Justinian Walter Gantz The Fortress of Gooty, Andrah Pradesh, India

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.

ABPPaul Sandby, R.A. (1731- 1809)The River Wye at New Weir, HerefordshireSigned in brushpoint l.l.: P Sandby RA, watercolour and bodycolour, with old labels attached to backboard (illegible)ProvenanceThe Fine Art Society, London;Private collection, U.K.The Longstone can be seen prominently on the left of the composition above the Wye where fishermen and rowers are enjoying the river. Sandby includes the busy iron manufactory on the opposite bank. Many of the tourists who flocked to the river Wye to enjoy its picturesque scenery and to climb Yat Rock also included a visit to the forge, and images of this stretch of the river often include depictions of the lime kilns, stone quarries, and iron and tin works that dotted its banks. Paul Sandby and his brother Thomas (1717-1798) began their careers making maps and military drawings in Scotland. Founder members of the Royal Academy in 1768, they both taught in military establishments and Paul was recognised as the leading topographical artist of his time. The artist toured South Wales with Sir Joseph Banks and others in 1773 which resulted in his series of aquatints of published in 1775-1776. His detailed watercolours of the picturesque landscape and the popular prints fuelled the nascent tourism attracting visitors to the Wye Valley.

KT636Watercolour over traces of pencil with touches of gum arabic and scratching out21 x 29 cm.; 8 ¼ x 11 3/8 inchesProvenanceAgnew’s, (1891);Private collection, Herefordshire until 2024Samuel Jackson has been described as ‘the Father of the School’ of Bristol artists. His contemporary Francis Danby (1793-1861) wrote that ‘I know Jackson is a man of genius by being with him in Leigh Woods’ (see F. Greenacre and S. Stodard, ‘The Bristol Landscape-the Watercolours of Samuel Jackson’, 1986, p. 85).In 1820s Bristol was booming, the end of the Napoleonic Wars contributing to its prosperity as a trading city, the port of Bristol second only to London. This was the moment the ‘Bristol School of Artists’ flourished; Jackson and Francis Danby were its best-known members. Their original contribution to art in Britain was founded in their plein air practise in the countryside around the city, Leigh Woods, the Nightingale Valley and the Avon Gorge.Jackson was born in Bristol, the son of a partner in a firm of dry-salters with a Dutch grandmother, who dealt in the chemical products used in colour dyes and artists materials. It may be that in this business was the origin of the wide variety of pigments used in much of Jackson’s early work. Like many other Bristol artists Jackson travelled extensively and made frequent trips to Wales from 1825 through the 1830s and 1840s. In 1827 he visited Trinidad, St Vincent and Tobago in the West Indies. Scotland, the Lake District and Switzerland provided further subjects for his exhibited works. He lived in Bristol for his whole life becoming the elder statesman of the arts in the city.Jackson’s work is well represented at the British Museum, Bristol City Art Gallery and the Yale Center for British Art amongst other institutions.

KT523Pen and grey ink and watercolour over pencil on laid paper watermarked J WHATMAN, inscribed verso in pencil: Inscribed on old mount/near Chepstow/William Day30x 39 cm.; 11 ¾ x 15 3/8 inchesProvenanceCyril FryThis exceptionally fresh drawing is a lovely example of the work of William Day, an accomplished amateur artist, who exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1782 and 1801 as an Honorary Exhibitor. The late Judy Egerton wrote an article about him in The Connoisseur, July 1970, pp. 176-185. It is not known for certain when Day met John Webber, the Swiss-born artist who is famous for accompanying Captain Cook on his last expedition to the South Seas between 1776 and 1780.The Connoisseur article notes, without giving a source, that the friendship between the two artists “began about 1787”. Day and Webber were sketching together in the Wye valley in 1788, which is the first time that pairs of views by the two artists of the same subject are known to exist. Two watercolours by Webber of Chepstow Castle dated 1788, which are now in the Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester (D.1900.12 & D.1970.77) (see Charles Nugent, British Watercolours in the Whitworth Art Gallery, 2003, p. 282) correspond to two watercolours by Day which were acquired by Chepstow Museum in 2012.A family note lists Day’s interest in the following order:’ Geology, Minerology and Painting’ and he formed one of the earliest private collections of minerals in England. His collection was carried on by his son William Day (1797-1849) and his grandson and passed to the Hampstead Central Library where it was destroyed by bombing during WWII.

KT327Windermere with St Martin's BownessWatercolour over pencil, in the original English Carlo section frame30 x 41.6 cm.; 11 ¾ x 16 3/8 inchesProvenance: Private collection Scotland, until 2019framedFrancis NicholsonFrancis Nicholson was born in Pickering, Yorkshire on 14 November 1753, the son of a weaver. A founder member of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours he was dubbed ‘The Father of Watercolour Painting’ by his contemporaries. These beautiful drawings probably date from 1792-3 and represent the very best of his work, perfectly capturing the distinctive light and colour of the Lake District.He lived the first thirty years of his life in various Yorkshire towns, learning from local teachers and painting portraits and animals, mainly in oils. He made two visits to London and took lessons from C.N. Metz.In 1783 he settled in Whitby and took up landscape painting in watercolour, and first exhibited at the R.A. in 1789. An important early patron was Lord Bute who commissioned him to travel to the Isle of Bute to make a set of paintings.He toured the Lake District with Sir Henry and Lady Tuite circa 1795 and they remained important friends and patrons until Sir Henry’s death in 1805.Nicholson was commissioned by his patron Walter Fawkes of Farnley Hall in Yorkshire, also an important early collector of J.M.W. Turner, to provide him with numerous watercolours of views of the Lakes. Nicholson and Fawkes corresponded in 1798 on several occasions and Fawkes waxed lyrical about the artist’s work (R. Davies, “Francis Nicholson: Some Family Letters and Papers”, Old Water-Colour Society’s Club, 1930-1, Vol. VII, London 1931, pp. 15-30).Around this time Nicholson pioneered a new process of watercolour whereby he stopped out light areas with a mixture of beeswax and turpentine coloured with flake-white. This allowed the application of a wash, the removal of the solution in a few areas, further application of more washes, until the multiple washes gave depth to the shadows while the remaining areas were beautifully graded in tone. Finally the highlights were applied in brilliant colour. Nicholson demonstrated this technique to the Society of Arts in 1799. In the 'Transactions of the Society' later in the year watercolours done up to that time were described as ‘stained drawings’ and it was stated that Nicholson’s new method had produced a breakthrough allowing watercolours to be regarded as ‘proper paintings’ ('Transactions of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts etc', Vol. 17 (1799), p. 296).Nicholson resigned from the Society of Painters in Watercolours in 1813, comfortably off and to concentrate on his flourishing work as a drawing master. His professional success enabled him to develop experimental techniques in his later years and he was a pioneer in the development of lithography in England.In the Nicholson sale of 1844 lots 117-119 list 117 sketches of Cumberland and Westmoreland drawn between 1794 – 1807.Examples of Nicholson’s work can be found in most major British public collections.BibliographyR. Davies, 'Francis Nicholson: Some Family Letters and Papers', Old Water-Colour Society’s Club, 1930-1, Vol. VII, London 1931B.S. Long, 'Francis Nicholson, Painter and Lithographer’, Walker’s Quarterly, no. 14, January 1924, Walker’s Galleries, London;G. Bell, C. Coulson and J. Dixon, ‘Francis Nicholson (1753-1844)’, 2012

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.

Inscribed verso: Primrose Hill coloured on the spot by/Girtin, watercolour over pencil on oatmeal paper.19.7 x 48.7 cm.; 7 ¾ x 19 inchesProvenanceArthur Boney, his sale, Sotheby’s, 7 October 1947, lot 34, bought by P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. , London;Ray Livingston Murphy (1923-1953), New York, by 1950, his sale, Christie’s, 19 November 1985, lot 35; Robert Tear, OBE (1939-2011), his sale, Sotheby’s, 9 July 2014, lot 189;With Guy Peppiatt Fine Art;Private collection, U.K. until 2024LiteratureT. Girtin and D. Loshak, The Art of Thomas Girtin, 1954, no. 416, p. 191;G. Smith, Thomas Girtin (1775-1802): An Online CatalogueArchive and Introduction to the Artist, TG1761ExhibitedNew Haven, Yale University Art Gallery, Prospects, 1950, no. 18., pl. 9b;Guy Peppiatt Fine Art, London, British Drawings and Watercolours, 2015, no. 17This panoramic landscape has been identified as showing Primrose Hill in north London, on the basis of an inscription on the back of the drawing, and Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak consequently dated it to 1800–1801. The area was then undeveloped. It did not become a place of leisure and recreation until well into the nineteenth century, since when the rapid expansion of the city northwards changed the appearance of the landscape so greatly that it may never be possible to confirm the identification of the view with certainty.The work may well have been coloured on the spot, as the inscription suggests, as it is worked in a limited palette without much foreground detail.

KT493Watercolour over traces of pencil, inscribed in pen and dark brown ink verso: 58/Sketch Cozens (crossed out)/J. Varley15 x 24.5 cm.; 6 x 9 5/8 inchesProvenanceC.L.N. Miles Esq;Spink (K3 7052);Private collection U.K. until 2021This intriguing drawing has been attributed to John Robert Cozens and John Varley in the past. It bears a resemblance to one of Edward Dayes Icelandic subjects and can be compared with the view of Mount Hekla in the collection of Eton College https://catalogue.etoncollege.com/object-fda-d-183-2010This drawing was probably based on an on-the-spot sketch of Iceland, made circa 1800-1810, as would have been the case for the view of Mount Hekla in the Eton collection. Hekla is one of Iceland’s most active volcanoes located in the south of the country.The influence of Girtin and Turner, can be seen in the treatment of the sky and the mountains, and is a resemblance to the work on which Turner and Girtin collaborated has been suggested. Stylistically the lower half of this work seems to look back to the blot techniques of Alexander Cozens.I am grateful to Ian Warrell and Greg Smith for their comments on this drawing.

KT311 bSigned and inscribed on original mount: La Porte./Keswick Lake-/Pocklington Island./Crosthwaite Church./Skiddaw, watercolour over pencil22.7 x 37.7 cm; 9 x 14 7/8 inchesProvenance: Christie’s, London, 17 November 1970, lot 10;The Pemberton collection bought from the above sale, until 2019Laporte was a drawing master who exhibited work at the Royal Academy and British Institution from 1779. Dr Thomas Monro was one of his pupils. He published several manuals on landscape watercolour painting, the most famous of which 'The Progress of a Water-Coloured Drawing', c. 1802, went into several editions. It showed fourteen stages in the outline and colouring of a watercolour. He visited the Lakes in the 1790s and there are a number of drawings by him in the collection of The Wordsworth Trust, of which several are of Derwentwater. His work can also be found in the collections of the Tate, the British Museum and the Whitworth Art Gallery.

KT494Inscribed on original mount in pen and brown ink: Portland., watercolour over pencil13.3 x 22.5 cm.; 5 ¼ x 8 7/8 inchesFrame size 27 x 35.5 cm.; 10 5/8 x 14 inchesProvenanceCothill Antiques, sold on 1 July 1970 toThomas Agnew & Sons Ltd., no. 33077, catalogue no. 30;Private collection, U.K. 1971 - 2021The artist was born in Cumberland and patronised by 2nd Earl of Warwick who sponsored his travels to Italy in 1776 and whose name became the artist’s sobriquet. Smith spent five years in Rome and Naples, befriending William Pars and Thomas Jones, in whose Memoirs he is frequently referenced. He was one of the most admired watercolourists of his day.