BRITISH Drawings and Watercolours 2019
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BRITISH DRAWINGS AND WATERCOLOURS 2019 GUY PEPPIATT FINE ART BRITISH DRAWINGS AND WATERCOLOURS 2019 1 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. Guy left Sotheby’s in 2004 to work as a dealer in early British watercolours and since 2006 he has shared a gallery on the ground floor of 6 Mason’s Yard off Duke St., St. James’s 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. He exhibits as part of Master Drawings New York every January as well as London Art Week in July and December. Email: [email protected] Tel: 020 7930 3839 or 07956 968 284 Sarah Hobrough has spent nearly 25 years in the field of British drawings and watercolours. She started her career at Spink and Son in 1995, where she began to develop a specialism in British watercolours of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In 2002, she helped set up Lowell Libson Ltd, serving as co- director of the gallery. In 2007, Sarah decided to pursue her other passion, gardens and plants, and undertook a post graduate diploma in landscape design. She established a landscape design company, which she continues to run, alongside her art consultancy practise. She has consulted for dealers and auction houses, helping Christie’s watercolour department for a number of years, as well private clients, helping them research and develop their collections. She is delighted to be joining Guy Peppiatt Fine Art as a consultant. Email: [email protected] Tel: 07798 611 017 2 BRITISH DRAWINGS AND WATERCOLOURS 2019 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 1 William Hogarth (1697-1764) Study of a Mother and Son Oil on canvas Literature: 1 1 11.7 by 9.3 cm., 4 /2 by 3 /2 in. Elizabeth Einberg, William Hogarth – A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, 2016, p.70, no.32, ill. Provenance: Probably with the art dealer William Benoni White (1803-c.1878); Exhibited: John Postle Heseltine (1843-1929) by 1906, his Executor’s sale, Sotheby’s, 29th May London, Whitechapel Gallery, Georgian England, March 1906, no.1 1935, lot 315 (pt), bt. Turner for £22; Anonymous sale, Sotheby’s, 15th July 1998, lot 45, bt. Agnew; Stylistically this sketch dates from circa 1730 and is probably a fragment of a larger, Private Collection, Scotland, 2004; unfinished portrait. A similar small sketch `Two unknown Gentlemen in Conversation’ With Agnew’s, 2008; recorded in a private collection (Einberg, op. cit., no.31) may once have been part of Private Collection the same canvas. It has been suggested that the sitters in this sketch may be Mary Edwards and her son Gerard who were sitters in other portraits by Hogarth (op. cit., nos. 70 and 162 the former and no.66 the latter) but the likeness is not conclusive and it would date the present work to nearer 1740. 4 2 Hugh Douglas Hamilton (1740-1808) Portrait of a Mother and Daughter Pastel over pencil on laid paper laid on canvas 3 1 Oval 40 by 34.7 cm., 15 /4 by 13 /2 in. Provenance: With Martyn Gregory, 1977; Anonymous sale, Christie’s, 11th July 1995, lot 13; Private Collection until 2018 Literature: Anne Crookshank and the Knight of Glin, The Painters of Ireland circa 1660-1920, 1978, p.72, repr. pl.55; Neil Jeffares, Online Dictionary of Pastels and Pastellists, (www.pastellists.com), no. J.375.2356 Hugh Douglas Hamilton was born in Dublin and studied at the Royal Dublin Society from 1750 until 1756 until moving to London and finding success as a portrait painter in pastel and oil. In 1778 he went to Rome and returned to Dublin in 1792. 5 3 Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) `A Talk me Dead Fellow’ Inscribed with title on original mount Pen and brown ink and washes over pencil on laid paper 1 1 16.5 by 19 cm., 6 /2 by 7 /2 in. Provenance: Greta Braunsberg; With Martyn Gregory, London; Private Collection, London until 2018 6 4 Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) An Execution outside Newgate Prison, London Pen and brown ink and watercolour over pencil The austere mass of Newgate prison, visible behind the crowds of people, was built by 1 18.3 by 26.8 cm., 7 by 10 /2 in. George Dance the Younger. It was begun, on the site of an earlier prison, in 1770, but was badly damaged by fire during the Gordon Riots in 1780 and so extensively rebuilt Provenance: and completed in 1782. On its completion, London’s gallows were moved from Anonymous sale, Christie’s, 3rd October 2001, lot 391; Tyburn to Newgate and every Monday morning large crowds would assemble outside. Private Collection until 2018 Another view of the same subject by Rowlandson is in the London Museum with Rowlandson has depicted the huge crowds that filled every available vantage point another recorded in the collection of Desmond Coke. on execution day, even climbing up the sides of buildings and onto the nearby roofs. Street sellers can be seen in the foreground, plying goods to the watching crowds. 7 5 6 Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) The Connoisseur The Hunt Pen and grey ink and watercolour on original washline mount Signed lower left: T. Rowlandson 1812 1 1 13.9 by 21 cm., 5 /2 by 8 /4 in. Pen and brown ink and watercolour over pencil 3 30.3 by 48.1 cm., 11 /4 by 19 in. Provenance: With Andrew Edmunds, where bought by the present owner in 2002 Provenance: Nubar Gulbenkian (1896-1972); Drawings of this type by Rowlandson were seldom publicly displayed which explains With Spink, London, 1968; the exceptional condition of the present work. The crisp handling suggests that it Private Collection until 2018 was drawn in the 1780s or 1790s. Drawings of `The Connoisseur’ are common in Rowlandson’s oeuvre although they usually depict an old man admiring a painting or Exhibited: sculpture of a naked woman. Here the`Connoisseur’ is being shown the `wares’ by a London, Spink, Thomas Rowlandson 1756-1827, 7th-23rd March 1978, no.10 madam in a brothel. 8 9 7 Samuel Scott (1701/2-1772) Houses on the River Thames Grey washes over pencil on laid paper He was a close friend of William Hogarth and accompanied him on his famous river 1 15.1 by 28.6 cm., 6 by 11 /4 in. party to Gravesend in 1732. Scott was an oil painter specialising in views on the Thames but also produced The neat lines of watercolour on the roofs and fences is typical of his drawings as is topographical watercolours of the river often in grey and blue washes. He lived in the use of washes to depict light and shades. There are a number of similar sketches Twickenham from 1749 to 1765 and this is likely to be a Thames view of that area. in the Yale Center for British Art. 10 8 Sir George Howland Beaumont (1753-1827) View from the Library at Colerton Hall, Leicestershire Inscribed on mount: Sir George Beaumont from the Library at Coleorton Beaumont became interested in art at an early stage, studying drawing under Grey washes over pencil heightened with touches of white on grey paper Alexander Cozens, whilst a school boy at Eton. He continued to paint throughout his 1 1 23.4 by 31.7 cm., 9 /4 by 12 /2 in. life, undertook regular sketching tours and exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy between 1794 and 1825. He undertook a tour to Italy in 1782-3, accompanied This is a view of Bardon Hill as seen from Coleorton Hall. Constable painted an oil by Thomas Hearne and Joseph Farington and was at the centre of the British artists of the same view, now in the Yale Center for British Art. The Beaumonts acquired working in Italy at the time. Coleorton Hall in 1426 and it remained in the family until sold to the Coal Board in 1948. Sir George Beaumont had the original house rebuilt in 1804-8 by George Not only a gifted amateur, Beaumont became a leading patron of artists and poets, Dance the Younger and he undertook alterations to the surroundings landscape, advised amassing a notable collection, which on his death formed part of the newly formed by the poet William Wordsworth and his wife, Dorothy (who stayed for long periods collection of the National Gallery, for which he was an ardent campaigner. on the estate), as well as by Uvedale Price and possibly by William Sawrey Gilpin. 11 9 Francis Towne (1739-1816) Villa Grazioli, Tivoli near Rome, Italy Signed verso: No 57/Francis Towne/1781/Duke de Braciano Frascati Unlike many of his contemporaries, Towne appears to have funded his year-long visit Pen and grey ink and washes on laid paper entirely himself. He arrived in Rome in the middle of October 1870 and remained 3 1 22.2 by 32.2 cm., 8 /4 by 12 /2 in. until the following March, when he left to visit Naples, before returning once more to Rome, where he stayed until the end of July.