Joshua Cristall A Sussex gleaner

Signed and dated l.r.: Joshua Cristall.1816, numbered l.l.: 18, watercolour over traces of pencil with gum arabic, stopping out and scratching out

24.2 x 16.6 cm; 9 9/16 x 6 1/2 inches

Provenance
Davis & Long Company New York, 1980;

Private collection, New York until 2019

Exhibited
David & Long Company, ‘English Watercolours’, November 1-29 1980, no. 11, illus.

Cristall’s charming sketches of rustic labourers at work provide an interesting record of rural labour in the early nineteenth century when the land was changing fast as a result of the Industrial Revolution. Much of his work depicted country people; their natural dignity and simplicity were qualities he found appealing. Encouraged by the popularity of his country figure studies he exhibited many such works.

He was a founder member of the Society of Painters in Watercolour in 1804 and his work is included in the collections of many major U.K. museums.