English Water Colours

ENGLISH WATER-COLOURS BY LAURENCE BINYON, C. H. LATELY KEEPER OF PRINTS AND DRAWINGS BRITISH MUSEUM With a frontispiece and twenty-four plates. IN FRIENDSHIP AND IN MEMORY OF YOUTH PREFACE CAVING, long ago, spent ten years of my life in . cataloguing the English Drawings in the British Museum, I have retained an affectionate interest in the subject, especially in the work of certain artists. In writing this little book, however, I have been greatly indebted to the labours of others. All those who are interested in English Water-colours know how much has been done in late years for the study of the chief masters, and the rescue from oblivion of minor but not negligible artists, by a group of scholars and enthusiasts Mr. C. F. Bell, Mr. A. P. Opp, Mr. Finberg, Mr. Randall Davies, Mr. Girtin, Mr. A. G. B. Russell, Mr. Isherwood Kay, Mr. Kitson, Mr. C. E. Hughes these and others by their researches have added greatly to our store of accurate and detailed information and a special acknowledgment is owing to the Walpole Society, founded in 1911, because it has provided a means of publication for so much of this work, which might otherwise have languished in manuscript or never been undertaken. All this fresh material, together with new facts and records appearing for the first time In Faringtons Diaries, was due to be collected and incorporated in a book intended for the general reader and at the same time a revaluation of the achievements of the school might well be thought desirable. I am indebted to Mr. C. F. Bell, Mr. Kitson, and Mr. Girtin 3 for information privately communicated, I wish to thank all those by whose labours I have profited, and not less those owners and authorities ofmuseums and public galleries who have courteously allowed me to enrich these pages with reproductions of drawings in their possession, L. B. VJH CONTENTS HAPTER PAGE I. THE FORERUNNERS ... I II. EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY PAINTERS 1 3 III. PAUL SANDBY AND HIS FOLLOWERS . 23 iv. GAINSBOROUGH ALEXANDER AND j. R. COZENS . . . . - 34 V, WILLIAM PARS AND FRANCIS TOWNE . 57 vi. FIGURE PAINTERS ROWLANDSON . 67 VII. BLAKE . . . . .79 VIII. GIRTIN . . . . .94 IX. TURNER . . . . . Il6 X. COTMAN . . . . .139 XI. DE WINT, COX, BONINGTON, AND OTHERS 154 XII. ROSSETTI AND THE PRE-RAPHAELITES . 176 XIII. REVIVAL . . . .,187 COLLECTING . . . . .193 INDEX OF NAMES . . .199 LIST OF PLATES IN COLOUR 1. FRANCIS TOWNE. THE SOURCE OF THE ARVEIRON Frontispiece IN PHOTOGRAVURE FACING PAGE 2. PAUL SANDBY. KITTY FISHER AS A MILK MAID, . . . .21 3. PAUL SANDBY. LADIES IN A PARK. . 28 4. EDWARD DAYES. BUCKINGHAM HOUSE, ST. JAMESS PARK . . . - 33 5. ALEXANDER COZENS. LANDSCAPE . - 37 6. J, R. COZENS. CITARA, ON THE GULF OF SALERNO . . . . - 44 7. J. R, COZENS, LAKE ALBANOZ AFTER SUNSET 48 8. THOMAS ROWLANDSON. SKATERS ON THE SERPENTINE . . . 69 9. WILLIAM BLAKE. PITY . . .76 10. WILLIAM BLAKE. THE WISE AND FOOLISH VIRGINS . . . . 85 11. THOMAS GIRTIN. TYNEMOUTH . . 92 12. THOMAS GIRTIN. WHARFEDALE . . IOI 13. THOMAS GIRTIN. RICHMOND CASTLE, YORK SHIRE . . . . . IO8 xi