downman, ARA (1750-1824)
Study of a spaniel
Pencil and stump with white and red chalk
8 √ x 7 ¡ in (22.5 x 18.7 cm)
Watermark partially visible ‘TA..IE’
Provenance: Mrs Benjamin (the artist’s
daughter); Thomas Winstanley (according
to a twentieth century inscription on
the back of the old mount); Sir Francis
Watson and thence by descent.
Downman executed other sensitively
drawn portraits of animals, including
his spaniel, his cat ‘Tibby’ and garden
wildlife from his home in West Malling,
Kent where he lived after 1804. A
drawing entitled ‘Toad from our pond,
West Malling’, is in the British Museum
(see illustrations of this and other animal
drawings in G. C. Williamson, John
Downman, A.R.A. His life and works, 1907,
p.61). The present study has the feeling
of being quite personal to Downman:
perhaps a portrait of a family pet. Clusters
of old pin-prick holes in the corners of the
sheet suggest the drawing was pinned up
on display many times by an early owner.
30
29. John Downman, ARA (1750-1824)
Portrait of Dr Thomas Monro (1759-1833 )
Watercolour, pencil and stump
7 ½ x 6 in (19.1 x 15.3 cm) (oval); 9 √ x 8 ½ in (25 x 27.5 cm) sheet
size
Signed, dated and inscribed in ink ‘J. Downman / 1788 / unfinished’
Provenance: ‘G.K.M.’ private collection, England, 1969
This portrait dates from the year after Monro graduated as MD in
May 1787, and three years before he became Fellow of the Royal
College of Physicians in 1791. The young Monro followed in his
father’s footsteps in becoming a connoisseur of art. He went on to
hold his informal ‘academy’ at Adelphi Terrace attended by Turner,
Girtin and their contemporaries. Downman drew other members of
the Monro family in the same manner, including Thomas’s siblings:
his older brother Captain James Monro of Hadley (d.1806), his sisters
Charlotte (Courtauld Institute of Art, London, no. D.1967.WS.40)
and Elizabeth (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, no. 2314.14).
Downman established himself as a portrait painter in Cambridge and
following his move to London in 1779 quickly gained a reputation
as one of the most fashionable portrait artists. His patrons included
members of the royal family. His popularity throughout the 1780s
encouraged him to develop a technique of working quickly in pencil
and chalk. This enabled him to complete a number of versions
of portraits for his clients in a short space of time. Downman
frequently used the oval format for portrait drawings.
31
30. Edward Duncan, RWS (1803-1882)
Fishing vessels at the Entrance to the Binns
Pen and brown ink
8 ¼ x 13 ¼ in (21 x 34 cm)
Watermark: Joyns 1869
Inscribed: ‘Entrance to the Bins [?]’
Before embarking on his career as a watercolourist Edward Duncan
was articled to the engraver Robert Havell, and often cooperated
with the marine artist William Huggins, a relative of his wife’s.
Duncan became known principally for his depictions of coastal
activities and coastal scenes around the British Isles. Some of his
most successful work depicts wrecks, sea rescues and vessels in
rough, windy weather. The Binns, the subject of this sketch, is on
the south shore of the Forth, close to Edinburgh.
32
31. Edward Duncan, RWS (1803-1882)
Figures in a street in Strasbourg
Pen and ink and watercolour with gum arabic over traces of pencil
10 ¼ x 13 ½ in (26.1 x 34.3 cm)
Signed and dated 1840
Provenance: Warde-Norbury collection, Hooton Pagnell Hall
The precise and delicate line in Duncan’s watercolours can be
attributed to his early work as an engraver. His success in this
medium saw him employed as a wood engraver for the Illustrated
London News from 1843 to 1851. Duncan exhibited regularly at both
the ‘Old’ and ‘New’ watercolour societies between 1835 and 1882.
Duncan’s sketching tours were taken mainly within the British Isles,
although he crossed to France and Holland in 1840, the year of this
watercolour, and visited Italy in 1865. The present watercolour
may be ‘Old Houses, Strasbourg’ exhibited at the New Watercolour
Society in 1840, no. 26.
33
33. English School, c.1800
Llangollen Bridge, north Wales
9 ¾ x 16 ½ in
Inscribed in pencil ‘Llangollen Bridge’
Collection: North Devon Athenaeum sale of the collection of
Samuel Prout
32. English School, early 19th century
The library at Wrottesley, Staffordshire
Pen and ink
8 ½ x 9 √ in (21.6 x 25.1 cm)
Inscribed ‘Library at Wrottisley’ on the original album page
The Wrottesley family purchased the manor located in the parish
of Tettenhall, Staffordshire at the end of the 12th century. A Tudor
house on the site was replaced in the late 17th century with an
imposing four-storey mansion. This careful drawing records the
mansion’s library in extraordinary detail. The artist has painstakingly
drawn each piece of furniture, including a Chinese export bambooframed chair. Equal attention is given to the pattern of the carpet,
the architectural decoration, the objects upon the various writing
desks and even the sheet music being played by the fashionablycoiffed lady at the piano.
The library was totally destroyed in 1897 in a fire that devastated
the whole house. The collection of volumes and records amassed
by the baronets of Wrottesley was clearly considered to be of some
importance. A report on the fire in The Sketch referred to ‘A glorious
old house, a precious library and a priceless collection of records,
many of them dating back to the twelfth century’.
The building which replaced the 17th century house, and which
stands today known as Wrottesley Hall, was constructed in 1923.
34
34. English School, c.1750
Pair of pastel portraits: Sir John Colleton of Colleton, Devon and his wife
Pastel
9 ¾ x 6 ¾ in (24 5 x 17.5 cm)
Provenance: private collection
Sir John Colleton, 4th Baronet, lived all his life in South Carolina
and only visited Devon occasionally, but twice married Devon
ladies. His first marriage to Anne Fulford, daughter of Francis
Fulford of Great Fulford, Devon, was dissolved in 1774. He married
Jane Mutter of Bovey Tracey in 1774, and died in 1777. Sir John
Colleton (1669-1754), 3rd Baronet, is credited with introducing the
first Magnolia plant to England from South Carolina in 1737 and
planting it at Exmouth.
35
35. William Evans of Bristol, AOWS (1809-1858)
Falls of Machno, near Betws-y-Coed, north Wales
Watercolour with stopping-out
9 ¡ x 12 √ in (23.9 x 32.8 cm)
Signed and inscribed bottom left corner ‘...at Machno’;
verso: inscribed as title
Bristol-born William Evans first adopted the addition ‘of Bristol’
when he began to exhibit at the Old Watercolour Society,
where he showed from 1845 to 1859. It was used to distinguish
him from an older artist of the same name. Prior to this, Evans
was associated with the short-lived Bristol ‘sketching-club’ of
1832-33 along with W. J. Müller and J. S. Prout.
36
Evans started to visit north Wales in 1842 and stayed for
prolonged periods near Betws-y-Coed, two years before David
Cox began his regular visits to this much-admired, inspirational
landscape. The obituary for Evans in the Art Journal recorded:
‘He domiciled himself for many years in the centre of a grand
gorge of this mountain scenery in North Wales… during this
period he produced what must be considered his finest works’
(Art Journal, 1859, pp.135-6). A view of north Wales ‘Salmon
trap on the River Lledr’ (William Evans of Bristol, Martyn Gregory
catalogue 49, 1987, no.8) is a further example of Evans’
powerful use of watercolour, comparable with that of David
Cox.
36. François Thomas Louis Francia (1772-1839)
River scene with distant mountains
Pencil and watercolour with scratching-out
8 ½ x 15 ¼ in (21.5 x 38 cm)
Signed and dated ‘L. Francia 1801’
Exhibited: Martyn Gregory, An exhibition of early English watercolours
and drawings, catalogue 50, 1988, no.57
Francia lived in England between 1790 and 1817, after which
he returned to his native Calais and became the mentor of
Bonington. This atmospheric study, with its dark foreground and
rainclouds fleetingly penetrated by a shaft of sunlight, is typical of
his watercolours executed in the first few years of the nineteenth
century, at a time when his manner was close to Girtin’s; for
comparable pictures see Anthony Reed, Louis Francia, 1985, pp.37-45.
Francia began to exhibit views of north Wales in 1800, and the
present scene may be freely based on sketches of Cader Idris.
37
37. Thomas Gainsborough, RA (1727-1788)
A stream in a wooded landscape
Pen and ink and watercolour wash with traces of pencil on
brown coloured wove paper
7 x 10 in (20 x 25.2 cm)
The composition of this drawing has similarities with a landscape
illustrated in Hayes, The Landscape Drawings of Thomas Gainsborough,
London, 1970, no.215, although the present drawing may be dated
to the 1760s. Gainsborough’s ink lines around the slender trees may
be drawn with the tip of a brush rather than a pen, and delicately
painted areas of blue and red wash add depth to the landscape.
We are grateful to Dr Susan Sloman for her assistance in cataloguing this drawing.
38
38. Thomas Gainsborough, RA (1727-1788)
Study of a pony with panniers and slight sketch of a figure
1760s
Pencil
5 ¾ x 7 ¼ in (14.5 x 18.5 cm)
Fragment of a fleur-de-lys watermark visible with a ‘T’ in the upper
section
Stamped twice ‘T Gainsborough’ and once ‘Gainsborough’. Inscribed
indistinctly ‘Very...’ along lower edge
Provenance: Sotheby’s, 18 November 1976, (193); private collection
Literature: Susan Legouix Sloman, ‘The Holloway Gainsborough’,
Gainsborough’s House Review 1997/8, pp.47-54, illustrated p.51.
This drawing is firmly linked to the period when Gainsborough was
in Bath, between 1758 and 1774. Ponies with large wooden saddles
designed for carrying panniers were used to transport heavy loads,
often coal, around the hilly Bath terrain. Carts were more suited to
the flat landscape of East Anglia where Gainsborough spent his early
years.
The name stamps on the drawing were likely to have been added by
Gainsborough himself. The sheet was possibly to hand in his studio,
long after it was drawn, and was used to try out these two different
stamp impressions.
A pencil and wash drawing of a figure leading a packhorse dated
to the mid-1760s is illustrated in Hayes, The Drawings of Thomas
Gainsborough, plates vol. no. 87, cat. no. 274: an earlier pencil sketch
dated to the mid-1750s depicts a figure on horseback with a pannier
basket, (ibid, no. 36, cat. no. 819).
We are grateful to Dr Susan Sloman for her assistance in cataloguing this drawing.
39
39. Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
A watermill
Watercolour and pencil with pen and ink
8 ¾ x 12 ¼ in (22 x 31 cm)
Provenance: G. N. Whiddett, Esq; with Gerard and Anne
O’Farrell, Faringdon, Oxfordshire; private collection, England
Girtin’s early work shares stylistic elements with the work of his
friend and contemporary, J.M.W. Turner. In the early 1790s the
two young artists were regular attendees at Dr Thomas Monro’s
informal ‘academy’ where they were able to study and copy works
by established watercolour artists. Both Turner and Girtin sought
out picturesque subjects; mills with animals and distant water formed
an often-used composition for their early watercolours. For another
example see An overshot mill in Devon (Leeds City Art Gallery).
40
40.Lord Montagu William Graham
(1807-1878)
Cattle on a road
12 x 18 ½ in (30.5 x 47cm)
Son of the 3rd Duke of Montrose, Graham
was a talented pupil of Peter De Wint. He
painted landscapes, cattle and shipping
studies. The handling of the trees and
foliage in this watercolour closely
resembles the style of his tutor De Wint.
Graham served in the Coldstream Guards
and was MP for Grantham and Hereford.
41. Lord Montagu William Graham
(1807-1878)
Boats on a loch
13 ¼ x 20 in (33.5 x 50.7 cm)
41
43. Thomas Christopher Hofland (1777-1843)
View of Carisbrooke Castle, Isle of Wight
10 ½ x 15 ¾ in (26.7 x 39.4 cm)
Provenance: Canon Smythe; private collection, England
Exhibited: Touring exhibition of provincial art galleries, 1954-5;
Martyn Gregory, English and Dutch watercolours and drawings, catalogue
14, 1977, no. 43
42. John Samuel Hayward (1778-1822)
Dover castle and harbour
Watercolour and pencil on laid paper
11 ¼ x 18 ¼ in (28.5 x 46.5 cm)
Inscribed verso ‘Dover’. Large watermark visible.
Hayward was elected to the Sketching Society in 1803 and became
its Secretary. The society, founded by Thomas Girtin, was under the
presidency of John Sell Cotman at the time of Hayward’s election.
Cotman’s influence can be seen in Hayward’s watercolours, along
with that of Joshua Cristall, another Sketching Society member and
friend of Hayward. He exhibited landscapes and figure subjects
at the Royal Academy from 1798 to 1816. During this time he
travelled frequently in Britain, making drawings in sketchbooks to
record his visits. He travelled to Paris in 1801 and 1804, returning
on the latter trip via the Isle of Wight, and made a long tour of
France and Italy in 1816.
Hofland was born in Nottinghamshire to a wealthy family – his father
was a manufacturer in the cotton-mill industry, but later suffered
financial ruin. The young artist took lessons from John Rathbone and
first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1798. He moved to Derby
and Leeds, where he was a popular teacher of drawing; he became a
prolific exhibitor at the early provincial exhibitions in the north of
England, including the Northern Society at Leeds. In 1811 Hofland
returned to London and produced work for patrons including Sir
George Beaumont, the Marquess of Stafford, Lord Coventry and the
Marquess of Blandford (later the Duke of Marlborough).
Hofland’s subjects were predominantly British landscapes and
country house portraits. He made one trip to the continent in 1840
with a commission from Lord Egremont for a series of Italian views.
He was an admirer of the work of Richard Wilson.
42
44. James Holland, OWS (1800-1870)
The Ile de la Cité and Pont Neuf, Paris
Watercolour over pencil heightened with touches of gouache
6 x 12 ¾ in (15.3 x 32.4 cm)
Signed lower right: ‘J Holland’, and dated 1834
In 1831 Holland visited Paris and absorbed some of the technique
and fluency of R. P. Bonington who had died three years earlier.
Holland began to make regular visits to the Continent after this date.
This extensive view of the Pont Neuf appears to be taken from the
Quai de Conti by the Pont des Arts.
43
45. John Hood (fl.1758-71)
The East Indiaman Essex in three positions
Pen and ink and grey wash
18 x 27 ½ in (46 x 70 cm)
Signed and dated ‘Ino. Hood / 1758’, and inscribed within a
cartouche ‘THE / ESSEX / Capn. / GEORGE JACKSON /1758’
46. John Baverstock Knight (1785-1859)
Hengwrt, Cader Idris
Watercolour over pencil, pen and ink
12 ¿ x 18 ¡ in (31.2 x 46.7 cm)
Inscribed top right ‘Hengwert & Cader Idris from Llanelltyd [?]
Merionyethshire’
A highly detailed wash drawing of the Indiaman Essex under sail,
the deck peopled with animated figures. John Hood, who lived at
Limehouse in East London, specialised in such large ship drawings;
collections of these are held by the British Museum and the
National Maritime Museum at Greenwich. Hood exhibited his
work at the Free Society (a precursor of the Royal Academy) in the
years 1762 to 1771.
Follower of Francis Towne, John Baverstock Knight was an honorary
exhibitor at the Royal Academy in 1818 and 1819. His drawings,
often of mountain scenery, use pen and ink outline overlaid with
recedeing planes of watercolour wash. His drawings are found in the
collections of the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum
and Tate.
Hengrwt was the home of Robert Vaughan (1591/2-1667), the
Welsh antiquary whose collection of manuscripts including
medieval and historical theological works, literature, poetry and
law formed a key part of the foundation collection of the National
Library of Wales.
The 499-ton ship Essex (one of several ships of that name) is recorded
as having made three voyages to China between 1758 and 1767.
44
47. Sir Edwin Landseer, RA (1802-1873)
Brutus
Pencil and touches of white chalk and ink on grey paper
11 x 13 ¾ in (28 x 35 cm) (full sheet size)
Inscribed on a label attached to the old mount ‘Brutus – by Edwin
Landseer / bought at sale 1874 Christies’
From a very early age Landseer drew animals and quickly became
adept at capturing their character. As a young artist he studied
anatomy under the tutelage of Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786-1846).
Landseer’s ecorché drawings of both humans and animals underpin his
understanding of the definition of muscles, joints and sinew. Our
drawing shows Brutus alert, with the bull terrier’s typically solid
stance, at the door to a stable. Masterful touches of white chalk
delineate the dog’s form. The sketch appears to relate closely in
composition to an oil portrait of a dog sold at Christie’s, attached to
which was a letter stating ‘that Landseer had seen the painting and
recognised it as one of his early works’ (Christie’s, New York, 6 June
2008, lot 156).
A bull terrier named Brutus makes numerous appearances in
Landseer’s early work from around 1815-18. A drawing entitled
‘Brutus’ of 1815 seems to feature the same dog as that in the present
drawing (see Monkhouse, The Studies of Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A., pp.1819, plate V). Brutus belonged to an early patron and friend of the
Landseer family, Mr W. W. Simpson. Simpson commissioned the
young Landseer to make drawings of his dog. In a letter of 1818
Landseer wrote to his patron saying he hoped ‘…that you will like
‘the Brutus’ as it has been generally admired & thought the best thing
I have done on a small scale’ (see Richard Ormond, Sir Edwin Landseer,
Philadelphia Museum of Art and Tate Gallery, 1981, p.3). According
to Algernon Graves, the compiler of the first catalogue of Landseer’s
work, the artist himself also owned a dog named Brutus (ibid. p.53).
45
48. Daniel Maclise, RA (1806-1870)
A scene with Renaissance figures
Pen and brown ink and wash
9 ¾ x 6 ½ in (24.6 x 16.5 cm)
Dated ‘Dec 1837’. Inscribed verso: Cottage / DMcC / Dec.
Brought up in Cork, Daniel Maclise (who signed his name
McLise until the mid-1830s) was the son of an affluent
artisan. The family lived among a thriving cultural
community, which encouraged the young Maclise to
become interested in literature.
Moving from Ireland to London in 1827 he entered the
Royal Academy Schools the following year. Around 1830
Maclise started to produce illustrations for books and
periodicals. Richard Ormond notes (in the introduction
to his 1972 catalogue) that ‘Maclise’s early work exhibits
an extraordinary promiscuity and range’, and observes
that his early works include ‘…crowded genre scenes;
melodramatic literary works… and pseudo-Renaissance
allegories. Dickens called him “a wayward fellow in his
subjects”.’
46
50. William James Müller (1812-1845)
A Renaissance interior
Watercolour
3 ¾ x 5 ½ in (9.5 x 14 cm)
Sketch of trees at Stapleton
Watercolour
10 x 7 ¼ in (25.5 x 18.5 cm)
Signed, inscribed and dated ‘Stapleton / WM 1833’
Provenance: Lord St. Oswald, Nostell Priory
In his early years Müller made a number of sketches at Stapleton,
which at that time was a village to the north of Bristol. In 1833,
the year of this sketch, he was a member of a sketching club which
included fellow-Bristol artists John Skinner Prout, Samuel Jackson
and William Evans. Müller had already begun exhibiting with the
Bristol Society of Artists by this time.
47
Tlos, Lycia
Watercolour
11 ¡ x 21 ¼ in (29 x 54 cm)
Provenance: Mrs Hines (a letter accompanies the drawing, addressed
to her from Henry Wemyss of Sotheby’s); The Ruskin Gallery,
Stratford on Avon (previously the Palser Gallery, King St. London);
with Philip Goodman
Müller left England for Asia Minor in the second week of September
1843. The archaeologist Sir Charles Fellows (1799-1860) had
recommended Lycia, from where he had only recently returned, for
its beauty and picturesqueness, and invited Müller to accompany his
fourth expedition to Turkey. Müller travelled there independently
but was accompanied by his pupil Henry Johnson, who provided
Müller’s biographer N. Neal Solly with an account of the tour.
Müller met up with Fellows’ expedition on 22 October 1843 at
Xanthus, but did not stay with its encampment in the ruins of the
ancient city. Müller was therefore free to sketch whatever he pleased,
and his sketches reflect the fact that he was more inspired by the
magnificent local scenery than by the individual ruins. He remained
at Xanthus for three months making excursions up the valley to Tlos,
one of the principal cities of ancient Lycia, which lies on the east side
of the Xanthus valley. He arrived back in England in May 1844.
48
Venice
6 ¼ x 11 ½ in (16 x 29.2 cm)
Verso: portrait of a man, in pencil
Provenance: with Anthony Reed, Cork Street; private collection,
England
53. Francis Nicholson, OWS (1753-1844)
Robin Hood’s Bay, north Yorkshire
Pen and ink and watercolour
8 √ x 12 ¬ in (22.5 x 32 cm)
Signed and inscribed on old backing with title and the artist’s address
‘Knaresborough, Yorkshire or at 589 Cornhill, London’
Exhibited: Martyn Gregory, Early English Watercolours and Drawings,
catalogue 54, 1989, no. 93
Provenance: Martyn Gregory, 1989; private collection
Müller and his friend George Arthur Fripp embarked on a sevenmonth sketching tour of the Continent in July 1834. They travelled
through Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Italy; at the end of
September 1834 they reached Venice, where they stayed for nearly
two months. Müller set about exploring the canals and sketching all
of Venice’s best sights. Solly records in his biography of Müller that
‘most of the sketches made were from the gondola’, and that ‘besides
the buildings at Venice, the boats, with their picturesque awnings
and cargo were repeatedly sketched by Müller, and when massed
together formed fine foreground objects’ (N. Neal Solly, Memoir of the
Life of W. J. Müller, 1875, pp.39-40). Müller visited some of the great
collections of paintings in Italy, and was deeply impressed by the
Venetian masters, including Titian.
The Yorkshire-born Nicholson lived at Whitby, five miles to the
north of Robin Hood’s Bay, from 1783 to 1792; from here he made
several journeys by sea to London, where he began to show his work
at the Royal Academy in 1789. He continued to exhibit Yorkshire
views (among others) after moving permanently to London in 1803.
An oil painting of Robin Hood’s Bay by Nicholson was included in
his posthumous studio sale of 1844.
49
54. William Payne, AOWS (1760-1830)
A castle above steep river banks with a spire in the distance
8 √ x 15 ¿ in (22.6 x 38.4 cm)
Provenance: with Michael Spratt, Guildford, Surrey, November 1978
(cat. no. 29); private collection, England
55. Nicholas Pocock, OWS (1740-1821)
Portrait of the ship Tryall
Grey wash
14 ¼ x 20 ¼ in (36.2 x 51.5 cm)
Signed and dated ‘Nicholas Pocock July 1779’.
Inscribed on the margin beneath image [left] ‘Length of the Keel /
Strait Rabit, Seventy Feet / Breadth of the Beam Moulded / Twenty
Seven Feet .’; [centre] ‘A View of the Tryall [empty crest motif] William
Saunders Comm.dr’.
Inscribed in ink on the original stretcher ‘Brig Tryall / Length of the
Keel Strait Rabit 70 feet / Breadth of the Beam Moulded 27 feet’
Payne began his career as a draughtsman in Plymouth surveying the
Naval Docks for the Board of Ordnance. He also spent time making
watercolours of the local area, which by 1786 he was submitting
to the Royal Academy. Payne’s early style of drawing was close to
the manner of Paul and Thomas Sandby; it may be attributed to
the tutelage of Thomas Sandby’s assistant, Henry Gilder. In 1790
Payne left Plymouth for London, where he earned his reputation as
a fashionable drawing master. His inventiveness with watercolour
techniques helped to establish Payne as one of the most influential
watercolour artists of the time. He instructed professional artists
(including John Glover) as well as aristocratic amateur painters.
From 1790 he travelled in search of picturesque landscapes to Wales,
the Lake District, the West Country and the Isle of Wight.
As a young man Pocock was apprenticed in a Bristol shipbuilding
yard; he subsequently embarked upon a career at sea that took him
to America, the Mediterranean and the West Indies. He filled his
log-books at sea with meticulous wash drawings of his ships and the
coasts and harbours. After his life at sea Pocock turned to landscape
and maritime painting, and was much in demand for his pictures
of contemporary naval action. As the inscription for this drawing
shows, his experience as a seaman motivated him to pay great
attention to the detail recorded in his marine pictures. He went to
the trouble of gathering information from naval officers to ensure
accuracy in his work. The National Maritime Museum, London, has
the largest collection of his paintings, watercolours and drawings
as well as some of the log-books. Other examples of his works are
to be found in Bristol Art Gallery, the British Museum, the Royal
Collection and the Huntington Art Gallery, California.
‘Tryall’ is one of several ships recorded of that name.
50
56. Samuel Prout, OWS (1783-1852)
Five arched bridge and tower in a hilly landscape
11 x 17 ¿ in (28 x 43.5 cm)
Signed with monogram and inscribed ‘Rockaster’
Prout developed a highly distinctive style in his landscapes and
especially in his picturesque views of ancient buildings, both in
Britain and on the Continent. His drawing of architecture won the
admiration of John Ruskin. His earlier handling of watercolour is in
the tradition of Girtin, Varley and Cotman, and uses a more limited
palette. In his early years Prout made topographical drawings for
engraving and set up as a drawing master in 1808. He exhibited at
the Royal Academy and elsewhere from 1803.
51
57. George Fennel Robson, POWS (1788-1833)
Scene on the Isle of Skye with hunters and dogs
Watercolour and gouache with scratching out
18 ¼ x 27 ¾ in (46.3 x 70.3 cm)
Provenance: with Frost and Reed, Bristol and Clifton,
label attached to back of old frame
Robson made repeated visits to Scotland and the
north of England. He first visited Scotland in 1809;
on his return to London he showed the first of his
numerous highland views at the Associated Artists in
Water Colours, and then at the Society of Painters
in Oil and Water Colours. A smaller watercolour of
this view, without the addition of figures and dogs in
the foreground, is in the Tate collection (T01012).
Robson published a series of forty mountain
landscapes in 1814, ‘Scenery of the Grampians’,
which were etched by Henry Morton after his
drawings. These were republished in 1819 as handcoloured aquatints.
58. George Fennel Robson, POWS (1788-1833)
Pass of Glencoe
Watercolour and bodycolour with scratching out
11 ½ x 15 ¾ in (40 x 59.7 cm)
Provenance: William Brice, Town Clerk of Bristol;
Mrs Gray of Rock House, Hotwells, Bristol; with
Frost and Reed, Bristol and Clifton
A version of this watercolour is in Manchester Art
Gallery (1890.54).
52
60. Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
The artist and his companions at the New Inn, Isle of Wight
6 ½ x 9 √ in (16.5 x 25 cm)
Verso: slight pencil sketch of a landscape
Provenance: with Philip Goodman, Norwich
59. George Romney (1734-1802)
Study for a full-length portrait of a lady
Pencil
6 ¡ x 4 ¾ in (16.1 x 12.3 cm)
Inscribed on a label attached to the old mount ‘A leaf from a
sketchbook (in the Kendal Museum) / Formerly in the Collection of
Sir Otto Beit’
Verso: slight sketches of figures, numbered ‘29’
In the autumn of 1784 Rowlandson made a twelve-day journey to the
Isle of Wight, known as ‘A Tour in a Post Chaise’, in the company
of friends Henry Wigstead (1760-1800) a caricaturist and decorator,
and Samuel Howitt (1756/7-1823) a painter, etcher and sporting
artist who was married to Rowlandson’s sister. On subsequent
journeys in the 1790s Wigstead was to write commentaries to
his friends’ drawings. The present drawing depicts the artists
Rowlandson, Wigstead and Howitt and their female companions at a
table of the New Inn, Steephill. It is comparable to a drawing in the
collection of the Museum of Island History, Isle of Wight dated to
1791 (no. IWCMS.2002.112), which also depicts the party of figures
outside the inn and identifies Rowlandson, Wigstead and Howitt.
It is possible that this sheet was originally part of a page cut from
a sketchbook dating from the 1760s to early 1770s, now in the
collection at Abbot Hall, Kendal (see ‘George Romney. The Kendal
Sketchbook 1763-71’, Transactions of The Romney Society vol. 15, 201011, part 1, p.53 and part 2, p.102). Our drawing is similar to a small
sketch, drawn upside down on page 102 of the Kendal Sketchbook.
The woman’s pose, with one foot elegantly turned and resting on
the higher step, and the backdrop of staircase with balustrade and
column, mirrors the composition of Romney’s portrait of Ann Verelst
(Rotherham Museums and Galleries). Ann Verelst (1751-1823)
was the daughter of Josias Wordsworth of Wadworth Hall near
Doncaster. She married Henry Verelst, a former Governor of Bengal,
in 1771, and the oil portrait is likely to have been commissioned
from Romney to celebrate their marriage (see Alex Kidson, George
Romney 1734-1802 , National Portrait Gallery, 2002, cat. no. 36).
A group of over one hundred drawings by Rowlandson and Howitt,
once in the Longleat Collection, appeared in Christie’s sale, 14
June 2002, lot 534, and was purchased by the Museum of Island
History, Isle of Wight. The Huntingdon Library, San Marino holds
a collection of sixty-seven drawings from a sketchbook relating to
Rowlandson’s Isle of Wight tour of 1784.
53
61. John Christian Schetky (1778-1874)
A Naval engagement
Pencil and wash
13 ¾ x 19 ½ in (35 x 49.5 cm)
Exhibition: Martyn Gregory, Early English Watercolours, catalogue 50,
April 1988, no.103
Provenance: Martyn Gregory, 1988; private collection
Edinburgh-born and of Hungarian extraction, Schetky was a specialist
in marine draughtsmanship. He was appointed drawing master at
Portsmouth Naval Academy in 1810, where he remained for a quarter
of a century, and subsequently became Marine Painter in Ordinary
to George IV and Queen Victoria. Schetky was an exhibitor at the
Royal Academy for most years from 1805 to 1872, with some notable
gaps during his royal appointment. In 1825 he exhibited a major
painting of the Battle of Trafalgar at the British Institution. His work,
including an album of pencil drawings, can be seen in the National
Maritime Museum, Greenwich, and his oil paintings in the National
Gallery of Scotland and Tate Britain.
54
62. Dominic Serres, RA (1722-1793)
Naval vessels at the rock of Gibraltar
Pen and ink and watercolour over traces of pencil
11 x 16 ½ in (27.5 x 42 cm)
Signed ‘D. S.’ and dated 1786
Inscribed in pencil on old backing sheet ‘Serres Gibraltar.
Back of the Rock at Europoint’
63. Dominic Serres, RA (1722-1793)
Naval vessels at the rock of Gibraltar
Pen and ink and watercolour over traces of pencil
11 ½ x 19 in (29 x 48 cm)
Signed ‘D. S.’ and inscribed ‘Gibraltar’
Inscribed in pencil on old backing sheet ‘Serres Gibraltar.
Back of Rock’
French by birth, the widely-travelled Serres adopted
Britain as his home country after being brought to
England as a prisoner of war around 1745. Marine
painter to George III and a founder member of the
Royal Academy, Dominic Serres was a central figure in
the development of British marine painting in the 18th
century. Serres’ eldest son John Thomas Serres, also a
painter, succeeded to his father’s royal appointment (see
no.64).
In 1786 Serres visited the western Mediterranean
including Gibraltar, partly for his own enjoyment, as
suggested by Alan Russett in his biography of the artist
(Dominic Serres RA, 1719-1793 , War artist to the Navy, p.177).
Serres submitted a painting to the Royal Academy that
year entitled ‘View of Europa Point, Gibraltar’ (no.161).
55
64. John Thomas Serres (1759-1825)
The armed Lugger Aristocrat engaged in a skirmish with a French flotilla
Pen and ink and wash
7 ¼ x 12 ½ in (18.5 x 31.5 cm)
Signed and dated ‘J.T. Serres. Fecit. 1805’
Inscribed ‘Cape La Hove’ [Le Havre]
Extensively inscribed label attached to the original backboard (see
below).
Engraved by Hall for The Naval Chronicle, Vol. 15, published by Joyce
Gold, 30 April 1806, plate 102, p.309 (see illustration of the aquatint
in Alan Russett, John Thomas Serres: The tireless enterprise of a marine artist,
2010, p.158).
‘On the 15 July 1795 the armed Lugger “Aristocrat” a privateer under
the Command of Captain Wilkins mounting 4.6 pounders and 8.4
pounders while cruising off the French Coast near St Maloes fell in
with a French squadron of 9 vessels.
La Societé Populaire La Diligence
La Brave
La Rondell
La Furette
L’Harmonie
Le Terreur
Le Marat
La Furette
Son of Dominic Serres, RA, John Thomas Serres was appointed
Marine Painter to HM King George III in November 1793,
succeeding his father to this position immediately after his death.
Serres was a versatile and talented draughtsman, and an avid recorder
of detail which often made its way into his major paintings of
naval battles as well as informal marine watercolours. Serres’ royal
appointment prompted a demand for prints of his paintings.
ship mounting
Brig
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Cutter -
-
Lugger -
18 – 18 pounders
12 . 16
14 . 36
14 . 6
12 . 4
14 . 24
10 . 4
10 . 4
3 . 24
-
She maintained a running fight, tacking every two hours alternately
to the N & S. for 18 hours when, gaining the Weathergage of the
whole flotilla, she made good her escape having inflicted heavy loss
both of men and material on the enemy.
For full account see Naval Chronicle vol. 15 (1806) page 309. /
The sketch shows that period of the encounter when “Aristocrat”
having disabled and passed “Societé Populaire”, stood on to engage
“Diligence” and “Rondell”.’
This drawing was produced for publication in The Naval Chronicle of
1806 which after a full account of the engagement credits the artist:
‘The ingenious Mr Serres has judiciously chosen as the subject of his
sketch that interesting period of the encounter when the Aristocrat
having disabled and passed the Societé Populaire stood on to engage
the Diligence and Rondell.’ The extensively inscribed label on the
back of the frame describes this:
56
65. William Simpson, RI (1823-1899)
Subterraneous passage to the Fort of Dowlutabad
Pencil and watercolour heightened with white
10 ¿ x 14 ¿ in (25.5 x 36 cm)
Signed and dated ‘Wm Simpson 1865’ and inscribed in the artist’s
hand as title
19th century framer’s label attached to backboard for Grundy &
Smith, 4 Exchange Street, Manchester, framer and picture dealer.
Simpson worked in an architectural firm and was later apprenticed
to a lithographer in Glasgow. He moved to London in 1851 and
at the onset of the Crimean War, Simpson was sent to Crimea by
Colnaghi and Son to make sketches of the campaign for printing
as lithographs. The Illustrated London News then employed him as a
foreign reporter for over twenty years. This job took him to Africa,
China and India to cover wars and ceremonial events.
The great hill fort of Daulatabad, located in the Maharashtra region
of India, has a history of development spanning a millennium.
Nineteenth-century tourists could take guided tours of the
underground tunnels, which were carved out of the solid rock
beneath the fort, leading to the citadel. Photographs showing the
fort in the 1890s are held by the British Library.
57
66. Archibald Skirving (1749-1819)
Portrait of Euphan Guthrie, Mrs Charles Wright of Phallope (1739-1831 )
Pastel
23 x 18 in (58.5 x 46 cm)
In 1795, back in Edinburgh, Skirving set up a small portrait studio
where, it is acknowledged, he produced some of his finest work in
the decade that followed. He was known to prefer working with
sitters he knew, but common to all his portraits is an intense, clear
and accurate focus. Skirving’s working practice was described by the
writer Henry MacKenzie: ‘His portraits were facsimilies, even of the
blemishes of the faces which he painted; he never spared a freckle
or a smallpox mark.’ MacKenzie also reveals that on one occasion
Skirving, ‘with his characteristic rudeness, told a lady who had a very
dingy complexion he could not paint her, for he had not enough of
yellow chalk for the purpose’ (Henry MacKenzie, The Anecdotes and
Egotisms of Henry MacKenzie 1745-1831 : now first published, ed. Harold
William Thompson, 1927, p.213 – see Lloyd, 1999, p.25).
Inscribed on label attached to original backboard: ‘Mrs Wright
(Euphan Guthrie) / born 1739 died 1831, Daughter of / Harie
Guthrie and Rachel Milne his first wife / Portrait by Skirving’
Provenance: C. E. Guthrie Wright 1906; Miss Guthrie Wright,
2 Lansdowne Crescent, Edinburgh; Christie’s, London, 15 May 1908,
sold 50 gns; Agnew, London; private collection USA
Literature: Gideon Guthrie: a monograph written 1712-1730, edited by
C. E. Guthrie Wright with an introduction by the Right Rev.
John Dowden, D.D., Bishop of Edinburgh, published by William
Blackwood and Sons, London and Edinburgh, 1900; Basil C. Skinner,
‘Archibald Skirving and his Work’, Transactions of the East Lothian
Antiquarian and Field Naturalists’ Society, XII, 1970, p.56; Stephen Lloyd,
Raeburn’s Rival, Archibald Skirving 1749-1819 , National Galleries of
Scotland, 1999, cat 132, p.72; Neil Jeffares, Dictionary of Pastellists
before 1800, online edition, updated 25 June 2015, listed on p.4
Skirving’s portrait of Mrs Guthrie is reproduced as the frontispiece
of Gideon Guthrie: a monograph written 1712-1730, a family memoir
manuscript, edited by C. E. Guthrie Wright. The image of the pastel
is captioned ‘Mrs Wright, 1739-1831 / (Euphan Guthrie, Gideon’s
Granddaughter.)’. The publication also reproduces a portrait of
Euphan’s father, Harie Guthrie (1709-1794), Gideon’s second son,
painted by Henry Raeburn (p.104). The sitter of our portrait is
mentioned in the editor’s appendices of the memoir: ‘All Gideon’s
descendants are through his son Harie’s eldest daughter, Euphan,
who married Charles Wright, yr. of Phallope, at one time Dean of
Guild in Edinburgh. I have her portrait in crayons by Skirving (see
Frontispiece). The widow’s cap of the day was too severely plain for
Skirving’s taste; he lifted the lace from her shoulders and arranged it
over the cap – hence her somewhat fantastic appearance’ (pp.158-9).
Born into a close-knit East Lothian family, Skirving was the son
of a well-respected farmer. He began his career in the 1770s in
Edinburgh, painting portrait miniatures, at the same time as his
contemporary Henry Raeburn. Skirving’s early portrait miniatures
were recognised as being exceptionally skilful, though few works
from this period survive. From the outset of his career he drew
and painted with an intense realism, which became a defining
characteristic of his portraiture.
The pastel portrait of Mrs Guthrie is dated to Skirving’s period in
Edinburgh from the 1790s. A copy of it, a miniature on ivory by
an anonymous artist, was included in the catalogue of the Skirving
exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 1999 (no.132,
not illustrated), and also in the SNPG exhibition ‘Portrait Miniatures
from Scottish Private Collections’ in 2006. From this miniature the
sitter’s dress was dated to c.1796-1810 (see Lloyd, 1999, cat.132,
p. 72).
He moved to London in 1777 to try and forge a career painting
miniatures, but returned to Edinburgh in the mid-1780s. In 1786
Skirving travelled to Italy, where he stayed for eight years and
probably studied alongside Hugh Douglas Hamilton, who was in
Rome at the same time. On the return journey from Italy Skirving’s
ship was captured, and he was imprisoned for nine months, accused
of being a spy. This experience led to health and eyesight problems
and possibly intensified his introverted personality, but does not
seem to have affected his artistic skill.
58
67. John ‘Warwick’ Smith, OWS
(1749-1831)
‘The Cascade at Terni from the bottom’
19 √ x 14 ¾ in (50.5 x 37.3 cm)
Inscribed as title on the reverse in the
artist’s hand and numbered 4
Provenance: Fine Art Society, 1945;
A g n e w ’s , 1 9 4 8 ; D r D . H u s s e y,
Cheltenham; Laurence Strenger, New
York
Born in Cumberland, John Smith
trained as a topographical artist. In
early life he was tutored by Sawrey
Gilpin. Gilpin introduced Smith to
the Earl of Warwick, with the result
that in 1776 the Earl sent Smith to
sketch in Italy. He supported the
artist’s Grand Tour for five years, after
which time Smith returned to England
to live in Warwick and work on the
material he had gathered.
The dramatic cascade at Terni, fifty
miles north of Rome, was a popular
subject for artists undertaking the
Grand Tour, including Richard
Wilson and J. M. W. Turner. The free
technique of the present watercolour
suggests that it was executed in the
course of his travels.
60
68. John ‘Warwick’ Smith, OWS (1749-1831)
A bridge over the river Trient, near Chamonix, on the border of France and
Switzerland
11 √ x 17 ¼ in (30 x 43.5 cm)
Watercolour over pencil on laid paper
Provenance: with Agnew’s, London
61
The Cascade and Tivoli beyond
Watercolour
6 ¾ x 10 ¿ in (17.5 x 25.5 cm)
Inscribed on mount in pencil ‘Cascade Tivoli’
Provenance: Monro family; private collection, England
Exhibited: Martyn Gregory, British watercolours and drawings of the 18th,
19th and 20th centuries, catalogue 20, 1978, p.35
62
In the Campagna of Rome
6 ¾ x 10 in (17.3 x 25.2 cm)
Signed and dated 1793 and inscribed verso; inscribed in pencil on
original mount ‘Campagna di Roma’
Provenance: Monro family; private collection, England
Exhibited: Martyn Gregory, British watercolours and drawings of the 18th,
19th and 20th centuries, catalogue 20, 1978, p.34
Smith travelled through Italy from 1776-1781, in the company of
Thomas Jones, William Pars and Francis Towne. The large body
of sketches he produced provided a wealth of material for working
up exhibition watercolours. Following his return to England, Smith
undertook tours to the Lake District and Wales whilst continuing to
work on his Italian subjects.
63
71. The Reverend Thomas Smith (fl. 1780-1824)
Teignmouth, Devon, looking from the Dawlish road
Pencil, pen and ink and watercolour
7 ½ x 13 in (19 x 33 cm)
Inscribed and signed on the original backing paper ‘Teignmouth,
Devon, looking from the Dawlish road / Rev T Smith’
Provenance: with Anthony Reed, 3 Cork Street, London; private
collection, England
Exhibited: Anthony Reed, ‘British Drawings’, spring 1984 and Davis
and Langdale, New York, summer 1984 (no.35)
Thomas Smith was an accomplished topographical artist. The
delicate pen work and cool palette of this view owe something to the
style of Francis Towne.
64
72. Harold Speed, RP (1872-1957)
Lady on a sofa
Pencil and crayons
23 x 18 in (58.5 x 46 cm)
Exhibition: Martyn Gregory, Modern British
Painters, catalogue 52, 1988, no. 76
Provenance: Martyn Gregory, 1988;
private collection
By the time he was twenty-six Speed had
exhibited a dozen works at the Royal
Academy, received numerous commissions
for portraits and was selling his work to
luminaries such as Sir Frederick Leighton,
PRA. As a portrait painter Speed enjoyed
a distinguished clientele, headed by King
Edward VII, whose portrait he executed
for the city of Belfast in 1905. King Albert
of the Belgians sat for him subsequently,
as did Viscount Grey, Sir Henry Campell
Bannerman, Lord Baden-Powell, William
Holman Hunt and a variety of peers,
bishops and dignitaries.
The present drawing is an example of
Speed’s virtuoso figure drawing, close in
style to that of his contemporary PaulCésar Helleu.
65
73. Joseph Mallord William Turner, RA (1775-1851)
North Foreland lighthouse, Kent
Grey wash over pencil
10 ½ x 8 in (26.6 x 20.2 cm)
Label inscribed ‘North Foreland Lighthouse / J.M.W. Turner (17751851) / Formerly the property of J. L. Roget Esq (from Mr Vaughan’s
collection)’
Provenance: Henry Vaughan; J. L. Roget; English private collection
This drawing originates from Turner’s sketching tour of Kent in the
mid-1790s. A number of grey wash drawings of the area including
Dover, Rochester and Canterbury resulted from this tour. At this
time Turner was attending classes at Dr Thomas Monro’s informal
‘academy’ along with his contemporary Thomas Girtin.
The seventeenth-century octagonal lighthouse at Broadstairs had
been raised by two storeys in 1793, just before Turner’s visit. Turner’s
varied interest in the structure is apparent in this drawing. The
brackets and buttresses holding the dilapidated building together
are clearly drawn, while he also shows the recent addition of the
optical telegraph mast. Other artists depicted the lighthouse from
its more common viewpoint, looking toward the main octagonal
tower. William Daniell’s Voyage Round Great Britain includes a view of
the lighthouse (Tate, T02946), and some fifteen years earlier Michael
Angelo Rooker had depicted the tower prior to its being extended
upwards, and looking back towards the surrounding cottages (RA
collection 03/4268).
According to the label on the old frame, the picture was in the
collection of Henry Vaughan (1809-1899) who bequeathed his
collection of Turner watercolours to national museums. John Lewis
Roget (1829-1908), author of the 1891 History of the Old Watercolour
Society, acquired this and other drawings from Vaughan.
66
74. William Turner of Oxford, OWS (1789-1862)
Cottages by a stream
c. 1812-3
Pencil and chalk on grey paper
7 x 8 ¾ in (17.8 x 22.2 cm)
Provenance: Laurence Strenger, New York
Oxfordshire-born William Turner lived with his uncle in Shiptonon-Cherwell from 1803. He was sent to London in 1804 to study
drawing under John Varley, who instructed his students in the
importance of sketching outdoors. In 1808 he became one of the
youngest members of the Society of Painters in Water Colours,
and had started to exhibit at the Royal Academy. The precocious
artist produced some ambitious works early on in his career and
went on to paint grand exhibition watercolours. He returned to live
with his uncle in Shipton, Oxfordshire in about 1812, and began
to teach drawing at the University of Oxford and to pupils around
the county.
This drawing, possibly a local view in his native Oxfordshire,
is similar to drawings acquired by Thomas Penrose in 1814. These
were dispersed in 1979 (see Oxfordshire County Museum, William
Turner of Oxford, 1984, no. 22).
68
75. William Turner of Oxford, OWS (1789-1862)
Leigh Wood, Clifton
Watercolour and bodycolour over traces of pencil
14 ½ x 20 ¼ in (36.8 x 51.5 cm)
Signed ‘W. Turner Oxford’ on rock at lower left edge
Turner of Oxford made regular sketching tours in the summer,
acquainting himself with landscapes beyond his Oxfordshire home
ground. By 1816 he had visited the Lake District, the Peak District,
and Wales – all well known for their picturesque beauty. He made a
brief trip to Clifton Gorge and the Wye in 1808 or 1809.
His celebrated watercolour Wychwood Forest, Oxfordshire (Victoria
and Albert Museum), depicting a dense forest vista enlivened with
animals and birds, was exhibited at the Society of Painters in Water
Colours in 1809.
69
a
76. John Varley, OWS (1778-1842)
A pair of views of the interior at Boston Hall, Lincolnshire
a) Figures at a table, and a woman with a pail of water
Watercolour with pen and ink
7 √ x 11 ½ in (20.2 x 29.4 cm)
Signed and dated ‘J Varley 1803’
Inscribed verso ‘Boston Hall, Lincoln’
Illustrated: Adrian Bury, John Varley of the ‘Old Society’, 1946, plate
22, by permission of Augustus Walker Esq.
Exhibited: ‘Selections from the Collection of Mimi and Sandford
Feld’, Pennsylvania State University Museum of Art, March
– May 1981 and Aspen Center for the Visual Arts, Colorado,
October – November 1981, no. 48
70
b
b) Three men seated at a table; a bed in the corner
Watercolour with pen and ink
7 √ x 11 ¡ in (20 x 28.8 cm)
Exhibited: ‘Selections from the Collection of Mimi and Sandford
Feld’, Pennsylvania State University Museum of Art, March –
May 1981, no 49
Provenance: presumably collection of Augustus Walker Esq, 1946;
Sotheby’s, London, 1 April 1976, lot 67; with Martyn Gregory;
private collection, Monaco, 1980; with Martyn Gregory; Davis
and Long Co., New York; collection of Mimi and Sandford Feld,
1981; with Davis and Langdale, New York
71
East side of Caernarvon Castle from the south
Watercolours and pencil
9 ¬ x 13 ¾ in (24.4 x 34.8 cm)
John Varley made his first tour to Wales in 1798 or 1799. This tour
provided him with the foundation for topographical and picturesque
views made throughout his career. His route through Wales took
him to Conwy, Harlech and Caernarvon amongst other castles of
Wales and the borders.
John Varley was one of the leading figures in early nineteenth
century watercolour painting. He was among the group of artists
who attended Dr Monro’s academy at Adelphi Terrace, and taught
many pupils, both amateur and professional. The influence of fellowMonro School artist, Thomas Girtin can be seen in Varley’s earlier
work. After Girtin’s death Varley joined the Sketching Society,
which Girtin had founded. John Varley was a founder member of the
Society of Painters in Water Colours and one of their most prolific
exhibitors, showing some 350 works between 1805 and 1812.
This unusual view of a courtyard and towers within the walls of
Caernarvon Castle is topographical in treatment but with the
addition of charming details such as the washing hanging on a line.
The weathervane on the tower indicates the orientation of the view.
72
A sheet of four studies of a choirboy
5 ¾ x 9 ½ in (14.5 x 24.1 cm)
Signed ‘J Varley’
Provenance: with the Covent Garden
Gallery, Russell Street, London, 1982
(their label attached to old frame); private
collection
View at Charlton, Kent
Watercolour over pencil
7 ¼ x 10 ¾ in (18.3 x 27.1 cm)
Signed and inscribed 1830
Inscribed as title on old mount
73
80. James Ward, RA (1769-1859)
Fishing boats on a beach
Pencil and grey wash
5 ¾ x 8 ¼ in (14.7 x 21 cm)
Signed with monogram
Provenance: Spencers, from whom purchased by Peter Cochrane,
July 1940
Over his long and prolific career, James Ward produced hundreds of
drawings, watercolours and paintings, through which the tremendous
range of his interests is demonstrated. He delighted in sketching the
ordinary – animals, figures at work and everyday objects – as well as
dramatic mountain scenery, waterfalls and turbulent skies. He made
several sketching tours around England, Scotland and Wales in the
late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It is suggested that
the majority of his drawings from nature were made early in his career
during these extensive travels, as his later trips were more specifically
connected with commissions (see Drawings by James Ward 1769-1859 ,
WS Fine Art exhibition catalogue, 2009, p.10).
74
81. John Webber, RA (1752-1793)
Ashburham cottage, Chelsea
Pen and ink and wash, on original wash mount
9 ¼ x 15 ¼ in (23.5 x 38 cm)
Signed and dated 1782; inscribed verso in a later hand
‘Ashburham Cottage / where Miss Eliza Gulston lived’
Provenance: by descent to the late R A Stepney-Gulston of
Dorwydd Mansion, Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire
Ashburnham Cottage, just to the east of Cheyne Walk near
Ashburnham House, was the residence from 1812 to 1825 of Eliza
Gulston (1769-1857), daughter of the print-collector Joseph Gulston
the second of Ealing Grove; her account book of 1818 for the cottage
survives. Webber evidently made this drawing a couple of years
after the return of Captain Cook’s third expedition to the South Seas
(1776-1780), which Webber accompanied as its official artist.
75
82. Francis Wheatley, RA (1747-1801)
An extensive landscape with labourers at rest
12 ¾ x 18 ¾ in (32 x 47.8 cm) (oval)
Exhibited: Martyn Gregory, Early English Watercolours and Drawings,
catalogue 54, 1989, no.118
Known principally as an oil painter, Wheatley also executed
watercolour landscapes in the Picturesque tradition, tranquil,
spacious and with skilfully drawn figures. His landscapes were
worked up in the studio from sketches made on tours of the south of
England, the Lake District and Ireland. Wheatley was elected Royal
Academician in 1791.
76
83. Sir David Wilkie, RA (1785-1841)
Study for The Cotter’s Saturday Night
Pen and ink and wash on laid paper
6 ½ x 6 ¾ in (16.5 x 17.8 cm)
Partial watermark visible lower left of sheet; collector’s stamp (not
listed in Lugt)
Provenance: European private collection
Literature: Nicholas Tromans, David Wilkie: The people’s painter, 2007,
p.237-8; Tromans, David Wilkie: Painter of everyday life, Dulwich Picture
Gallery, 2002, p.38-9.
The painting is sometimes regarded as a pair with Grace before meat
(Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery) exhibited slightly later in
1839. Both pictures explore the culture of cotters - independent
Lowland yeomen, whose families were granted the use of a cottage
by the property-owner in exchange for work, instead of paying
rent. This simple way of life had all but vanished by the 1820s as a
result of agricultural reform. The picture also evokes the tradition
of domestic worship. This freely-drawn pen and ink sketch shows
the artist composing the gathering of family members, with an open
bible on the table.
Wilkie’s oil painting The Cotter’s Saturday Night, exhibited at the Royal
Academy in 1837, is in the collection of Glasgow Museums. It is an
illustration of Robert Burns’ eponymous patriotic poem:
An oil sketch for The Cotter’s Saturday Night was with the Fine Art
Society (oil on panel, 19 x 24 in).
‘The chearfu’ Supper done, wi’ serious face They, round the ingle, form a circle wide The Sire turns o’er, wi’ patriarchal grace The big ha’-Bible, ance his Father’s pride’ (verse xii, 1-4)
77
84. Sir David Wilkie, RA (1785-1841)
Sketch for The Cottage Toilet
Pen and brown ink
5 ½ x 8 in (14 x 20.3 cm)
Provenance: Spink & Son (no.K36642)
This sketch relates to Wilkie’s oil painting of 1824, The Cottage Toilet
in the Wallace Collection, London. The subject is taken from verse
ii, 1-6 in The Gentle Shepherd (1725), a pastoral comedy by Scottish
poet Allan Ramsay (1686-1758).
‘While Peggy laces up her bosom fair, With a blew snood Jenny binds up her hair; Glaud by his morning ingle takes a beek, The rising sun shines motty thro’ the reek, A pipe his mouth; the lasses please his een, And now and than his joke maun interveen.’ Wilkie’s treatment of the subject may have been influenced by one
of the illustrations by David Allan in the 1788 edition of Ramsay’s
poem.
78
INdex of Artists
Arden, Lady Margaret
Bough, Samuel
Callow, William
Chambers, George
Chinnery, George
Cipriani, Giovanni Batista
Clennell, Luke
Cox, David
Dawson, Henry
Day, William
Dayes, Edward
De Wint, Peter
Dodwell, Edward
Downman, John
Duncan, Edward
English School, 18th century
English School, 19th century
Evans of Bristol, William
Francia, François Thomas Louis
Gainsborough, Thomas
Girtin, Thomas
Graham, Lord Montague William
Hayward, John Samuel
Hofland, Thomas Christopher
Holland, James
Hood, John
Knight, John Baverstock
Landseer, Sir Edwin
Maclise, Daniel
Müller, William James
Nicholson, Francis
Payne, William
Pocock, Nicholas
Prout, Samuel
Robson, George Fennel
Romney, George
Rowlandson, Thomas
Schetky, John Christian
Serres, Dominic
4
5
6-7
8-9
9-10
11
12-13
14-20
20
21
22-23
24-27
28-29
30-31
32-33
34-35
34
36
37
38-39
40
41
42
42
43
44
44
45
46
47-49
49
50
50
51
52
53
53
54
55
Serres, John Thomas
Simpson, William
Skirving, Archibald
Smith, John ‘Warwick’
Smith, Rev Thomas
Speed, Harold
Turner, Joseph Mallord William
Turner of Oxford, William
Varley, John
Ward, James
Webber, John
Wheatley, Francis
Wilkie, Sir David
79
56
57
58-59
60-63
64
65
66-67
68-69
70-73
74
75
76
77-78
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
A
Associate
AA
Associated Artists in Watercolours
FSA
Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries
OWS
Old Society of Painters in Watercolour
PPresident
RA
Royal Academy
RI
Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours
RP
Royal Society of Portrait Painters
RSA
Royal Scottish Academy
RWS
Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours
80
MARTYN GREGORY
34 Bury Street, St. James’s
London SW1Y 6AU
Tel. 020 7839 3731 Fax. 020 7930 0812
[email protected] www.martyngregory.com

british watercolours and drawings

Transcription

Similar documents

Britain and France, 1688 to 1856

I will not love you long time and other stories

catalogue - Guy Peppiatt Fine Art

Handwriting Help

A spatially explicit approach to support the decision making process

Mrs. Papa`s School Supply List

Value $450. Toller Cranston signed print

hafeilobopartsmanual

Eversharp Pencils: The Operator`s Guide

Hondos at the Shoppes at Innsbrook