Colonel Joshua Gosselin

Pen and grey ink and watercolour with a pen and ink line border on laid paper, signed and dated 1776 and inscribed “copied from a drawing by Captain Grose”, verso
23 x 25 cm; 9 x 9 5/8 inches

Provenance
By descent in the family to Geoffrey Gosselin, the great, great, great-grandson of the artist, his sale at Philipps, London, 5 November 1999, lot 31 (part lot)

Joshua Gosselin joined the Guernsey Militia in 1758 and over a military career of forty years rose to the rank of Colonel in 1789. He was elected a Greffier of the Royal Court in 1768. Gosselin had a deep love of nature and made a comprehensive list of the wildflowers of Guernsey, the earliest record of its kind. He also collected and studied seashells, was a noted antiquarian and an important figure in Guernsey society.