BRITISH DRAWINGS AND WATERCOLOURS 2017                           

BRITISH DRAWINGS AND WATERCOLOURS

2017

GUY PEPPIATT FINE ART

GUY PEPPIATT FINE ART LTD

Riverwide House, 6 Mason’s Yard

Duke Street, St James’s, London SW1Y 6BU
GUY PEPPIATT FINE ART
BRITISH DRAWINGS AND WATERCOLOURS
2017

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 Guy Peppiatt started his working life at Dulwich Picture Gallery before joining Sotheby’s British Pictures
department in 1993. He soon specialised in early British drawings and watercolours and took over the
running of Sotheby’s Topographical sales. Topographical views whether they be of Britain or worldwide
have remained an abiding passion. Guy left Sotheby’s in early 2004 and has worked as a dealer since
then, first based at home, and now in his gallery on Mason’s Yard, St James’s, shared with the Old Master
and European Drawings dealer Stephen Ongpin. He advises clients and museums on their collections,
buys and sells on their behalf and can provide insurance valuations. Guy Peppiatt Fine Art exhibit at a
number of London fairs and are also part of Master Drawings New York every January. Guy also vets a
number of art fairs and is Chairman of the Vetting Committee for the Works on Paper Fair.

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BRITISH DRAWINGS AND WATERCOLOURS
2017

Monday to Friday 10am to 6pm

Weekends and evenings by appointment

Guy Peppiatt Fine Art Ltd

Riverwide House, 6 Mason’s Yard
Duke Street, St James’s, London SW1Y 6BU

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7930 3839

Mobile: +44 (0) 7956 968284
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7839 1504
guy@peppiattfineart.co.uk
www.peppiattfineart.co.uk
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William Taverner (1700-1772)
An Italianate Landscape

Watercolour over pencil heightened with white on two sheets of laid paper joined a wonderfull genius to drawing of Landskip in an excellent manner, adorned with
14.2 by 40.2 cm., 5 ½ by 15 ¾ in. figures in a stile above the common’ (George Vertue, ‘The Notebooks of George
Vertue’, Walpole Society, vol. 3, p.68). According to Martin Hardie, he was ‘our first
Provenance: regular and systematic painter of free landscapes in watercolour’ (Martin Hardie,
With Thos. Agnews, London, 1984 Water-colour Painting in Britain, 1966, vol. I, p.69).

Exhibited: The majority of his works are of imaginary Italianate compositions in the manner of
London, Thos. Agnew & Sons, 111th Annual Exhibition of Watercolours and Drawings, Claude and Poussin although he appears never to have visited Italy. He was one of
23rd January-24th February 1984, no. 6 the earliest exponents of the combination of watercolour and bodycolour as the
lead white bodycolour on the present drawing indicates. A number of his works are
Taverner was a lawyer by profession, inheriting his father’s position as Procurator- in the same panoramic format. A drawing from the Oppé collection in the Tate
General of the Court of Arches of Canterbury, based in Bow Church, London, but Gallery measures 7 ½ by 18 inches and is also on two sheets of paper (see Anne
he was also a highly skilled artist. The engraver George Vertue records in one of his Lyles and Robin Hamlyn, British Watercolours from the Oppé Collection, 1997, p.50,
notebooks in 1733: ‘Mr Taverner about Aeta 30 (beside his practice in the Law) has no.7, ill. p.51).

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Attributed to Charles Grignion (1721-1810)
Study of a Woman

Black and white chalk on blue laid paper

39.3 by 26.5 cm., 15 ½ by 10 ½ in.

Provenance:
The Estate of Vivienne Haskell, the wife of the ballet critic Arnold Haskell
(1903-1980)

This relates closely in style to a portrait by Charles Grignion of the artist’s

brother Thomas drawn in 1737 which is in the British Museum (BM
1890,0512,94). This drawing is likely to have been executed at the St
Martin’s Lane Academy which was set up by William Hogarth in 1735.
The premises were a room on St Peter’s Court off St Martin’s Lane where
members would meet to draw from a life model. Members including the
engraver Gravelot, the sculptor Roubiliac, the artist Francis Hayman and
the young Gainsborough who was employed by Gravelot at the time. St
Martin’s Lane Academy drawings are usually drawn on a blue or buff sheet
and are of similar size. Two drawings of a similar woman by Gravelot, of
the same size and on buff paper, are in the Ashmolean Museum
(WA1863.100 and 101).

Born in Covent Garden to foreign probably French Huguenot parents,

Grignion studied at the St Martin’s Lane Academy as a young man. He
was employed by Hogarth as an engraver on his four Election pictures
amongst others and also by Gravelot. In the 1770s, he worked for
Thomas Stothard but his style began to feel old-fashioned and he was
superseded by younger engravers.

We are grateful to Hugh Belsey for his comments on this drawing.

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Paul Sandby, R.A. (1731-1809)
Page’s Farm, Easton Park, Essex

Watercolour and bodycolour over pencil This is one of two pictures of this size exhibited by Sandby at the British Institution in
20.0 by 27.4 cm., 7 ¾ by 10 ¾ in. 1808 entitled ‘Part of Page’s Farm, near Easton Park, Essex’ (no.271) or ‘Page’s Farm,
Easton Park, Essex, from the West.’ Views of the Keeper’s Lodge, Easton Park are in
The manor and estates of Little Easton, later Easton Park, were granted to Henry the Victoria and Albert Museum (Dyce 746) and the British Museum (1904,0819.23),
Maynard, Lord Burleigh’s private secretary in 1590. He was knighted in 1603. The which also has a ‘design for a window blind, Easton Park’, dated 1809.
house, Easton |Park, was built in 1597 and burnt down in 1847 when it was rebuilt
by Hopper. At the date of the present work, Easton Lodge was in the possession of Exhibited:
Charles, Viscount Maynard (1752-1824) who inherited the peerage in 1775 and London, British Institution, 1808, no 271 or 287
succeeded his father as 5th Baronet in 1792. He married but had no children so
the estate was inherited by his nephew. Sold with a drawing of the same subject:

The house later achieved notoriety as the home of Daisy Maynard who married
Francis Greville, later Earl of Warwick, in 1881. She was famous as a socialite who had Paul Sandby, R.A. (1730-1809)
several affairs with powerful men including Edward VII and was the inspiration for the Entrance into Easton Park
music hall song ‘Daisy Daisy’. On the death of Edward VII, she tried to blackmail his
son, the new king George V with letters written by his father but she was Inscribed lower centre: Entrance into Easton Park from Dunmow?
outmanoeuvred by Lord Staffordham and died virtually penniless. Pencil on laid paper
12.8 by 22.9 cm., 5 ¼ by 9 ¼ in.
Although her main residence was Warwick Castle, she retained Easton Lodge and
created lavish gardens and a private zoo at the house. Much of the Estate was sold off Provenance:
in the 1890s and again in 1919 and 1920. 1500 acres of woodland and farmland Admiral Sir James Hawkins-Whiteshed (1762-1849)
remained in the Maynard family until it was sold to Land Securities plc in 2004.

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John White Abbott (1763-1851)
Chudleigh Rock on the Teign, Devon

Inscribed verso: Chudleigh Sept. 2. 1799 sketching tour outside the south-west of England was to the Lake District and Scotland
Pen and black ink and watercolour in 1791 (see no.6). In 1825, he inherited an estate near Exeter to which he retired.
16.1 by 24.7 cm., 6 ½ by 9 ¾ in.
Chudleigh is a town on the river Teign fourteen miles south-west of Exeter. Chudleigh
Provenance: Rock was a popular beauty spot near Ugbrooke Park, the home of the Clifford family.
By descent from the artist until sold at Sotheby’s, 21st March 2002, lot 155 Towne also drew Chudleigh Rock, in 1787. A study of undergrowth at Chudleigh by
White Abbott dated 21st September 1798 was sold at Christie’s on 5th June 2007, lot
White Abbott was a friend and pupil of Francis Towne (1740-1816) and worked as a 2 for £6,600 and a view of Chudleigh Rock by him dated 14th August 1792 was sold
surgeon in his home town of Exeter. Most of his landscapes are Devon views and he there on 14th November 1972, lot 97.
exhibited at the Royal Academy but never sold a work in his lifetime. His only

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John White Abbott (1763-1851)
Near Stapleton, Bristol

Inscribed verso: near Stapleton Aug.t 10. 94. Stapleton is a hilly area to the north-east of the centre of Bristol and was a popular
Pen and grey ink and watercolour on laid paper sketching ground for Bristol artists.
15.5 by 22.3 cm., 6 by 8 ¾ in.
For more on the artist, see note to no.4.
Provenance:
By descent from the artist until circa 1995

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John White Abbott (1763-1851)
Loch Long from Hills near Arrochar, Scotland at 5 in the Morning

Signed verso: On Loch Long from an Hill near Arrochar, at 5 O’Clock in the Morning/JWA. This drawing dates from White Abbott’s six week tour of the north of England and
July 2. 1791. Scotland in the summer of 1791. Most of his drawings from the tour are numbered
Pen and grey ink and watercolour on laid paper on original washline mount starting with no. 1, dated 13th June, of York Minster with no.80, dating 28th July of
18.8 by 24 cm., 7 ¼ by 9 ½ in. Glastonbury. He was in Edinburgh by 19th June then continued north to Stirling and
Dunkeld then west to Loch Tay, Loch Awe, Loch Fyne and Loch Long, the subject of
Provenance: the present drawing, dated 2nd July. He then continued south to Loch Lomond to see
By descent from the artist until sold at Sotheby’s on 30th June 2005, lot 252, where the Falls of the Clyde, then on to Glasgow and the south. Arrochar is situated at the
bought by the present owner north end of Loch Long close to Loch Lomond.

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Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
Waiting for the Invasion

Pen and grey ink and watercolour over pencil The Defence of the Realm Act, passed on 5th April, which determined how the
30.5 by 45.9 cm., 12 by 18 in. country would be defended. A system of volunteer regiments was set up and beacons
were installed along the coast as a means of fast communication. In the summer of
Provenance: 1803 when war resumed after the Treaty of Amiens of 1802, General Sir David
With the Fine Art Society, 1946; Dundas set up his headquarters in Canterbury convinced that Dover was the most
Anonymous sale, Christie’s, 4th November 1975, lot 33; likely place for a Napoleonic invasion.
Anonymous sale, Sotheby’s, 14th July 1988, lot 74;
By descent to the present owner Another version of this watercolour is illustrated in Bernard Falk’s Thomas Rowlandson,
his Life and Art, a Documentary Record, 1949, p.165 and Adrian Bury’s Rowlandson’s
This drawing is likely to date from between 1798 and 1805, when invasion of England Drawings, 1949, pl.81.
by Napoleon and his army seemed at its most imminent. In 1798 these fears led to

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Thomas Sunderland (1744-1823)
View of Ullswater from the South

Watercolour over pencil

32.5 by 45.4 cm., 12 ¾ by 17 ¾ in.

This is a view of Ullswater from the east bank looking across to Stybarrow Crag. the early 1780s. Sunderland was a regular visitor to Ullswater as his daughter Anne
Sunderland was born at Whittington Hall near Kirkby Lonsdale. He successfully ran was married to the Rev. Henry Askew who lived at Glenridding House on the lake.
the family business of iron mining and smelting until retiring to a house at Ulverston in

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Edward Dayes (1763-1804)
Flint Castle, North Wales by Moonlight

Signed lower right: EDayes

Watercolour over pencil with original washline border
16.6 by 11 cm., 6 ¾ by 4 ½ in.

Provenance:
With Leger Galleries, London, November 1971

Flint Castle stands on the banks of the river Dee to the north-west of
Chester. It was the first of Edward I’s castle built in the late 13th century
as part of his plan to conquer Wales.

Dayes was described by Hardie as ‘the outstanding member of the

group of topographers at the close of the eighteenth century’ (see Martin
Hardie, Water-Colour Painting in Britain, 1966, vol. I, p.179). He studied at
the Royal Academy Schools from 1780 and his bluish-grey colouring and
draughtsmanship were a strong influence on his pupil Thomas Girtin as
well as J.M.W. Turner in the mid 1790s. Dayes specialised in topographical
landscapes often with an architectural feature and many of his views were
engraved.

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John ‘Warwick’ Smith (1749-1831)
View towards Capel Curig from the Resting Place on the Ascent of the Mountain Ridge
north of Nantwynan

Inscribed on original mount: 233./July 14.th 1792./View towards Capel Curig from the Smith was the son of a Cumberland gardener and studied under Sawrey Gilpin
Gorphwysfa or Resting Place, on the Ascent of the Mountain Ridge/North of Nantwynan. (1733-1807), another artist from the North-west. Gilpin introduced Smith to the Earl
From hence communications in opposite directions, extend to Capel Curig./and Llanberis. of Warwick who paid for his trip to Italy from 1776 until 1781, hence his nickname.
- Carnarvonshire -
Watercolour over traces of pencil heightened with touches of bodycolour Smith made various tours of Wales and his Welsh are usually precisely dated and
14 by 21.5 cm., 5 ¾ by 8 ½ in. inscribed with the subject.

Provenance:
The 7th Earl of Warwick, his sale, Sotheby’s, 17th June 1936

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John ‘Warwick’ Smith (1749-1831)
A Bridge over the river Trient, Switzerland

Inscribed with title verso, watercolour over pencil heightened with

touches of bodycolour
47.7 by 31.7 cm., 18 ¾ by 12 ½ in.

Provenance:
With Thos Agnew & Sons, London;
Private Collection

Smith was the son of a Cumberland gardener and studied under Sawrey
Gilpin (1733-1807), another local artist. Gilpin introduced Smith to the
Earl of Warwick who paid for his trip to Italy from 1776 until 1781, hence
his nickname. Smith passed through Switzerland on his return to England
with Francis Towne in the summer of 1781. They left Rome in August and
entered Switzerland near Chiavenna travelling up to Lake Walenstadt then
headed west to Geneva. From there they travelled south to Chamonix
and returned to Geneva via Montreux.

Dated drawings by Towne reveal that they were still in Geneva on 11th
September and had reached Vevey on the 20th. They headed north from
Geneva and homewards on the 23rd.

The river Trient originates from the Trient Glacier and flows through the
village of the same name. Trient is situated a few miles to the south-west
of Martigny and north-east of Chamonix near the French-Swiss border.
Another view of this bridge, in landscape format, was sold at Christie’s
South Kensington on 20th May 2015, lot 597

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Michael ‘Angelo’ Rooker, A.R.A. (1743-1801)
At Braintree, Essex

Indistinctly inscribed lower right: The Great...... and verso: at Braintree, Efsex Rooker was the son of the engraver Edward Rooker (1712-1774). He studied at the
Pen and grey ink and washes over traces of pencil St Martin’s Lane Academy and was also taught by Paul Sandby (see no.3). He was one
20.2 by 29.4 cm., 8 by 11 ½ in. of the first students at the newly formed Royal Academy schools in 1769 and made an
associate member the following year. He worked in Sandby’s topographical tradition
Provenance: and made a series of walking tours across England and Wales from 1788. Some of his
Anonymous sale, Sotheby’s, 15th June 2000, lot 231, where bought by the present best works are his views of Oxford drawn and engraved for the Oxford Almanack.
owner Redgrave in his dictionary describes his watercolours as follows: ‘His works are drawn
with conscientious accuracy, and show a sweet pencil, coupled with a fine taste and
This is a view of St. Michael’s church, Braintree, which stands on the corner of South finish, which give him rank among our early water-colour painters’ (Samuel Redgrave,
Street and High Street. A Dictionary of Artists of the English School, 1878, p.368).

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Michael ‘Angelo’ Rooker, A.R.A. (1743-1801)
A Farmhouse by a Country Road

Signed with initials lower right Provenance:

Watercolour over pencil heightened with touches of bodycolour on laid paper With the Albany Gallery, London, November 1972;
23.6 by 29.8 cm., 9 ¼ by 11 ¾ in. Private Collection

See note to no.12

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, R.A. (1775-1851)
Wells Cathedral, Somerset

Pencil This is a view of Wells Cathedral from the south across the moat of the Bishop’s
22.1 by 25.9 cm., 8 ½ by 10 in.. Palace. The two towers in the centre are the remains of the hall of the Bishop’s
Palace built in the late 13th century. This appears to be a missing sheet from Turner’s
Provenance: ‘South Wales’ sketchbook which he used in the summer of 1795. This was his third
With Colnaghi, where bought by Michael Ingram, 1951; visit to Wales and his first comprehensive tour. He first used the sketchbook in Wells
Michael Ingram, his sale, Sotheby’s, 8th December 2005, lot 149, where bought by then continued to Bristol, Newport, Swansea, Neath and Cardiff. He went on to
the present owner Pembrokeshire and returned via Brecon and Monmouth. There are two views of
Wells still in the sketchbook, nos. TB XXIV 1 and 2.

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, R.A. (1775-1851)
and Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
A Boatbuilder’s Yard, Dover

Grey washes and pencil Joseph Farington records in his diary (1st December 1795) that Henderson lent
21 by 29 cm., 8 ¼ by 11 ¼ in. Monro ‘a Portfolio of outlines of Shipping and boats, made at Dover.’ Henderson’s
sketches were probably drawn in the summer of 1794. A number of these Dover
Provenance: subjects appeared at Dr Monro’s sale at Christie’s on 26th June 1833 and were
Anonymous sale, Christie’s, 9th June 2005, lot 32; bought by Turner. They are now in the Turner Bequest in the Tate Gallery and are
Private Collection similar views of Dover (D36616-36624). Others are in the Courtauld Institute,
National Gallery of Scotland and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Henderson’s
This sketch, dating from 1795-96, belongs to a group of views of shipping at Dover collection which includes several of his ‘outlines’ passed to his son who bequeathed
copied by Turner and Thomas Girtin from the work of the amateur artist and collector it to the British Museum
John Henderson probably commissioned by Dr Monro. Henderson was a neighbour
on Adelphi Terrace, London, of Dr Thomas Monro who commissioned work from We are grateful to Andrew Wilton for confirming the attribution
both Turner and Girtin in the early to mid1790s. On a number of drawings, they
worked together with Girtin drawing in pencil and Turner adding the washes.

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John Constable, R.A. (1776-1837)
The Tomb of James Gubbins, Epsom Churchyard

Inscribed lower left: Epsom June 11.1816 and inscribed verso: Beneath this
stone are deposited/the mortal remains of/James Gubbins Esqr of Epsom/who
departed this life on the/7th day of June 1814 - Aged 69. And it is/also
inscribed to the memory of/his son Captn James Gubbins/of the 13th
Dragoons who was killed/on the 18th of June 1815 - in the battle/of Waterloo
in Flanders/Epsom 11th 1816
Pencil
18 by 11.2 cm., 7 by 4 ¼ in.

Provenance:
The 28th Earl of Crawford (1900-1975);
By descent to the present owner

This drawing dates from a previously unrecorded trip to Epsom by

Constable in June 1816, presumably to see his aunt on his mother’s side
Mary Gubbins. The subject of the present drawing, and the inscription
on the reverse, suggests he was also there to see the newly installed
tombstone for his uncle James. Constable’s own parents had recently
died, his mother in March 1815 and his father on 14th May 1816 and
Graham Reynolds points out that the design of James Gubbins’s tomb
closely resembles Constable’s parents’ tomb in East Bergholt. The present
drawing reinforces the theory that the latter was based on the former.

The size of the present drawing suggests it originates from the sketchbook
used by Constable in 1815 and 1816. Graham Reynolds lists other
drawings from this sketchbook which he calls 1815 (a) (see Graham
Reynolds, The Early Paintings and Drawings of John Constable, 1996,
no.257).

Constable made two other more finished drawings of this subject in

1822 (see Graham Reynolds, The Later Paintings and Drawings of John
Constable, 1984, nos. 22.7 and 22.8).

We are grateful to Anne Lyles for her help in cataloguing this drawing.

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John Constable, R.A. (1776-1837)
The Porch at East Bergholt Church, Suffolk

With an ink off-print verso

Pencil
17.3 by 11.4 cm., 6 ¾ by 4 ½ in.

Provenance:
The 28th Earl of Crawford (1900-1975):
By descent to the present owner

This appears to show one of the ruined arches of the unfinished tower of
East Bergholt Church, probably the north one (see Graham Reynolds, The
Early Paintings and Drawings of John Constable, 1996, nos. 6.4, 6.6, 6.8 and
6.9) and is likely to originate from the same sketchbook as Tomb of James
Gubbins, Epsom’ used in 1815 and 1816.

The ink markings on the reverse of this drawing indicate that it was drawn
with an apparatus invented by Constable to record as accurately as possible
the main outline of what he saw in front of him. He got the idea from
a new edition of Leonardo da Vinci’s Treatise on Painting which he bought in
1796. Two of these tracings were included in the exhibition of Constable
drawings at Dulwich Picture Gallery in 1994 and the process is described in
full in the catalogue (see Constable – a Master Draughtsman, exhibition
catalogue, 1994, nos. 23 and 24, p.130-133). These drawings of Flatford
Lock and East Bergholt House were dated 24th November 1813 and 5th
October 1814 respectively.

We are grateful to Anne Lyles for her help in cataloguing this drawing.

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Henry Edridge, A.R.A. (1769-1821)
Nôtre Dame and Pont Marie from the Pont du Jardin du Roi, Paris

Inscribed upper right: Notre Dame and Pont Marie from Pont du Jardin du Roy Paris June Pont d’Austerlitz or Pont du Jardin-du-Roi as it was known between 1814 and 1830,
17. 1819 linked the Faubourg Saint-Antoine on the Right Bank with the Jardin des Plantes on the
Pencil on wove paper watermarked J WHATMAN Left. The embankments on the Seine were not built until 1827. The five arches of
25.4 by 41.9 cm., 10 by 16 ½ in. the Pont Marie, seen in front of Notre Dame, is one of the oldest bridges in Paris and
links the Ile Saint-Louis with the Right Bank.
Provenance:
With Spinks,London; This drawing dates from the second of his three trips to Paris and Northern France in
Anonymous sale, Christie’s, 19th April 1991 lot 118a; the summers of 1818, 1819 and 1820. During the Napoleonic Wars travel to the
Anonymous sale, Christie’s, 16th November 2006, lot 116, sold for £10,900; continent was difficult but this changed after the peace treaty of 1816. He exhibited
Private Collection, London nine French views at the Royal Academy in 1820 and 1821, the year of his death.
A sketchbook of his French tour of 1819 is in the British Museum and other French
This is a view looking north-west up the Seine towards the Cathedral of Notre Dame. views by him are in the Royal Collection, Courtauld Institute, the Yale Center for
In 1801, Napoleon decided to build three new bridges over the Seine in Paris. The British Art and Birmingham City Art Gallery.

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Samuel Prout (1783-1852)
View across the Grand Canal from the Salute, Venice

Pencil and stump heightened with touches of white on grey paper and the Flangini Fini, which were combined in the 1860s as the New York hotel. By
25 by 36 cm., 9 ¾ by 14 in. 1970, the buildings were in decay and were purchased by the Veneto Region to
house the local government. The building to the far left beyond the side canal is the
Provenance: Gritti Palace Hotel.
With the Fine Art Society, London, 1962;
Private Collection Prout’s first visit to Italy, and Venice, was in 1824 and his first exhibited works were the
following year. As well as watercolours, he produced highly finished pencil drawings of
This is a view looking north across the Grand Canal from the steps of the church of this type which stylistically influenced the young John Ruskin. They were usually drawn
Santa Maria della Salute. The building with the tower on top to the right is the 15th on grey paper with white heightening. For a drawing of the Riva degli Schiavoni, of the
century Palazzo Contarini Fasan, originally the home of the Contarini family. In the same size, see Timothy Wilcox, Samuel Prout – a Grand Tour in Watercolour, 2017,
centre extending across two buildings is the Palazzo Ferro Fini, now the home of the no.22, pp.86-7, ill.
Consiglio Regionale del Veneto. It was originally two palazzos, the Morosini Ferro

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George Barret, Jnr. (1767-1842)
A Boat on a River in an Arcadian Landscape

Watercolour heightened with bodycolour, scratching out and stopping out throughout his life. Redgrave describes his work as follows: ‘He excelled in his poetic
12.9 by 19.9 cm., 5 by 7 ¾ in. treatments of sunrise and sunset, the effects of moonlight and in his truly classic and
poetic compositions’ (Samuel Redgrave, A Dictionary of Artists of the British School,
Barret Jnr was the son of a Dublin artist of the same name. He was a founder 1878, p.26).
member of the Society of Painters in Water-colours in 1805 and exhibited there

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John Sell Cotman (1782-1842)
Arnold’s Cottage

Signed lower right: Cotman Museum, Norwich (1932.105,60). A related watercolour ‘A garden house on the
Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour banks of the Yare’ is of a similar subject, and has the same signature and the same
19 by 28.2 cm., 7 ½ by 11 ¼ in. extensive use of pencil was sold at Christie’s on 16th November 2006, lot 61 for
£18,000 hammer.
This previously unrecorded watercolour can be dated to circa 1820. A pencil drawing
of this subject, inscribed ‘Arnold’s Cottage’, signed and numbered 1900 is in the Castle

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Robert Hills (1769-1844)
Feeding Ducks in a Farmyard

Signed lower right: RHills 1814 Hills was born in Islington, north London, and entered the R.A. Schools in 1788,
Watercolour heightened with touches of bodycolour exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1791. He came to prominence in 1804 as one of
29.5 by 41.5 cm., 11 ½ by 16 ¼ in. the six artists who founded the Old Watercolour Society and he exhibited almost six
hundred drawings there during his lifetime. He was the Society’s first Secretary and
Provenance: later served as Treasurer. He specialised in studies of animals and farmyards and his
With Guy Peppiatt Fine Art, 2009; work is distinctive for its ‘fuzzy’ technique.
Private Collection

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Robert Hills (1769-1844)
Wooded Landscape with Donkeys by a Duck Pond

Signed lower right: R. Hills Provenance:

Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour With Heather Newman;
31.8 by 41.6 cm., 12 ½ by 16 ¼ in. Private Collection

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William Turner of Oxford (1789-1862)
Scene near St. Ann’s Well, Great Malvern

Signed centre right: W. Turner/1832 and signed on reverse of original mount: No.4/A Exhibited:
Scene near St. Anne’s Well, Great Malvern/W. Turner. Oxford London, Society of Painters in Water-colours, 1832, no. 76, bought J. Moxon, 23
Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour and stopping out Lincolns Inn Fields, for 8 guineas
33.3 by 56.1 cm., 13 ¼ by 22 ¼ in.
St Ann’s Well sits on the Malvern Hills above the town of Great Malvern,
Provenance: Worcestershire. The spring there is named after St. Anne and the building which
J. Moxon, 23 Lincolns Inn Fields, London, 1832; contains it was built in 1814. This is a view looking east from the Malvern Hills
With Christopher Powney, from whom bought, March 1963; towards the northern Cotswolds. Below is Great Malvern Priory which was originally
Private Collection until 2016 a Benedictine monastery and is now an Anglican church. It has the largest collection
of 15th century stained glass in the country.

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William Turner of Oxford (1789-1862)
Sunset on Boar’s Hill, Oxford

Watercolour and bodycolour A number of similar sky and cloud studies by Turner of Oxford are datable to 1845-
15.7 by 24.6 cm., 6 by 9 ½ in. 50. Three of this type are included in the 1984 exhibition catalogue, The Nine
Maidens, Morvah’, Roman Road near Dorchester’ and ‘Full Moon over the Cherwell’
Provenance: (see Timothy Wilcox and Christopher Titterington, William Turner of Oxford (1789-
With the Fine Art Society, London, March 1974; 1962), 1984, nos. 70-72) where they are described: ‘The scattering of brilliantly
Walter Brandt, his sale, Christie’s, 14th July 1987, lot 96; coloured strokes of bodycolour as finishing touches on a drawing executed in
Anonymous sale, Christie’s, 21st November 2007, lot 100, where bought by the watercolour is a common characteristic of Turner’s work in the 1840s and 1850s’
present owner (op.cit., p.68). ‘Stratus Clouds Evening’ was sold from the collection of Monsieur
and Madame Gerard Bauer at Christie’s, 22nd January 2003, lot 19.

29
26
Peter de Wint (1784-1849)
Leathley Church on the River Wharfe, Yorkshire
Leathley is a small village one mile north east of Otley in North Yorkshire near the
Watercolour over pencil
border with West Yorkshire. This is a view taken from the north looking down the
26.7 by 39.2 cm., 10 ½ by 15 ¼ in.
river Wharfe with the Norman tower of Leathley church visible on the hill to the left.
De Wint was a frequent visitor to his patron (and Turner’s) Walter Fawkes (1769-
Provenance:
1825) of Farnley Hall, which was only a few miles from Leathley. A nineteenth century
Anonymous sale, Sotheby’s, 27th November 2003, lot 273, where bought by the
biography records a visit: ‘Bolton Abbey he visited many times….. He first saw it in
present owner
1814 when he went to Farnley Hall on a visit to Mr Fawkes’ (Sir Walter Fawkes,
Memoir of Peter De Wint, 1888). Stylistically this dates from circa 1820.

30
27
Peter de Wint (1784-1849)
The Cathedral of St Jacques, Dieppe

Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour on the left. The church was built in around 1283 but the building was not finished until
29.7 by 45.8 cm., 11 ½ by 18 in. the late sixteenth century.

Provenance: Other Normandy views by de Wint include ‘Dieppe Castle from the Beach’ in the
With Thos. Agnews, London; Usher Art Gallery, Lincoln and views of Dieppe and Rouen were included in the sale
Anonymous sale, Sotheby’s, 21st July 1975, lot 186; of works by de Wint from the Mathew Pryor collection sold at Sotheby’s on 4th July
By descent to the present owner 2002, lots 392-4).

This dates from de Wint’s only trip abroad, to Normandy in 1828. This view is of the
north-east of the church looking south from the Place Saint-Jacques with the transept

31
28
John Thirtle (1777-1839)
A Cottage on a River, Norwich

Signed lower left: Thirtle Norwich/1828 Apart from his brother-in-law John Sell Cotman, ‘Thirtle was by far the best
Watercolour over pencil watercolourist among the Norwich artists’ (Huon Mallalieu, The Dictionary of British
18.5 by 24.2 cm., 7 ¼ by 9 ½ in. Watercolour Artists up to 1920, 2002, vol. II, p.212). Born in Norwich, he was
apprenticed to a London framer, returning to Norwich in circa 1800 and setting up
This is a typical late work by Thirtle which have ‘a brilliancy of colour and an angularity in business as a framer as well as an artist and drawing tutor. He was a founder of
of block-like forms’ (see Marjorie Allthorpe-Guyton, John Thirtle – Drawings in Norwich the Norwich Society in 1803 and exhibited from 1805.
Castle Museum, 1977, p.24). It is also typical in the combined subject matter of old
buildings and water, subjects which always appealed to him.

32
29
John Middleton (1827-1856)
A Barn, Tunbridge Wells, Kent

Signed with initials lower left: Tunbridge Wells/JM 1847 1750-1880, 1993, p.318). Andrew Moore observed that ‘1847 proved to be the
Watercolour over traces of pencil annus mirabilis of Middleton’s life and career’ (Andrew Moore, The Norwich School of
32.7 by 48.2 cm., 12 ¾ by 19 in. Artists, 1985, p.144).

Provenance: Middleton almost certainly accompanied his pupil Henry Bright (1810-1873) on a tour
Private Collection, UK of Kent in the summer of 1847. Two Tunbridge Wells views by Bright are in the Castle
Museum, Norwich as well as a watercolour by Middleton with the same inscription
Middleton’s tour of Kent in 1847 produced ‘a number of his best free watercolour and date as the present work.
landscapes’ (see Andrew Wilton and Annie Lyles, The Great Age of British Watercolours

33
30 31
James Baker Pyne (1800-1870) George Frederick Prosser (1805-1882)
View on Lake Windermere The Cathedral Close, Winchester

Signed lower right: J.B. PYNE Signed lower left: The Close/WINTON/G F PROSSER and inscribed verso: The Close
Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour and scratching out Winchester/G.F. Profser 1864
18.3 by 36 cm., 7 by 14 in. Watercolour over traces of pencil heightened with bodycolour
38.8 by 53.3 cm., 15 ¼ by 21 in.
Pyne was born in Bristol and self-taught as an artist. He came to London in 1835 and
exhibited at the Royal Academy and later the Society of British Artists. He travelled This is a view looking south down the Inner Close from the cathedral. To the left are
extensively on the continent. Agnew published a series of Lake District views by Pyne the colonnades of the Chapter House with the deanery beyond. To the right are the
as lithographs in 1853. three gables of the 17th century stone building now used as the Winchester Cathedral
Education Centre. The gothic porch was added in about 1840.

Prosser was born in London and worked in Surrey before moving to Winchester in
the early 1850s. He lived and worked at 80 High Street, Winchester where he also
taught drawing, and specialised in local views.

34
35
32
David Cox (1783-1859)
Cattle on a River, North Wales

Inscribed lower left: D. Cox This is probably a view of Mynydd Deulyn from the valley of the river Deironydd
Black chalk and watercolour which flows in to the river Crafnant. Cox visited Bettws-y-Coed in North Wales every
17.7 by 26.5 cm., 7 by 10 ¼ in. summer from 1844 until 1856 and travelled extensively in the area.

36
33
David Cox (1783-1859)
A Horse and Cart on a Country Track,
North Wales

Signed lower left: David Cox This drawing dates from the late 1840s or early 1850s.
Watercolour and black chalk The mountain behind may be Moel Siabod.
17.8 by 26.7 cm., 7 by 10 ½ in.

Provenance:
With Walker Galleries, London

37
34
David Cox (1783-1859)
A Castle on a distant Hill

Signed lower right: D. Cox 1832 Traditionally described as a view of Bolsover Castle, Derbyshire, this may also be
Watercolour heightened with touches of bodycolour and stopping out Dryslwyn Castle in the Vale of Towy.
19.4 by 28.6 cm., 7 ½ by 11 ¼ in.

Provenance:
Bought by the present owner at Abbott and Holder

38
35
David Cox (1783-1859)
Cader Idris from Cymer Abbey, North Wales

Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour and stopping out Literature:
43.5 by 66.6 cm., 17 by 26 in. Whitworth Wallis and Arthur Bensley Chamberlain, Catalogue of a Special Collection
of Works by David Cox, 1890, p.67, no.456
Provenance:
A. Pugin, 1828; This is a view looking south from Cymer Abbey to Penygader, the summit of Cader
William Everitt, 1890; Idris. Cymer Abbey was founded in 1158-9 as a Cistercian monastery and sits just
Anonymous sale, Sotheby’s, 1st April 1993, lot 103; across the Mawddach river from the village of Llanelltyd. It was dissolved by Henry
Private Collection VIII in the 1530s. An engraving of this view by Cox was published in 1836 as a steel
engraved print in ‘Wanderings and Excursions in North Wales.’
Exhibited:
London, Society of Painters in Water-colours, 1828, no.62 as ‘View from Kymmer
Abbey, North Wales’, bought A. Pugin for 6 gns;
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Works by David Cox, 1890, no.456

39
36 37
David Cox (1783-1859) David Cox (1783-1859)
Mountainous Landscape, North Wales The Opening of New London Bridge 1831

Watercolour and black chalk on two sheets of oatmeal paper joined Watercolour and pencil on two sheets of joined paper
Whole sheet 21.6 by 64.6 cm., 8 ½ by 25 ½ in. 21.9 by 36.5 cm., 8 ¾ by 14 ½ in.

This watercolour sketch, presumably drawn on two attached sketchbook pages, is Provenance:
rare in Cox’s oeuvre. Stylistically it dates from the late 1840s or early 1850s and is Greenwood Collection;
likely to be a view near Bettws-y-Coed. A similar hillside study also on two joined Christie’s 3rd November 1895, lot 73
sheets of paper is in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery entitled ‘Welsh Crags’
(1907P326). Alternatively this may be a view drawn near Knaresborough in Yorkshire In 1799, a competition was held to design a bridge to replace the old London
in September 1844. A watercolour of a similar composition showing a hillside Bridge which was over 600 years old. The completion was won by John Rennie
receding at the same angle entitled ‘Near Knaresborough' is in Hereford Museum (1761-1821) who planned a bridge of five stone arches. Work began after Rennie’s
(see Scott Wilcox, Sun, Wind, and Rain – The Art of David Cox, 2008, no.76, pp.200- death in 1824 under the supervision of his son, with the bridge being sited 100 feet
201, ill.). upstream of the old bridge which was knocked down after the new bridge opened.

The present watercolour shows the official opening by King William IV and Queen
Adelaide on 1st August 1831. The Times described the ceremony as ‘the most
splendid spectacle that has been witnessed on the Thames for many years’. This
view is taken from the south bank of the Thames, looking towards north towards the
tower of the Monument and the church of St. Magnus. The royal standard can be
seen flying from the huge pavilion erected at the north end of the bridge where a
banquet was held. The royal party had embarked at Somerset House and processed

40
to the bridge between a line of boats and barges. The King disembarked at 4pm and father. He had an early taste for art, and when the drawing (a very beautiful one) was
walked up red-carpeted stairs to the pavilion. finished, he asked for it for his own. ‘Oh, my lad,’ replied Cox, ‘do you know it is
worth five pounds? ‘This drawing, I am informed, has since been sold for a hundred
Cox’s biographer N. Neil Solly describes his involvement: ‘On the 1st of August pounds’ (see N. Neal Solly, The Memoir of the Life of David Cox, 1873, p.67). This
1831, the New London Bridge, which had taken seven years to build, was opened watercolour is probably the finished watercolour of this subject in the Yale Center for
with great ceremony by King William IV and Queen Adelaide. Cox…. went down to British Art. The Yale view omits the flags on the bridge and the figures in the present
a coal wharf near St. Saviour’s Church, Bankside, to sketch the preparations, &c., in watercolour so is likely to have drawn first (see Scott Wilcox, Sun, Wind and Rain –
watercolours. The gentleman who narrated this to me was a little boy at the time. He The Art of David Cox, 2008, no.55, p.185, ill.).
watched the artist all day at his work on the wharf, which was occupied by the boy’s

41
38
David Cox (1783-1859)
Washing Day, North Wales

Signed lower left: David Cox This dates from Cox’s Welsh period, the mid 1840s to the mid 1850s, and is likely
Watercolour over black chalk heightened with bodycolour on oatmeal paper to be a view taken near Bettws-y-Coed.
27.7 by 37.1 cm., 10 ¾ by 14 ½ in.

Provenance:
Bought at Abbott and Holder, circa 1956, for 12s 6d

42
39
James Duffield Harding (1797-1863)
A Cottage on Hampstead Heath

With artist’s studio stamp lower right and inscribed: Hampstead Fields/march 6th 1857 In the mid nineteenth century, Hampstead Heath was significantly smaller than it
Black chalk and stump is today and was confined to the area immediately to the west of Hampstead.
24.7 by 35 cm., 9 ¾ by 13 ¾ in. Parliament Hill was added in 1888 and the Kenwood Estate in the 1920s. Between
1831 and 1871 local residents fought a long legal battle with Sir Thomas Maryon
Provenance: Wilson, the owner of the heath who wanted to build houses on it. It was finally
Prince Donatus of Hohenzollern saved for the nation in 1871.

Literature:
The Heath and Hampstead Society Newsletter, September 2006, vol. 37, no.3

43
40
Attributed to Lionel Bicknell Constable (1828-1884)
Study of Clouds

Inscribed lower right: Oct 1863

Watercolour on wove paper watermarked: J WHATMAN/1853
19.4 by 39.7 cm., 7 ½ by 15 ¼ in.

This watercolour is traditionally attributed to Lionel Constable, John Constable’s

youngest son. His father died when he was nine but he was encouraged to draw in
the early 1840s by his brother Alfred. A sketchbook dated 1845 is in the Louvre, Paris
and he first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1849. Over the years, many pictures by
him were mistakenly attributed to his father. An exhibition of his work was held at the
Tate Gallery from 24th February to 4th April1982 (see Leslie Parris and Ian Fleming-
Williams, Lionel Constable, exhibition catalogue, 1982). His landscapes studies, like the
present watercolour, echo the work of his father with low horizon and extensive skies.

44
41
Edward Duncan, R.W.S. (1803-1882)
Study of Clouds

Inscribed lower left: Sky – Rain cloud and further inscribed with colour notes Duncan trained as an aquatint engraver under the Havells and was introduced to
Watercolour over pencil marine painting, which became his speciality, by William Huggins whose pictures he
18.7 by 27.5 cm., 7 ¼ by 10 ¾ in. engraved and whose daughter he married. His marine scenes usually depict south
coast views often in rough seas. He exhibited at the Royal Academy and principally the
Provenance: Old and New Watercolour Societies from 1830 until 1882. Cloud studies are unusual
With Lowell Libson; in his oeuvre.
Private Collection, London

45
42
Charles Bentley (1806-1854)
Shipping in Calais Harbour

Signed lower right: CBentley and the Tour Du Guet which served as a lighthouse until a new one was built in
Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour and scratching out 1848. The column on the harbour front is a monument to mark the return to France
30.3 by 44.2 cm., 11 ¾ by 17 ¼ in. of Louis XVIII on 24th April 1814 after the initial downfall of Napoleon. He landed at
Calais on his way to Paris. In 1939 the monument was moved to the Courgain area
Provenance: of the city as it impeded development of Calais harbour.
Private Collection from circa 1950 until 2017
Bentley was apprenticed to the engraver Theodore Fielding (1781-1851) until 1827.
This is a view of Calais from the north showing the old town ramparts. To the left is Fielding produced plates for Bonington’s work which Bentley would have had access
the tower of the church of Notre Dame with to the right the Belfry of the town hall to and the influence of Bonington is clear in his work.

46
43
William Callow (1812-1908)
Ariccia on Lake Nemi, Italy

Signed lower left: Wm Callow/1880

Watercolour over pencil heightened with stopping out and gum arabic
22.1 by 45.1 cm., 8 ¾ by 17 ¾ in.

Callow visited Italy many times between 1840 and 1892. The present watercolour
may be based on sketches made in 1879 when he visited Rome. Ariccia stands 16
miles south-east of Rome in the Alban Hills perched on the edge of an old volcanic
crater now filled by Lake Nemi. Ariccia was acquired by the Chigi family in 1661 and
the following year they commissioned Bernini to update the old palace there and build
a new church. The dome of Bernini’s church of Santa Maria dell’Assunzione is clearly
visible in the present watercolour.

47
44
William Callow, R.W.S. (1812-1908)
Eton College Chapel from across the Meadows

Signed lower right: W Callow 1836 Paris aged only sixteen in 1829. For the next twelve years, he worked mainly in Paris,
Watercolour heightened with bodycolour, scratching out and stopping out sharing a studio with Thomas Shotter Boys (1803-1874) from 1831 until 1834. From
17.7 by 25.2 cm., 7 by 10 in. 1834 Callow made his mark as a drawing master to the French aristocracy from his
studio on Rue de Bouloi. He gave lessons to the second son of the French King and
The son of a builder who encouraging his artistic interests, Callow was apprenticed the Princess Clementine d’Orleans and his first exhibits at the Paris Salon were well
to the artist Theodore Fielding as a thirteen year old in 1823. From 1827 he worked received. 1836 to 1841 were his most successful years in Paris with his work in
for his Theodore’s brother Thales Fielding until he went to went as an engraver in demand and selling well. In the summer of 1836, he embarked on his first major

48
summer walking tour which took from Chartres down the
Loire as far as Marseille then on to Lyon from where he
returned to Paris.

The present watercolour dates from 1836 and was

presumably drawn in Paris from earlier sketches. He records
visiting Windsor as early as 1829: ‘In 1829 my father was
superintending some repairs at Windsor Castle for King George
IV., which gave me an opportunity of seeing all over it. I was
delighted with everything I saw, and made a few small sketches
there’ (William Callow – an Autobiography, 1908, p.6). Eton is
just over the river Thames from Windsor.

45
William Callow (1812-1908)
A Pony Trap on a Country Lane

Signed lower right: Wm Callow 1894

Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour
33.9 by 24.7 cm., 13 ¼ by 9 ½ in.

Callow moved from London to Great Missenden,

Buckinghamshire in 1855. This may be the work exhibited at the
Society of Painters in Water-colours in the winter of 1894 as
‘Near the Village of Halton, Bucks.’
49
Edward Lear and the Coombe Family
(nos. 46-50)

The Drewitt family were childhood friends of Lear living

at Peppering House near Arundel, Sussex. Lear’s sister
Sarah married Charles Street in 1822 and moved to near
Arundel so Lear was a frequent visitor to the area. Fanny
Drewitt married George Coombe probably in 1831 and
they lived at Peppering House (see no.50). A group of
letters from Lear to the Coombes were rediscovered in
the 1990s and were at Christie’s on 29th June 1995. They
are now in the Frederick Warne Archive. They provide
a useful early record of Lear’s life and movements.

These drawings were originally included in an album

belonging to the Coombe family which also included a
number of drawings and watercolours by members of
the Coombe family, and especially George. Lear left
England in July 1837 and lived in Rome, apart from a visit
to England in 1841, until 1845. He returned to London in
May 1845 and remained until December 1846. Three of
these drawings are dated 1846 and one 15th April 1846
so presumably they were all executed during a visit to
Peppering at that time. 1846 was a busy year for Lear with
three publications – Gleanings of the Menagerie and Aviary
at Knowsley Hall, his first A Book of Nonsense and his two
volume travel book Illustrated Excursions in Italy.

46
Edward Lear (1812-1888)
Study of an Eagle Owl

Signed on branch: E. Lear del. 1846.

Pen and brown ink
sheet 22.8 by 16.7 cm., 8 ¾ by 6 ½ in.

Provenance:
George and Fanny Coombe (née Drewitt), Peppering
House, Sussex

Lear’s biographer Vivien Noakes has noted that Lear

‘was at his best when drawing majestic, unpretty birds
like ravens and owls; he endowed them with sagacious
personalities, and it is tempting to wonder if Lear found a
50
common bond with birds, for they too were at the mercy of unscrupulous
men’ (Vivien Noakes, Edward Lear – The Life of a Wanderer, 1968, p.40).
Lear drew an eagle owl for Gould’s ‘Birds of Europe’, vol. 4 published in
1837 so the present drawing may have been executed from memory.

Two drawings of Scops owls, executed in watercolour by Lear, one dated

May 1848 when he was on Corfu, were with Andrew Wyld in 2010 (see
W.S. Fine Art, exhibition catalogue, 2010, nos. 42 and 43).

47
Edward Lear (1812-1888)
‘Ye Owly Pusseycatte, a new Beast found in ye Island of New South Wales’

Inscribed with title lower left

Watercolour on laid paper
13.5 by 8.9 cm., 5 ¼ by 3 ½ in.

Provenance:
George and Fanny Coombe (née Drewitt), Peppering House, Sussex

This is likely to be the earliest drawing in which Lear combines the Owl
and the Pussycat, assuming it also dates to the mid 1840s. He is perched
on a branch smoking a churchwarden pipe and wearing a settler’s wide-
awake hat with two peacock feathers attached and a smiling moon
beyond. The mention of New South Wales suggests this drawing dates to
a similar period as an undated pen and ink drawing in the Pierpont Morgan
Library, New York entitled ‘Portraites of the inditchenous beestes of New
Olland’ which Vivien Noakes suggests was inspired by John Gould’s visit to
Australia in 1838 to work on Birds of Australia (see Vivien Noakes, Edward
Lear 1812-1888, exhibition catalogue, 1986, p.180, no.90). New Holland
was the historical name for Australia.

The famous poem ‘The Owl and the Pussy Cat’ was not written until
Christmas 1867 for Janet, the sick daughter of his friend Arthur Symonds,
with whom Lear was staying in Cannes at the time. On 14th December
Lear recorded in his diary that ‘their little girl is unwell – & all is sad’. He
returned several days later taking ‘a picture for little Janet.’ This was the
Owl and the Pussy Cat which was later published as part of Nonsense
Songs in 1871.

The present drawing, like no. 49, was probably drawn for George and
Fanny Coombe’s daughter Fanny, born in the summer of 1832.

51
48
Edward Lear (1812-1888)
On the Nile

Inscribed with key: On the Nile/1. Mr. Crocodile/2. Mrs Crocodile/3. Master Crocodile/4. Provenance:
Master John Crocodile/5. Mifs Mary Crocodile/6. The River Nile & its fishes/7. The George and Fanny Coombe (née Drewitt), Peppering House, Sussex
Piramids/8. The Palmtrees/9. The great Eagle./10. The peculiar Pelican/11. The
unpleasant snakes/12. The black man/13. The black woman/14. The smalle blacks/15. This is one of Lear’s earliest known Nonsense drawings, on paper watermarked
one of the Temples 1836. Vivien Noakes writes that ‘His earliest Nonsense, most of which now exists
Pen and brown ink on laid paper watermarked: [1]836 and embossed with a fleur de lys only in copies, was done for the Drewitt family…. and it was probably with them that
11.2 by 18.6 cm., 4 ¼ by 7 ¼ in. he first realised that he could make people happy by making them laugh’ (see Vivien
Noakes, Edward Lear 1812-1888, exhibition catalogue, 1986, p.181). Vivien Noakes’s

52
 49
Edward Lear (1812-1888)
Study of two Ducks

exhibition catalogue includes two Nonsense drawing done for the Coombe family, Signed lower right: E. Lear del./apl. 15. 1846.
‘The animals going into the ark’ and ‘Ye Hippopotamouse or Gigantick Rabitte’ (op. Pen and brown ink on laid paper watermarked 1841
cit., nos. 90b and c, p.180), with the latter inscribed ‘This large beaste doth belong Sheet 13.3 by 16.9 cm., 5 ¼ by 6 ½ in.
to ye familie of Geo. Coombe, Esq.’
Provenance:
This drawing most closely relates however to ‘Portraites of the inditchenous beestes George and Fanny Coombe (née Drewitt), Peppering House, Sussex
of New Olland’ (Pierpont Morgan Library, New York) which is on the same size sheet
and is thought to date to circa 1838 (Noakes, op. cit., no.90a, ill. p.181).

53
50
Edward Lear (1812-1888)
Peppering House, Burpham, Sussex

Signed lower right: Edward Lear. del. and dated lower left: .... 1846 house and in the surrounding area (see Vivien Noakes, Edward Lear 1812-1888,
Pen and brown ink and wash exhibition catalogue, 1986, p.94, nos. 13b and c).
14.3 by 20.7 cm., 5 ½ by 8 in.
The earliest recorded landscape drawing by Lear is a view of Peppering House dated
Provenance: 1829 in a private collection (see Charles Nugent, Edward Lear – The Landscape Artist,
George and Fanny Coombe (née Drewitt), Peppering House, Sussex 2009, p.3, ill. fig. 1).

Burpham is in the valley of the river Arun a couple of miles of Arundel. It was the
home of the Drewitt family and Lear first went there aged ten. Lear sketched at the

54
51
Edward Lear (1812-1888)
Windsor Castle from St Leonard’s Hill

Signed lower right: 1854./Ed.d Lear del and inscribed lower left: St. Leonard’s Hill Waldegrave in the 1760s and was renamed Gloucester Lodge after his marriage to
Pen and brown ink and watercolour heightened with bodycolour on buff paper the Duke of Gloucester in 1766. The house was bought by William Harcourt, 3rd
27.7 by 43.1 cm., 11 by 17 in. Earl Harcourt in 1781 and remained in the Harcourt family until it was acquired by Sir
Francis Barry in 1872. He transformed it into a French style chateau but on the death
Exhibited: of Lady Barry in 1924 the house was mostly demolished.
London, British Institution, 1855, no.317
Lear’s patron Lady Waldegrave was married to George Harcourt of Nuneham Park,
St Leonard’s Hill sits in the parish of Clewer on the outskirts of Windsor. The house, Oxfordshire which is likely to be his link to the house. Lear was in England from
originally known as Forest Court, was built by Thomas Sandby for Countess October 1854 to December 1855 and this is one of his rare exhibited watercolours.

55
52
Edward Lear (1812-1888)
The Monastery of St Sabbas the Sanctified, near Bethlehem

Inscribed lower right: Deir Mar Sabbas/May 1. 1858/Dir Mar Sabbas/(127) and further the end of the month. The Monastery of St Sabbas, or Mar Saba in arabic, overlooks
inscribed with colour notes the Kidron valley in the West Bank half way between the Dead Sea and Jerusalem, just
34.9 by 49.9 cm., 13 ¾ by 19 ½ in. east of Bethlehem. Founded in 483, it is considered one of the oldest inhabited
monasteries in the world.
Provenance:
With Thos Agnew’s, London by 2004; Lear mentions his visit to St Sabbas in a letter to his sister Ann, dated 21st May, and
With Andrew Wyld, his sale, Christie’s, 10th July 2012, lot 194, where bought by the wrote that he executed ‘some good drawings’ despite the fact that ‘the whole place,
present owner even on May 1st was so like an oven that I felt as if I should be baked’ (R. Pitman,
Edward Lear’s Tennyson, 1988, pp.88-89). A drawing of St Sabbas executed on 30th
This drawing dates from Lear’s trip to the Holy Land in the spring of 1858. He was at April 1858 is in a private collection and another of a similar size to the present work,
Petra on 13th April then continued to the Dead Sea and Masada reaching St Sabbas at dated 30th April and numbered 122 is in the Houghton Library, Harvard.

56
In a letter of 22nd October 1858, the sculptor Thomas Woolner (1825-1892) told Provenance:
Emily Tennyson that ‘I went to Holman Hunt’s the other evening and met Lear who A. Davidson;
shewed me all his sketches done in the Holy Land; I think that they are the most with Agnew’s, London, by 1973;
beautiful he has ever done: if you have not seen them I hope you will, for they would J.J. Carteer, Paris
give much delight and interest you extremely…’ (A. Woolner, Thomas Woolner, R.A.,
Sculptor and Poet: His Life in Letters, 1917, p.154). Lear spent the winter of 1864-65 in Nice and from there he visited other French
coastal towns. He preferred Cannes to Nice and subsequently spent three winters
there. Another less finished view of Cannes, dated 6th April 1865, was sold at
53 Sotheby’s on 5th June 2008, lot 267
Edward Lear (1812-1888)
Cannes, France

Inscribed lower left: Cannes/8. April. 8. A.M. 1865, numbered 109 lower right and
extensively inscribed with colour notes
35.4 by 55.2 cm., 14 by 21 ¾ in.

57
54
Edward Lear (1812-1888)
Wadi Feiran with Gebel Serbal, Egypt

Signed with monogram lower right and inscribed lower left: Gebel Serbal Mount Sinai with his friend John Cross. He caught his first glimpse of Gebel Serbal
Watercolour heightened with bodycolour on 20th January but he didn’t stop to sketch continuing to Mount Sinai reaching St
10.3 by 20.6 cm., 4 by 8 in. Catherine’s Monastery on the 27th. He returned to Cairo passing Gebel Serbal on
the 30th and stopped to make sketches.
Gebel Serbal or Mount Serbal is a mountain located in Wadi Feiran in the southern
Sinai desert. It is the fifth highest mountain in Egypt standing at 2070 metres high and A larger version of this view dated 1869, with an arab encampment in the foreground,
is now part of the St Catherine National Park. was sold at Sotheby’s on 24th April 2012, lot 5 for £49,250.

This highly finished watercolour is a studio work based on sketches made at Gebel
Serbal in January 1849, his first visit to Egypt. After a week in Cairo, Lear sent off for

58
55
William Roxby Beverly (1811-1889)
On the Coast near Scarborough, Yorkshire

Signed with initials lower left: Scrbro’ coast W.R.B. Beverly was born into a family of northern actors and began his career as a scene
Watercolour heightened with scratching out painter and actor for his father. He was scenic director at Covent Garden from 1853
14.2 by 23.1 cm., 5 ½ by 9 in. and also worked at Drury Lane from 1854 until 1884. His watercolours are often
highly coloured and his subjects are often beach scenes on the north-east coast of
England.

59
 56
John Frederick Lewis, R.A. (1804-1876)
A Spanish Woman

Watercolour and black chalk heightened with bodycolour

34.5 by 17.8 cm., 13 ½ by 7 in.

Provenance:
The Artist John Phillip (1817-1867), his sale, Christie’s, 31st May 1867, lot 33;
Mr Wyatt, Poole

Lewis was in Spain from 1832 until 1834. This watercolour was in the collection of the artist
John `Spanish’ Phillip, R.A. (1817-1867) who visited Spain three times in the 1850s and
painted Spanish genre subjects. His figure studies are much influenced by Lewis.

57
John Frederick Lewis, R.A. (1804-1876)
Portrait of a European in Turkish Dress, probably Sir John Gardner Wilkinson

Watercolour over pencil and black chalk heightened with bodycolour

Sheet 37.3 by 27.3 cm., 14 ¾ by 10 ¾ in.

This intriguing portrait of a European man in Oriental dress by John Frederick Lewis is likely
to have been made during the artist’s decade-long sojourn in Egypt, 1841-51. During this
time, Lewis lived in a large wooden, Ottoman-style house, in a district of Cairo ‘far away’,
according to William Thackeray, ‘from the haunts of European civilisation’. A prominent
member of the expatriate community during the mid-19th century was Sir John Gardner
Wilkinson (1797-1875), who by the 1840s had gained acclaim and fame for his ground-
breaking studies in Egyptology. During and after his 12 year sojourn in Egypt between 1821
and 1833, when he was based mainly at ancient Thebes (Luxor), Wilkinson published several
articles and books on the subject. His most famous work was Manners and Customs of the
Ancient Egyptians, published in 1837, which established him as the ‘Father of British
Egyptology’. Its description of ancient Egyptian society, with numerous illustrations, caught
the popular imagination, and passed through many editions during the course of the 19th
century. In 1839 his achievements were recognised with a knighthood.

Wilkinson revisited Egypt another four times between 1841 and 1856, and during the first of
these return trips he met Lewis at least twice. On 8 December 1841, he was among those
gathered at Lewis’s house for a séance of the notorious Egyptian magician, Shaykh Abd al-
Qadir al-Maghrabi. Later that month, a brief entry in Wilkinson’s Journal for 1841-42 reads:
‘Saty 18 Dec dined with Col. Barnet at 6. Met Mr Lewis and Mr Coste’ (The Griffith Institute,
University of Oxford, Wilkinson MSS. 1.69). In January 1844 both men are in Cairo and
moving in the same circles, since both are mentioned in a letter written by Bonomi to a
friend. Later in the decade, Murray’s Handbook for Travellers in Egypt was published (1847)
and in it Wilkinson, who was its author, writes of the drawings of Cairo, ‘this truly Eastern
60
capital, which we may shortly hope to receive from the hand of Mr.
Lewis’. Most pertinent of all is the evidence in a sale from Lewis’s
studio held in 1855, a few years after his return from Egypt, in which
lot 129 is ‘Sir Gardiner[sic] Wilkinson, in Oriental Costume’
(Christie’s, 5 July 1855, bought by the dealer, William Vokins). A
portrait of ‘Sir G. Wilkinson’ is also listed in a letter of 14 April 1857
from Lewis to another dealer, John Scott (Private Collection).
Another similarly sized version of the portrait that is here identified
as likely to be of Wilkinson, exists in the Ashmolean Museum,
Oxford (WA.OA966), currently titled Study of a Seated Oriental
Man, smoking. The figure is almost identical, but added, lower right,
is a brass-mounted glass nargile (or hookah) from which the man is
smoking.

The sitter in these two portraits is a fair-skinned man with a long

flowing moustache and blue eyes, whose hooded eye-lids droop
down at the corners. He wears a red fez over a white skull-cap,
over the top of which is the hood of his large cloak or wrap. He
seems to acknowledge this awkward accumulation of Oriental garb
with wry amusement, accentuating his youthful looks. Another
portrait by Lewis shows an unidentified man with the same features,
notably the bushy moustache and the heavily-lidded eyes, wearing
a fez and more conventional Ottoman attire (with Spink & Son,
London, 1985-86, titled An Englishman in Greek Dress), who, on
the basis of the argument made here, is also likely to represent
Wilkinson.

Wilkinson’s fame during his lifetime resulted in several known

portraits of him. Among these, made at around the same time as
the Lewis portraits, are drawings by William Brockedon, 1838, and
Alfred, Count d’Orsay, 1839 (both, National Portrait Gallery, NPG
2515(86) and NPG 4026(28)), and by Godfrey Thomas Vigne,
1844 (Victoria and Albert Museum, SD.1156). These show a man
with very similar facial characteristics to the sitter in the portraits by
Lewis, most significantly the fine walrus moustache, with the ends
twirled upwards slightly to a point. The most widely known portrait
of Wilkinson is a painting by Henry Wyndham Phillips, Sir John
Gardner Wilkinson, aged 46, in Turkish Dress, 1844 (The National
Trust: Calke Abbey, Derbyshire). His features, youthful, despite his
46 years, are also strikingly similar to those of the man in the Lewis
portraits. Moreover, his waistcoat and shirt, and his left arm cradling
the Ottoman curved sabre known as a kilij, seem to be reflected in
the second portrait by Lewis (ex Spink’s), identified here as of
Wilkinson.

We are grateful to Briony Llewellyn for this note with thanks to

Charles Newton.
61
58
Waller Hugh Paton (1828-1895)
A Gate on a Path, Arran

Signed lower left: Arran/5th August 1864/Waller H. Paton numerous landscapes so contributed to the popularity of the island for holiday makers,
Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour on oatmeal paper that he was allowed free lodging at the main hotel in Brodick’ (see June Baxter, Waller
Sheet 27.3 by 38.6 cm., 10 ¾ by 15 in. Hugh Paton: a Scottish Landscape Painter, 1992). Ruskin and Millais were both friends
of his brother Noel and Paton has been described as the leading exponent of the Pre-
Paton was born in Dunfermline, the son of a damask designer, for whom he worked Raphaelite landscape in Scotland. He exhibited views of Arran at the Royal Scottish
as an assistant before becoming a pupil of J.A. Houston. As a young man, his family, Academy from 1854. A view of a stream on Arran inscribed ‘Arran/19.th Sept. 1855’
including his brother the artist Sir Joseph Noel Paton, often spent summer holidays was with Guy Peppiatt Fine Art in 2009 (see 18th and 19th Century British Drawings
on Arran, where they would sketch. There is a tradition on Arran that ‘Paton’s and Watercolours, exhibition catalogue, 2009, no.44).

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59
William Leighton Leitch (1804-1883)
Cottage at Craigleith near Edinburgh

With studio stamp lower left and inscribed: Edin.r Nov.r 3d 1856 and inscribed on old patron, the stockbroker Mr Anderden, to visit Italy and the continent. On his return in
backing: Craig Leith July 1837 he set up a successful drawing practice numbering Queen Victoria and other
Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour on oatmeal paper members of the Royal Family among his pupils.
21.7 by 32.1 cm., 8 ½ by 12 ½ in.
Craigleith is a district of west Edinburgh famous for its sandstone which was used to
Born in Glasgow, Leitch was apprenticed to a lawyer before turning to painting in the build much of the new town in Edinburgh as well as Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood
early 1820s. He painted scenery at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow from 1824 to 1826 Palace.
before moving to London in about 1828. In 1833 he was given the money by a

63
60
Edward Henry Fahey (1844-1907)
Looking out to Sea

Signed lower left: E.H. FAHEY. 74

Watercolour heightened with bodycolour
36.7 by 26.3 cm., 14 ½ by 10 ¼ in.

Provenance:
With Martyn Gregory, July 2003

Edward Fahey was the son of the portrait and landscape artist
James Fahey (1804-1885). He studied architecture before visiting
Italy from 1866 to 1869. On his return, he entered the Royal
Academy Schools to study painting. He exhibited at the Royal
Academy and was a member of the Royal Institute of British
Watercolourists from 1872.

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61
Anna Alma-Tadema (1865-1943)
Eton College Chapel

Signed lower left: Anna Alma Tadema/September 1885

Watercolour heightened with bodycolour
52.7 by 36.3 cm., 20 ¾ by 14 ¼ in.

Provenance:
Anonymous sale, Sotheby’s, 21st March 2007, lot 100;
Private Collection

Exhibited:
London, Royal Academy, 1886, no. 1280

This is a view of the chapel taken from the Colonnade of Upper

School at the west end of School Yard. The chapel was built between
1448 and 1482 in the late Gothic or Perpendicular style.

Anna Alma-Tadema was the second daughter of the Dutch-born artist

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912) and his mother and step-
mother were also artists. She painted mainly flowers, portraits and
interiors with great attention to detail like her father. The present
watercolour, drawn when she was only twenty, was one of the four
works she exhibited at the Royal Academy.

Her father’s biographer Helen Zimmern describes her as a ‘delicate,

dainty artist who has inherited much of her father’s power for
reproducing detail’ (see Helen Zimern, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema,
R.A., 1902, p.8. A self-portrait in oil by her was sold at Sotheby’s
on 12th November 2013, lot 15 for £98,500.

65
 INDEX

Alma-Tadema, A. 61 Lear, E. 46-54

Leitch, W.L. 59
Barret, G. 20 Lewis, J.F. 56-57
Bentley, C. 42
Beverly, W.R. 55 Middleton, J. 29

Callow, W. 43-45 Paton, W.H. 58

Constable, J. 16-17 Prosser, G.F. 31
Constable, L. 40 Prout, S. 19
Cotman, J.S. 21 Pyne, J.B. 30
Cox, D. 32-38
Rooker, M. 12-13
Dayes, E. 9 Rowlandson, T. 7
De Wint, P. 26-27
Duncan, E. 41 Sandby, P. 3
Smith, J. 10-11
Edridge, H. 18 Sunderland, T. 8

Fahey, E.H. 60 Taverner, W. 1

Thirtle, J. 28
Grignion, C. 2 Turner, J.M.W. 14-15
Turner of Oxford, W. 24-25
Harding, J.D. 39
Hills, R. 22-23 White Abbott, J. 4-6

66