Thomas Rowlandson On the Thames

Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827)Soldiers on parade, FrancePen and grey ink and watercolour over traces of pencil, inscribed: Depot de Gardes Françoise14.4 x 23.4 cm.; 5 33/4 x 9 ¼ inchesProvenanceRichard Green LtdRowlandson frequently painted military subjects and here he draws English soldiers standing to attention while passers-by walk past unperturbed carrying on their daily activities. The dépôt de Gardes françaises was the Parisian barracks for the elite regiment of troops which protected the French Royal family and was disbanded in 1789 when the soldiers joined the Revolutionary troops.

Inscribed l.l.: TRENANT SIR E. BULLERS., pen and grey ink and watercolour over traces of pencil14 x 23.3 cm; 5 ½ x 9 1/8 inchesProvenanceJ.A.D. Bridger, his sale at Sotheby’s London, 24 January 1951, lot 150; bought by Thomas Agnew & Sons Ltd.; H.M. Langton; Spink & Son Ltd., K3/1993;Exhibited Thomas Agnew & Sons Ltd., 80th Annual Exhibition of Water-colour Drawings (January – March 1953), no. 85Rowlandson worked extensively in the West Country early in his career and made annual tours. He usually stayed with his friend and patron Matthew Michell, a banker, who had an estate at Hengar near Bodmin in Cornwall.Sir Edward Buller, 1st Baronet (24 December 1764 – 15 April 1824) was an officer in the Royal Navy who served during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He was MP for East Looe in Cornwall from 1802-1820. He lived at Trenant Park in East Cornwall.

Pen and grey ink and watercolour over pencil11 x 17.2 cm.; 4 ¼ x 6 ¾ inchesProvenance: Sotheby’s, London, 29 October 1964, lot 248; Ann Spokes Symonds, OxfordAnn Symonds worked for the Fine Art Society in 1960s.

Pen and grey ink and watercolour and pencil27.4 x 43.1 cm.; 10 3⁄4 x 17 inchesProvenanceChristie’s, London, 21 November 2002, lot 20; where bought by the previous owner;Private collection, U.K., until 2022The present work is a significant example of Rowlandson’s landscape draughtsmanship. It probably dates from the same time as a smaller view of Glastonbury showing the abbey from the main street and marketplace of the town in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum (Dyce Collection) which was etched by the artist as plate 24 of Rowlandson's World in Miniature, No. 2, 1816. Rowlandson has used a certain amount of artistic license in his interpretation of the topography.

Watercolour over pencil20.5 x 38 cm.; 8 1/8 x 15 inchesProvenanceWalter Coleridge Richmond (1852-1931), the son of the artist, by descent;With Radnorshire Fine ArtRichmond continued to draw and paint landscapes throughout his successful career as a portraitist. These works remained private and stayed mainly in his family. This beautiful sketch has a directness which reflects his enjoyment of the opportunity for contemplation when drawing from nature.

Watercolour, with a pencil sketch of a house in a landscape verso, on laid paper11.2 x 13 cmProvenance: William Arnold Sandby; John Manning, London; Private collection, UK until 2017William Arnold Sandby (c. 1828-1904) was the great-grandson of Thomas Sandby, author of the first book about the artists, Thomas and Paul Sandby-Royal Academicians, 1892, and the historian of the Royal Academy (two volumes of its history published in 1862). He had a large collection of the work of his forebears, helped organise their first exhibition at Nottingham Castle Museum in 1884 and bequeathed many of their works to museum collections.

Signed l.c.: E. Lear, pencil with watercolour, pen and black ink and touches of gold17.7 x 23 cm.; 7 x 9 inchesThese charming, quirky drawings are characteristic early works by Lear, dating from the late 1820s or early 1830s when he was establishing himself as an ornithological artist. They relate to a group of drawings which Lear gave to Mrs Godfrey Wentworth, who supported his employment by the Zoological Society in 1831, and whom he credited with launching him as an artist. They are imaginary, fanciful subjects drawn with not a little humour, resembling the stylised watercolours of birds painted on late eighteenth century porcelain. Robert McCracken Peck has made the interesting suggestion that Lear and his sister Ann may have been thinking of approaching ceramics companies with them (see Robert McCracken Peck, The Natural History of Edward Lear, 2016, pp. 27-9).Two surviving family albums from the late 1820s, containing a mixture of similar natural history subjects by Edward Lear and his sisters Ann and Sarah, are in the collection of the Houghton Library, Harvard University (MS Typ 55.4 and 55.27).Sir Edward Strachey was a man of letters and friend of Lear’s, who wrote an introduction to Nonsense Songs in 1895. He lived at Sutton Court, Chew Magna in Somerset and was a neighbour of Lear’s close friend Chichester Fortescue, the Liberal politician whom Lear first met in Rome in 1845.

Pen and brown ink and wash over traces of pencil on laid paper12 x 9.7 cm.; 4 ¾ x 3 3/4 inchesFramed in a dark wood moulding31 x 29 cm.; 12 1/4 x 11 1/2 inchesProvenance: Dickinson

Signed with monogram l.r., inscribed l.l.: near Calikut., watercolour heightened with touches of bodycolourProvenanceFranklin Lushington (1823-1901) and thence by descentLear was invited to India by his friend and patron Lord Northbrook who was appointed Viceroy in 1871, and his journey there was the last and longest of his life. He was overwhelmed by the colour and vitality of India and enjoyed the bustle of Viceregal life.Calicut, or present-day Kozhikode, is on the Malabar coast in Kerala and was a centre of the Indian spice trade. Edward Lear arrived there in October 1874, just as the monsoon began. He was warned about the dangers of contracting fever but stayed, despite the pouring rain, until the skies were clear enough to draw. He described the roads around the city as “of such redundant beauty one can hardly dream.” Franklin Lushington, Lear’s close friend and first owner of this drawing, was the son of Edmund Henry Lushington. He was appointed judge to the Supreme Court of Justice in the Ionian Islands in 1855 and Lear went with him to live in Corfu. They first met in Malta in 1849, where Franklin’s elder brother Henry was Chief Secretary to the government. On his death, Lear left all his papers to Lushington, who later destroyed most of them.

Pen and grey ink and wash, inscribed verso and dated: Kerswell Oct.3.181223.7 x 37 cm.; 9 ¼ x 14 ½ inchesProvenancePrivate collection, U.K. until 2025Kerswell is a hamlet in the Teignbridge district of Devon north-east of Exeter.