new catalogue 2016 'british watercolours and drawings

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BRITISH WATERCOLOURS AND DRAWINGS

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Page 1: New catalogue 2016 'British Watercolours and Drawings

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BRITISH WATERCOLOURS AND DRAWINGS

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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

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MARTYN GREGORY

Catalogue 95

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MARTYN GREGORY

Catalogue 952016

AN EXHIBITION OF

BRITISH WATERCOLOURS AND DRAWINGS 1750 to 1900

34 Bury Street, St. James’sLondon SW1Y 6AUTel. 020 7839 3731Fax. 020 7930 0812

[email protected]

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1. Lady Margaret Arden (c.1762-1851)Beach at Ryhope, DurhamPencil and watercolour6 ½ x 9 ¼ in (16.5 x 23.5 cm)Inscribed as title and dated June 4. 1811.Provenance: private collection, England

Lady Margaret Arden was a patron and pupil of David Cox (1783-1859). 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).

2. Lady Margaret Arden (c.1762-1851)From Gillingham Bridge, ChathamPencil and watercolour5 ½ x 8 ¾ in (14 x 22.2 cm)Inscribed ‘Chatham’ and dated 1810. Verso: inscribed and dated 1810 Provenance: private collection, England

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3. Samuel Bough, RSA (1822-1878) Figures on a storm-tossed beachWatercolour with scratching-out9 x 14 in (22.7 x 35 cm)Signed ‘Sam Bough’ and dated 1869Provenance: private collection, England

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.

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4. William Callow, RWS (1812-1908)The river Seine at CaudebecWatercolour4 ½ x 13 in (11.8 x 33 cm)Provenance: with Agnew’s

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.

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).

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5. William Callow, RWS (1812-1908)Namur, BelgiumPencil and watercolour13 x 19 ¡ in (33 x 49 cm)SignedExhibited: 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.

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6. George Chambers OWS (1803-1840)Fishing vessels in choppy seasWatercolour with scratching-out8 ½ x 13 in (21.5 x 33.2cm)Signed and dated ‘G. Chambers 1837’Provenance: Gerald Collins collection; private collection, EnglandExhibited: 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.

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).

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7. George Chambers OWS (1803-1840)Fishing vessel off shore Watercolour with scratching out6 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 figurePencil10 √ 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.

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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 EdmonstonePencil and watercolour 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 sittersLiterature: Mildred Archer, India and British Portraiture 1770-1825, 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’.

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10. Giovanni Battista Cipriani, RA (1727-1785)Young girl playing the violin, with an attentive catBlack and red chalk and pencil on laid paper6 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.

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11. Luke Clennell, AA, AOWS (1781-1840)Fishermen mending baskets, Isle of WightWatercolour and traces of pencil11 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 collectionExhibition: Martyn Gregory, An exhibition of fine English watercolours, catalogue 27, 1981, no.20; Martyn Gregory, Early English Watercolours and Drawings, catalogue 54, 1989, no.22Illustrated: 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.

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12. David Cox, OWS (1783-1859)Homend, Ledbury, HerefordshireWatercolour and pencil with touches of bodycolour9 ¬ x 14 ¡ in (24.5 x 41.8 cm) SignedInscribed 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).

13. David Cox, OWS (1783-1859)Ruined tower with village beyondBlack chalk12 x 19 in (35 x 48.3 cm)Inscribed in the foreground: ‘dark sky’ and ‘green weed’

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14. David Cox, OWS (1783-1859)Vale of Clwyd with figures carrying cornWatercolour and bodycolour14 x 24 in (35.5 x 61 cm)

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.

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.

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15. David Cox, OWS (1783-1859)Welsh hill pastures: sheep being driven into a laneWatercolour8 ½ x 11 ½ in (21.5 x 29.4 cm)Watermark: J Whatman 1849Provenance: with Anthony Reed, London, 1976; Davis and Long Co., New York; collection of Mimi and Sandford Feld, 1976-2016; with Davis and Langdale, New YorkExhibited: ‘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 1750-1910’, 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.

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16. David Cox, OWS (1783-1859)The waterfall, Betws-y-CoedWatercolour with black chalk, gum arabic and bodycolour on eight joined sheets of paper27 ¼ x 40 ¾ in (69 x 103.4 cm)SignedInscribed on label attached to old frame ‘No 1 / The Waterfall / Bettwys y Coed / NW / David Cox’Provenance: Arthur W. Nicholson Esq, Arisaig House, Fort WilliamExhibited: 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)

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

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.

We are grateful to Peter Bower for his comments on the paper.

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17. David Cox, OWS (1783-1859)On the road to Capel CurigOil on canvas16 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 collectionExhibited: 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 sketching-out 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.

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18. David Cox, OWS (1783-1859)Unsted Wood near Shalford, SurreyPencil7 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 bullPencil and watercolour9 √ 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.

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20. William Day (1764-1807)The Manifold River, possibly below Thor’s Cave, DerbyshireWatercolour and ink13 ¬ 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’.

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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 pencil13 √ 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.

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22. Peter De Wint, OWS (1784-1849)Lincoln CathedralWatercolour6 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.

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23. Peter De Wint, OWS (1784-1849)Still life with basket, cloth, earthenware jar and brushWatercolour over traces of pencil9 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

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.

24. Peter De Wint, OWS (1784-1849)Study for A timber yardWatercolour and pencil9 ¿ x 10 ¬ in (23 x 27 cm)Provenance: private collection, England

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.

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25. Peter De Wint, OWS (1784-1849)A country road, with figures and building materialsWatercolour14 x 20 in (35.3 x 50.6 cm)

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26. Peter De Wint, OWS (1784-1849)Horses and figures on a riverside pathWatercolour over traces of pencil12 ¿ 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.

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27. Edward Dodwell, FSA (1767-1832)The Phlegraean Fields (Campi Flegrei), NaplesPencil and watercolour24 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).

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28. John Downman, ARA (1750-1824)Study of a spanielPencil and stump with white and red chalk8 √ 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.

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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 sizeSigned, dated and inscribed in ink ‘J. Downman / 1788 / unfinished’ Provenance: ‘G.K.M.’ private collection, England, 1969

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.

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).

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30. Edward Duncan, RWS (1803-1882)Fishing vessels at the Entrance to the Binns Pen and brown ink8 ¼ x 13 ¼ in (21 x 34 cm)Watermark: Joyns 1869Inscribed: ‘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.

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31. Edward Duncan, RWS (1803-1882)Figures in a street in StrasbourgPen and ink and watercolour with gum arabic over traces of pencil10 ¼ x 13 ½ in (26.1 x 34.3 cm)Signed and dated 1840Provenance: 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.

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32. English School, early 19th centuryThe 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 bamboo-framed 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 fashionably-coiffed 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.

33. English School, c.1800Llangollen Bridge, north WalesWatercolour and pencil9 ¾ x 16 ½ inInscribed in pencil ‘Llangollen Bridge’Collection: North Devon Athenaeum sale of the collection of Samuel Prout

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34. English School, c.1750Pair of pastel portraits: Sir John Colleton of Colleton, Devon and his wifePastel 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.

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35. William Evans of Bristol, AOWS (1809-1858)Falls of Machno, near Betws-y-Coed, north WalesWatercolour with stopping-out9 ¡ 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.

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.

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36. François Thomas Louis Francia (1772-1839)River scene with distant mountainsPencil and watercolour with scratching-out8 ½ x 15 ¼ in (21.5 x 38 cm)Signed and dated ‘L. Francia 1801’Provenance: private collection, EnglandExhibited: 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.

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37. Thomas Gainsborough, RA (1727-1788)A stream in a wooded landscapePen and ink and watercolour wash with traces of pencil on brown coloured wove paper7 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.

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38. Thomas Gainsborough, RA (1727-1788)Study of a pony with panniers and slight sketch of a figure1760sPencil5 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 sectionStamped twice ‘T Gainsborough’ and once ‘Gainsborough’. Inscribed indistinctly ‘Very...’ along lower edgeProvenance: Sotheby’s, 18 November 1976, (193); private collectionLiterature: 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.

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39. Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)A watermillWatercolour and pencil with pen and ink8 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).

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40 . Lord Montagu William Graham (1807-1878)

Cattle on a roadWatercolour over traces of pencil12 x 18 ½ in (30.5 x 47cm)Provenance: private collection, England

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 lochWatercolour and pencil13 ¼ x 20 in (33.5 x 50.7 cm)Provenance: private collection, England

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42. John Samuel Hayward (1778-1822)Dover castle and harbourWatercolour and pencil on laid paper11 ¼ x 18 ¼ in (28.5 x 46.5 cm)Inscribed verso ‘Dover’. Large watermark visible.Provenance: private collection, England

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.

43. Thomas Christopher Hofland (1777-1843)View of Carisbrooke Castle, Isle of WightPencil and watercolour10 ½ x 15 ¾ in (26.7 x 39.4 cm)Provenance: Canon Smythe; private collection, EnglandExhibited: Touring exhibition of provincial art galleries, 1954-5; Martyn Gregory, English and Dutch watercolours and drawings, catalogue 14, 1977, no. 43

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.

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44. James Holland, OWS (1800-1870)The Ile de la Cité and Pont Neuf, ParisWatercolour over pencil heightened with touches of gouache6 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.

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45. John Hood (fl.1758-71)The East Indiaman Essex in three positionsPen and ink and grey wash18 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’

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.

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.

46. John Baverstock Knight (1785-1859) Hengwrt, Cader IdrisWatercolour over pencil, pen and ink12 ¿ x 18 ¡ in (31.2 x 46.7 cm)Inscribed top right ‘Hengwert & Cader Idris from Llanelltyd [?] Merionyethshire’

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.

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47. Sir Edwin Landseer, RA (1802-1873)BrutusPencil and touches of white chalk and ink on grey paper11 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’

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.18-19, 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).

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).

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48. Daniel Maclise, RA (1806-1870)A scene with Renaissance figuresPen and brown ink and wash9 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”.’

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49. William James Müller (1812-1845)Sketch of trees at StapletonWatercolour10 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.

50. William James Müller (1812-1845)A Renaissance interiorWatercolour3 ¾ x 5 ½ in (9.5 x 14 cm)Signed and dated 1834

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51. William James Müller (1812-1845)Tlos, LyciaWatercolour11 ¡ 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.

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52. William James Müller (1812-1845)VenicePencil and watercolour6 ¼ x 11 ½ in (16 x 29.2 cm)Verso: portrait of a man, in pencilProvenance: with Anthony Reed, Cork Street; private collection, England

Müller and his friend George Arthur Fripp embarked on a seven-month 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.

53. Francis Nicholson, OWS (1753-1844)Robin Hood’s Bay, north YorkshirePen and ink and watercolour8 √ 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. 93Provenance: Martyn Gregory, 1989; private collection

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.

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54. William Payne, AOWS (1760-1830)A castle above steep river banks with a spire in the distancePen and ink and watercolour8 √ x 15 ¿ in (22.6 x 38.4 cm)Provenance: with Michael Spratt, Guildford, Surrey, November 1978 (cat. no. 29); private collection, England

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.

55. Nicholas Pocock, OWS (1740-1821)Portrait of the ship TryallGrey wash14 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’

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.

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56. Samuel Prout, OWS (1783-1852)Five arched bridge and tower in a hilly landscapeWatercolour and pencil11 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.

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57. George Fennel Robson, POWS (1788-1833)Scene on the Isle of Skye with hunters and dogsWatercolour and gouache with scratching out18 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 hand-coloured aquatints.

58. George Fennel Robson, POWS (1788-1833)Pass of GlencoeWatercolour and bodycolour with scratching out11 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 CliftonA version of this watercolour is in Manchester Art Gallery (1890.54).

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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’

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, 2010-11, 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).

60. Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)The artist and his companions at the New Inn, Isle of WightPen and ink and watercolour6 ½ x 9 √ in (16.5 x 25 cm)Verso: slight pencil sketch of a landscapeProvenance: with Philip Goodman, Norwich

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.

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.

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61. John Christian Schetky (1778-1874)A Naval engagementPencil and wash13 ¾ x 19 ½ in (35 x 49.5 cm)Exhibition: Martyn Gregory, Early English Watercolours, catalogue 50, April 1988, no.103Provenance: 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.

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63. Dominic Serres, RA (1722-1793)Naval vessels at the rock of GibraltarPen and ink and watercolour over traces of pencil11 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’Provenance: private collection

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).

62. Dominic Serres, RA (1722-1793)Naval vessels at the rock of GibraltarPen and ink and watercolour over traces of pencil11 x 16 ½ in (27.5 x 42 cm)Signed ‘D. S.’ and dated 1786Inscribed in pencil on old backing sheet ‘Serres Gibraltar. Back of the Rock at Europoint’Provenance: private collection

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64. John Thomas Serres (1759-1825)The armed Lugger Aristocrat engaged in a skirmish with a French flotillaPen 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).Provenance: private collection

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.

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:

‘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 ship mounting 18 – 18 poundersLa Diligence Brig - 12 . 16 -La Brave - - 14 . 36 -La Rondell - - 14 . 6 -La Furette - 12 . 4 -L’Harmonie - - 14 . 24 -Le Terreur Cutter - 10 . 4 -Le Marat - 10 . 4 -La Furette Lugger - 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”.’

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65. William Simpson, RI (1823-1899)Subterraneous passage to the Fort of DowlutabadPencil and watercolour heightened with white10 ¿ x 14 ¿ in (25.5 x 36 cm)Signed and dated ‘Wm Simpson 1865’ and inscribed in the artist’s hand as title19th 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.

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66. Archibald Skirving (1749-1819)Portrait of Euphan Guthrie, Mrs Charles Wright of Phallope (1739-1831 ) Pastel23 x 18 in (58.5 x 46 cm)

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 USALiterature: 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

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.

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.

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).

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).

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).

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67. John ‘Warwick’ Smith, OWS (1749-1831)

‘The Cascade at Terni from the bottom’Pencil and watercolour19 √ x 14 ¾ in (50.5 x 37.3 cm)Inscribed as title on the reverse in the artist’s hand and numbered 4Provenance: Fine Art Society, 1945; Agnew’s , 1948; Dr D. Hussey, 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.

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68. John ‘Warwick’ Smith, OWS (1749-1831)A bridge over the river Trient, near Chamonix, on the border of France and Switzerland11 √ x 17 ¼ in (30 x 43.5 cm)Watercolour over pencil on laid paperProvenance: with Agnew’s, London

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69. John ‘Warwick’ Smith, OWS (1749-1831)The Cascade and Tivoli beyondWatercolour6 ¾ x 10 ¿ in (17.5 x 25.5 cm) Inscribed on mount in pencil ‘Cascade Tivoli’Provenance: Monro family; private collection, EnglandExhibited: Martyn Gregory, British watercolours and drawings of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, catalogue 20, 1978, p.35

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70. John ‘Warwick’ Smith, OWS (1749-1831)In the Campagna of RomePencil and watercolour6 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, EnglandExhibited: 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.

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71. The Reverend Thomas Smith (fl. 1780-1824)Teignmouth, Devon, looking from the Dawlish roadPencil, pen and ink and watercolour7 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, EnglandExhibited: 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.

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72. Harold Speed, RP (1872-1957)Lady on a sofaPencil and crayons23 x 18 in (58.5 x 46 cm)Signed and dated 1905Exhibition: 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 Paul-César Helleu.

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73. Joseph Mallord William Turner, RA (1775-1851)North Foreland lighthouse, KentGrey wash over pencil10 ½ x 8 in (26.6 x 20.2 cm)Label inscribed ‘North Foreland Lighthouse / J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) / 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.

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74. William Turner of Oxford, OWS (1789-1862)Cottages by a streamc. 1812-3Pencil and chalk on grey paper7 x 8 ¾ in (17.8 x 22.2 cm)Provenance: Laurence Strenger, New York

Oxfordshire-born William Turner lived with his uncle in Shipton-on-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).

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75. William Turner of Oxford, OWS (1789-1862)Leigh Wood, CliftonWatercolour and bodycolour over traces of pencil14 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.

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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 ink7 √ 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

a

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b) Three men seated at a table; a bed in the cornerWatercolour with pen and ink7 √ 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

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77. John Varley, OWS (1778-1842)East side of Caernarvon Castle from the southWatercolours and pencil 9 ¬ x 13 ¾ in (24.4 x 34.8 cm)Provenance: private collection, England

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 fellow-Monro 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.

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.

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.

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78. John Varley, OWS (1778-1842)A sheet of four studies of a choirboyPencil and watercolour5 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

79. John Varley, OWS (1778-1842)View at Charlton, KentWatercolour over pencil7 ¼ x 10 ¾ in (18.3 x 27.1 cm)Signed and inscribed 1830Inscribed as title on old mount

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80. James Ward, RA (1769-1859)Fishing boats on a beachPencil and grey wash 5 ¾ x 8 ¼ in (14.7 x 21 cm)Signed with monogramProvenance: 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).

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81. John Webber, RA (1752-1793)Ashburham cottage, ChelseaPen and ink and wash, on original wash mount9 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.

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82. Francis Wheatley, RA (1747-1801)An extensive landscape with labourers at restPen and ink and watercolour12 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.

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83. Sir David Wilkie, RA (1785-1841)Study for The Cotter’s Saturday NightPen and ink and wash on laid paper6 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 collectionLiterature: 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.

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:

‘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)

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.

An oil sketch for The Cotter’s Saturday Night was with the Fine Art Society (oil on panel, 19 x 24 in).

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84. Sir David Wilkie, RA (1785-1841)Sketch for The Cottage ToiletPen and brown ink5 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.

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INDEX OF ARTISTS

Arden, Lady Margaret 4Bough, Samuel 5Callow, William 6-7Chambers, George 8-9Chinnery, George 9-10Cipriani, Giovanni Batista 11Clennell, Luke 12-13Cox, David 14-20Dawson, Henry 20Day, William 21Dayes, Edward 22-23De Wint, Peter 24-27Dodwell, Edward 28-29Downman, John 30-31Duncan, Edward 32-33English School, 18th century 34-35English School, 19th century 34Evans of Bristol, William 36Francia, François Thomas Louis 37Gainsborough, Thomas 38-39Girtin, Thomas 40Graham, Lord Montague William 41Hayward, John Samuel 42Hofland, Thomas Christopher 42Holland, James 43Hood, John 44Knight, John Baverstock 44Landseer, Sir Edwin 45Maclise, Daniel 46Müller, William James 47-49Nicholson, Francis 49Payne, William 50Pocock, Nicholas 50Prout, Samuel 51Robson, George Fennel 52Romney, George 53Rowlandson, Thomas 53Schetky, John Christian 54Serres, Dominic 55

Serres, John Thomas 56Simpson, William 57Skirving, Archibald 58-59Smith, John ‘Warwick’ 60-63Smith, Rev Thomas 64Speed, Harold 65Turner, Joseph Mallord William 66-67Turner of Oxford, William 68-69Varley, John 70-73Ward, James 74Webber, John 75Wheatley, Francis 76Wilkie, Sir David 77-78

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A AssociateAA Associated Artists in WatercoloursFSA Fellow of the Society of AntiquariesOWS Old Society of Painters in WatercolourP PresidentRA Royal AcademyRI Royal Institute of Painters in WatercoloursRP Royal Society of Portrait PaintersRSA Royal Scottish AcademyRWS Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

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MARTYN GREGORY34 Bury Street, St. James’s

London SW1Y 6AUTel. 020 7839 3731 Fax. 020 7930 0812

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