BRISTOL SCHOOL (19TH CENTURY), THREE MEMBERS OF THE SKETCHING CLUB

BRISTOL SCHOOL (19TH CENTURY) THREE MEMBERS OF THE SKETCHING CLUB Pencil and watercolour 16.5 x 24.5cm (6¼ x 9½in.) Provenance: Martyn Gregory, London The collection of Russell Worby Exhibited: London, Martyn Gregory, British Drawings and Watercolours, Summer 2020, no. 27 The present watercolour depicts members of the Bristol Sketching Club on a winter's evening, drawing side by side by lamp light. The Bristol Sketching Club was not a formal institution, but it laid the foundations for the emergence of the Bristol School in around 1820. It appears to have been a gathering of the Bristol friends of the genre painter Edward Bird (1772-1819), such as art collector and writer George Cumberland (1754-1848) who wrote of his friend that 'for some years he was the centre of a society assembled to make drawings in the evening before supper, where the greater number of members were amateurs'. Although an attribution of the present work eludes us, the figure on the right-hand side is likely to be the Bristol artist William James Muller (1812-1847), (cf Francis Greenacre & Sheena Stoddard, W.J. Müller, 1812-1845, 1991, p. 169, fig. 13) notable is the thatched hair style and that the figure is drawing left-handed. The top-hatted figure might be the watercolourist and landscape artist William Edward Dighton (1822-1853), of whom only one image is known, the portrait by his fellow artist Frederick Goodall, c. 1852 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Dighton was a pupil of Muller and Goodall and travelled to the Near East shortly before his early death. We are grateful to Francis Greenacre for his help in preparing this catalogue entry. Condition Report Disclaimer, BRISTOL SCHOOL (19TH CENTURY), THREE MEMBERS OF THE SKETCHING CLUB, BRISTOL SCHOOL (19TH CENTURY) THREE MEMBERS OF THE SKETCHING CLUB Pencil and watercolour 16.5 x 24.5cm (6¼ x 9½in.) Provenance: Martyn Gregory, London The collection of Russell Worby Exhibited: London, Martyn Gregory, British Drawings and Watercolours, Summer 2020, no. 27 The present watercolour depicts members of the Bristol Sketching Club on a winter's evening, drawing side by side by lamp light. The Bristol Sketching Club was not a formal institution, but it laid the foundations for the emergence of the Bristol School in around 1820. It appears to have been a gathering of the Bristol friends of the genre painter Edward Bird (1772-1819), such as art collector and writer George Cumberland (1754-1848) who wrote of his friend that 'for some years he was the centre of a society assembled to make drawings in the evening before supper, where the greater number of members were amateurs'. Although an attribution of the present work eludes us, the figure on the right-hand side is likely to be the Bristol artist William James Muller (1812-1847), (cf Francis Greenacre & Sheena Stoddard, W.J. Müller, 1812-1845, 1991, p. 169, fig. 13) notable is the thatched hair style and that the figure is drawing left-handed. The top-hatted figure might be the watercolourist and landscape artist William Edward Dighton (1822-1853), of whom only one image is known, the portrait by his fellow artist Frederick Goodall, c. 1852 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Dighton was a pupil of Muller and Goodall and travelled to the Near East shortly before his early death. We are grateful to Francis Greenacre for his help in preparing this catalogue entry. Provenance:, Exhibited:, British Drawings and Watercolours, W.J. Müller, 1812-1845, Condition Report Disclaimer

Estimate:£700

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