Peter de Wint

Watercolour over traces of pencil on Creswick paper31 x 48.3 cm.; 12 ¼ x 19 inchesProvenanceChristie’s, London, the Artist’s sale, 27 May 1850, lot 378;Christie's London, April 25, 1995, 116;Bill Thomson, Albany Gallery until 2021De Wint first visited Shropshire in 1829-1830 and exhibited a number of Shropshire views throughout his career. He had two major patrons there, Lord Clive at Oakley Park near Ludlow, not far from the Clee Hills, and Edward Cheney of Badger Hall.

Watercolour on laid paper, with exhibition label attached to backboard15 x 32.5 cm.; 6 x 12 3⁄4 inchesProvenanceMiss Bostock, companion to Miss H.H. Tatlock, the artist’s granddaughter;Christie’s, 12 September 1941, lot 29;Where purchased by Thomas Agnew & Son Ltd., London;Sold to a private collector 18 May 1942;Private collection, Wiltshire until 2023ExhibitedUsher Art Gallery Lincoln, Peter De Wint Exhibition, 1937, no. 146Horsemen can be seen in the foreground of this freely drawn, spare landscape, which exemplifies Peter de Wint’s brilliance and delicacy in the laying of washes.

Oil on paper laid down on canvas32 x 49 cm.; 12 ½ x 19 ½ inchesProvenanceMiss H.H. Tatlock, the artist’s granddaughter;C.K. Bloom;Percy Moore Turner (1877 – 1950);Sotheby’s, London, 2 May 1962, lot 133, where purchased by Agnew’s, London;Simon C. Dickinson, London, where purchased by the previous ownerExhibitedUsher Art Gallery, Lincoln, Peter de Wint, 1937, no. 77;Agnew’s, London, Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by Peter de Wint, 1966, no. 66This atmospheric oil on paper is most probably St Michael’s, Bray, on the Thames. De Wint made several watercolours of the church.

Inscribed verso: View in Cumberland F de Wint, watercolour, on two sheets, joined15.2 x 64.7 cm; 6 x 25½ inchesProvenance: Lady Lyons, her sale at Christie’s, London, 24 October 1960, lot 42;With Spink & Son Ltd, London, K3 1910;H. A. Molins, his sale at Sotheby’s, London, 22 November 2007, lot 143;With WS Fine Art, London, 2008;The Flannery collection, UK, and by descent until 2018.Exhibited: WS Fine Art, summer 2008, no. 34.This atmospheric panorama with a remarkably extensive uninterrupted vista dates from the 1830s and is a companion to A View of the Cumberland Hills from Patterdale , in the collection of the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester (D1924.63). Both watercolours are painted with wet, broad washes in the same palette on two sketchbook pages joined together, in the narrow panoramic format favoured by the artist, and are identical in size. They were presumably done on the spot. It seems highly probable that this watercolour is also of the fell region between Keswick and Penrith. De Wint is thought to have drawn these when visiting from the homes of his patrons the Howards of Leben or the Lonsdales of Lowther, with both of whom he stayed.The Gentleman’s Magazine obituary of the artist stated, His visits to the lakes of Westmerland [sic] and Cumberland produced many valuable sketches and drawings of picturesque scenery of a higher character; and his characteristic diligence in studying nature under all circumstances was never relaxed. 11. September 1849, p. 322, quoted in John Lord, ed., ‘Peter de Wint 1784–1849’, exhibition catalogue, Usher Art Gallery, Lincoln, 2007, p. 145.

Watercolour over faint traces of pencil with scratching out26.6 x 54.4 cm sight sizeProvenanceWith Thomas Agnew & Sons. Ltd, London, no. 14733, cat. no 45;Sir Robert and Lady Mayer, by descent to the present ownerExhibitedAgnew’s Galleries, London, 1966, Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by Peter de Wint, in aid of Lincoln Cathedral Fabric Maintenance Fund, no. 74Peter De Wint was the son of a physician who, though born in New York of Dutch immigrant parents, was trained in Holland and London. The artist’s marriage to Harriet Hilton, sister of fellow painter William Hilton, introduced him to their native Lincolnshire where they spent many of their summers and which was to provide him with a lifetime of inspiration. In Harriet de Wint’s Memoir she wrote, ‘at Lincoln and the neighbourhood where he ever found new beauties and new subjects...the long, extensive distances with their ever varying effects. .afforded him unceasing delight’ (H. De Wint, A Short Memoir of the Life of Peter De Wint and William Hilton, R.A.’, privately printed, pp. 84).This lovely De Wint is a masterly example of his skilled use of the wet brush, creating layers of colour to build up the Lincolnshire landscape. It has not been possible to identify Yardley Mill; it may be that the mill was named after its owner.This drawing has been in the same family since it was bought by the present owner’s grandmother from Agnew’s in the 1940s.