British Drawings and Watercolours 2015 Guy Peppiatt Fine Art
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Cover 2015_18565 GP Covers Summer Catalogue FINAL 23/04/2015 12:01 Page 1 BRITISH DRAWINGS AND 2015 WATERCOLOURS BRITISH DRAWINGS AND WATERCOLOURS 2015 GUY PEPPIATT FINE ART FINE PEPPIATT GUY GUY PEPPIATT FINE ART LTD Riverwide House, 6 Mason’s Yard Duke Street, St James’s, London SW1Y 6BU GUY PEPPIATT FINE ART GP Summer 2015 22 4 15_Layout 1 23/04/2015 14:20 Page 1 BRITISH DRAWINGS AND WATERCOLOURS 2015 1 GP Summer 2015 22 4 15_Layout 1 23/04/2015 14:20 Page 2 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 also vets a number of art fairs and is Chairman of the Vetting Committee for the Works on Paper Fair. 2 GP Summer 2015 22 4 15_Layout 1 23/04/2015 14:20 Page 3 BRITISH DRAWINGS AND WATERCOLOURS 2015 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 [email protected] www.peppiattfineart.co.uk 3 GP Summer 2015 22 4 15_Layout 1 23/04/2015 14:20 Page 4 1 William Burgess (1749-1812) Moulton Church from the South-West, Lincolnshire Signed on border lower right: WBurgefs Delin. Dec.r 28 1797, William Burgess was a conventional eighteenth century topographical artist working in pen and ink lower left: Sketch’d on the Spot by W. Burgefs and inscribed verso: and wash and also produced portraits in crayon. His father Thomas Burgess (c.1730-1791) was a Moulton Church/SW portrait painter and his sons Thomas, John Cart and Henry William were all artists. He ran a drawing Pen and grey ink and wash academy in Maiden Lane, London. The present drawings were both executed in December 1797 Sheet 21 by 32.5 cm., 8 ¼ by 12 ¾ in. and subsequently engraved for a publication on Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire churches. Engraved: Moulton sits in the Fens in Lincolnshire, five miles east of Spalding. All Saints’ Church, Moulton was By W. and H. Burgess for Twelve views of Churches in Lincolnshire built in the late 12th century and rebuilt in the 1860s. Because of its tall steeple it is sometimes known and Cambridgeshire, 1800-1805 as ‘The Queen of the Fens.’ 4 GP Summer 2015 22 4 15_Layout 1 23/04/2015 14:20 Page 5 2 William Burgess (1749-1812) Spalding Church from the South-West, Lincolnshire Signed on border lower right: Drawn by WBurgefs. Dec.r 21st Engraved: 1797. Finish’d and lower left: Sketch’d on the Spot by Wm & By W. and H. Burgess for Twelve views of Churches in Lincolnshire and H. Burgefs, Oct 4th 1797 and inscribed verso: Spalding Cambridgeshire, 1800-1805 Church/SW Pen and grey ink and wash Spalding stands on the river Welland in the Fens of South Lincolnshire. Sheet 21 by 32.4 cm., 8 ¼ by 12 ¾ in. The foundations of the Church of St Mary and St Nicholas, Spalding, were laid in 1284. The tower was built in 1360. 5 GP Summer 2015 22 4 15_Layout 1 23/04/2015 14:20 Page 6 3 George Romney (1734-1802) Study of a Woman in profile Pencil on laid paper Sheet 19 by 12 cm., 7 ½ by 4 ¾ in. Provenance: Private Collection, London until 2014 See note to no. 5 6 GP Summer 2015 22 4 15_Layout 1 23/04/2015 14:20 Page 7 4 George Romney (1734-1802) Study for ‘Lady Hamilton as a Bacchante’ Numbered 65 in pencil upper right, with a pencil landscape study verso Pen and brown ink on laid paper Sheet 18.7 by 11.3 cm., 7 ¼ by 4 ¼ in. Provenance: By descent to Miss Elizabeth Romney; Christie’s sale, 24-25 May 1894, unknown lot as part of an album; Alfred de Pass (1861-1952); By whom given to the Royal Institute of Cornwall, Truro in 1928; Their sale, Christie’s, 22nd February 1966, lot 25, part of a sketchbook, p.51; Private Collection, London until 2014 This drawing originates from one of the so-called Truro sketchbooks which dates from June 1784 and it is a study for an oil ‘Lady Hamilton as a Bacchante’, painted in 1784 and sent to Sir William Hamilton in Naples. Hamilton’s nephew Charles Greville wrote to him in October 1784: ‘Let me know how the Bacchante is to be paid. I will have it packed when an opportunity arises. The dog was ugly and I made him paint it again.’ It was finally paid for in September 1788. The portrait is said to have been lost at sea on its return to England but Greville presumably had a replica painted which was included in his Executor’s sale on 31st March 1810 and later recorded in the collection of Tankerville Chamberlayne. In the finished painting, Lady Hamilton’s arms are behind her back but the pose is otherwise the same. 7 GP Summer 2015 22 4 15_Layout 1 23/04/2015 14:20 Page 8 5 George Romney (1734-1802) Study of a Nude Woman Pencil on laid paper Sheet 18.9 by 12 cm., 7 ½ by 4 ¾ in. Provenance: Private Collection, London until 2014 Nos. 3, 5 and 6 originate from an album of sketches by Romney dated to May 1777. Portraits he was working on at the time include ‘The Dancing Gower Children’ and ‘Catherine Vernon as Hebe’. Other intact sketchbooks from this period are in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. A sketchbook from late 1777/early 1778 is in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (see Alex Kidson, George Romney, exhibition catalogue, 2002, p.140-1, no.77). 8 GP Summer 2015 22 4 15_Layout 1 23/04/2015 14:20 Page 9 6 George Romney (1734-1802) Study of a Woman and Children Pencil on laid paper With a landscape study verso Sheet 19 by 12 cm., 7 ½ by 4 ¾ in. Provenance: Private Collection, London until 2014 See note to no.5 9 GP Summer 2015 22 4 15_Layout 1 23/04/2015 14:20 Page 10 7 John ‘Warwick’ Smith (1749-1831) The Temple of Sibyl, Tivoli Watercolour over pencil scenery attracted Northern European artists from the seventeenth century onwards. 31.7 by 42.5 cm., 12 ½ by 16 ¾ in. All British artists in the eighteenth century from Richards Wilson onwards visited and painted at Tivoli. ‘Warwick’ Smith here depicts the circular Temple of Sibyl which Provenance: stands at the north-east corner of the town. Below thunders the Cascatelle’ or Grand With Colnaghi, London, 1969; Cascade of the river Aniene, spray from which Smith depicts. A close-up view of the Private Collection until 2014 temple by ‘Warwick’ Smith is in the Tate Gallery (ex-Oppé collection) and a view from another angle is in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. A watercolour of the Villa Exhibited: Maecenas, Tivoli showing the Cascatelle is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (see London, Colnaghi, 28 May – 13 June 1969, no. 116 Francis Hawcroft, Travels in Italy 1776-1783, 1988, p.52-53, no. 56, ill.). See note to no. 8 for more information on Smith in Rome. Tivoli stands dramatically on the lower slopes of the Sabine hills about fifteen miles east of Rome. It was a popular summer retreat during Imperial times and its beautiful 1 0 GP Summer 2015 22 4 15_Layout 1 23/04/2015 14:21 Page 11 8 John ‘Warwick’ Smith (1749-1831) Near Rome Inscribed with title on old backing, watercolour over pencil on laid paper fellow artists William Pars, Thomas Jones (who records some of Smith’s activities in his watermarked with a fleur de lys Memoirs) and Francis Towne with whom he returned to England via Switzerland in 24.4 by 34.5 cm., 9 ½ by 13 ¾ in. 1781. In January 1778 he was recorded as living in a house about two miles outside the Porta Pia, but in March of that year he set off for Naples where he spent sixteen John ‘Warwick’ Smith was born in Cumberland and studied under Sawrey months. He was back in Rome in July 1779 and left for home in August 1781. This is Gilpin. In 1776, he was sent to Rome by his patron George, 2nd Earl of likely to be a view of some of the many villas in the countryside outside Rome. Warwick and remained there for five years. His stay coincided with those of his 1 1 GP Summer 2015 22 4 15_Layout 1 23/04/2015 14:21 Page 12 9 John Laporte (1761-1839) View of Tivoli, Rome in the distance Watercolour over traces of pencil Laporte trained as an artist in London under John Melchior Barralet and became an 27.2 by 39.3 cm., 10 ½ by 15 ½ in. accomplished topographical artist working in watercolour and bodycolour.