Thomas Gainsborough, (1727-1788), Wooded upland Landscape with Cottage, Figures and Cows, mid-1780s, Black chalk 28.2 x 36.7 cm. |
The Scharf Bequest at the Courtauld Gallery |
The Courtauld Gallery In 2007 The Courtauld Gallery received an outstanding collection of 51 British watercolours and drawings dating from around 1750 to 1850, the so-called "Golden Age" of watercolour painting. The bequest was made by the late Dorothy Scharf, one of the most astute and demanding watercolour collectors of her time, and was the most significant single addition to The Courtauld’s distinguished collection of works on paper for over 25 years. To complement The Courtauld Gallery’s exhibition Paths to Fame: Turner Watercolours from The Courtauld, which includes nine works by the artist from the Scharf collection, a selection of some of the finest examples from the bequest are shown together for the first time in The Courtauld Gallery. |
The display opens with a group of Italian views, introduced by an important chalk drawing of Roman ruins by Richard Wilson (1714-82), one of the early masters of British landscape painting. Works by some of the key artists who followed in his footsteps to Italy in the 1780s and 1790s include a magnificent bird’s-eye view of Tivoli by Thomas Jones (1742-1803), and J.R. Cozens’s (1752-97) intensely romantic A Ruined Fort near Salerno, commissioned by the great collector William Beckford. Various views of Britain follow. These include accurately rendered topographical landscapes by Paul Sandby (1725-1809), Michael Angelo Rooker (1746-1801), and Thomas Girtin (1775-1802), whilst Thomas Gainsborough’s (1727-88) wooded pastoral scene, a sublime panorama of Welsh mountain scenery by Francis Towne (1739-1816), and John Constable’s (1776-1837) richly-coloured study of Stanway Mill, near Colchester, are viewed with a more imaginative eye. The display concludes with Richard Parkes Bonington’s (1801-1828) exquisite Fishing Boats and a large study, Karyes, Mount Athos, by Edward Lear (1812-88), its expressive style and technique foreshadowing the 20th century. |
John Robert Cozens, (1752-1797), A Ruined Fort near Salerno, Watercolour, 25.1 x 36.8 cm. |
