John White Abbott

Signed, inscribed and dated on original label attached to backboard: Dulverton.Somerset/JWA May 30 1800, pen and black ink and watercolour on wove paper
25 x 16.5 cm.; 9 3⁄4 x 6 1⁄2 inches

Provenance
H.L.Bradfer-Lawrence;
Andrew Wyld, his sale at Christie’s, London, 10 July 2012, lot 57, where bought by the present owner

Exhibited
W/S Fine Art, London, Summer 2006, no. 13;
W/S Fine Art, London, Summer 2009, no. 11

Abbott was one of the best amateur watercolorists of the late Eighteenth Century. A surgeon and apothecary, he lived in Exeter until 1825. He exhibited paintings at the Royal Academy from 1793, receiving contemporary acclaim for the style of his work. The artist John Downman said that ‘he prefers his drawings before his paintings, as they are done with more spirit’ (J. Farington, Diary 26 June 1804; vol. VI, p. 2362).

In 1825 Abbott inherited Fordland, a Devon estate, from his uncle James White, an Exeter barrister, Nonconformist and close friend of Francis Towne. Abbott became a patron and pupil of Towne’s, and his linear style shows the artist’s influence. After moving to Fordland he devoted himself to drawing.

Dulverton is in west Somerset, on the edge of Exmoor and just over the border from Devon. This view, little changed today, looks east from near the bridge over the river Barle.

Harry Bradfer-Lawrence (1887-1965) was an antiquary and manuscript collector. From King’s Lynn, he became chairman of United Breweries in 1960.